The Collegian

Media Credit: Rolondo Davis Former President of BET Jefferi K. Lee speaking with an SC State business student after the Executive Speaker Series on Feb 3. [Click to enlarge]

Former President of BET Jefferi K. Lee says BET needed to distinguish between its audience and its customers and focus on satisfying the latter. Lee was the president and CEO of BET when it started in 1980 and is now the president/CEO of Bio-Defense Group Inc in Coloumbia, Maryland.

Lee explained that BET’s audience is an entirely different entity from its customers. “People complain about our offerings, but those persons are not our customers,” he said. “The average viewer does not write a check and mail it to us. Our customers are the Cable Operators and our Advertisers. Understanding the difference between the two is critical.” As a result the former president explained that programming had to be designed to capture the market that its advertisers wanted and the numbers cable operators wanted.

Lee made this important distinction at SC State’s weekly Executive Speaker Series on Feb 3. In his speech entitled “Proven strategies to gaining market share,” Lee also recommended this strategic approach to aspiring entrepreneurs as well as student’s as it pertains to their academic success. “Small businesses in America stay small because the entrepreneurs never decide who their real customers are and how to expand their customer base. You must also know what your employer wants,” he continued. “If you can show that you know what the employer’s business is about in an interview, you are likely to get the job.”

The audience was mainly comprised of students from the college of business and applied professional sciences. To this group he asked, “What do you want to do in business? What drives you? Do you have a life blueprint or are you just going through the motions? ” He explained that aspiring towards being in marketing, management or any other field is not an “end.” “Where are you going with this,” he said. “A diploma tells me you know how to learn…stop. A look at your GPA tells me how committed you are to learning.” He went on to say that someone with a 3.5 GPA shows a commitment to learning in contrast to someone with a 2.5. “With a 2.5, you know how to learn, but in the interview you will have to convince me that you are committed to learning. Here is the reality, In May, China will graduate more honor students than the total number of students graduating in the United States regardless of GPA. No longer are you competing with people in South Carolina; forget Clemson, you are not competing against them. You must make yourself stand out; how are you different?”

BET, he said, started when founder Bob Johnson took only $15,000 of his own money as well as another $500,000 he borrowed from John Malone. Johnson later sold the company for $3 billion dollars 18 years later. With that said, Lee advised students that obstacles will come in their way but they must stay focused and keep their eyes on the prize.

Article Tools