Senior VP of AOL shares his secrets of success

You won’t get to New York without going to Philadelphia first.

2000-11-28 - That’s Fred Singer’s way of saying keep your options open. Singer – BCom'85 and Senior Vice President of America Online – told a recent gathering of Queen’s Bachelor of Commerce and MBA for Science & Technology (MBAst) students that taking risks and keeping your options open are critical to success.

As a testament to this, Singer told students about the risks that he has taken throughout his career. After completing his Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Law degrees at Queen’s, Singer did not take the safe and regular route into law practice. Instead, alone in his class, he took a risk and joined a Dotcom startup.

Along with risk taking, Singer spoke about the need to embrace and lead change, punctuating his story with examples from his experience. “You never know where you’re going to end up,” says Singer. “The only thing that remains constant is change.” For example, since becoming an AOL executive in 1996, he has reported to 10 different people and has been located in eight different offices.

Singer has translated this ability to adapt into success for AOL.. Focusing on the launch of Netscape Netbusiness for much of the past year, he has reinvented his unit’s business plan every two or three weeks. To stay on top, AOL has to constantly adjust to changing market demands.

Singer points out that just five years ago the Internet was unknown to consumers and online services were for nerds. Today, Dotcom is a household word. He cites an AOL/Roper Starch Cyberstudy that found that 60 per cent of those surveyed believe every room in their house will be wired within 10 years.

“People can’t shop all day, but they can communicate all day,” says Singer. “The Internet is basic for the generation growing up today. It’s like TV and telephones were for my generation.”