CBS' Dave Poltrack: The Man; The Mentor; The Mentee

For details visit IRTSFoundationorg and read Steve Fajen39s profile of Page here Without question Dave is the dean of the television and media research industry His commitment to both innovation and integrity in the media industry is unequaled and his 40 year career at CBS is an appropriate testament to one of Dave39s inspirations and guides Dr Frank Stanton whose research leadership led to his elevation to the presidency of CBS under William Paleyamp160 quotAt CBS in those early years there was an environment in which I felt comfortable with people right above me pulling me upquot Dave recalls quotBut it helped to have Dr Stanton to emulate Dr Stanton was a presence at CBSquotDave has been an important mentor to many including me His early work in sales development at CBS opened the door for me to be hired at CBS and to follow Dave in a position and opportunity at CBS without which I could not have achieved the success I haveIn a wide ranging interview Dave shared details on his own career his mentors those he has mentored and his contributions to the industry quotI had been working at Ted Bates Advertising for a yearquot he recalled quotwhen I was hired by Dick Kaplan to work in sales support for the CBS TV Stations division and Dick was my first mentor He was a studied individual In 1969 you can imagine the environment in the national sales organization of the TV OampampOs owned and operated stations It was Mad Men time with bigger than life sales personalities but Dick was a calm intellectually oriented individual in middle of the chaos Dick was open to new ideas and had the credibility to implement them He got his ideas accepted by sales people who might not normally be interested in anything but normal CPM validation He was trying to be innovative when it was unheard of in the TV business Having him as my boss gave me confidence that ideas had value and merit and that there was a place for new and innovative ways to package and present media quotquotDick inspired and encouraged me to challenge the status quo while and at same time delivering on my primary function to support sales people the way they wanted to be supportedquot Sadly Dick died very young from complications after cancer surgery and Dave was promoted at a very young age into Dick39s role and committed to leading organizations at CBS with the same inspirational educational and supportive modelAt the same time Arthur Taylor became CBS CEO and decided the company should have a marketing orientation in its selling operations Dave who was studying for his MBA at NYU at the time was asked to develop a futurelooking marketing perspective for the TV stations His plan called for the creation of a market development unit which was approved quotArt Elliott was put in charge and he asked me to run a marketing services unit I transitioned out of sales support into longer term strategy involving me in research ROI and analyses of how TV advertising worksquotThis shift led to Dave39s relationship with legendary researcher Gale Metzger who ran SRI Research and was doing work with CBS quotHe was Mr Integrity and he got me involved in the Advertising Research Foundation and the conceptual side of research Fortunately for me the whole orientation to a marketing discipline was really catching on at CBS and we were able to respond to new competitive pressures from independent TV stations which were just starting to make their mark But at the network TV level there was no competitive pressure money was flowing in As cable started to emerge the pressure was suddenly on the broadcast network to develop more of a sophisticated marketing approach Fortunately for me Paul Isaacson CBS network sales chief saw what we were doing on the stations side and he encouraged me to move to the network to build the same research oriented support structurequotDave was the first person to join the CBS network sales organization at a VP level and he was the youngest VP in the organization This was not an easy transition quotNot a lot of people were happy to see me enter at allquot Dave laughs quotBut Paul supported the integration of my work into the organizationquotDave points to the key person in his career as legendary CBSTV Network Jim Rosenfield who at the time reported to CBS CEO Gene Jankowski who had moved up from positions at the TV stations group quotCBS had research at the corporate level centralized with Jay Eliasberg and Dr David Blankquot Dave explains quotThey were focused on programming news and the social value of television and its effects on society When Jay retired they needed a new head of research It was anathema that the research person would come from the sales organization the tradition was to get a person with huge credentials in social research But Jim argued that the most important impact research could make on the fortunes of the company would come from studying its impact on advertising value He prevailed and got me the jobquotThen as now there were successful and thriving business practices and the TV sales and advertising businesses were built around that practice The world changed then with independent stations and cable as digital is disrupting it now quotHaving built strong research within sales we were able to adapt fairly effectively and be competitive in this new worldquot Dave points out quotI was in charge of program research also I had to interact with the west coast side of the business and there had been no interaction before between sales and programming They were church and state Sales sold what they were told to sell I needed to integrate myself into that world with its own challenges Fortunately the program analyzer system was invented by Dr Stanton By accepting that system and not trying to impose something new on the people in LA they embraced me Plus Harvey Sheppard the head of programming came from the corporate research department and was a very research oriented program executivequotThe next influence in Dave39s career was Howard Stringer who became CBS CEO during the era when Larry Tisch was chairman and leading shareholder quotHoward now Sir Howard was definitely a mentor and became a good friend We felt the same way about how things should be done and he had the ability to interact and get people to do things He was a born leader and was able to get my ideas accepted He brought me into the inner decision making framework of the broadcast group There was a group of us surrounding Howard as he was positively moving the network amp8211 in one year CBS went from third to first in ratings with Jeff Sagansky as the head of programming Howard got people to accept the knowledge base that could be provided by a strong research effort without being threatened by itBut both Howard and Jeff left the company and Larry Tisch recruited Leslie Moonves from Warner Bros to head the CBS entertainment division quotI had gotten to know Leslie and knew him as the 1 supplier of programs to TVquot says Dave When Larry hired Leslie it was clear he was positioning company to be sold and to get full value This led to the last 20 years which have been the most exciting part of my whole career Being a part of Leslie39s team and building the company with him has been a fantastic ride Leslie has been the perfect successor to William Paley He39s a leader who understands programming he39s a leader on Wall St he39s a leader in the advertising community He39s built and supported a lean mean fighting machine Working with Jo Ann Ross is one of the reasons I39m not retiring We have a lot of fun and it39s a great relationship Leslie has been extraordinarily supportive of everything I39ve done including building a fulltime research lab in Las Vegas He has been the most important person in my being where I am todayquot Dave recalls one of his first substantive meetings with Leslie when he was asked for his opinion on acquiring rights to JAG which was being canceled by NBC quotIt was an unusual move but we had tracking research which other networks didn39t have that said JAG39s audience was building He made the decision to do it and JAG turned out to be one of most lucrative franchises in TV history leading to NCIS the most viewed show in the world todayquotAs an IRTS Hall of Mentorship inductee Dave can proudly point to several past interns he hired especially Jack Wakshlag who was a professor at Indiana University when Dave hired him at CBS and quotwho went on to be such a great leader in the research field at Turner Broadcasting Dave39s quotfavorite alltime intern is Colleen Fahey Rush who was Dave39s student at NYU and is now chief research officer at Viacom Dave39s many mentees include Greg Kasparian CBS39 Senior VP of Audience Measurement and the key liaison between research and sales and who has been by Dave39s side for the past 30 years Dave also singles out Eric Steinberg his key research person in Los AngelesquotAppreciating the collaborative value research provides is critical to what makes our department work as well it doesquot Dave observesamp160amp160

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CBS' Dave Poltrack: The Man; The Mentor; The Mentee

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