Partnerships
As we close the year and look ahead to 2026 Outsell (and I) extend gratitude and appreciation for a 20-year partnership with David Worlock. Thank you, David!
It’s often said that partnerships in business are the hardest to execute. We’ve written about types of partnerships and shared practices among leaders in our CEO Network about how to execute them well. Sometimes the good ones evolve organically and like a garden, are simply tended. They require work and are a labor of love with outcomes that bloom beyond anything imagined.
And so it is this last blog of the year that I thank David Worlock for our long-lasting partnership.
We met moons ago at various conferences and throughout our industry travels. In 2006, after realizing his clients were taking him to the US for coverage and expansion; ours were taking us across the pond for the same thing.
We had little overlap in clients, shared expansion interests, and passion for the information industry and its continued evolution at the hands of technological change. And so, our two firms came together, one acquiring the other, a merger of values, and possibility that 20 years later we celebrate today.
David has worked with Outsell, and me, in various capacities every year since. Long ago he went from colleague to partner to friend. We’ve watched our families grow, grandchildren arrive, and the continuous ebb and flow of change in this industry that today renders it unrecognizable from where we began. We chronicled these changes from our various perspectives — me the Silicon Valley native, and he a farmer’s son to world traveler, publishing leader, consultant, advisor, and thought-leader. He worked in regions around the world that I had only dreamt of.
David leaves us this week as a formal affiliate. Celebrating a milestone birthday, and 20 years together, we decided it was a great time to call it a great run. And a great run it was. We had a leaving-do alongside the Outsell CEO Summit in October and celebrated 20 wonderful years.
This week as we reflected on what’s ahead and what we’ve done together. We spoke about why our partnership lasted.
· Shared values.
· A commitment to each other’s success.
· Trust
· So much more….
Our differences were complimentary. We benefitted from eyes, ears, and experiences in different geographies. He loved to analyze ideas, be a futurist. I needed that when I had to focus on operating matters and the commercial and fiduciary needs of running a business.
He is fearless when meeting new people, inserting himself into new environments. I am more of an introvert. He hailed from publishing with deep experience in scholarly communications, and education. My roots are in B2B, research and advisory, and vertical database businesses.
We shared a love for the Outsell CEO Network and bringing our communities together across regions and sectors as the internet became the great equalizer. We would program Outsell events together. He’d be a sounding board when I needed an advisor and benefited from his thought leadership.
We could spar about direction of travel in our industry and each year we’d renew our working relationship, look at the needs of the business, and sign on for another year. And onward we would go. Until 20 years later we looked up and realized what a great accomplishment — 20 years of partnership.
How many companies can say they came together, and the two founders are still partners and working together 20 years later? And we are proud of that. Because good partnerships are made from shared values, trust, respect for differences and moreso finding the contribution in them. They are founded in looking out for one another. They are built over breaking bread, on video and managing by telephone (disembodied voices David used to call it.) And always, flights across the pond for that (F2F) glue.
And so, as David leaves us after 20 years, we agreed we’d continue to stay in touch and connect when needed. This isn’t goodbye. It’s a new hello. We have ideas to share, laughs to have, and more industry moves to chronicle. The fun continues in a new way and in new form. Thank you, David!
Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season filled with joy, love, and countless blessings. May your 2026 be merry and bright.
Outsell will be closed from December 24 thru January 2 and back on the 5th. I’ll see you here on Friday the 9th.