A Leader Who Listens.(Comcast's Brian Roberts gets Vanguard Award for Leadership)

Broadcasting & Cable, May, 2007 by Steinert-Threlkeld, Tom

By Tom Steinert-Threlkeld Comcast's Roberts asks for ideas and builds a strong team In Las Vegas this week, Brian Roberts could have been playing host to The Cable Show and the Vanguard Awards. But he isn't. Flashback to 1998: Roberts, following his tried-and-true form of leadership, had gathered the top Comcast executives around a table and handed each a blank piece of paper.

The question: Should Comcast bid to buy the Las Vegas cable system from Prime Cable? The voting was blind, so no executive had to feel bound by Chairman/CEO Roberts' predilection for the possible purchase. It is a mechanism designed to elicit unadulterated opinion on important decisions. 'So if you want to say no but you think I'm in love with it,' he says, 'you...

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