Bill Roedy
Appearances
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
So by doing that, suddenly people behind the Iron Curtain could buy a 60 centimeter dish, or if they didn't have the money, which was often the case, they'd contact their relatives in the U.S. for $900 and get a dish. It was unencrypted. So suddenly... you had access to Western programming that they've never experienced before. And it was not only the music, it was the commercials.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And we were told, and I modestly believe, that by having that exposure to this whole different form of programming, it energized an audience. Now, it didn't bring the wall down, obviously, although I was in Berlin in the East on November 9th. And so there's a lot of history there with that. But we were told we brought the wall down. It was just, you know, one piece of the puzzle, I suppose.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
It was technology, innovation, a little bit like Arab Spring, by the way, you know, with Twitter and Facebook that encouraged change. And the other thing is we were programming the young people and young people. are more prone to a bit of irreverence, rebellion, and change to begin with. So we rode that wave in 1989 with all the countries.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And we made it a mission to make sure that we were distributed in these countries. And it culminated on November 9th. It was a Thursday. I'll never forget it because I was there in the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Well, he called me Missile Man. And this is one example, I suppose, where the military came in very handy. Yeah. In our work with the Soviet Union, the fact that I commanded nuclear missile bases, fought in combat, was held with a certain amount of esteem, if not mystery, by Russians and by Eastern Europe, too.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And Gorbachev jumped on it, of course, and came up with a wonderful phrase that because by this time I was commanding a different army, which was an army of MTV and music. And he came up with the phrase that music is more powerful than missiles. And I actually have it on my three and a half ton section of the Berlin Wall, which is in my courtyard in London.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Well, Well, innovation is a key word, Simon. And we had so much opportunity when we went on a digital transponder that we had suddenly had more capacity to develop new products. So in the UK at one point, I think we had 20 music channels. Every genre possible. And combining that with comedy and Nickelodeon. So we were able to hit every demographic. And this gave us an opportunity.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
But the thing about MTV at the time was it was a phenomenon. There's no question. I felt like I was on a bucking bronco just trying to hold it. Hang on to the horse. But you never can rest on your laurels. So even though we had this amazing start and response, it was important to change the business model. So we changed the business model quite frequently.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
When I was talking about being unencrypted, that only lasted a certain amount of time before we tapped out of what we call pan-European advertisers. And then we decided to go local. And that was a pivot because we narrowed our audience, but we were able to develop a revenue line of subscription. So that was an innovation. We went on digital, as you said.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
We had mobile, you know, eventually content. We had gaming. And it was just important to continuously reinvent yourself in order to grow the business. It was ingrained into our DNA.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Humility and empathy. You know, when I came to MTV after 10 years at HBO, I decided to go with three subtext personal objectives, if you will. You know, one is that I would never go on camera. And the other one is I would never be exec producers because I saw all these examples where people were CEOs had nothing to do with the program, but they called themselves exec producers.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And then the third thing is I would never become a groupie to the artists. So I must say, the one thing that I violated regularly was I became a groupie to the artist. And I decided I wanted to be on the front lines, you know, when we did events. The first thing I would do is greet the artist. I would go to the red carpet and greet them and make them feel welcomed and warm.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And I think that that sort of relationship and humility helped establish some sort of rapport with the artist. Now, with that being said... I had my difficulty. We had our difficulties. I had one artist who wouldn't perform unless we did an outdoor shower for them immediately. I had to do red jelly beans in the green room for one. I had one that refused. This was a very serious one.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
to be the anchor slot on an AIDS concert in Cape Town because we had promised him a slot as the sun came down, sunset. And because his predecessor on the stage, Malisha Keys, was doing so well, she went past sunset. So he came to me and said, I'm not going on unless you yank her. And I said, no, I'm not. Well... Actually, I had to be a little more nuanced.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
I said, let me take it under consideration because I was surrounded by bodyguards. And then I went on stage, saw the manager of Alicia Keys and said, you know, I've been asked to pour. And I just want you to know that we are not going to pull Alicia Keys from this stage. So sometimes I had to call the bluff of the artist. But more often than not, it was such a privilege.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
to work for professional artists like U2 and REM, and there's just unlimited amounts. And I developed a huge respect for their creativity and just wanted to welcome them and show appreciation for them being part of MTV.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Well, I think it's on two levels, Simon, personal and then also business. Personal, because I had come from L.A. and the creative community, being with HBO, I encountered the AIDS pandemic very early in the 80s and, of course, knew many people that fell to the disease tragically. By the time I got to MTV, we...
