1. They have no idea who he is and have probably never heard of him at all, OR
2. they’re well aware of his many accomplishments, his major impact on the business community and are more than familiar with the majority of his 39 best-selling books.

Many books have also been written about Peter Drucker. One of the most recent is titled A Class with Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the World’s Greatest Management Teacher. Author William A. Cohen is a graduate of Drucker’s executive Ph.D. program in management at Claremont Graduate University. In the bibliography of this book, Cohen references an article we wrote for our AchieveMax® newsletter on the subject of MBWA (Management By Wandering Around).  If you’d like to review that article you can do so at ”Does MBWA (Management By Wandering Around) Still Work?” We’re certainly honored to be mentioned in a book associated with the man known as “The Father of Modern Management.”

For those of you who may not be familiar with Peter F. Drucker, let’s take a closer look.

• Peter Ferdinand Drucker was a writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.”
• He was arguably one of the most influential management theorists in the world.
• Drucker’s 39 books have been translated into more than 30 languages.
• He made eight series of educational films on management topics.
• He also penned a regular column in The Wall Street Journal for 20 years and contributed frequently to the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Economist.
• He also explored how humans are organized across all sectors of society—in business, government and the nonprofit world.
• His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late 20th century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to economic world power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning.
• In 1959, Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” and later in his life considered knowledge work productivity to be the next frontier of management.
• During his long consulting career, Drucker worked with many major corporations, including General Electric, Coca-Cola, Citicorp, IBM, and Intel.
• He also consulted with notable business leaders such as GE’s Jack Welch; Procter & Gamble’s A.G. Lafley; Intel’s Andy Grove, Edward Jones’ John Bachmann; Shoichiro Toyoda, the honorary chairman of Toyota Motor Corp.; and Masatoshi Ito, the honorary chairman of the Ito-Yokado Group, the second largest retailing organization in the world.
• Drucker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President George W. Bush on July 9, 2002. He also received honors from the governments of Japan and Austria.
• He continued to act as a consultant to businesses and non-profit organizations well into his nineties. Drucker died November 11, 2005, in Claremont, California, of natural causes at 95.

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

New Drucker Book References AchieveMax® Article is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

Although he died 20 years ago, he continues to inspire people worldwide with his timeless wisdom and unusual ability to communicate and captivate audiences of all ages.

Earl Nightingale was on the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the war Nightingale began work in the radio industry, which eventually led to work as a motivational speaker. In 1956 he produced a spoken-word record, The Strangest Secret, which sold over a million copies, making it the first spoken-word recording to achieve Gold Record status.

The combination of his extraordinarily distinctive voice and his powerful life-changing story continues to inspire listeners everywhere. About this time, Earl met a successful businessman by the name of Lloyd Conant, and together they began an “electronic publishing” company which eventually grew to become a multi-million dollar giant in the self-improvement field. They also developed a syndicated, 5-minute daily radio program, Our Changing World, which became the longest-running, most widely syndicated show in radio.

The following link will take you to a Google site where you can experience this mesmerizing voice and inspiring message. The video is more like a still photograph, but you’ll certainly appreciate the voice and message. It takes 31 minutes and 35 seconds to hear the entire piece, but you can at least sample this rare classic to understand its long-lasting attraction.

It appears that Earl was destined for greatness at a very early age. His childhood challenges led him to adult greatness, enlightenment, and success. As a Depression-era child, Earl Nightingale was hungry for knowledge. From the time he was a young boy, he would frequent the Long Beach Public Library in California, searching for the answer to the question, “How can a person, starting from scratch, who has no particular advantage in the world, reach the goals that he feels are important to him, and by so doing, make a major contribution to others?” His desire to find an answer, coupled with his natural curiosity about the world and its workings spurred him to become one of the world’s foremost experts on success and what makes people successful.

