Likewise, there is no room for a marginal teacher. Build a scaffold for employees to reach the highest mark.
“If you just raise the bar it doesn't mean people are going to jump higher.”
A glut of information can make a school or company data-rich and information-poor. Ask the right question, and then turn to the data for the answer. Don’t look at the numbers and ask what do they mean?
Did you know?
Howard was principal of Jefferson County High in small-town Louisville, Ga. where 80% of students live in poverty. Eliminated remedial courses.
Kept the phone numbers of habitually late or absent students on her bedroom mirror and phoned them in the morning. She sometimes went to their homes to get them out of bed to take tests.
Recommends that business leaders read books by education guru Michael Fullan.
She’s now superintendent.
Innovate or die
— Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric CEO 2000-17 on R&D spending in a slow economy
Talk to your sales force. They’ll tell you that it’s easier to sell great products.
The way to grow is through innovation.
“It’s not just a nice-to-do, but a real priority.”
Great technology is the way to protect profit margins.
Get customer inputs early on to introduce complex technologies faster and with higher quality.
Know how to hit singles. Home runs like hydrogen fuel cells, molecular imaging and nanotechnology take a long time. Introduce technologies with a variety of cycle times. Work on the next generation and implement the current generation at the same time.
“Get out of balance and get broken.”
Expect failures.
Move some R&D offshore to get broad exposure to ideas, to talent, to growth and to markets. Utilize every global brain you can find.
Don’t try to grow a company outside the U.S. and have all of your products designed inside.
Did you know?
Immelt earned a degree in applied mathematics at Dartmouth, where he played football. Harvard MBA.
Jack Welch hand-picked him from a stable of contenders, including James McNerney (who became CEO at 3M and Boeing) and Robert Nardelli (Home Depot and Chrysler).
Immelt’s father worked at GE for 38 years.
GE under-performed and in 2018 became the last of the original 19th-century companies to be dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
The ugly American
— Kazuo Inamori, Kyocera founder on anti-U.S. sentiment
Foreigners dislike the USA because it is dominant militarily. America is feared.
The stronger America and its companies become, the more humble they must be.
Anti-American sentiment doesn’t come from Islam. It stems from poverty, not religion.
U.S. business leaders should help people in other parts of the world – for the sake of humanity.
“Humble behavior is required.”
U.S. leaders are skilled. They are creative and ingenious in finding new ways to run a business. They are dedicated, both physically and spiritually, to the management of their companies.
Pay for performance is good, executive greed is not.
CEO pay tempts character. If U.S executive compensation were lower, more scandals would be avoided. Share corporate profits with directors, officers, general managers, department heads and tens of thousands of other employees.
When a performance-based compensation system boosts motivation to work harder, it is a good system.
“In the past, the Japanese were hard-working. In my opinion, U.S. leaders now work harder.”
Spend 30 minutes to one hour each day reading philosophy or religion. Walk in a righteous direction.
Talents can drive away wonderful personalities. The proverb, "A genius drowns in his talents," warns of that. Talent needs to be exercised with character and integrity.
Did you know?
Inamori was born to a poor family in Kagoshima City, Japan. Founded Kyoto Ceramic in 1959. Founded DDI, Japan's second-largest telecommunications company, in 1984.
At 77, he became CEO of Japan Airlines when it entered bankruptcy protection. Led it to re-listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Entered Buddhist priesthood in 1997 at the Enpuku-ji temple in Kyoto. Received Buddhist name Daiwa, meaning Big Harmony.
Target the audience
— Tom Joyner, radio host on the African-American market
African-Americans spend $1.2 trillion a year. Capture it.
Don't try to catch African-American consumers with a broad net. Target them unashamedly.
Ebony magazine convinced advertisers to use black models in print ads 50 years ago. Generations remain loyal to those brands.
Southwest Airlines recognized Black History Month at their gates. Royal Caribbean sponsored cruises. Upscale African-Americans respond to targeted advertising.
Car dealerships have radio ads enticing African-Americans with bad credit. That doesn’t offend them because they believe they’ve been discriminated against by zip code.
“We face redlining and profiling. You need a car and you ain’t got no credit. Waive the credit check. No one else will.”
Commercials that portray black women as sassy and black men greet each other with “Whassup?” are not offensive. They are not the modern-day equivalent of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben. McDonald’s didn’t cross a line when they had African-Americans say, “I’d hit it,” which suggested in hip-hop slang that they’d make love to a double cheeseburger.
“Pop culture is not the same as Hambone and ‘Yessir, boss, try my biscuits.’"
Target the Hispanic market similarly.
Did you know?