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And we didn't start this because they were already doing it in the U.S., but I realized that as we were guests of other countries, we had to do something that was good. Getting back to doing good is good for business. And by the way, the strategy very early with MTV Europe, I tried to simplify it. Access to all homes, be in every household, creative, aggressive, relentless distribution.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Number two, as we've talked earlier, respect and reflect local culture. And number three, fully one third of the legs supporting the stool was doing something good. So we did a whole host of campaigns. We did voting in countries that never had democratic voting before, like, for example, Russia. We'd engage in voting campaigns. They were called Rock the Vote, Choose or Lose.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
The concept of doing something beyond our, oh, I don't know, mainstream of programming wasn't totally new because every location had a different priority. But I wanted to get one. that unified the entire audience around the world. And we did lots of research and it turned out to be HIV AIDS. And in the 90s, the pandemic just got out of control, unfortunately. 98 was probably the peak.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
So from a business point of view, it made perfect sense. And I connected it with my personal experience, again, in LA and in the US. And why did it make perfect sense? Well, because it was such a big concern of our audience. Why was that? Because it was the same demographic. 18 to 25 was the hardest hit demo for the AIDS pandemic. And likewise, it was our core audience for MTV.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
So we did everything. It didn't happen overnight, but we grew it into this multimedia campaign that turned out to be the largest in history, really. And we had 30 second PSAs all the way to 90 minute documentaries. And it just grew and grew and grew. I established a relationship with one of my many mentors, Peter Piot, at the United Nations, who was head of UNAIDS. He made me the ambassador.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
It wasn't me. It was me delivering the channels around the world. He made the wonderful comment that MTV can save more lives than doctors, not to be dismissive of doctors, of course, but just because of our scale. And our distribution and our trust and our brand and our straightforward talking to our audience could make an impact.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And it became, as you mentioned, a gateway to my career following media, which was global health.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
No, I think it was almost an immediate responsibility when you realize what had the size of our audience and, you know, 2 billion people potentially. And when you realize the connection that we'd have with young people, because we were a voice for young people, we were a voice for youth and we were a cultural voice.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
that it was a responsibility because we were living, and the young people especially, were living with this dreadful, dreadful disease. And there was no access to treatment. There was no cure. So it became immediately obvious to us that we can make a difference. And, you know, modestly, it's very hard to measure that. behavioral change. We did it with a lot of research.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
We had the help of the world bank, for example, and WHO who would conduct unlimited amounts of research, but I'll give you one example. So we would take one of our programs from staying alive was called sugar, which in Swahili means sugar daddy. And this was a program where we inserted our messages seamlessly. So you watch this program because you really want to watch it.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
It's a little bit like gossip girl, but it's, More subtly, we had the messages about prevention, treatment, and very importantly, discrimination. And the reason discrimination was a key component of the challenge of the disease was because it hindered you from being tested. We would do... screenings in auditoriums or even outdoor arenas in Africa.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And people would watch this and they would come out and alongside that screening, we would have a testing on a confidential basis because of the possible discrimination. And we saw people get tested right away. So that was a direct sort of on the ground grassroots, if you will, level of research that we discovered we could make a real difference.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And so that was just one of many different examples of how we tackled the disease going forward.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Well, unlike the AIDS pandemic, you could have impact right away. And before I go to Gavi, let me just say that when I was trying to decide what I was going to do post-MTV, I decided to make another pivot. I didn't want to go to another media company or do anything that I've done before. So I went all in on global health. And before I knew it, I said yes too many times.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And I had to, I don't know, I had to peak about 10 different initiatives. I worked with Barbara Bush on her Africa frontline health workers. I worked with Vanessa Carey with her doctors. I worked with Goldie Hawn on her meditation. But probably the piece de resistance as far as impact was, as you say, Gavi. And by the way, you mentioned two that I worked very closely with who are great leaders.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And I spent 12 years with Gavi. I came in as an ambassador and I rotated from ambassador to being a board member and then became vice chair for Ngozi. And that to me was such a privilege because it's a simple premise with a vaccine, you know, that used to cost $100 because of scale now costs $5 because there are negotiations with pharmaceuticals. You save a life.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
So when I was there, we were up to about 12 different vaccines. The last two ones we worked with were pneumococcal and rotavirus. They were killing hundreds of thousands of children. And, you know, fast forward, billions of vaccines, hundreds of millions of children vaccinated, tens of millions of lives saved. Started by Bill and Melinda Gates.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
It became a multilateral, I believe, success story in a world that doesn't have a lot of multilateral success stories. And since its inception. it has cut child mortality by half. And one of Bill Gates's original objectives was to cut the lag time between developed nations and LICs, lower income countries, would have access to vaccines. Now,
