Scott of the ABC
Aunty's latest boss is its most surprising one yet - an evangelical Christian who's fluent in management-speak. One year into his tenure, Mark Scott talks to Caroline Overington about his big plans for our cultural behemoth
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April 28, 2007
Mark Scott likes to say that he was raised in a normal Australian home, and so it seems: he was one of four children - two boys, two girls - and his parents were happily married. They went to church every week and often read the Bible. "It was all quite ordinary," he says. Then again, perhaps it wasn't.
For one thing, when Scott was four years old, his grandfather, Walter Scott, was knighted and started making regular appearances on TV. "He would appear on the screen in front of these huge (cardboard cut-out) coins, spruiking the decimalisation of the currency," says Scott. "I remember thinking, 'Those new coins are pretty big.'"
Over time, the young Scott came to understand that Sir Walter, the founder of WD Scott Pty Ltd, which was for 40 years the largest management consultancy in Australia (it was sold to Coopers & Lybrand in the mid-1980s), wasn't a variety show host but chair of the federal government's Decimal Currency Board. "He was performing a public service," Scott says. "My father (Brian Scott, now 71) also performed in public roles. He conducted 10 government inquiries - into education, among other things - five for Labor, five for Liberal governments."
The influence of these two men was profound. Scott grew up with a clear sense of duty. "I believe public service is vital, and I believe if you are called to serve, you should answer that call," he says.
In May last year, the call came, and Scott answered it: after a 20-year career in the private sector, as a journalist, editor and political spinner, he became managing director of Australia's largest - and some argue, least manageable - cultural institution, the ABC.
On paper, Scott could easily be seen as the ABC's worst nightmare. He's American-born, holding both US and Australian citizenship. He's Harvard-educated. He's a devout Christian who worships at the evangelical Christian City Church in Sydney's north, where the 5000-strong congregation are sometimes called the "happy clappers" as they wave their arms to rock music and strobe lights. He has worked for two Liberal politicians. And he's an ABC outsider, with no track record in TV or radio. No surprise then that some ABC staff, were wary - freaked, even - when Scott's appointment was announced.
Triple J manager Linda Bracken, who has worked at the ABC for 18 years, says the mood was "not hostile - I wouldn't go that far" but "people were wary. We all had fresh memories of the last outsider," referring to the unpopular former managing director, Jonathan Shier, hired to detonate the ABC's staff-driven culture, who was basically eaten alive - but not before wreaking havoc in some sections of the broadcaster. "But Mark is different," says Bracken. "He immediately began to generate goodwill."
There is no doubt that Scott has been brought in as a generational "change agent" to take the ABC into a more commercial future. He has been beavering away for just short of 12 months. But it is now clear he wants big changes. The year ahead is likely to be turbulent. Some of what Scott calls - in Harvardmanagement-speak - his "vision" will horrify ABC traditionalists, including those in its audience.
"We're going to have to make changes and make choices: we are going to have to be bold," he says during our interview at an Italian restaurant in Melbourne. That boldness includes advertising (of which more later) and "cultural change".
Scott arrives for our interview in his regular work outfit - suit, crisp white shirt, uncontroversial tie. At 43, his face is boyish. He wears fine, rimless glasses. Over two hours, he talks about life in a household of women; leadership; and a Christian belief that he says will guide his decision-making in the difficult months ahead. He has a message, too. If people think the ABC won't change, they are wrong. It can. It must, he says.
He was born in Los Angeles, while his father (who studied at both Stanford and Harvard) was lecturing at the University of Southern California. The family returned to Sydney when Mark was a toddler. He was sent to school at Knox, a prestigious, boater-and-tie Uniting Church school in Sydney's north that bills itself as having "a caring Christian environment, young men of integrity, wisdom, compassion and faith". Scott embraced his faith and joined a Christian youth group.
In his 20s he married his first great love and "best friend", Briony Edmonds; they'd met at Sydney University, where he gained a Bachelor of Arts, a Diploma of Education, and a Master of Arts in government. The couple later moved to the US, where he studied for a Masters of Public Administration (MPA) at Harvard.
Before travelling, Scott worked for four years for NSW Liberal education ministers, among them Terry Metherell. It was a job that brought him into almost daily contact with The Sydney Morning Herald's then education editor, Paola Totaro. "He was very interested in stories we were writing," says Totaro. "He struck me as very bright."
When Scott went to Harvard, they stayed in touch. When Totaro wanted to move off education, she told the Herald's bosses that Scott would be good in the role, although he had no experience as a journalist. "He knew a story," she says. "He got a buzz out of stories."
Scott got the Herald job, and was promoted quickly from education editor to news editor. Mentored by Fred Hilmer, then CEO of Fairfax, he was soon in other senior roles, including editor-in-chief of metropolitan newspapers, and editorial director.
Full Text At: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21630057-28737,00.html
Further including podcast : http://www.podworkx.com/TheSydneyInstitute/2006/10/17/MarkScottManagingDirectorAustralianBroadcastingCorporationTheABCsEditorialValues.aspx |
