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Inside dmg world media
dmg world media’s 12-year strategy to grow through acquisitions in strategic markets built the foundation. Four more years of integration and in-fill produced 300-plus B2B and B2C exhibitions in 25 countries. What's next?
By Cathy Chatfield-Taylor
Fondly referred to as “The Three Ms” among dmg world media (www.dmgworldmedia.com) insiders, Mike Cooke, Michael Franks and Mark Alcock have quietly collaborated for 16 years to build a worldwide exhibition business nearly from scratch. Britain’s fabulous three are loath to sing their own praises, but one company being acquired by them makes clear their talent.
“They’re not Wall Street investment types. They understand our business,” says Jeff Little, President of White Plains, NY-based George Little Management LLC (GLM, www.glmshows.com), which sold 25 percent of the company to dmg world media in 2000 and will be bought out by them in 2014. “Their mantra is to inspire, enthuse and support, and that is the way they’ve dealt with us.”
A wholly owned subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc (DMGT, www.dmgt.co.uk), one of the largest media companies in the United Kingdom, dmg world media got its start rehabilitating one ailing exhibition, the Daily Mail Ideal Home Show in London, then through a series of strategic acquisitions grew to more than 300 trade exhibitions, consumer shows and fairs in 25 countries. Seven business units now manage the events by industry or region from offices in eight countries.
The partners, as the 3Ms refer to themselves, liken their company to a fleet of yachts.
“Most big corporate organizations look like a supertanker — a great big bulk of a company with a few people sitting on the bridge making the decisions and driving the boat,” says Cooke, who serves as CEO. “We’re more like an around-the-world yacht race. Our corporate management team sets the rules, gives the weather reports, and supplies financing and boats. But you’re the captain, and you sail it around the world.”
This decentralized structure has allowed the 3Ms to guide the fleet first from corporate offices in London, then from London and San Francisco where Franks, as Chief Operating Officer, migrated in 2000 to manage acquisitions in Australia and New Zealand. By 2002, 60 percent of dmg world media’s revenues came from North America, so Cooke moved to the Bay area, too. The two persuaded Alcock, their Deputy CEO in charge of the finances, to join them this year.
Now reunited at new global headquarters in San Francisco, which also houses operations for AD:TECH Expositions LLC, the new business unit formed to anchor tech-sector growth, the 3Ms continue to build out the business.
“Mike Cooke is the visionary,” says Franks. “Mark Alcock is there to keep us on the straight and narrow. He’s responsible for making sure we don’t do anything foolish. And my role is to mentor the senior managers who run the business. Between us, we’re a good team.”
Placing cornerstones
It was Alcock who brought this team together. Charged with setting up a media division for DMGT, in 1989 he acquired Trinity Publishing and with it Cooke, whose expertise in exhibition management would help turn around the 80-year-old Ideal Home Show.
Excerpt from "Inside dmg world media," EXPO, September 2005. Copyright 2005 EXPO Magazine, Overland Park, Kan. |
