Claude Grunitzky

Syndicate Group 4

Tubagus Rizaldy 29319061

Zaenab Fitriyah 29320025
Dhanar Prayoga 29320039
Daniswara Rizky Nugroho 29320058
Alloysius Wicaksono 29320117
Adhimas Aulia Muhammad 29320164
Adli Rafdi Annas 29320227
 01 02
TABLE OF THE WHO Founding
CONTENTS Phase

03 04
Networking & New York &
Relationship Expanding

05 06
The Growing Equity
Pains Alliances
01 The
Who
 The WHO
Claude Grunitzky is an
Togolese-French-American that achieved
success in magazine and advertising
industries.

Born in the respected family did not make

Grunitzky be a spoiled child, traditional
African values such as discipline and respect
are highly valued in his family.

In his youth, he has experienced live in

multicultural environment, as well as
mono-cultural environment.

Experiencing many types of cultural

environment taught him how to interact with
many types of people in his later days.
02
Founding
Phase
 Founding Phase
- Took classes on French leading university, Grunitzky has a passion for culture and
music, especially Hip-hop
- Transferred to London University because he felt that a lot of cultural insights
were coming from the English-speaking world. He really enjoyed writing then began
to think about becoming a journalist and writing about Hip-hop.
- Grunitzky reached out to Jefferson Hack, who’s the founder of a magazine called
Dazed and Confused, and work for him for free as a trainee.
- The job gave Grunitzky opportunities to further develop his network, adding music
performers, their managers, club managers, and fashion models.
- Soon Grunitzky was writing an article per month for Dazed and Confused, a weekly
column in the Big Issue, and occasional freelance articles for the Guardian and a
French arts and culture magazine called Actuel. As he began to make money for the
first time in his life,
03 Networking &
Relationships
 Networking and Relationships at Trace
- Grunitzky co-founded the magazine True with his cousin and asked Hack to
provide them with a free office space after working for him for free for
the last two years. However, True magazine only lasts for a year due to
the growing disagreement between him and his cousin.
- Reflecting on their disagreement, he later learned that he did not manage
the de-escalation very well and admitted that he lacks the people skills.
- He later founded the magazine Trace and determined that it is essential
for him to identify new talent early to be featured on his magazine.
- Grunitzky also felt that he need to be constantly in touch with his
network, and to accommodate the effort, he built a system for managing his
network.
 Networking and Relationships at Trace
- He determined that the first meeting is crucial and always made sure to
follow up with every new people he met.
- Grunitzky always tried to meet face-to-face with people he determined
important each month.
- To keep the interaction with people on his least important list, he tried
to give them birthday cards and occasionally invite them to parties.
- As his network grows over time, he utilizes email and cell phones to keep
in touch with people on his list.
- Grunitzky did not hesitate to cut a tie with his network who did not
return the favor, as such action would significantly affect the
relationship he builds.
04 NY &
Promoting Trace
Parties
Moving to New York
● Grunitzky moved to New York and brought some of
the trace team with him.
● A year after moved to New York, Trace was on the
verge bankruptcy.
● To improve the financial performance of Trace
magazine, Grunitzky plans to make an agreement
with RZA (a founder of the group Wu-Tang Clan)
with the aim of investing in his company.
● Grunitzky meets Hardison. He believes that
Hardison can help trace magazine.
● Hardison introduced Grunitzky to Iman and Sylvia
Rhone. These three people are the people who
helped Grunitzky in saving Trace magazine.
 Promoting Trace
Parties
Below are the steps Grunitzky do for promoting Trace magazine:

