Aug 8, 2007
Leadership Show: Kimberly Till, TNS (NA)
My senior management team, I made sure that they could do stages 1 (turnaround) and 2 (growth), with a real emphasis on delivering 2.
Sponsored by 
Meet Kimberly Till, head honcho at TNS North America. And by “meet” we mean this is the first chance to really get to know her and her passion.
Anyway, back in May 2006, Kimberly accepted the challenge of turning around the troubled North American operations of TNS, the world’s #2 MR firm. She took on this challenge despite lucrative offers from internet startups after a career at Microsoft and in media and entertainment. Listen on to find out how the turnaround is going, how she approaches leadership, and how she intends to inject a much-needed spirit of entrepreneurism into TNS NA
Listen to other podcasts in this series
STARRING
- Kimberly Till, CEO, TNS North America
- Simon Chadwick, partner, Cambiar and gravitas (Host, in spirit)
Timeline [14m57s]
00m00s Intro.
00m56s Kimberly’s progress on TNS NA’s turnaround.
01m51s Tackling the post-merger consolidation (with NFO).
02m22s Why Kimberly chose TNS over lucrative offers from tech start-ups.
03m12s Leadership challenges during the turnaround.
04m32s Hiring leaders from within the industry vs. outside.
05m59s Hiring for turnaround (survival) vs. post-turnaround (growth).
07m35s Attracting talent to the new TNS NA.
08m23s Leadership style.
08m55s Shifting TNS NA from a “Microsoft” to a “Google”.
09m46s Encouraging entrepreneurism and risk.
12m20s Importance of qualifications.
13m02s Inspirational heroes.
Notable Mentions
Apple.
Bill Gates.
David Lowden.
Euro Disney.
Google.
M&A.
MBA.
Michael Eisner.
Microsoft.
Steve Jobs.
The Lion King.
Walt Disney.
Quotes
Choosing TNS: “The market intelligence industry is at a really interesting stage…it’s about to do maybe not a full paradigm shift, but technology is really driving this industry in new and interesting ways.”
The leadership challenge: “Somebody has to really come in and set the strategy and vision and then really have every single part of the company come in line with that. And it sounds easy…but it’s very, very difficult. And we were trying to do that in a very short time…we were brought in as the team to turn things around.”
Hiring criteria: “My senior management team, I made sure that they could do stages 1 (turnaround) and 2 (growth), with a real emphasis on delivering 2.”
Removing bureaucracy: “…one of things I always kept saying to myself was if I ever get to run a company, I am going to make that I absolutely streamline and cut out all that stuff that general employees do not want, and employees love that.”
Managing risk: “Good management is able to say…cut your losses. And Michael Eisner at Disney used to say that a lot too. It’s killing off the projects that’s most difficult in a company because somebody’s passionate about pushing them.”
Importance of qualifications: “There are good leaders with and without MBAs.”
Thanks to KD Consulting for sponsoring this podcast, and to freelance media and marketing journalist Jo Bowman for the use of her dulcet tones for the outro
Music
Steffen Coonan,
The Blue Mile and Theatrimus from the PMN
Series:Leadership
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