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Everybody has the access right away, thanks to the distribution and the procurement of vaccines. So Gavi was like a dream come true. Why? Because it was a global health initiative that could make an immediate impact. And what a thrill to be associated with.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Yeah, I would go back to Churchill. Never, never, never give in and all things small and great. You know, never accept no for an answer. It takes more perseverance, now more resilience. There is pushback even with donor countries because of their voters. But it's important more than ever. It also... in a strange way, creates a bigger opportunity for private sector to step up.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And there has been that already. But when you show what, I'll just pick the private sector for example, the ability to do something good with CSR, which, you know, in many ways we were very early on, can do a number of things. One, it protects your consumers, if you will. I'll toss out one, Coca-Cola or Unilever. You want healthy consumers.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And if you don't do something for the AIDS pandemic, for example, or for COVID by washing your hands with Unilever products, you're not going to be able to protect your consumers and you want a healthy business. Number two, it gives the people that come into work every day a further reason to feel good about their work. So it improves morale and productivity.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And number three, and this was the thing I drove home all the time with the Global Business Coalition, it improves your brand. And you don't have to be altruistic. You can do it for other reasons. Just do it. And that, I think, has been the case in some countries.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
situations around the world with private sector, but you cannot have a business now without having a CSR policy and something that truly makes a difference. So when you have to push back from some of the voters, et cetera, you always have to show impact. And going back to Gavi, but some of the other things that I worked on, if you show measurement And you show impact.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
I think that's the best way forward.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
I'll do two. Maybe I'll do three. Number one is your core, your core character and principles of being honest and emotional intelligence. And number two, get things done. Just do something. And number three, I would say, be adaptive. Now, you know, You can be adaptive on two levels. One is on the macro situation. So we're entering a world that's totally different now with AI.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Well, I came from a single mom, actually. My mother and father divorced when I was quite young. My father went to West Point, as you mentioned, and he did survive the attack in Pearl Harbor. And he served 33 years in the Army. They evacuated right after the attack. The family did. He stayed there. So they were separated for the next couple of years until the war ended.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Every child born now will grow up in a world of AI. So this changes everything. And you have to adapt your leadership, I believe, to that sort of change. But even more importantly than that, so I do have, you know, 20 different leadership principles. I'm happy to go through them all.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And you should choose the ones that you're good at first and double down on those because that's what you're going to be strongest in. But you should try and do all of them. But the last one, being adaptive, is so key because you have to use different leadership principles for what the situation is. I'll give you an example. Winston Churchill, we talked about him earlier.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
So, you know, his record was not as great as most people think it was leading up to World War II. He had, you know, his hits and misses. World War II presented an opportunity to be tough and resilient and to create hope for So those leadership principles worked particularly well for that situation.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And I think likewise, when you encounter a situation around the world, a challenge that requires strength, then that's your leadership principle. Another one may require compassion. Then you need to employ that particular principle. So it does have new. I think leadership does have nuance. But probably the most important thing is it's so easy to make a list of leadership principles.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
I was never a natural leader because I researched and I read and went to West Point. I can make a list all day long of leadership principles. The key is wake up in the morning and do them or do one or two. Have the discipline, the discipline to actually employ those leadership principles.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Well, I, I, it is hard to only pick one. I'll pick one from childhood. Um, you know, watching my mother go from job to job. and realizing that life was not easy, but that she worked very, very hard. The work ethic to me was a redefined moment.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
You know, I didn't have any particular athletic ability or academic ability even, but when I ran track, I ran as hard as I could and I trained like Forrest Gump and somehow was able to have great success at a statewide level. And I tell the kids this all the time because I was the slowest person in the room or outside on the track. And suddenly, you know, we got fourth in state.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
But here's the one that I'd like to leave you with. In 1968, it was a tough year. We had assassinations. War was raging. But NASA was still doing their, you know, their attempts to reach the moon. So on Christmas Eve 1968, Apollo 8 had reached the moon. It was a dress rehearsal. It wasn't going to land. It orbited 10 times. But on the way home from that dress rehearsal, if you will,
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
But he didn't, even though we didn't live together with my father, he did have a tremendous influence on me, particularly going to West Point. But growing up, it has to be all about my mom. And the reason is those who've had single moms know how difficult that is. It was difficult just making ends meet, really. So I watched her in a parallel or in a set of jobs.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
