Cablefax The Magazine - April 2014 - 47

83 | Shop Till You Drop
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: 6
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
84 | The Maverick
Mark Cuban
Title: Founder, AXS TV
Years in Cable: 15
Education: BA, business administration,
Indiana University's Kelley
School of Business
Best Advice: You have to love to
grind.
Lauded for his business acumen
and known for his provocative
opinions (and a little team called
the Dallas Mavericks), this cable
veteran continues to reinvent
himself and the properties he
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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
Frank Underwood or Nick Brody? Frank
Underwood
If someone forced me to cut the cord and
only watch 3 over-the-top shows, they
would be: Anything on QVC
Grossman
I watch the majority of programming on this
device: ipad. It's one of the first things I pick up
oversees. After rebranding HDNet
as AXS TV in 2012, he's continued
to solidify the channel's reputation
as the go-to destination
for live music coverage. Case in
point: It's now the official broadcaster
of the 2014 Coachella
fest, Stagecoach Country Music
Festival and New Orleans' Jazz
& Heritage Festival. What's more,
the net has gotten into comedy,
with a two-hour block on Thursdays
featuring " Tom Green Live "
and " Gotham Comedy Live. " Oh,
and did we mention he's a media
maven? We love that he's passing
on his well-earned wisdom to
April 2014
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. ■
budding entrepreneurs on
ABC's " Shark Tank. " You're
in good hands, grasshoppers.
I
watch the majority of
programming on this
device: Samsung 70-inch
UHDTV
I wish Congress would
just... all resign.
The technology that will
most benefit cable over the
next year is: Auto-recognition and
billing of OTT and Internet of things
devices. Plug it in, it knows it is you
and adds and bills automatically.
Favorite TV show as a kid?
" Three's Company "
My favorite business/motivational
book: The Fountainhead by
Ayn Rand ■
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Cablefax The Magazine - April 2014

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