I was co-CEO of a $100 million company. Here’s how my sense of urgency nearly killed it
Over the course of a long career, I’ve made my share of mistakes, but the dumbest and most damaging ones have always been driven by urgency. Whenever I convinced myself that an opportunity was so great I had to “strike while the iron is hot,” boneheaded decisions inevitably followed, usually ending in some crushing failure. Of course, nobody ever tells you that because “creating a sense of…
In 2007, our company KP Media, founded in 1995, embarked on a plan to become a dominant player in Ukrainian-language media. At the time, the market was ripe for the taking, with no significant competitors and a growing demand for Ukrainian-language content. However, our sense of urgency and desire to strike while the iron was hot led us down a path of disastrous decisions that nearly destroyed our company.
Our company had grown from a $8,000 credit card startup in 1995 to a $100 million enterprise by 2007. We had already established a successful Ukrainian-language newsweekly, Korrespondent, which had become a symbol of the changing media landscape in Ukraine following the Orange Revolution. This revolution had brought record foreign investment and a newfound interest in free press, driving demand for accurate, objective news sources.
Our aggressive strategy involved hiring an editorial director from Poland to oversee the development of two women's magazines and a Ukrainian newsweekly. We believed that these products would capitalize on the untapped demand for Ukrainian-language media, particularly in the industrial eastern provinces and more European-oriented cities. We expected that others would quickly follow suit, further solidifying our position in the market.
As we moved forward with the launches, we encountered challenges that we had not anticipated. Despite our thorough research and confidence in our track record, the product launches failed to meet our expectations. Copy sales and ad sales were disappointing, and skepticism about the market for Ukrainian-language print media grew.
By summer 2008, all three product launches had been dismal failures. We had also begun to hear rumors about problems in the U.S. housing market, which seemed remote to us in Ukraine at the time. However, with knowledgeable contacts expressing concerns about the health of global financial markets, we started to question the viability of our aggressive expansion plan. Our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity had, in fact, turned into a catastrophic failure, nearly leading to the downfall of our company.
Written by urgent.news from Fast Company's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
