We sat down to talk with Jennifer Dorian, senior vice president, strategy development, for Turner Entertainment Networks (TEN) and Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.’s Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media group (AYAKM). In this lively and fun-filled interview, listen to Jennifer’s stories about what it takes to succeed. She embodies someone who is very comfortable in her own skin and has these four pieces of advice:
1) Be your own agent, 2) Act like you belong, 3) Be fearless, 4) Be a catalyst for change.
Scroll down below to read the fun “Declaration of Personal Responsibility” that Jennifer and her team enacted in 2009 to get better work life integration.
In her role, Jennifer serves as a strategic business and branding consultant for TEN, which includes TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and truTV, and AYAKM, which includes Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Boomerang. Dorian is based in Atlanta and reports to Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks, and to Stuart Snyder, president and chief operating officer of AYAKM
Previously, Dorian served as senior vice president, network strategy and brand development, for TEN. She oversaw strategic business planning and brand identity development and image marketing for both networks. Prior to that position, Dorian was vice president of branding for TNT where, in 2001, she led the network’s launch and on-going strategic brand positioning as “TNT: We Know Drama.” Dorian’s positioning of the brand became a resounding success, with TNT ranking as ad-supported cable’s #1 network in delivery of key adult demos for six consecutive years. TNT has been able to monetize its positioning with advertisers in large part because of the groundwork laid by Dorian and the network team.
Dorian also oversaw the June 2004 creation and implementation of the “TBS Very Funny” brand. The positioning proved enormously successful, with TBS consistently ranking as one of basic cable’s Top 5 networks with young adults. On the strength of her work with TNT and TBS, Dorian was honored with a Brand Builders award from Brandweek. She is also leading Turner Entertainment Networks’ strategic business planning, brand development and portfolio management. Her work in that area includes a focus on innovation for the organization and exploration of extending brands into new arenas and platforms, such as the highly successful TCM Classic Film Festival.
Prior to joining Turner in 2000, Dorian was director of strategic services for sports and leisure marketing at The Coca-Cola Co., based in Atlanta. In that capacity, Dorian oversaw a portfolio of U.S. sponsorships, assessing proposals and evaluating brand alignment and potential returns on investments. Previously, Dorian was manager of kids marketing for Pizza Hut, Inc., a division of PepsiCo. She joined the company as assistant manager of new product development. Dorian also served as director of marketing for InfoVentures of Atlanta, a partnership of Cox Enterprises and the former BellSouth.
Dorian holds a master of business administration degree in marketing from the University of Texas and a bachelor’s degree from Emory University. Within Turner, she is involved in mentoring through Turner Women Today and TEN Mentoring. She serves on the board of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau; the National Marketing Committee of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF; and the board of the PATH Foundation. In 2009, she was recognized by Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) with the Horizon Award. In 2011, WICT named Dorian as a Woman to Watch.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.
Declaration of Personal Responsibility by Jennifer Dorian and Team
The unanimous declaration of the Strategy Development Department
When in the course of work/life events, it becomes necessary for one team to dissolve the traditional habits and norms that pre-dated them in the corporate world, and to proactively assume leadership of their own destinies and create the best working environment, norms and personal habits to propel them to do their best work and live their best lives.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all team members are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Having a Life, Personal Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Employers provide outlets for creativity, constant learning, making a contribution, teamwork, challenges, self-esteem and financial compensation and benefits. We embrace the role of employers in our lives but cast off the yoke of tradition.
It is our duty to throw off such conventional out-dated habits which may hold us back, and to provide new norms for the future success of our enterprises and our personal selves.
We cast off the following conventions of corporate life:
- Traditional, rigid work schedules
- Staying late at the office to impress others
- Bound to working only at our desks
- “Dress for success”
- Lunch “hour”
We replace these conventions with an invitation to find personal work habits that are most effective for the individual and still effective for the group and clients. These may include (but are not limited to):
- Telecommuting and working off-site
- Pre-established flexible hours (core hours and communication to immediate manager)
- Exercise during business hours
- Appropriate dress for the occasion
- Thinking time, exploring time
- Spending time with outsiders
- “Meetings management” (the right to say ‘no’)
- Punctuality
We solemnly publish and declare that these employees of the strategy and brand development team are absolved from all allegiance to “the old ways” and may act as free and independent people with the full power of personal responsibility to produce excellent work and make full contributions while achieving our unalienable rights. We mutually pledge to each other our work lives, our fortunes and our honor.
Signed this 24th day of September, in the year of 2009. We the undersigned affix our signatures to this document:
