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She’s a singer, an
accomplished musician, entrepreneur, fund manager
and one of the foremost satellite communications pioneers
on the planet. Little wonder then that Time and Fortune
have voted Candace Johnson one of the 50 most powerful
women in the world today.
You can do anything you
want. You just have to work hard enough,’ proclaims
Candace Johnson, a few minutes after we’ve met on
one of her frequent whistle-stop trips to London (she
is based mostly in Luxembourg).
That this inspirational
statement is the first sentence from her lips is unsurprising,
because Johnson really is the personification of the
can-do philosophy.
As well as boasting incredible
career achievements in the arts (she has five degrees
in music and a cultured singing voice), Johnson has
also been instrumental in changing the face of the
global telecommunications industry over the last 30
years. She was a co-founder of the SES-ASTRA, Europe’s
dominant private satellite system, and SES Global,
the largest satellite system in the world. She is
also founding president of Europe Online, the world’s
first and largest internet via satellite network,
and founder of Teleport Europe, the first independent
private trans-border satellite communications network
in Europe. Needless to say, she was a hearty champion
of the political and economic deregulation and convergence
changes that made all of the above possible.
Along the way, she has
also found the time to set up two investment vehicles
and telecoms bodies such as the Association of Private
Telecoms Operators and the Global Telecom Women’s
Network.
Parents, plans and
passion
Johnson attributes her organisational zeal and business
drive to a father who made her and her three siblings
‘write business plans for everything we did – such
as when I was running for class president’. Her interest
in all things space-related she traces to a Christmas
when she was five years old and her parents inserted
a Santa Claus figurine into a sputnik toy.
Which of her parents
advised her on her conversational style (it really
is a task to get a word in edgeways) is not clear.
But her monopoly of our conversation merely serves
to underline how passionate she feels about her achievements
in the satellite industry, and how committed she remains
to its future development.
The lure of the business
challenge
Happily, she is as loquacious about her failures as
she is about her achievements. Two projects in particular
stick out – Iridium and Europe Online.
Johnson was actually
vice-president (from 1994-1996) of Iridium, an ill-fated
concern that famously burnt through more than billion
building satellites. Having filed for bankruptcy in
2000, it was rescued by a private company that bought
the assets. In its time this venture came close to
being one of the world’s most celebrated (and, of
course, most costly) scientific failures.
Interestingly, Johnson
is still fiercely defensive of the business, even
though she left (long before its near-collapse) after
becoming disillusioned with the direction it was going
in.
‘Iridium was way too
expensive. My thoughts about it were not the same
as everyone else’s. I thought of it as a satellite
booster that would link to mobile phones and I said
we have to have competition at the handset level [Iridium’s
handsets were expensive and not competitive with ground-based
networks], or I would leave. So I left. But it did
come into its own. It was one of the few infrastructures
that worked on September 11. It will go on to have
a life,’ says Johnson.
Events at broadband internet
provider Europe Online were equally colourful. Having
been founded by Johnson, she came to its rescue not
once, not twice, but three times, when she acquired
the business assets and brought the company back from
the brink of bankruptcy, determined to prove wrong
those who saw it as a failure. She remains president
today.
‘I am proud of these
projects – even in the face of great difficulty, and
often when I was not in control I was able to take
steps to ensure that these lived and survived and
that they did it on their own. And this means even
more when I look around at all of the companies and
their assets which have disappeared off the face of
the earth.’
All or nothing
Johnson’s core interests at present are two investment
vehicles – Johnson Paradigm Ventures (based in Luxembourg)
and Sophia Euro Lab (based in France).
The latter is a C12 million
early-stage investment fund founded by Johnson and
a consortium of others such as AXA Private Equity
and Bayerish Landesbank.
Her investment strategy
is very simple – she likes to back strongly driven
individuals who are at the cutting edge of ‘things
that matter’. The sole focus of these people must
be on the success of the project– not the size of
their financial gain or exit five years down the line.
‘We are seeing venture
capital fund after venture capital fund being started,
investing in ideas which shouldn’t be given the time
of day. If somebody approaches me and I don’t get
the feeling that this person is going to do everything
he/she can to make a success – then that turns me
off.’
It’s all about people,
stupid
This singular approach colours her idea of risk. ‘People
in the VC community always talk about exits – but
I never want to do that. They also say that [after
a point] you have to get rid of the entrepreneur.
I say, ‘why?’ I don’t take risks with myself or with
my money,’ she asserts.
This last statement seems
at first glance somewhat strange, but Johnson is adamant
that entrepreneurship has nothing whatsoever to do
with risk, and plenty to do with personal responsibility.
‘Many people say it is
about taking risks. They are wrong. It is about taking
no risks because all the risks and chances to fail
surround you anyway. It is about doing everything
you can to make certain that you win. It’s about responsibility
to stay true to the vision and not compromise it.
To have the determination to act responsibly to shareholders
and stakeholders to realise the expected and anticipated
rewards and results.’
Making a difference
Interestingly, throughout her career, Johnson has
rarely completely stepped away from a business she
has been involved in.
‘Being an entrepreneur
is about never giving up, never accepting no for an
answer, and never going away even when others want
you to. I’m not into egos or titles – I hate them.
What is important is making a difference and ensuring
that things continue.’
Judging from her dealings
thus far, it seems that Johnson will be making a difference
for some time to come.
Reprinted with the kind
permission of the BusinessXL
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Ariadne
Capital Journal - Through the Maze Volume
5, Edition 1