After the war, Earl went to work for KTAR in Phoenix. Radio was in its “hay day,” and with Earl’s talent, it wasn’t long before he moved to where the heart of the action was—Chicago, Illinois. Offered jobs at both NBC and CBS, he went to work for CBS, where he quickly became a legendary icon to kids across the nation, as the voice of radio hero, Sky King. When he wasn’t flying through the sky in his airplane, The Songbird, or riding off on his horse to round up the bad guys, Earl was busy writing and broadcasting his daily radio, and later, television show, from the broadcast stations in the Windy City.

Later, expanding his horizon, Earl bought a small Franklin Life Insurance agency, where each Saturday morning, he would give little pep talks to the salesmen, hoping to inspire and motivate them to be the best salesmen they could be.

One day, Earl told his office manager that he planned to take a fishing vacation and would be away for a few weeks. Because the salesmen relied so heavily on their weekly pep talks from Earl, the manager expressed concern that sales would drop during Earl’s absence. Earl came up with the idea to record something that could be played while he was gone.

Earl thought about what he might write, and turned the question over and over again in his mind. Then, one night, a short time later, he woke up and knew exactly what he wanted to say. He got up, went to his typewriter and wrote a short message. The next morning, he recorded the message and pressed it on a record. The message contained the most valuable information Earl had ever learned—a conclusion of truth that he had searched for and found in every book he’d ever read since he was a child of nine. Of course, he hadn’t recognized this … truth, during those long years of self-education, because he had been looking for something else—the answer to the question he had asked his mother when he was little, why they were so poor, and what made people turn out the way they do.

His enlightenment had come when he was 29, while working at CBS. He happened to be reading, Think and Grow Rich, when he read the words, “we become what we think about.” Suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, he realized that he had been reading the same truth over and over again, from the New Testament, in the sayings of Buddha, in the writings of Lao Tse, to the works of Emerson. “We become what we think about.” “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”

So, it was from this enlightenment that Earl wrote his classic, The Strangest Secret. He said he called it that, because of the irony of it all—that this truth of why we become, whatever it is we become, is no “secret” at all, and therefore, it’s “strange” that we don’t all know about it!

Earl gave the recording to his manager and left on his fishing trip. When he returned, he was amazed at the reaction to the message. Everyone who had heard the record, wanted one for themselves. Earl pressed more records for the salesmen. The salesmen played it, not only for themselves, but for their families and friends, and when the others heard it, they wanted one too.

The Strangest Secret went on to receive a Gold Record—the only recording of its kind to ever go Gold.

Meanwhile, Earl Nightingale’s success as a radio and later television personality continued to grow, as did the demand for him as a speaker. Earl’s radio program, Our Changing World, became the most highly syndicated radio program ever, and was heard across the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, South Africa, the Bahamas, 23 countries overseas, as well as the Armed Forces Network.

In 1985, Earl was inducted into The Association of National Broadcasters, Radio Hall of Fame.

During his lifetime, Earl Nightingale wrote and recorded over 7,000 radio programs, 250 audio programs as well as television programs and videos.

In the mid-eighties, Earl wrote his first book, Earl Nightingale’s Greatest Discovery for which he received the Napoleon Hill Gold Medal for Literary Excellency.

Today, Earl Nightingale is remembered as the greatest philosopher of his time, and his best-selling programs and books continue to sell daily, and inspire new generations around the world, to reach their highest potential.

Here are some examples of Earl’s wisdom that will live on for decades to come:

• The mind moves in the direction of our currently dominant thoughts.
• We become what we think about.
• We tend to live up to our expectations.
• The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for somebody else. Job Security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember: Jobs are owned by the company, you own your career.
• Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.
• You are, at this moment, standing, right in the middle of your own “acres of diamonds.”
• Everything in the world we want to do or get done, we must do with and through people.
• People are where they are because that is exactly where they really want to be—whether they will admit that or not.