Joyner is a vegetarian. Keeps his age a secret.
Father was a Tuskegee Airman.
Earned the nickname "The Fly Jock" when he flew between a morning job in Dallas and an afternoon job in Chicago from 1986 to 1993.
“A celebrity is somebody who sleeps late. I’m well known, but I get up too early to be a celebrity.”
Hit me
— Bill Kaplan, blackjack card counter on applying 21 to everyday business
Seek opportunity and disequilibrium in the marketplace. Manage and mitigate risk, generate long-run returns without being beat by short-term swings.
Pool capital and people. Little can be done with one person and a small amount of money.
Change strategies as conditions evolve.
“We hit casinos when they first opened, when they were still figuring out how to run things.”
Tech companies burnt through millions and went broke, even though they had a business model that worked. If you bet $500,000 a hand, even with a 1% advantage, you get wiped out if you lose one or two hands in the short run. The variance killed dot-com companies.
Understand things from the investors' perspective. Give players a significant stake in the outcome.
Unnecessary risk was taken in the subprime mortgage debacle because they were playing with someone else's money.
If it’s a cash business, run revenue through a simulation to see if it’s within one or two standard deviations. That exposes thieves. Hire the right people, train them, motivate them, provide incentives.
Build a team culture.
Did you know?
Kaplan trained more than 100 students in card counting and won $10 million over 15 years as coach of the MIT Blackjack Team.
Made famous by the 2008 movie 21 starring Kevin Spacey.
Gave up blackjack for real estate.
Leadership is exhausting
— Ewald Kist, ING CEO 2000-04 on the importance of physical fitness
Trim executives run trim companies.
The business world requires endurance. Get physically fit to be mentally fit.
Sports do something to you,
especially team sports and extreme sports.
“Sports taught me to do the extra mile.”
Too busy? Leaders know how to plan, so make time. Make exercise an addiction.
Don’t carry a phone when exercising. You won’t miss anything important.
Nudge others at your company to get fit.
“If I see someone who is too fat, I will say something. People know, but they need a little pressure.”
Exercise in solitude to problem solve. Think about complicated issues.
Eat fruit.
Work hard, but don’t be a workaholic. Come to work refreshed on Monday.
Run in the evening to refresh your mind.
“I live on the beach in The Hague in Holland. They have fantastic dunes that I run.”
Expect to slow down with age, but don’t stop.
Run when traveling. Run worldwide. Every culture’s accustomed to seeing runners.
Did you know?
Kist played for Holland on the 1968 Olympic field hockey team.
Took up marathon running at age 45. Skated in the 11-Cities Tour, a 124-mile, all-day skating race over lakes and canals in Holland.
His father was a Supreme Court judge in the Netherlands.
Should we lead like George Patton or Mr. Rogers?
— A.G. Lafley, Procter & Gamble CEO 2000-10 on being an effective boss
Self-sacrifice is huge. You can't do the job unless you're willing to put the greater good first. You pay for it in your personal life, in your family life. Some people pay for it in their health. Put the company and others ahead of personal aspirations.
Be demanding of others, but don’t be mean-spirited. Use language less colorful than Patton’s. Don’t carry a riding whip.
“I’m not wearing my cardigan sweater today, but I certainly would never be confused with Patton.”
Be like King Henry V in Shakespeare. He stayed up all night and walked and talked with his troops before they went into action the next day. Care about people, even those who fail.
By all means, manage by walking around – but be on time for meetings.
Hold people accountable. If they fall way short, it can be the end of their career at your company. They have to decide what they're going to do next.
“All failure is learning.”
Mistakes – yours and others – should come early, fast and cheap, not after billions of dollars are invested.
Lead with your head and your heart. If you lead with heart only, you'll make bad decisions because emotions will fool you. If you lead with head only, you may be abandoned by your team in really tough circumstances.
CEOs make two kinds of decisions. (1) Big decisions that aren't difficult. They are blazingly clear. (2) Decisions that have no good solution. They are dilemmas and can't be solved. These must be managed.
What separates talented people is the courage to make the really hard call. Some calls are tough because they are hard to figure out. Others are tough because they entail short-term sacrifice.
It's human nature to avoid hard decisions. Leaders buck human nature.
Some of the strongest, most courageous people are on the minority side of a decision. Listen to those who have the courage to speak.
At meetings, before listening to solutions, make sure everyone has a clear definition of the problem. Hold off on advocacy until all possible solutions are on the table. Sort through the options. Then, and only then, let people advocate.
People who rise have uncompromising integrity both in the moral sense, and in the sense of thinking with integrity and acting with integrity.
