Reflections of a GE Boss Turned NBC President : Robert C. Wright Is Aware That the Jury’s Still Out a Year After He Took Over

NEW YORK —  NBC President Robert C. Wright came to his job from General Electric Co. a year ago this month, and within days had received a performance review from Johnny Carson.

After meeting the new boss at NBC’s Burbank studios, Carson told his “Tonight Show” audience that Wright seemed like a nice fellow. But Carson wasn’t sure about some of the ideas proposed by the one-time GE small-appliance executive--such as replacing “Wheel of Fortune” hostess Vanna White with an electric letter-turner.

Of course, Carson was only joking about White, whose job on the game show involves turning oversized letters as they are guessed by contestants. But this first jab at the new boss proved to be portentous, for it was followed by a stream of more serious--and equally public--critiques of Wright’s performance.

People “were always looking for something new to praise about Grant Tinker,” says Wright, referring to his predecessor, who led NBC to ratings primacy. “With me, they’re looking for another slip. You have to live with the fear that something you say or do is going to be compared negatively.”

After a year on the job, the earnest GE numbers man is still struggling to convince his new company and his industry of his good intentions. He’s trying to convince them that while he tries to reorganize and expand the company, he won’t meddle with its winning programming formula, compromise the integrity of its news operations or try to remake its management culture in parent GE’s image.

It’s a big job. NBC is bogged down in a bitter, 11-week-old strike by members of the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees & Technicians, who fear that GE may one day resell the company if NBC can’t maintain its profit.

Communication ‘Spotty’

The news division’s fears have been recently aroused again by management-commissioned research that suggests that the news unit has too many employees. On top of that, the recent appointment of the former head of GE’s railroad division as NBC’s chief financial officer has reawakened anxieties that GE plans to move in more executives from its own ranks to NBC jobs.

Wright acknowledges that he’s had trouble getting his message across. While he grades himself “pretty good overall” in his first year on the job, he says he’s been “spotty” in communicating with NBC employees and others.

This communications problem was apparent in his first months on the job, when he issued several memos that quickly found their way into the newspapers. In one memo, Wright suggested that department heads at the highly profitable network consider 5% budget cuts; in another, he discussed formation of a political action committee that all NBC employees, including journalists, who pride themselves on their independence, would be pressured to join.

Wright backed away from the proposals in the hubbub that followed, but was criticized for failing to understand that he could not manage NBC like some GE manufacturing division. “He didn’t seem to understand the scrutiny we’re under--managing here is almost a spectator sport,” says one network executive.

Style Contrasts With Tinker’s

Wright acknowledges that at some moments he has even wondered about his decision to come to NBC from General Electric Financial Services--which is bigger and more important to GE than the network, as well as further from the public eye. GE Financial Services includes the Kidder, Peabody & Co. brokerage, a business finance unit and insurance.

“These aren’t people that I grew up with, or people that know me particularly,” says Wright, who earlier worked on GE’s legal staff and in its plastics division, and was employed in the cable-TV business for nearly four years. “There are times that you feel you can’t communicate. Or you try too hard.”

Insiders say Wright has proven himself a delegator, leaving much of NBC’s day-to-day operations to lieutenants, such as Executive Vice Presidents Raymond Timothy and Robert Walsh.

Some subordinates contend that Wright has become almost inaccessible, and contrast his sometimes-blunt personal style with Tinker’s smooth affability. “You always knew what Grant was doing, and you always felt that he was interested in you, personally,” says one executive. “With Wright, you don’t know where he is or what he’s thinking about; it’s hard to even get a meeting with him.”

“I feel bad that I don’t know more of the people around here,” Wright concedes.

He says he knows he should spend more time with the entertainment industry contacts who are so important to NBC’s continued success. Tinker, who maintained a home in Southern California, spent about 10 days a month working at NBC’s West Coast offices; Wright has made less than half a dozen trips to California.

Some NBC affiliates were taken aback last spring to discover that Wright had publicly discussed selling a minority share of the network before taking the matter up with them. “Not coming from the broadcast world, he might not have appreciated the special relationship between the networks and the affiliates,” says one industry official. “That kind of talk was a no-no.”

He is credited with preserving the autonomy of the entertainment division, which is expected to maintain its No. 1 position in the prime-time ratings as the new television season unfolds.

The entertainment division has been told that its $1-billion plus budget to buy new programming won’t be touched as the NBC management continues to look for areas to cut costs. And Wright has approved stepped-up efforts to develop more programming at NBC itself.