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Leadership Training or Leadership Keynote Presentation Information Leadership Boot Camp Leadership Training Modules Leadership Keynote Presentation Topics Leadership Speakers and Leadership Training Leadership Articles Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders and Businesses (Category contains many articles on leaders) Generational Gems for Future Leaders (Category contains many articles on leadership) Words of Wisdom on Leadership Leadership Lessons We MUST Pass On A Beacon of Leadership Dire Need for Leadership Middle-Management Crisis Escalates Today's Invisible Leadership Challenge Leadership Messages Seldom Change Engagement + Execution = EDGE (E + E = E) Leadership Books and Leadership Posters Leadership Book Reviews Top Leadership and Management Books Leadership Posters

Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Earl Nightingale is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

From humble beginnings in a rented storefront with a wooden box for a cash register, Garrett Boone (chairman) and Kip Tindell (CEO and president) opened a small store in 1978 specializing in home organization products, such as wire shelving, plastic shower totes, shoe bags, food packaging, knife and peg racks, and bins. In so doing, they created a new retail category with a first year start-up of just $35,000 and a company that has steadily grown revenues by approximately 25% per year ever since!

Today, it boasts 45 stores in 18 markets in more than 15 states from coast to coast, mostly in major cities in California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Texas.

While these background facts are interesting, they have little to do with the “uniqueness” of this organization. Culture, however, has everything to do with its success and distinctiveness. Let’s take a look at some of the factors which make up this rare culture and the results which have evolved.

The store founders embrace the idea that if you treat your people well, success will naturally follow. Some business owners claim that employee loyalty is directly tied to how good employees feel about their jobs. It’s a debatable concept, but it seems to be working for The Container Store.

It currently boasts more than 3,200 very happy employees. In an industry where 100-percent turnover is common, The Container Store boasts a very low 15- to 20-percent. Forty-one percent of new hires come from employee referrals. It’s also landed the company on Fortune magazine’s annual list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” every year since 1999. The Container Store also received the Retail Innovator’s Award from the National Retail Federation based in Washington, D.C.  In addition, it received the Workforce magazine Optimas Award in the category of General Excellence for outstanding people-management strategies.

To achieve the company’s primary goal of providing extraordinary service, each store has a full-time trainer, and all employees receive more than 241 hours of training for employees in their first year—an astonishing feat for a retailer in an industry that usually provides workers with an average of seven  hours of training per year. After their first year at The Container Store, full-time employees receive an average of 160 hours of training annually.

Employees at each of the 45 stores use “the huddle,” as it’s officially called, twice a week for 10 minutes, before or after the start of business, for everything from discussing operations to getting fired up about sales. These huddles have evolved into a very effective all-purpose communication tool.

They also symbolize The Container Store’s reputation as an enjoyable place to work: Three times (most recently in 2001), the company has topped Fortune magazine’s list of “100 Best Companies to Work For.” It’s clear that The Container Store’s huddles are so successful because its employees want to be part of this winning team.

One of the most popular ways that employees acknowledge each other is through the celebration mailbox, a voicemail system designed for employees to leave stories about good service experiences they have observed.

Not long after creating the company, founders Boone and Tindell created innovative parameters called foundation principles. They are a set of humanistic, spiritually based, do-unto-others philosophies. These principles are practiced internally among employees and are reflected in how they treat each other and how the company treats them. The six value statements represent a collection of business philosophies and stories that embody how they think a company should be run. Most companies deliver their values statements in a formal document, but Boone and Tindell prefer to dress in costumes to act out the stories. “It helps people remember them,” Anderson says. “We use storytelling to keep our employees focused on our culture. It’s very important to our success.”

The Container Store’s Continuing Education program is a great example of unique employee growth opportunities hosted at the home office. Continuing Education is a three-day intensive training program for career-minded employees from all areas of the company. Each department within the company develops a creative presentation for the Continuing Education class to provide a better understanding of each department’s function. Additionally, participants enjoy a four-hour rotation in the Distribution Center.

Customer service is The Container Store’s core competency, so hiring people who are self-motivated and team-oriented with a passion for customer service is key. Ultimately, this translates into a strong customer-service philosophy that allows all employees to take ownership of the company and make decisions based on their own intuition and discretion. The company strives to astonish its employees, which makes it an easy proposition for them, in turn, to astonish customers.

