Interviewee Name: Phyllis Yaffe, Chair
Company Name: Ryerson University
Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Phyllis Yaffe: I've spent my career doing things in the cultural industry in Canada. I became the CEO of Alliance Atlantis in 2005, and we sold the company at the end of 2007. I officially retired, but my husband says I’m failing at that. I now spend a lot of my time on corporate boards, as well as chairing the board of Ryerson University, so I have many interests that I spend my time on now.
Avil Beckford: What’s a typical day like for you?
Phyllis Yaffe: I really don't have a typical day now because my day is made up of the things that I'm responsible for in different organizations. So if there's a company meeting or I'm getting ready for one, a committee meeting or those kinds of things, that’s how I spend my day. Every day has a different pattern to it, and that is exactly what I wanted. I don't have a routine. I worked for 38 years, so I think not having a routine is a privilege.
Avil Beckford: How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?
Phyllis Yaffe: Right now it’s the easiest part of my life. I'm interested in the companies I’m on the board of. I enjoy the people that I meet, and I have chosen the companies that I have been involved with for that reason. So I think they're interesting companies and I enjoy being with the people I work with on those boards so being motivated to do that is really easy.
Avil Beckford: If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
Phyllis Yaffe: Because I started my career a very long time ago in the late 60s early 70s, I had opportunities that you just wouldn't find today. I graduated from university in 1969 and jobs were not a problem to find. Careers were even interesting to find. I would say that if I had to do it again today I would have a more focused view of what it is I wanted to do.
Avil Beckford: What's the most important business or other discovery you've made in the past year?
Phyllis Yaffe: The businesses that I deal with are struggling with the same issues, and what is interesting to me is that there is a universal thing happening in media today, and it's the disintermediation of the business models that have been in place for long by the use of the Internet, just the technology that now allows people to have so much access to content in ways that we never thought would happen before. Whether it’s newspapers or books or film it's just a very different model for the economics of producing content is about to happen or is happening and I think that's been something that I have watched over the last year. It was certainly there before but now it's kind of spread everywhere. So I enjoy it, I find it a real challenge to figure out what the future is going to hold.
Avil Beckford: You are the Chair of Ryerson University, what are three threats you’re facing now and how are you handling them?
Phyllis Yaffe:
- At Ryerson University we are a child of the government, so how the government spends its money is really crucial to us. So far more or less, the government has been able to support Canadian universities, Ontario Universities with funding that allows us to increase the number of students we bring in, and grow the campus, and those types of things. We are not funded at a high level so more funding is crucial, but to be fair it’s a system that works. I fear for the future because things are about to change. One is the rapid growth of the cost of the healthcare system in this country is making it harder and harder for any government to fund anything but healthcare and that leads to the reduced number of dollars for anything else and I think that just becomes unfortunate for society that we are not able to grow the other parts of our communities. So I worry about the funding model.
- I worry about governments changing and being less supportive of education. We happen to have a Premier right now in Ontario who is self defined as the education Premier and that means that post secondary and other kinds of education has been at the focus of what he's been concerned about personally and I think that's just wonderful for us at Ryerson because we know that we can count on the Premier in any discussion. I worry that that may not carry on, not only by him, but any party that comes into power will they have that focus.
- We have a rapidly growing demand for spaces in universities in Toronto when we don't have the spots. We don't have the money, we don't have the ability to serve that community. Right now at Ryerson we have almost 70,000 applications and only 6,000 spots to let people in.
Avil Beckford: What’s unique about the service that you provide?
Phyllis Yaffe: I just bring what I have learned over my career. When people say, “how do you get on boards?” You have to live your life. People are brought to boards because of what they've done in their careers, how they’ve behaved, and who they know. I'm the sum total of all of that, that's me, that's who I am.
Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?
Phyllis Yaffe: When I started being a broadcaster, and it has happened to me many times over my career, I changed careers completely. I went from the not-for-profit sector to working in semi-businesses, and then I ran organizations, funded writers, and then I became a broadcaster and I'd never done that before. I've never ran a business, I didn't know anything about broadcasting. I didn't know how it worked, I didn't know who did what, I just knew we had a license and we had to start a channel. Those are the kinds of challenges that have happened to me over the years. Those were giant challenges. I was silly, I thought I could do them and I did, and it worked out.
The thing I did and the lesson I learned is to hire great people and hope for the best. Incent them, help them, guide them, give them as many opportunities as you can, but pick good people. Surround yourself as I hope I did with people who are way smarter than you are. They will make life better for you, so that's what I did.
Avil Beckford: Tell me about your big break and who gave you.