● For help Trace magazine’s New York launch party, Grunitzky

turned to Jon Baker for invite people (Baker’s database) to
the launch party.
● The parties were important because it was how we would drum
up new advertisers and how we represented the brand.
● To bring in a new mix of people, Grunitzky allowed most of
his guests to bring one additional guest
● Grunitzky made alicia keys into the cover of trace magazine.
This can be predicted to increase the prestige of the
magazine so that many people trying to get the magazine
include Richard Wayner (who will later become a business
partner of Grunitzky.
05 Grunitzky’s
Businesses
Expansions
Expanding the Trace Business
● Richard Wayner, the VP at Goldman Sachs, took interest in Grunitzky, and soon talked about
going into business together.
● In February 2002, Wyaner, Grunitzky, and Olivier Laouchez -a television expert- formed Alliance
Trace Media, which consisted of Trace magazine and television. The new company sought funding
from Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group (UIG).
● In early 2003, they received $15 million in funding from Goldman Sachs, in exchange for just
over 50% in equity in Alliance Trace Media.
● Alliance Trace Media then acquired MCM Africa, which operates in European and African market,
and rebranded it as Trace TV.
● Then, Grunitzky pivoted Trace from being “Urban” magazine into “Transculturalism”, in order to
put Trace back into their core identity.
● Grunitzky further developed his ideas in a book titled Transculturalism: How the world is
coming together, essays, analyses, personal tales and optimistic views of the future.
Launching Another Business
● In addition to media business, Grunitzky also started consulting business with Wayner. In April
2002, they formed True Agency.
● Just after a few months, True Agency won $10 million account from Nissan North America, in
exchange for handling its African-American and ethnic advertising.
● True Agency quickly hired 20 people, and soon became much larger than the Trace Magazine.
● The success of Grunitzky can be explained by his social skills. One of his business partner
mentioned that “..Grunitzky is big on making real connections..”, and “..he had a folder of the
most influential people in the city in different industries”
● Between 2002 and 2008, True Agency landed on many new accounts, including major brands such as
Hilton Hotels and Target Corporation
Exploring New Frontiers
● Grunitzky operates three businesses in New York, Los Angeles, and Paris.
● Grunitzky became more corporate, he transitioned and learned from Richard to become a
professional person.
● Grunitzky is a person who is good at conquering big and difficult clients and his ideas are
very meaningful.
● Grunitzky has a 24/7 lifestyle, always going out and networking. Grunitzky has a wide network,
happy to entertain important and prominent people to build relationships from various circles.
Grunitzky is connected to black intellectuals with Paris, Africa, Brazil, the gay world, the
creative world and Wall Street. Grunitzky was invited to join the Le Siecle club, where there
are the most influential leaders in French media, politics and business.
● Grunitzky aims to be strong and established to have greater influence to change society in a
greater way to reduce racism and stereotypes, promote open-mindedness.
● Grunitzky expanded its network by reaching elite circles through social media, namely Facebook
and LinkedIn. Grunitzky spends 2-3 hours every day on social media networks and replies to
everything he receives. The sequence of responses ranged from friends and family to business
associates to friends of friends to casual acquaintances and strangers.
● Grunitzky only discloses information related to business, culture, impressions and opinions on
social media. Don't reveal personal things.
06 Growing Pains
& Transition
Growing Pains
CG Changing at a personal level
- Running three different companies :
- Felt he was becoming more corporate, more a businessman than an editor
- Significant amount of time travelling
- His presence was very solicited :
- "the lead executive at the account wants to see me in the room”
- “Not every idea was mine, but my opinion mattered a lot.
- Lifestyle change led to divorce

Divide with the magazine’

- Gap formed as CG was making more money and distance with employees at Trace
Power
- Invited to Siècle (French elite club), and World Economic forum
- Wanted to use power to “to have more influence to change society in a bigger way, to
reduce
racism and stereotypes, promote open-mindedness.”
“As the company grew, we became
more corporate because we had
to. We lost the feel of the
early days, which was all about
experimentation and just trying
the most outlandish things,
which had served us well. And
when we became more
traditional, we stalled.”
The Transitions
By 2007, Trace magazine circulation had fallen to 20,000 issues.
Grunitzky began to think about life after the Trace businesses.

Goldman Sachs, which had invested in 2003 with a plan to exit in five years, was also
looking to get out. However, the economy crashed at the end of 2008 and within a few
months many major clients had pulled their accounts from True.

Grunitzky did not foresee a quick turnaround, so he had to layoff nearly the entire
True staff and close the office. Grunitzky continued doing some consulting on his
own under the True banner while Wayner returned to Wall Street. Goldman held onto
Trace TV and the Trace brand as there were few buyers, but in July 2010, Goldman
finally sold both and dissolved
07 Equity
Alliances
2021: The Equity Alliance
- In January 2021, Grunitzky partnered with Richard
Parson and several others to establish Equity
Alliance, an investment fund with main goals to
democratize access to capital, especially for the
people of color.
- The partners see a convergence in systemic
inequality based on the recent racial justice
movement and ongoing pandemic.
- Worldwide asset management is currently valued at
US$ 70 Trillion and the men and women of colors
only represent 1.3% of them. Through Equity
Alliance, Grunitzky and his partners are seeking to
increase this figure as they believed that this
year is the right momentum to achieve the goals.
 THANKS
Does anyone have any
questions?