by Brian Nordli
July 23, 2018

The best advice IHS Markit Digital founder Catherine Allegra has ever received is to be a surfer in the face of change — to rise above the wave, pivot as needed and use the momentum to your advantage.

That advice has helped Allegra and the company expand from offering Wall Street updates via fax in 1991 to a financial services agency acquired by IHS Markit in 2010. We spoke to Allegra to learn more about her leadership style and what’s next for her company.     

 

IHS Markit hallway
Photography By Nick Cote
IHS Markit Kind words
Photography By Nick Cote
IHS Markit Sign
PHotography By Nick Cote

 

FOUNDED: 1991

EMPLOYEES: 480 total (400 local)

WHAT THEY DO: IHS Markit Digital is a digital agency within IHS Markit that specializes in financial services. They work with clients to develop digital strategies, build consumer experiences and drive advertising and marketing solutions.

WHERE THEY DO IT: Boulder

THE PERKS: The company offers a 401(k) matching program, a well-being account to pay for wellness-related expenses, commuter benefits and generous parental leave among other benefits. 

TEAM DYNAMICS: IHS Markit Digital operates within a flat organization in order to foster individual growth and company innovations. Learn more.

Catherine at work

Catherine Portrait

 

Catherine Allegra, Founder and Global Head

As co-leader of Markit Digital, Catherine Allegra shares a responsibility with all of her colleagues for client happiness and retention, which translates into sales, revenue and growth. 

BEYOND WORK: Catherine loves to read and has picked up leadership tips from biographies and other books along the way.

 

Tell us how your company got its start.

We were founded in 1991 when the disruptive technology at the time was that a computer was able to send a fax and as a result, a customer could order a fax using a touch-tone phone. We started as “Wall Street By Fax.” I mention it not to show how old I am but to show how the real disruptive business model is to give your clients exactly what they need and to not be distracted by what is most convenient for your firm.

 

Describe your leadership style.

I work to be kind, courageous and approachable. I am comfortable with conflict and believe that fairness and consistency don’t mean giving everyone the same thing but giving each person what they need.

I feel tremendous gratitude for our clients and my colleagues who have helped to build this business. That gratitude stays with me in every conversation and meeting. I am lucky to be leading a company that continues to grow after 27 years — from fax to dynamic video.

 

As your company has grown and merged, what was the biggest challenge you faced in that process? How did you overcome it?

Change is difficult. I have found that we want things to get better but stay the same. Growth, new ownership — it pushes us all in different ways. The best advice I received was, “If you can’t stop the waves, you need to learn to surf.” Who doesn’t want to be a surfer?

 

Change is difficult. The best advice I received was 'If you can't stop the waves, you need to learn to surf.' Who doesn't want to be a surfer?"

  

Describe your company culture. Did you foster this deliberately or did it happen organically?

Our company is all about culture. When we founded the company, I read about the Nordstrom return policy. They will accept any returns because they know that more than 90 percent of their customers follow the rules. You don’t make rules to protect the company from the small minority who take advantage of a situation, you make rules for the majority who give their all every day. When we started, the only rule I remember in our personnel policy was that you had to wear shoes.


Catherine looking at folder

Catherine meeting with employee

 

More on IHS Markit DigitalCan a flat org. structure foster individual growth? IHS Markit Digital says yes

 

Tell us about an action you took to foster your culture.

When I was COO, I was concerned that our internal teams were becoming siloed in their interactions. I created a daily meeting called the “2 p.m.”, which brought together representatives from each team. They would then give a two-minute update on what they were working on, or what their team was worried about.

It was an opportunity for employees to voice their concerns or challenges and feel heard. I could see the development of understanding and recognition spread among employees. To this day, we are a united team that cares about the same things and each other.

  

You started when there weren’t as many women leaders in the fintech space. What’s the biggest change you’ve noticed for women in the industry?

The biggest change is that people like yourself are even asking the question. The second biggest change is that before now the question was whether women could lead as well as men. I am hoping that eventually, we will move to whether men can lead as well as women.

 

Use empathy to work with your clients to understand and anticipate what they need to be successful."

  

What advice would you give women interested in becoming a leader in the tech industry?

Use empathy to work with your clients to understand and anticipate what they need to be successful. It seems obvious to say, “Think about what your customer wants,” but it is still pretty rare. When done well, it’s a real competitive advantage.

 

We understand leadership diversity is important to you. What advantages does a diverse leadership provide?

To understand the advantage of diversity, think about what the absence of diversity would look like. Everyone would have the same background, the same assumptions, the same ideas and make the same arguments. What is the likelihood that you will figure out the best solution if everyone thinks the same?

Using this argument, it is pretty clear that the differences among our team allow us to make two-plus-two equal five.

IHS Market's leadership team meets in the office

IHS Markit's engineering team sharing perspectives

 

What’s next for your company?

Handling all of the data and clients at the volume that we do is hard. It is kind of all-consuming. Now that we have largely accomplished that task, I see us moving from helping clients display relevant data to helping them create more productive tools and advice.

 

The only way that we are going to push ourselves to this next level is if we don’t rest on our laurels."

 

How will you take that next step?

Right now, we’re able to display accurate data on a client’s website and ensure the site runs fast and appears attractive. Moving forward, we need to become a little dissatisfied with our software and try to anticipate our end user’s next question.

It all goes back to the empathy. We need to understand our client’s needs and our end-users' needs when they’re using our applications. The only way that we are going to push ourselves to this next level is if we don’t rest on our laurels.

 

More on IHS Markit DigitalCan a flat org. structure foster individual growth? IHS Markit Digital says yes

 

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