Mike George, Mindy Grossman & Claire Watts
Mike George
Title: President/CEO, QVC
Years in Cable: 8
Education: Bachelor’s degree, Northwestern; Master’s in finance, Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management
Best Advice: Be passionate about what you do.
Mindy Grossman
Title: CEO, HSNi
Years in Cable: 8
Education: George Washington University
Best Advice: Agile is the new smart!
Claire Watts
Title: CEO, QVC
Years in Cable: 3
Education: Bachelor’s degree, University of Cincinnati
Best Advice: Listen more, talk less.
George’s expansion of QVC’s global presence—adding more than 40 million new homes worldwide and reaching a total count of 290 million—is mightily impressive. Nor should the company’s digital achievements go unnoticed. In 2013, QVC launched a next-gen iPad app in the U.S., rolled out a responsive design website and launched the social media shopping platform toGather. The results? Global ecommerce is up 12%, and mobile orders grew 55% in the third quarter of 2013. As head of QVC in the U.S., Watts saw Q3 ecommerce revenue increase 12% to $535 million. Additionally, under her watch mobile growth accounted for 32% of digital orders in Q3, and a second TV channel, QVC PLUS, launched in August of last year. At HSN, savvy Grossman is responsible for the net’s $3.3 billion direct-to-consumer retail portfolio. She’s a multiplatform maven, having established HSNi as a top retail shopping destination across TV, online, catalog and mobile. And the company’s most recent earnings prove the strategy’s working: HSNi reported record customer levels and adjusted EPS growth of 19%. Moreover, partnerships like its multi-year marketing initiative with Univision, its first targeting the U.S. Hispanic community, and a concert marketing partnership with The Venetian Las Vegas, prove she has her eye on the future.
George
TV show I’d most like to have a cameo in: “House of Cards”
Twitter or Instagram? Instagram
Favorite Restaurant: Chili’s
Favorite vacation spot: Jersey Shore
Favorite TV show as a kid: “Partridge Family”
Dish I can make and that would impress a celebrity chef: Macaroni and cheese
If someone forced me to cut the cord and only watch 3 over-the-top shows, they would be: Anything on QVC
Frank Underwood or Nick Brody? Frank Underwood
Grossman
I watch the majority of programming on this device: Ipad. It’s one of the first things I pick up in the morning and the last thing I put down at the end of the day.
The biggest innovation in cable over the last year:
The evolution of TV Everywhere. Consumers can watch what they want, where they want, on any device. Content providers can utilize this new infrastructure to create a more interactive multi-screen experience that allows for deeper engagement opportunities with consumers.
Beach or mountains? Definitely the beach. When you live in Florida and are surrounded by some of the top beaches in the world, there’s no better choice!
My favorite business/motivational book: I recently read The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. A brilliant and honest treatise on entrepreneurship, the agony and the ecstasy of being a CEO, and the power of culture in creating a successful business.
Watts
I watch the majority of programming on this device: Television continues to be one of the most powerful platforms, and is evolving to be a much more participatory experience.
The biggest innovation in cable over the last year: The rapid growth of mobile and social media platforms is resulting in significant innovation across the industry.
Twitter or Instagram? I love how Instagram provides almost anyone the ability to discover, capture and share a special moment in an instant.
One thing I would do all the time if I could: One of the favorite parts of my job is developing our team members.