Looking beyond the minimum-wage concept, The Container Store has taken the bold move of paying employees two to three times the industry average, which cultivates fierce employee loyalty. “Kip and I worked for 18 years very closely on building the structure that allows us to pay more—to think out of the box and devote 10 percent of store sales to payroll,” Barrett says. The industry average is 3 to 4 percent. This goes back to focusing on what the company considers its number one asset: employees.

The Container Store employees enjoy tremendous benefits which most certainly account for their loyalty and low turnover. Those benefits include:

• Security in a financially strong company
• Great pay and exceptional training
• A 40% merchandise discount
• A special 50% discount on elfa, its best-selling product
• Casual work attire
• 401(k) plan with matching company contributions
• Medical/Dental/Vision plan for full-time and part-time employees

Everything puts The Container Store at the top of Fortune magazine’s list of “Best Companies to Work For” year after year.

Based on its continued success and rapid growth, The Container Store may soon be in your area. Regardless, there’s much to learn from this unique and productive culture.

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Leadership Training or Leadership Keynote Presentation Information Leadership Boot Camp Leadership Training Modules Leadership Keynote Presentation Topics Leadership Speakers and Leadership Training Leadership Articles Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders and Businesses (Category contains many articles on leaders) Generational Gems for Future Leaders (Category contains many articles on leadership) Words of Wisdom on Leadership Leadership Lessons We MUST Pass On A Beacon of Leadership Dire Need for Leadership Middle-Management Crisis Escalates Today's Invisible Leadership Challenge Leadership Messages Seldom Change Engagement + Execution = EDGE (E + E = E) Leadership Books and Leadership Posters Leadership Book Reviews Top Leadership and Management Books Leadership Posters

Little-known Facts about Well-known Businesses – The Container Store is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

Much has been written about her legendary employer, Southwest Airlines, and its co-founder Herb Kelleher. Stories about this organization and Kelleher border on fantasy and fable. However, what many are unaware of is the fact that Colleen Barrett created the majority of that culture in her own unique fashion.

As you might guess after witnessing the chaos of the airline industry over the past decade, there are very few airline executives quite like Barrett, 65, and probably won’t be many like her in the future. She is truly one-of-a-kind.

Barrett’s long path to the president’s office began in 1967 when she was a 23-year-old legal secretary looking for a job in San Antonio. She had just graduated with highest honors from Becker Junior College in Worcester, Maine. The Vermont native joined an established law firm that included another East Coast transplant, Herb Kelleher, and his disorganized office. From the time she began helping Kelleher, as an executive assistant, she found herself doing legal work for this little airline being started by one of his clients, San Antonio businessman Rollin King.

After a bruising, vicious legal battle, Southwest finally started flying passengers on June 18, 1971. Then, in 1978, the first chief executive, Lamar Muse, resigned in a boardroom battle, pushing Kelleher—and right-hand person Colleen Barrett—into a much more active role.

Kelleher became chairman, even as he kept up as much of his San Antonio law practice as possible. And for the eight months it took to get a new CEO in place, he and Barrett would work all week in Dallas, then fly home to San Antonio on the weekend.

Then, in 1981, Muse’s replacement as president and CEO, Howard Putnam, quit to join Braniff International Airways. Kelleher took the chief executive’s and president’s job as well, and Barrett moved to Dallas.

From there, the legend of the Herb-and-Colleen show grew. Herb was this brilliant, flamboyant executive; Colleen was the assistant who kept him organized, on focus, on time.

But as she was helping Kelleher, she was putting her own stamp on the airline, making sure that the carrier did the right thing for its employees. The underlying principle was that if the airline took care of its employees, the employees would take care of the customers, and the shareholders would win too. This has been Barrett’s personal philosophy and battle cry since day one!

