Tracey Armstrong is the President and Chief Executive Officer at Copyright Clearance Center, bringing more than 20 years of experience in rights management with CCC to the industry. Leading the organization through a period of phenomenal change and challenge, Tracey has helped transform CCC's licensing solutions to meet the needs of today's digital publishing world. Tracey works with publishers, authors, universities, businesses and industry associations around the world, addressing copyright concerns and establishing new alliances. In addition, she frequently speaks at industry conferences and events as a thought leader on digital copyright licensing issues.
Tracey holds an MBA from Northeastern University and serves on the board of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO).
How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
I've been with CCC for 25 years, beginning in the mail room and working my way up to where I am today as CEO of the company. This journey has taught me the value of hard work, dedication, and the impact that great colleagues and teams can have on individual careers.
By starting out at the entry level, I've gained a unique perspective on what it takes to make a project successful from multiple points of view. The years I spent in the trenches have had a tremendous influence on my leadership style. I've learned how important it is to listen to the voices of the people closest to the customer and the work. It's impossible to reach every one of our 350 employees, so I've tried to create a flat organization where people can feel for themselves what's really happening and communicate well with each other.
I believe this unique perspective on the company, top to bottom, is a blessing that has shaped my style for the better. I respect the company's past, but it also drives me to constantly challenge myself to make the company better for the future.
What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at Copyright Clearance Center? Without a doubt, the digitization of content has been both the biggest highlight and the biggest challenge, as it has fundamentally changed almost every industry, including copyright. As a business and industry, we've had to rapidly evolve to stay relevant.
Software has become a much more significant part of how we're delivering our products and services. We've gone from using software to deliver licensing to delivering software that enhances licensing. I'm also proud of the work we've done to simplify global collaboration. We operate in a world where everything is instant and where neither content nor companies are limited by geographical borders. I consider it an achievement that we've developed borderless licenses.
What advice can you offer women who are seeking to build a career from the bottom up?
Don't apologize for anything and never compromise. Don't stick to a single role or avoid travel or miss getting your MBA even if you want to have kids someday. Don't ask for concessions before you need them. And never underestimate the power of listening. Figure out what you love to do, and do it. And finally, surround yourself with people you love who will support you and your journey.
How do you maintain a work-life balance?
There is no such thing as a genuine work-life balance. There will always be a struggle in juggling all the things you care about. If you're working on something you're stimulated by, carve out time to do it because it will make you feel fulfilled.
Don't forget to take care of yourself, or else you won't have the energy to multitask and give each part of your life the attention it deserves. I had to learn that lesson early in my career. I thought it was work first and everything else second, but later realized I was more effective at my job as a whole person. I recognized that I needed to take the time to work out to operate effectively. Now approaching 50, I'm trying to take care of myself so that I can have the energy to address the other things in my life besides CCC, such as my charity work.
Most important, I want to be an active member of my family, and I want to be an effective leader. Eventually all leaders are vulnerable. They need to protect themselves by being authentic and true to themselves. That's also true in work-life balance. If being your best during a 14- to 16-hour day requires that you exercise, you need to take that time.
How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?
Mentoring is, and has always been, an active part of what I do. It taught me that individual people can make a huge difference in someone's life. I was very fortunate to have strong women as mentors. As my career has advanced, I've always asked myself, "How can I pay it forward?" Mentorship doesn't need to be limited to a formal program. You can even mentor someone in an hour by just taking the time to listen and offer advice. It doesn't necessarily have to be an ongoing, lengthy relationship. In that way, you can make it a real part of your professional and personal life. It's amazing how authentic people can be in a mentoring relationship and how enriching it can be for the mentee. For women, it really does take a village. We have to stick together to help each other succeed.
Which other female leaders do you admire and why?
I'm a product of the women around me. Their dedication and intelligence is beyond admirable. The female leaders I have the pleasure of working with at CCC amaze me with their willingness to take professional risks by going to extreme lengths to meet customer needs. I've incorporated what I've learned from these women into the context of my own day-to-day life, from the office to my own home.
What do you want Copyright Clearance Center to accomplish in the next year?
As we continue to focus on promoting a greater general awareness of the importance of copyright, one of our goals is to stay ahead of the rapidly evolving copyright marketplace on a global scale. This is no small feat. There are so many new ways for rightsholders - authors, creators and publishers -- to create and deliver content, and accordingly, a growing number of ways for people to consume that content. We'll continue bridging the gap between content creators and customers. Licensing that intellectual property in a way that satisfies both groups is difficult, but not impossible.
Women Business Collaborative Statement on the Supreme Court Decision
Women Business Collaborative Statement on the Supreme Court Decision
The Women Business Collaborative (WBC) is a movement focused on equal position, pay, and power, predicated on our ability to accelerate change together. Women’s rights in the workforce, including access to reproductive health care, are all of our concerns. When women’s rights are inhibited, so too is our movement.
The WBC believes that it is every woman’s right to choose their profession as well as their access to reproductive health care. As a Collaborative, and nonpartisan organization, WBC will continue to engage with our leaders, partners and champions around our mission to build opportunity and power for women in business.
