Putting Non-Profit Skills to the Test
By Staff -- Multichannel News, 10/7/2007 8:00:00 PM
In 2005, The Cable Center made the decision to redefine its mission and re-invent itself to better serve cable. For Larry Satkowiak, the center’s president and CEO since then, that meant not only a career change, but the opportunity to make an impact on his newly adopted industry: cable.
The result has been an overhaul of the center’s mandates, starting with a strategic plan developed under Satkowiak’s guidance. He took a fresh look at how the center was operating and how it would reach its newly created goals.
Initially hired as a consultant to determine a financial plan and operational guidelines, Satkowiak’s year-long study of the center resulted in a blueprint for the center’s future operations, and a job as the center’s CEO.
For Satkowiak and the center, it was a perfect fit.
“A friend told me a company, he didn’t tell me which one, was looking for a CEO. After an interview with Bob Russo, the CEO at the time, we knew my resume matched perfectly,” Satkowiak said.
NONPROFIT EXPERIENCE
His experience with non-profit organizations was the key, he noted. “I found lots of non-profits with financial problems, especially overhead problems. And running a non-profit was different that running a cable company. We installed a new accounting system at the center and isolated cost centers. We wanted to be sure the money was being spent wisely.”
The center crafted and deployed its strategic plan when Satkowiak took over the reins as CEO, but not without some apprehension from the industry.
“Many people felt someone from the industry should run the center,” Satkowiak said. “But Bill [Bresnan] felt the cable industry had such good people, they’ll help. He was right. They’ve all helped advance the center’s mission.”
Satkowiak’s mission early in his career wasn’t to enter the cable business.
“Cable wasn’t even on my radar screen growing up in Detroit. It was manufacturing cars. My first exposure to cable was at Fort Carson in Colorado,” he said with a laugh.
He entered the Army after studying electrical engineering in college, joining the Signal Corps and climbed poles to read radio signals. Afterward he spent five years working at a bank and, in 1984, began his career in the non-profit sector.
“We called the non-profits I was working for 'entrepreneurial non-profits,’” he said. Entrepreneurial or not, the Cable Center would challenge his non-profit skills to the max.
“When we showed the numbers to the board, we knew change was needed, but not how much,” he said. “ We had to overcome the perception of the center as just a museum, and what the center really is.
“And we needed to balance the budget,” Satkowiak added. “We must be very cost-conscious and solid with our mission, and the center’s mission wasn’t as well defined as it should have been. The board agreed.”
With that agreement in hand, Satkowiak and the center put their strategic plan in play. It included a closer connection to college and university students via Cable Mavericks and other educational programs, along with a focus on customer care issues, an increase in the oral history program and a controlled growth phase highlighted by a $10 million unrestricted endowment for the center.
Satkowiak’s efforts, said Bill Bresnan, chairman and CEO of Bresnan Communications and chairman of The Cable Center since its inception, have been just what the center needed.
“He has the financial background and discipline. He also understands non-profits and educational institutions,” Bresnan said.
“He’s done a terrific job. We couldn’t have chosen a better person to have at this stage,” he added. “We needed a person inside to guide the center and move it forward to a conclusion everyone could embrace, including new programmers and operators, who are coming on to the board.”
Yet for Satkowiak, it was Bresnan’s support that has helped the most in turning around The Cable Center.
“He has always supported the center, and been a real mentor to me, and very patient,” Satkowiak said of Bresnan, who is also being honored by the Cable Hall of Fame this year.
“What impressed me most was his genuine nature,” he added. “He just wants to do good things. But there are so many people like Bill in the industry that have made my job much easier.”
Now, the center is embarking on programs to tell cable’s story on campuses nationwide.
“We want to be sure college students know about cable as a career, and we’re looking at the customer care side, with the first customer care MBA in the country now at Denver University,” he said.
Satkowiak has ensured that engineering also has been elevated to priority status.
“The engineering community is approaching us. No one has really been studying cable engineering and technology,” he said. “We’re breaking down the programs to a non-traditional approach.”
Part of that approach is focusing on higher education. “Students are using technology differently today,” Satkowiak explained.
A RESOURCE FOR EDUCATORS
“The Internet is old technology for a student graduating from high school. Classrooms are much more interactive and dynamic,” he added. “The Cable Center would become a resource for educators and the cable industry.”
And in the customer care space, the center is also pushing forward, with plans to take a more active role in professional development and training in the customer-care area.
“In many ways, the center is ahead of schedule in some very important metrics, such as profitability,” Satkowiak said. “This is a great time to be working at The Cable Center and in this industry, which has some of the most generous people I’ve ever met.”
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