In 1986, she was named vice president of administration.  Then, in 1990, Kelleher told Barrett that she was certainly ready for the promotion to the level of executive vice president. He even allowed her to pick her own title. She chose that of Executive Vice President of Customers, allowing her to continue her crusade on behalf of both internal and external customers.

In 2001, as Kelleher prepared to step back from some of his responsibilities, the board of directors named general counsel Jim Parker Chief Executive and Barrett President and Chief Operating Officer.

The new titles helped the world understand that Barrett had played a key part in making Southwest what it has become. She has played a key role in Southwest’s unusual and now legendary approach to customer service, which aims to treat the company’s 35,000 employees like family, to make the workplace fun—and then to carry that upbeat attitude to consumers. It’s a strategy that has made an upstart discount carrier into America’s busiest airline by passenger volume.

One unusual aspect of her philosophy is that employees come before customers, although that’s intentional in order to ultimately drive the most value to the customer. That philosophy, coupled with the brilliance to hedge fuel costs, is creating remarkable success even in today’s floundering air industry. Once again, it all comes down to people.

Barrett stepped down as President and Corporate Secretary of Southwest effective July 16, 2008. Although she also yielded her longtime position as Corporate Secretary, Southwest has announced that she will remain an employee of the corporation through July 2013.

Barrett is active in numerous civic and charitable organizations in Dallas, Texas; serves on the JCPenney Company, Inc. Board of Directors, the Ken Blanchard College of Business, and the Becker College Board of Trustees; and has served on numerous advisory boards and commissions.

Here are just a few of her many business awards and honors:

• Recognized as one of the Top 25 Most Influential Women by the Dallas Business Journal’s Women in Business (2008)
• Texas Labor Management Hall of Fame (2008)
• Tower Award, National Association of Women Business Owners, Cleveland (2008)
• Dallas YWCA Centennial Award 100 Women, 100 Years (2008)
• Junior Achievement’s Dallas Business Hall of Fame (2007)
• Girls Inc. Honoree (2007)
• Outstanding Woman in Aviation Award (2007)
• World’s 100 Most Powerful Women: Forbes.com (2005, 2004)
• Horatio Alger Award (2005)
• Women in Aviation, International Pioneer Hall of Fame (2005)
• Aiming High Honoree: National Organization of Women (2003)
• Featured in Texas Women-Trailblazers, Shining Stars & Cowgirls (2003)

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Leadership Training or Leadership Keynote Presentation Information Leadership Boot Camp Leadership Training Modules Leadership Keynote Presentation Topics Leadership Speakers and Leadership Training Leadership Articles Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders and Businesses (Category contains many articles on leaders) Generational Gems for Future Leaders (Category contains many articles on leadership) Words of Wisdom on Leadership Leadership Lessons We MUST Pass On A Beacon of Leadership Dire Need for Leadership Middle-Management Crisis Escalates Today's Invisible Leadership Challenge Leadership Messages Seldom Change Engagement + Execution = EDGE (E + E = E) Leadership Books and Leadership Posters Leadership Book Reviews Top Leadership and Management Books Leadership Posters

Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Colleen Barrett is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

Indra was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India in 1955. Her father worked at the State Bank of Hyderabad and her grandfather was a district judge. She completed her schooling in Madras, India. She went on to earn her Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Madra Christian College in 1974 and immediately entered the PGDBA (Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration) program at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. After graduating from IIM-C in 1976 with a Master’s degree in finance and marketing. She worked in India and played lead guitar in an all-women rock band in her hometown of Madras, India.

Against her parents’ advice, she came to the United States in 1978 at age 23 to earn her M.B.A. in Public and Private Management at Yale where she worked as a dorm receptionist—opting for the graveyard shift because it paid an extra 50 cents per hour. She also played cricket in college and sang karaoke at corporate gatherings. Her parents thought she should have stayed in India, gotten married and raised at a family. “I always had this urge, this desire, this passion,” she once explained, to “settle in the United States,” where she is now the married mother of two daughters.

