Gretchen Shugart, TheaterMania Leading For Growth

us because we allow employees to fi nd doctors who can see them in the evening or on a weekend, thereby reducing absenteeism. Insurance companies like us because we keep people out of emergency rooms—one in fi ve of the appointments we book is urgent in nature. Now, we have so many people using our product that there’s a social validation to it. It’s become easy to get doctors to standardize on the ZocDoc platform.

When I was fi rst pitching ZocDoc, I got thrown out of more than a few doctors’ offi ces. Many people in health care questioned whether online booking was the future. Now the only question is when—not if—all appointments will be booked online.

SHUGART AT THEATERMANIA'S HEADQUARTERS IN NEW YORK CITY'S THEATER DISTRICT

Serve Only One Master

Every year or so, we build a new business on top of this marketplace we’ve developed. A couple of years ago we introduced Check-In, which fi lls out patient information forms online before an appointment. Now we have ZocDoc for Business, a premium version that enables employees to get more out of their company-provided benefi ts. Employees who use this service don’t have the complexity of fi guring out what doctor is seeing new patients and who takes their insurance; it’s all pre-loaded in the system.

Also, they get regular nudges about preventive care; for example, letting them know that it’s time for their annual physical, or they should get a skin cancer screening. Not only are we helping keep people healthy, we’re keeping health-care expenses for businesses down—and potentially saving lives.

How do we choose the next product or service for our company? It’s simple. Going back to focus, a business can only have one master, and our master is the patient. What will make the most meaningful impact on patients? That is the thing that we’ll do, even if there’s not a business there yet. We’re longterm oriented.

We just want to solve patient problems. Patients reward us with their loyalty, and we build businesses around that.

GRETCHEN SHUGART, THEATERMANIA

LEADING FOR GROWTH

hen Gretchen Shugart joined TheaterMania as CEO in 2001, the organization faced big challenges. The company’s robust website helps consumers across the country decide where they want to spend their entertainment dollars; meanwhile, its proprietary ticketing system, OvationTix, serves event producers by integrating sales (phone, box offi ce, web) with CRM and fundraising. In 2001, the company was coping with the bursting of the dot-com bubble. And the events of 9/11 triggered a steep decline in attendance at performing arts events.

Shugart, a seasoned advisor and fi nancier to media and technology companies, rose to the challenge. TheaterMania is now the leading source for theater tickets in the United States, with over one million visitors to its site per month. With the recent acquisition of UK-based WhatsOnStage. com, TheaterMania has created the fi rst transatlantic digital theater media group. The CEO’s focus is now on a new set of challenges—not related to staying afl oat, but to managing growth, leading, and planning the future.

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Technology Never Sleeps

Our clients are always hungry for more tools and technology, so there is an ongoing capital investment in our ticketing and fundraising products and services. Once you build something, you can’t stop. Technology needs to be maintained, it needs improvements, and sometimes you have to scrap a product and go on to the next version. So we build, we launch, and we recalibrate constantly.

To stay ahead, it’s important for me to listen to the managers in the company who read constantly, who get training, and who go to seminars and talk to people in the marketplace to do their own research. I don’t have to be able to code, but I do need to always think about what’s coming next and ask questions, such as, “Could this be done more cheaply? Faster? Is this the right platform? Why?”

Plan, Then Revise

Because technology and client needs move so quickly, we have to constantly look at our roadmap and revise it. That’s why I’m not a big believer in the once-a-year, here’s-our-strategicplan method. Our mission is to provide tools and technology services to the live entertainment industry while serving consumers. And we keep our mission in mind, but we’re revising strategy on an ongoing basis.

Twice a year we have a companywide offsite. We start with a quick look back to where we’ve been, then spend most of the time on where we’re going. Sometimes I bring in facilitators, board members may attend, or staff members may make presentations. All full-time employees attend and are very involved in setting strategy.

The biggest lesson is that the general can’t do everything. You’ve got to have leaders and an army to be a winner.

SHUGART SPLITS HER TIME BETWEEN THE US AND THE COMPANY'S NEWLY ACQUIRED UK OPERATIONS.

“I’m not a big believer in the once-a-year, here’sour-strategic-plan method.

--–GRETCHEN SHUGART

Leadership: Go Outside to Get Perspective

In the early years, the CEO is involved in all aspects of the business—inventing the product, selling the product, refi ning the product, and so on. Over time, the CEO becomes the leader and has the managers and staff doing more.

It’s a hard and ongoing transition, because some areas of the business may be more developed than others. The trick is in knowing when to let out the rope, what to ignore for the time being, what you need to be moderately involved in, and what requires your deep involvement.

To be an effective leader, you have to be very self-aware, to ask yourself, “Am I doing this because it’s the right thing for the company, or is it my own ego coming to bear?” It helps to get outside perspectives. For years I was involved in an organization, Vistage, where you engage in intense peer-to-peer coaching. These days I have a great board of directors; individuals who are strong leaders in their areas. I also spent 20 years in banking and fi nance, so I have loads of business contacts in media, technology, fi nance, and marketing. I’m a great believer in talking to experts.

Why Hiring Is Like Dating

The other thing that’s crucial for a leader is to hire highly experienced, highly effective leaders to run departments.

There’s no magic to hiring. I approach it the way I think a person should approach dating. It takes time to really get to know people and see who they are. Rather than the old model where a candidate would meet with various players in the company for an hour each, I think it’s important for the same interviewer to meet the candidate over and over again. It’s when people get really comfortable and off their script that you begin to understand and know them. For higherlevel hires, I like to meet with them three, four, even fi ve times.

When there is the right chemistry, people tend to be very collaborative and enjoy being around each other, and wonderful things happen. As far as our culture goes, I’m looking for people who are respectful. People who have empathy are usually better business people anyway.