Interview with Greg Hughes

Greg Hughes , executive chairman of Infixion Media, has taken the bold move of acquiring IHS South Africa’s publishing business from its international holding company. IHS South Africa’s publishing business came into being 14 years ago, when IHS Inc. purchased The Communications Group (including National Publishing, Specifile, Pulse Publications and Graphix Publications) , the leading South African business to business publisher.

With this acquisition, IHS South Africa’s publishing business has become an independent operation: Infixion Media. In this interview, Greg offers insight into the decision to bring Infixion Media back under full South African control, and what the future holds.

Q] What prompted the buyout decision? Did the relationship with IHS fall through?

A] Not at all! It’s always been a good relationship. IHS has very high expectations of corporate values, morals and ethics, and the relationship has been really good for our business. They’ve guided us through the last 14 years, and we’ve learned a lot, especially in terms of our online business.

It’s been very useful as a guide, to get the feel for how things could work – they’re a good seven of eight years ahead of us.

Because of their interest in making sure the business after the sale continues to be successful, we were able to put the deal together in good manner and in a way that presents upside for both sides.

So we have freed up their management responsibility from running a very different business to their core operation, and freed us up to operate as a small business, to realise the returns we can enjoy with that flexibility.

We have everything we need to take the business into our own hands, sustain it, and take it forward. It’s not going to be business as usual. It’s going to be business better than usual!

Q] What’s behind the new identity? Why Infixion Media, rather than returning to National Publishing?

A] There’s a lot of brand equity in National Publishing – we’ve been going for 70 years after all! But the reason for going for something different is that this is a new era we’re moving into. We’ve got a completely new business from when we were NatPub, which was a traditional, old world publishing operation.

We still have our key products in place, but we have a completely new range of products too, so we felt that justified something new.

Infixion means “to fix something firmly in the mind”, and that’s exactly what we do. We take our clients’ messages and secure them in the minds of their customers. It’s a fitting name.

Also, going back to NatPub might have been perceived as a step backwards, and this is definitely a bold leap into the future. We’re embracing that on all fronts.

Q] How is that “bold leap into the future” taking shape? Where are the products going?

A] Becoming independent gives us back the ability to make decisions that work best for products we do. We’ve become accustomed to working to incredibly high standards, especially through IHS, where the business demanded unwavering attention to those standards.

So we believe our products are up to the international standard. And we’ve forged new relationships, like TechTarget [the range of information technology media products], and we’re starting to see revenue flowing from the online product range that complements each of our hard copy journals.

The future of those things is really exciting to look at. The product offering we have, no one else has. We have built a portfolio of fully integrated media. We’re not just about individual journals: now we’re providing tightly integrated websites, electronic newsletters, online catalogues, custom microsites for our clients, buyers guide, and more.

With the help of IHS, we’ve positioned ourselves to be the leading supplier of integrated media to the B2B sector. That’s a very exciting position to be in. And no one else can offer what we can. That’s part of what made it such an exciting opportunity to pursue.

Q] Publishing globally is under immense pressure at the moment. How badly has your business been affected by the recession?

A] In this economic environment everyone has had to rethink how they do business, and how they improve on ways of operating their companies. One key thing in trade publishing businesses like ours is that you need to be a very focused, fast moving, adaptive organisation. You need to make quick decisions, do things nimbly, or you’ll get stuck in an environment that’s not conducive to the best performance of the business.

Even with a bad 2009 behind us, the company is financially sound and adequately financed. We’re perfectly placed to run the operation successfully. Part of that “business better than usual” is being in the financial position to make it work, and to invest where we need to.

So I don’t see this as a risky investment at all. Our business is poised to have a really good four to five years because of the position we’re in right now. All the investment in online in particular as well as in the hardcopy products is paying off, and things are starting to move in the right direction.

In 2010 we’ll have a focus on making sure that everything we do is doing the best we can and functioning as effectively as possible. We have an expectation of growth, coming off the back of a pretty poor 2009. The main focus in terms of that growth will be online, where we see a lot of room to grow. There are some big exhibitions next year like Electra-Mining, and these bring an added interest in the sectors in which we operate, with opportunities for us.

The growth for next year is looking significant, but we’ll be taking a conservative approach. We don’t have to go over the top. If the year just performs to plan, it will be a very good year, a performance I’d be very happy with. And if we can stretch ourselves a little further, the upside can be exponential.

Q] What’s your market position moving into 2010 as an independent company?

A] I’m a firm believer that if you can’t be number one or two, then you shouldn’t be in the market at all. And if you’re #2, what are you doing to be #1? It was Jack Welch, the CEO of General Electric, who articulated that while he turned GE into the largest and most valuable company in the world. I think that in the environment we’re operating in, it’s a very good mantra to work by.

At present, the bulk of our products are leaders in their sectors, and most of the others are a very close second. We’ll be working hard to get those up to number one, with a big focus on the electronic products we have, complementing the print media. That integration is definitely one of our USPs as a business, and it’s without doubt the future of our business. We have new online products rolling out, we’re already seeing enhancements to print products, and we’re midway through a group-wide overhaul of the journals, giving them a fresher look and better integrating them with our web offerings.

That interaction between online and print offers so much more depth in terms of content and usability than either can accomplish on its own.

Q] What’s the new ownership structure?

I currently own 100% of the share capital in the operational business – Infixion Media (Pty) Ltd. I’ve been in the company for 15 years, and I’m so passionate about the business, to make it a success. For me the opportunity was there to make investment in a business I know intimately, and that makes me a lot more comfortable about the potential going forward. If I were moving into a completely new field, I wouldn’t be looking to make this kind of investment. But knowing the success we’ve had in the past, it’s just a fantastic opportunity for me.

But it’s not just about me. All the people come along with the business, and we really do have a top quality team. We’ve already worked to optimize headcount with IHS, so we don’t have any fat to cut. Strategically we’ll be looking to align things better as we enhance our products, but IHS was very focused on keeping return per headcount up, so I believe that every single one of our colleagues is already performing at their best but there’s definitely no room for any slack at all. I firmly believe that everyone adds value, and knows it.

We’re all looking forward to a fantastic 2010, consolidating our position, enhancing our product portfolio, and doing business better than usual!