Taking Risks That Pay Off
by K.C. Neel -- Multichannel News, 10/12/2008 6:00:00 PM MT
When Ken Lowe wanted to start Home & Garden TV, he went to the top managers of the cable systems Scripps Howard owned at the time and asked them to name the one programming executive they respected most.
Hands down and without hesitation, every one of them named Susan Packard. At the time she was working for CNBC in Detroit, and the operators told Lowe there was no way she was going to leave a great job at General Electric, which owns NBC, for a startup in Knoxville, Tenn.
But Lowe, CEO and mastermind behind what has become Scripps Networks Interactive, was undeterred. He and Frank Gardner, who ran Scripps' TV operations, set out for the Western Show in Anaheim, Calif., in 1993 to pitch the idea of Home & Garden Television to operators and to hire Packard.
“We set up our presentation for HGTV at the Candy Cane Hotel of all places,” Lowe recalled. “Then Frank and I headed to the convention floor. We were like a couple of eighth-grade boys at our first dance. We circled the CNBC booth again and again …
“Finally, I got up the nerve and introduced myself. She told me later that we made everyone at the booth so nervous she called security to say some guys were lurking around their exhibit.”
Despite the auspicious start, Packard, who now serves as president of brand outreach at Scripps Networks, listened to Lowe's pitch of starting a network from scratch that featured no nudity, no violence and was geared toward women. Soon she was packing her bags and her family and headed to Knoxville.
“We wanted to do something different, something that was unique and of high quality — something we could be proud of attaching our names to,” Lowe said. “Susan was the first person I hired and she was critical to our success. She had cable DNA, which none of the rest of us had. Suddenly cable operators started paying attention to this network that one operator characterized as watching grass grow and paint dry.”
Packard's reputation and credibility also enabled Lowe to hire other executives of equal integrity and expertise. “I think I can say with some confidence that if there had been no Susan Packard at HGTV, there would have been no HGTV,” Lowe said. “She gave us an understanding of the business and she helped lay out the business plans. She was our inspirational and business leader and was simply instrumental in getting HGTV off the ground.”
Packard started her cable career in 1979 when a friend convinced her to leave her consumer research job for a job at HBO. “I stayed with HBO for eight years and it was a lot of fun and very hectic,” Packard said. “We launched new networks and worked hard. There was no family life and no social life. But that was OK. I was in my 20s and enjoying myself.”
She left HBO to help get America's Talking (the predecessor to MSNBC) off the ground, while based in Detroit. By then, she had a husband and little boy. She stayed with NBC for six years before Lowe convinced her to move to Tennessee. It was a risky decision, but one that Packard couldn't resist.
“Ken's vision for what this business could be was so much larger than what the business was,” Packard said. “There was a big role for this segment on TV. And he talked about how we would build this company. It was just too good an offer to pass it. It was high-risk, but I wasn't new to that notion … Launching HGTV is probably what I am most proud of professionally. We built a great team and we had a lot of fun. We worked very hard and we were passionate about building a great business, as well as a great place to work.”
The risk paid off: HGTV broke even after four years (most networks at the time took about eight years to reach that point, Packard said) and the company added a whopping 10 million customers a year.
“Susan may have been in charge of sales, but she was certainly a leader in defining Scripps' culture,” said Judy Girard, who retired last year as HGTV president. “She developed a business strategy based on talking to people who were actually doing the work. Everybody gets on the bus when Judy is in charge and things never go off kilter. Susan understood the business and she could walk the walk. Operators loved her and that was a tough club to break into.”
Lowe is still amazed at how well she handled distribution meetings with operators. “She is tough, she's fair and she has such high integrity that everyone wanted to work with her,” he said. “In the distribution game, I don't know anyone who was or is as successful as Susan.”
So when Packard came to Lowe and said she wanted a change, it was like being punched in the stomach, Lowe said. At the same time, he wasn't surprised. She had been going full-tilt for 30 years and she was ready to step back and try something new — and that included spending time with her husband and son.
“I was struggling and I had no balance,” Packard said. “I realized I hardly knew my son. Something had to give. You have to have more than just your work.”
Family had always been important to Packard, who grew up a few doors down from her grandparents. She still considers her grandfather to be one of her heroes. But family also extended to Scripps and it was hard to consider leaving. Lowe is also a mentor and hero to Packard. The two took several months to figure out how to keep her within the Scripps family while giving her the time that she wanted with her husband and son.
“I had really mixed emotions about it,” Lowe said. “On the one hand, I wanted to talk her out of it. On the other hand, she is a very good friend and I knew she needed to do this.
“Susan is the poster child for this Hall of Fame Award. She is the consummate professional and represents everything this award is designed to honor. But she also has a life that is full and balanced. From the beginning, Susan was instrumental in stumping for work/life balance.
“We learned that there was life beyond cable so it wasn't a shock that at the peak of her profession and when she was clearly the heir apparent, she took herself out of the game. She was willing to take a lesser role and I was pleased that we were able to keep her in the family after all.”
Today, Packard is responsible for aligning corporate citizenship activities with the business agenda at Scripps Networks.
”Every week I do something different,” Packard said. “I bring ideas to the brands and see whether they have any interest. For instance, the Food Network is working with the Abundant Life Kitchen in Knoxville.
“The organization works with the homeless and puts them through a 16-week course so they can get jobs in the food service industry. I am very thankful I moved into this role. It's been very rewarding.”
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