Indeed, Wright personally urged that NBC develop a situation comedy series for the Saturday morning period traditionally reserved for children’s programming, at an expected additional cost of $3 million, says Brandon Tartikoff, president of NBC Entertainment.

“He offers advice and observations on programming, but he won’t make the decisions unilaterally,” says Tartikoff, who praises his boss as a quick study. “He takes the view that we’re his team, and he wants us to go out on the field and play.”

Many observers expect Wright to make his real contribution to NBC by guiding a program of acquisitions, joint ventures, expanded program production, and other moves that seek to ensure growth and stable profit.

Wanted to Be a Player

While NBC is expected to produce a $500-million operating profit this year, that’s no guarantee of next year’s success in this volatile industry. And if this year’s ad season has proven stronger than many expected, network television’s audience sizes and long-term financial prospects remain in doubt.

GE’s intentions to greatly expand NBC have been apparent since late 1985, when GE announced that it would pay $6.2 billion for the network’s parent, RCA. “Over half of that amount was for NBC, and it was clear they planned to be a real player in this business,” says Robert C. Butler, NBC’s chief financial officer. Wright came in “with that very much in mind.”

Wright has long since demonstrated his abilities as financier and forger of deals. He kept GE Financial Service’s return on equity consistently more than 20%, which ranks it along side the most profitable of the nation’s banks.

“He did it by anticipating changes in the financial world--changing interest rates, changing tax laws, deregulation,” says Nicholas Heymann, an analyst at Drexel Burnham Lambert and one of Wright’s several fans on Wall Street. “Now his job is to anticipate the big turns in the broadcast business and get ahead of them.”

Wright has been thinking about a number of moves that would expand NBC’s business by exploiting its strengths.

He proved he could move quickly last January, when NBC agreed to buy WTVJ-TV in Miami for $270 million, making it NBC’s sixth owned and operated station. (GE owns a seventh.) “That station would have changed hands five times before RCA had gotten around to deciding whether to buy it,” says a former NBC executive.

NBC might try to buy one other VHF station, or perhaps two UHF stations, analysts say.

Recently, Wright told a convention of cable system operators that he would like to see NBC expand its reach by providing programming for cable television. Analysts say NBC may decide to launch a new cable network, by itself or with partners.

The network has shown an interest in increasing the number of prime-time shows it produces, as permitted by a federal antitrust decree. In 1990, the networks will be allowed to produce five prime-time shows.

Not Sentimental

Wright’s skills have sometimes been compared to GE Chairman John F. Welch’s, whom some analysts believe Wright may some day replace. To do that, he will need to start making his name at the network soon.

“A decision on who succeeds our 51-year-old CEO is a long, long way off. And the chances that (Welch) will retire early are between slim and none,” Wright says.

Like Welch, Wright, 44, has shown himself willing to set aside sentimental attachments to businesses that don’t meet GE standards of profitability. In July, NBC got out of its original business when it sold its radio network operations to Los Angeles-based Westwood One for $50 million and stock warrants.

Such moves have led some to wonder if GE might auction NBC itself if it ran into the financial turbulence that has so often troubled the networks. Wright, however, insists that GE would be no more likely than any other corporate parent to sell NBC.

“I can’t imagine the circumstances in which that could occur,” he says.

There will clearly be more of the staff reductions that have been under way at all three networks for two years. Last December, NBC cut about 150 jobs; since then, about 400 positions have been cut through attrition and early-retirement incentives, bringing the permanent full-time work force to about 7,600.

The study of NBC News undertaken by McKinsey & Co., a management consultant, suggested that staff cuts may be merited in the news department. And NBC’s ability to function with few snags during the NABET strike suggests that other cuts, or at least a redeployment, are needed, Wright says.

“After 10 weeks of doing without (the strikers), you’re bound to have some ideas of how to reorganize to do the job better,” he says.

Some observers have wondered to what extent GE would try to impose its own corporate style on NBC. The issue was raised again last month with the announcement that Albert R. Barber, 41, who worked with Wright at GE Financial Services before heading GE’s railroad division, would replace the retiring Butler as NBC chief financial officer.

To some, the promotion seemed to reflect GE’s habit of replacing veterans with younger men and women, as well as the company’s view that a good manager can be transplanted to any business successfully. Wright insists that the promotion was not a sign that senior executives from broadcast backgrounds will be replaced with fast-risers from the corporate parent.

“There’ll probably be more GE executives around here in five years, but only because there are just two of us here now,” Wright says.