One of the astronauts took the picture of Earth rising. And what was Earth rising? You could see the Earth for the first time taken from a person, you know, far away, in this case, circling the moon. And you could see the blackness everywhere, but the beautiful blue-white colors of the Earth. And it reminded you of the story perhaps some of us have heard before, the blue dot. We are a blue dot.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And that picture, which ended up on the cover of a magazine, I think it was Life magazine, changed our relationship with the world. And that's got to be a redefining moment.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
I'm never ready for this, but there's no such thing as a stupid question. Likewise, I hope you'll remember there's no such thing as a stupid answer.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Oh, gosh. Curious, active, caring.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
who would it be? Someone asked me once in one of my last town halls at MTV. So who would you like to meet that you haven't met? And I thought for a second, I said, you know, I'd like to meet every single person that works at MTV at the time or 6,000, because we all have a bit of a hero and wonderful personality in ourselves. So I know it sounds kind of corny. I just like to meet everybody.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
I think it'd be a love song or maybe R&B.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Well, my mom told me to be happy and my father told me to keep a sense of humor. I think you've been a very obedient son.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And tell us why in one sentence. You know, I'm very nostalgic. So I look back on all the decades with some affection. But, you know, again, I hate to sound too self-righteous, but I would pick the current decade. Why? Because it's so amazing what we have done. The positive side, you know, in health particularly, but in technology is incredible.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And with this new thing, AI, who knows what direction it's going to take us. It's going to take us in a totally different world. And I just hope I can live long enough to see it. So this is the decade. You have to say this is the decade.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Well, certainly Mandela has one USP, unique selling principle, and that's forgiveness. And the stories that I heard from him directly about how his prison guards wouldn't let him even attend the funeral, when he was in jail for 27 years, wouldn't let him attend the funeral of his mother or his son, who died of AIDS, by the way. or who put him in the quarries and without sunglasses.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And in parallel, I had a set of jobs to help where I could. But somehow we make made it work. And I would go with her on some of these jobs. Like, for example, she, oh, I don't know, worked as a receptionist in an emergency room. clinic. So that maybe gave me an introduction to my global health work. I don't know, as a young kid.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And those were the first people that he invited to his inauguration, his inauguration when he was released and elected president. I think forgiveness is such a powerful influence on all of us. And it's a force multiplier. If we forgive more, it's almost logarithmic. It's kind of like falls in a category of being nice. If you're nice, concentric circles get bigger and bigger.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
So I would take that from Nelson Mandela.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
We call them Redefiners.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Or she worked also as a rental car agent in the Miami International Airport. Maybe that gave me an introduction to all the travel I did over the years. But I think the number one lesson was I saw how hard she worked. And that made me realize that, you know, it's old fashioned to say, but the value of hard work can make a difference.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Well, West Point was very influential on me. It was a major pivot to go from surfing on the beach, if you will, in Miami, which is where I grew up, to the plane of West Point. For those who have been to West Point, the plane is where it all happens. And taking bayonet lessons, shouting kill. So that was a major pivot for me. But. Oh, I don't know. Number one has to be discipline.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Certainly the honor code had a big influence on me. Cadet does not lie, cheat or steal. And it's drilled into you so much that that honor code set the, I don't know, the stage for me to try and adhere to principles of value and integrity going forward. And, you know, it's not always easy to do that when you get in the cutthroat world of business. But it's what I try to adhere to.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And so West Point was a very, very important pivot for me and a very important learning lesson for me. And by the way, I was a terrible cadet.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Well, this was an unusual situation because people were actually not wanting to go to Vietnam, people in the service, the military. It was a very unpopular war. I felt that, number one, West Point was given to me really as a huge privilege. So the lesson of marching to the sound of cannons, as they say, was paramount in my mind. And so I wanted to go.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
I volunteered when it wasn't necessarily fashionable to volunteer. And it taught me a lot. It put things later in life in proper context as it relates to, you know, how dangerous situations can be and staying calm. I I ended up loving the culture, loving the Vietnamese people. I've been back many, many times since. I started a business in Vietnam. I started MTV in Vietnam.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
So I left feeling a very, very strong affection for the country. But it wasn't an easy experience because it wasn't supported by the American public. So coming home was a bit of a shock. It's completely different now when you come home from different wars, unfortunately, to the United States. The first thing that's said to you is thank you for your service.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
That was not the experience I had in Vietnam. So it was a bit difficult. Keeping the morale up with the troops was a big, big challenge. But for me... It was a, uh, you know, you can't say it was a good experience. Of course, war is never a good experience, but for me, it was a very, very deep emotional learning experience.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Yeah, no, it was unique. And even before that, however, after Vietnam, I retrained to command nuclear missile bases as part of NATO. So going from a nuclear missile base was even more of a pivot. to MTV. I didn't talk about my military career when I first joined MTV, because I didn't think it necessarily resonated with rock and roll, of course, and I was concerned about the image.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