Tracey Armstrong has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) since July 2007. She brings almost 30 years of experience in rights management, helping transform CCC’s solutions to meet the needs of today’s digital world. Armstrong works with publishers, authors, universities, businesses and industry associations around the world, addressing global copyright issues and establishing new alliances. She serves on the Boards of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO), PublisHer, and Harborlight Community Partners. She has emerged as one of the most influential voices on global copyright. Armstrong’s journey has created a powerful example for others to follow. Driven to succeed and break barriers, her career is characterized by constant innovation and a will to do more.
What led you to this career path?
My journey to CEO was more organic than intentional. I took a roll-up-sleeves approach to every job I had and made it a personal policy never to say, ‘that’s not my job’. Instead, I asked for assignments I thought were interesting and which challenged me intellectually. I learned my most valuable lessons in the field. I was fortunate to progress through an on-the-job MBA, and still believe that experiential learning is the most powerful for strengthening institutional knowledge for the future.
What do you think makes your company stand out?
I think the aspect of CCC that really differentiates us is our ability and willingness to collaborate with stakeholders in the market – customers, policy makers, trade associations and other vendors – to create solutions together. CCC is committed to copyright for the common good and works to create market-based solutions to preserve choice in the market. And, in many cases we have thoughtfully used our role as a convener with deep expertise in copyright and licensing to foster industry dialogue which has led to new solutions.
Examples of this include CCC’s work to convene stakeholders on text and data mining which led to numerous new market offerings from a variety of companies, including CCC’s XML for Mining. And, CCC’s work to convene stakeholders on the challenge in scientific publishing around universal access to content: anywhere, any device and anytime. Most recently, CCC has partnered with Outsell to convene stakeholders to discuss the massive transitions in the scholarly publishing ecosystem and to find common ground as the industry explores new business models, including transformative agreements.
What advice would you give to other female leaders to help their team to thrive?
The years I spent early in my career have had a tremendous influence on my leadership style. By starting in an entry-level role and working across various internal groups, I gained a unique perspective on what it takes to make a project successful from multiple angles. I learned how important it is to listen – to the customer and to the people around you. I would advise any other business leader to take the same approach – have a good understanding of how your teams operate, listen as closely to them as you do to your customer, and have a solid understanding of what people need to succeed.
What advice would you give to other female leaders about the best way to manage a large team?
Hire the best talent you can attract and, whenever possible, people who are more talented than you in their discipline. Communicate constantly, set clear goals, hold people accountable and learn to trust. To succeed in a large structure, you need to trust your team and delegate. Recognize that mandates do not work and that as CEO, there are very few levers you can move to actually effect change in your organization. It is your team, from your direct report to your front-line team members, who are the real influencers in your organization. Your job is to create a positive learning environment to foster growth in these team members which will ultimately result in growth in your bottom line.
Is there a particular person who helped get you to where you are?
One of the most important mentors in my career was the late Karen Hunter, a long-standing director on CCC’s Board. For more than 40 years Karen was an icon in the publishing industry. One of the first female Senior Vice Presidents at Elsevier, Karen was an innovative and collaborative leader and a trusted mentor for numerous women in scientific publishing. Through her pioneering roles as product, strategy and senior executive leader, she cleared a path for all women in the industry, for which I am forever grateful.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I think corporate social responsibility programs can be very effective. I also believe the annual holiday charity drive, while important, is insufficient. I believe in creating an environment where we can help foster individual social responsibility – making it easy for people to find an outlet for their time, money and in-kind contributions amid their very busy lives.
We are still working on developing a good cadence for our 12-month approach to this concept at CCC and have already created numerous opportunities to contribute both globally and locally – giving our employees choices and building on our theme of the power of individual action, which also applies in the work context.
For example, CCC team members can choose throughout the year to prepare and serve meals at a local shelter, contribute to our local hospice chapter with time, money or other donations, run in a charity race, including the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge, or donate to the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence or the American Himalayan Foundation. We have also run programs for children entering foster care and other children’s services organizations.
I’m particularly proud of our annual ‘We Not Me’ initiative, where 500 CCC team members in the US, UK, Spain, and Romania volunteer in more than 24 charitable organizations, ranging from those serving economically disadvantaged people, victims of domestic violence, and disabled persons to those working on local farming and supporting the environment.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the greatest good to the most people, what would that be?
During the annual Frankfurt Book Fair last October, I co-hosted an exclusive dinner bringing together women in publishing, as part of the PublisHer initiative, created by Bodour Al Qasimi, Vice President of the International Publishers Association (IPA) and Founding President of the Emirates Publishers Association. PublisHer is a call to action to develop a global agenda for coordinated efforts to tackle the publishing industry’s long-standing gender diversity and inclusion challenges. Its goal is to build a community of empowered women in the publishing and broader creative industries who share ideas and collaborate to seek creative solutions to current and future industry gender diversity and inclusion challenges.
Published here with thanks to Craig Sender, Director of Public Relations at CCC.