The best think with discipline and honesty. They come to grips with reality, and bring incredible integrity to the decision and the action.
“Sort through flattery, through politics, and see things as they are.”
Some decisions take a minute, some weeks or months. Avoid the tendency to create crises that don't exist.
If you’re highly compensated be generous. Don’t be ostentatious. No yachts. No trophy cars. Be boring, like Mr. Rogers.
Leaders aren’t born, they are clearly made. Choose to lead. Choose to make a difference, to make the world better in some meaningful way. Until that choice is made, you are a lump of clay.
Did you know?
Lafley collects baseball cards, comic books and rock 'n' roll vinyl records.
Named one of America's Best Leaders by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Take a stand or get run over
— Edward Liddy, Allstate CEO 1999-2008 on lobbying congress
Formulate a point of view that's good for your company, your customers.
Work with Democrats and Republicans.
Public stands cause controversy, but you can’t always be neutral. Choose positions carefully, but be politically active to advance certain things.
The risk of boycotts and other backlash is often less than the risk of doing nothing. Don't put the banner in your hands and lead the charge, but sometimes you have to take a side.
Don’t fear lawsuits. Rely on the ballot box – and the jury box.
The meter is pretty expensive when it's running on lawsuits. Settle sometimes. Other times, settlements will give rise to a thousand more suits. In that case litigate. Don’t be known by lawyers as a soft company.
Regulation is not free. Side airbags save lives, but consumers may not want to pay for it. Make some cars with side airbags, some without. Educate the public, let it know the risk. Then, let consumers decide.
Pressure Congress to limit punitive damages. It's better to remove a bad doctor than to drive up insurance bills that are passed on to consumers.
Seal evidence in a settled lawsuit, not to cover up a harmful product, but because the company never had a chance at rebuttal. Don’t seal to hide things, but to keep untruths from going public.
“It’s like a divorce proceeding. Anyone can say anything they want in a lawsuit, whether it’s grounded in fact or not.”
There will always be frivolous lawsuits in America. It’s cultural.
The public has a reason to mistrust big organizations. WorldCom and Enron cost people billions of dollars.
Do your job right. Bring about a more wholesome view of business. The American capitalist system is the envy of and the engine of growth around the world. Keep it that way.
“I have a son in college. If he tells people that his dad is the CEO of Allstate, they look at him like he’s some sort of crook.”
Did you know?
Liddy chaired the Business Roundtable's Civil Justice Reform Task Force that lobbied for a 2005 law that sent most class-action lawsuits into federal courts. It was regarded as a victory for business, as was a bankruptcy bill that made it more difficult for consumers to avoid paying debt.
Cleaning up the mess
— Peter Löscher, Siemens CEO 2007-13 on taking over an unethical company accused of bribery
Decisions to act unethically and illegally destroy the lives of thousands of honest, hard-working employees. Many fall hard when leaders abdicate their responsibility.
New leadership must make things right in the shortest time possible.
Fire former executives. Bring in your own team.
Stick to principles. Be a trusted role model with absolute clarity.
“Anyone who has ever sailed knows that there is only one true north.”
Win in the marketplace, not by cheating, but by out-innovating competitors.
True leaders have a set of core values they commit to and live by in good times and bad.
True leaders don’t go with the tide.
“Beware of the phrase: ‘Don’t worry, we can get away with it because everybody does.’ The most dangerous words in business are, ‘Everybody does it.’”
Different countries abide by different ru
les. But ethics apply universally. In Spain, the U.S., Japan and Germany, the most successful businesses are the most ethical.
Never waste a good crisis. Bad times give license for wholesale change. Use it to transform the company. Change the culture.
Be born into a family with ethical parents guided by a moral compass. Stress the values of hard work, fairness, trust and a sense of belonging.
There is no conflict between success and ethics. The only guarantee for a good life is to live as a good person.
Did you know?
Löscher was hired as CEO of Siemens to clean up a global scandal that cost the company a record $1.34 billion in fines for paying bribes and kickbacks to secure contracts worldwide.
Graduated from Gymnasium Villach, Austria in 1978; master's degree at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Attended MBA program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Speaks German, English, French, Spanish, and Japanese.
When you’re let go at 39
— Ronnie Lott, NFL Hall-of-Famer on making life’s transitions
Retiring athletes ask: “What can I do? What should I do?” The hard part is stepping into the unknown of a new game.
It's the same with everyone making a transition. Challenges can be overwhelming and can cripple. Move forward. Know that you have to invest a lot of energy and time to achieve.
Don’t let insecurity keep you sidelined. Maybe you’ll get belittled for being dumb. Get over those fears. That's very difficult to execute, but do it anyway.
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