Phyllis Yaffe: I worked with our lawyer Peter Grant. He was a wonderful help to me in my career at an early stage when I worked at the Association of Publishers. I had talked to him throughout my career and at one point he asked me if I wanted to meet the people at what was called the First Choice, it’s now called The Movie Network, and that led me to doing my job at Fund. I started Fund which is the Foundation to Underwrite New Drama. It's now called the Harold Greenberg Fund. Peter was the lawyer for them and because he knew me and thought that would work out, he introduced me to them and it worked. I worked there for nine years. I liked what they did and I guess they liked what I did. And that led me to work at Alliance. I went from there to starting Showcase, and Peter was the lawyer for Alliance. Peter was a big part of how my career happened.
Avil Beckford: Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?
Phyllis Yaffe: My biggest failure in television and broadcasting is we had the opportunity to buy the Sopranos and we didn't. We could have been the original, the only broadcaster of the Sopranos and we just didn't come up with the money. We lost in a bidding war. We thought we wanted it but we didn't want to spend the money they wanted and we let somebody else have it and that was a terrible mistake. And then when it came time to buy Six Feet Under, I said “I know it’s going to be expensive but it is a defining moment and we have to go for it.” And it was a defining moment, and it was the right thing to do. So I learned that sometimes you have to go outside your comfort zone, or even outside your budget to make something happen in a business.
Avil Beckford: What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?
Phyllis Yaffe: We applied for an over the air television network and we didn’t get it. Shortly after that we realized that it would have been a terrible mistake if we had gotten it. You know, I try not to be disappointed by the things that do not work out. I move on to the next thing.
Avil Beckford: What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?
Phyllis Yaffe: We had a moment where we had to decide if we wanted to sell Alliance Atlantis, or if we wanted to hold on and try to build it some more. That was a really big decision, but honestly it was an easy one because we felt we had explored every opportunity to grow, and it was going to be a very hard slog to grow in any organic way. We were always going to be struggling to make significant gains. An opportunity came up that seemed like the right one and we took it. I look back on that and think it was the right thing. The shareholders certainly thought so, and it has changed my life of course, but I am happy about that.
Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?
Phyllis Yaffe:
- My family is the biggest part of that. My marriage, my child, those are the things that will always be fundamental in my life.
- My career has always been challenging and interesting and I have had wonderful times.
- I've had some friends who have made a big difference in my life. And these are the things that matter in life.
Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?
Phyllis Yaffe: I'm sure every mother would say my daughter, and I am proud of her, she's a wonderful human being. I'm proud that she came to a life that is driven by the values that I hope I had something to do with. That's really only in my personal life. I'm happy to have made a difference in other people's lives when they worked for me. People remind me of that, and I'm always really delighted to hear it. It's lovely to thing that you can have some impact on lives, the way you run your life and have a chance to do that.
Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?
Phyllis Yaffe: As I said Peter Grant was a really important person in my life. He gave me really great advice. He was helpful in figuring out what it was I was good at, and what I should think of doing more of, and it was really helpful. He introduced me to opportunities I really wouldn't have had otherwise. I will always be grateful to him. The people I have worked for have made a really big difference in my life, and have showed me their styles and how they got things done and I learned enormously from them. I would say all of those people, and they have tended to primarily all have been men.
Avil Beckford: What’s one core message you received from your mentors?
Phyllis Yaffe: They found skills of mine that they thought was useful and helped me realize that I could use those skills in different ways because I do not have a great imagination when it comes to what I'm good at. I'm not my best critic, so they've been able to say, “try this you’d be good at it,” and I would look at them and say “are you sure?” They helped me realize that I could be good at these things. So I would say they helped me to understand what I was good at.
Avil Beckford: An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar, in the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?
Phyllis Yaffe: I always tell everyone I can to take opportunities when they come along. Try to figure out what is a really good opportunity and try not to limit yourself. There will be many changes along the way and it's important to think about yourself in different ways, and give yourself opportunities. I’m confident that people who take a risks – you may lose, there is no question that it can happen – there are great opportunities for you. Be open to new opportunities, don't cut yourself off, think positively about them and be surprised at what comes along.
How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let's keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don't you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.
Related articles
- Interview With Invisible Mentor Jeanne-Marie Robillard, Senior Account Executive, National Speakers Bureau (theinvisiblementor.com)
- Interview With Invisible Mentor Jeanne-Marie Robillard, Senior Account Executive, National Speakers Bureau, Part Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
- The Chief Mentoring Officer Interviews Annemie Ress, Senior HRD eBay & Global Engagement Lead at eBay (theinvisiblementor.com)
- The Chief Mentoring Officer Interviews Annemie Ress, Senior HRD eBay & Global Engagement Lead at eBay, Part Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
- Chief Mentoring Officer Interviews: Do Big Breaks, Mentoring, and Hard Work Equate to Success? Part Two (theinvisiblementor.com)
- Video: Phyllis Yaffe: A corporate veteran's advice to young women
- Phyllis Yaffe, Forbes.com
- Corporate Directors – Phyllis Yaffe