However, over time, I realized it was a very important training for me, not only West Point, of course, and leadership, but also in how to design a organization, a global organization from my military experience. small attacks, large defense. So I wanted to keep the channels relatively small, 100 to 200 people around the world, keeping the communication lines open.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
These are all military lessons, keeping the supply lines open, and then being close in this case to the competition and to the consumers. And I know it sounds a little bit far-fetched, but it actually worked for me to have the organizational skills I learned in the military and apply them to the private sector. And of course, leadership, A couple of things.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
First on the battlefield, last to leave was ingrained into me because I don't know when you have a global business, you have a crisis somewhere in the world all the time. So my commanders, if you will, who were running the channels around the world. would invariably encounter a crisis.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
The first thing I wanted to do was be by their side, the first on the battlefield and stay there until we resolve the crisis or at least make progress and then be the last to leave. The other principle that I adhered to, I tried to adhere to, was slow to take credit, quick to take blame, which again is a military accountability model that we always go by and not always held by business leaders.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
But I tried very hard to be slow on credit. I wasn't always that way, but very, very, most importantly, very quick to take blame.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
It took a while, I must say, because again, it didn't match what was happening with rock and roll and music around the world. But then, and I was too stupid to really realize that I was using these principles in the military. to grow the business, the global business. But then as I got to know the artist a bit, I found that it was worthy of some, well, I don't know, weird credibility.
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Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Michael Stipe's father served in the service, for example, from REM. Wycliffe's father was in the service also. So I was able to develop some even closer relationships because of this respect, I suppose, for the military and discipline. Now, it is a challenge, it's no secret, to transition from the private sector, I mean, from the public sector, in this case, the military, to the private sector.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And it takes a certain, oh, I don't know, empathy and set of experiences to manage a creative operation. So that was all a challenge and it didn't come overnight. I had to learn it. Now, Harvard Business School did help me on the business side. I had no idea what a logo was. I had no idea what a P&L was. I thought it was some... outdoor latrine or something. So I had to learn from scratch.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And that was a very important transition for me, that experience at Harvard Business School. Not even sure how I got in, but I got in. And it helped me there with the business principles match with my military discipline to go forward.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Well, that's very interesting because I guess I suppose I was the non-American American in that I didn't hire very many American employees, which irritated my colleagues back in the States immensely. But I wanted to truly reflect local cultures. And to do that, you had to hire local people, of course.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
And I was so fanatic, and I shouldn't say I, it's we, because we became a team very quickly, growing from six to 15 to ultimately 6,000 people. We felt so strongly about reflecting local culture and truly respecting local culture. And at the time, that was a very unusual concept.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
I like to say we were local before local was cool, because now you can't have a global business without, in some ways, having some sort of connection with local people. But local audiences or, you know, consumers... But in this case, it was not only early, so we were pioneers, but we changed our product. We actually changed our product. It was almost unrecognizable. We had Bollywood in India.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
We had Dora from Nickelodeon with a burka. We had, you know, kitchen shows in Italy. So we changed our product depending on what the culture was. And that became a real smorgasbord of different creativity around the world. And, you know, we became a voice for young people. The rest is history, a cultural influence. And we use music, of course, as a vehicle for cultural exchange.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
You know, I'm a big believer in taking advantage of the opportunity and that was an opportunity. So I first came over in late 88, but I really didn't start with MTV Europe until January of 89. And sure enough, countries started changing. Now, I like to say we played a role in it, but I never want to take ourselves too seriously at MTV. But for example...
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
One of the first decisions in January of 89 was to go on to a brand new satellite that had K-band technology. What's that mean? Before, in order to receive a single from a satellite, you only had C-band and you needed a three and a half meter dish.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
Suddenly, in January of 1989, with KBED and Mr. Murdoch was one of the first to jump on this with Sky Television, you had the ability to receive the single with a 60 centimeter disc. So we jumped on that. It was a big investment. I had a lot of pushback because it was $10 million per transponder. Each satellite has transponders. The other decision that we made, however, was to put it in a clear.
Redefiners
Music with a Mission: Former MTV International Chairman and CEO Bill Roedy on Leading with Purpose
What does that mean? Most channels are encrypted in order to have a subscription revenue. We decided, no, we wanted as much distribution as possible. And by the way, I learned a little bit of this with HBO, that access and distribution was really key to the success of any rollout of a new product.