After earning her Master’s degree from Yale in 1980, Nooyi started at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). From there she moved on to strategy positions at Motorola and ABB. She then went on to become the Senior Vice President of Strategy and Strategic Marketing for Asea Brown Boveri (ABB—the world’s largest builder of electricity grids) and Vice President and Director of Corporate Strategy and Planning at Motorola. She also had stints at Mettur Beardsell (textiles) and Johnson & Johnson.

Nooyi came to PepsiCo in 1994 as the company’s chief strategist. From the start, she helped executives make some tough decisions. She played a vital role in starting Tricon, which is currently known as Yum Brands, Inc. Seeing less future in fast food, she moved the company to shed KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell in 1997, arguing PepsiCo couldn’t bring enough value to the fast food industry.

Betting instead on beverages and packaged food, she helped engineer a $3 billion acquisition of Tropicana in 1998 and a $14 billion takeover in 2001 of Quaker Oats, maker of Gatorade. The moves proved prophetic choices. Company earnings soared, and so, too, did her stature.

According to BusinessWeek, since she became CFO in 2000, the company’s annual revenues have risen 72%, while net profit more than doubled, to $5.6 billion in 2006.

On August 14, 2006, she was named the CEO of PepsiCo, becoming the fifth CEO in PepsiCo’s 42-year history. By 2006, Nooyi was one of just two finalists to succeed CEO Steven Reinemund as leader of one of the world’s best-known brands. She got the nod in August becoming the fifth CEO in PepsiCo’s 42-year history. She then immediately flew to visit the other contender. “Tell me whatever I need to do to keep you,” she implored. They had worked together for years, both loved music, and Nooyi was persuasive, offering to boost her competitor’s compensation to nearly match her own. He agreed to serve as her right-hand man, creating her version of a team of rivals.

As CEO, she has continued to pursue her unusual, and tremendously ambitious, vision for reinventing PepsiCo. She is now focusing on taking the company from snack food to health food, from caffeine colas to fruit juices, and from shareholder value to sustainable enterprise. That is an ambitious goal which she plans to attain.

In doing so, Nooyi is attempting to move beyond the historic trade-off between profits and people. Captured in her artful mantra—”Performance with purpose”—she wants to give Wall Street what it wants but also the planet what it needs.

By 2010, Nooyi has pledged half of the firm’s U.S. revenue will come from healthful products such as low-cal Gatorade and high-fiber oatmeal. The company will also abandon fossil fuels in favor of wind and solar and will campaign vigorously against obesity.

Nooyi faces many challenges in today’s globally competitive, financially challenging world. If she can lead her organization to the goals she’s established, and her historic record indicates that she can, Nooyi can pretty much choose her next challenge.

With annual revenue of $39 billion, the enterprise she leads is as large as many federal agencies, and moving to run one of those agencies could be her next venture. “After PepsiCo, I do want to go to Washington,” she has said. “I want to give back.”

For all that, Nooyi remains profoundly personal. She told the BBC in March that she calls her mother in India twice a day. “At the end of the day,” said the CEO of one of America’s biggest enterprises, “don’t forget that you’re a person, don’t forget you’re a mother, don’t forget you’re a wife, don’t forget you’re a daughter.” When your job is done, “what you’re left is family, friends, and faith.”

Nooyi is a Successor Fellow at Tale Corporation and serves on the board of several organizations, including Motorola, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the International Rescue Committee, and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

In 2007, she was awarded Padma Bhushan by Government of India. In 2008, she was elected to the fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In March 2008, Nooyi was elected Chairman of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), a non-profit business advocacy organization representing nearly 300 of the largest U.S. companies doing business in India and two dozen of India’s global companies investing in America. Nooyi leads USIBC’s Board of Directors, an assembly of 25 senior executives representing a cross-section of American industry.

Among her friends are former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who describes her as a “wild New York Yankees fan and a caring CEO.” Though raised on cricket, she has become an expert on New York Yankees statistics and Chicago Bulls teamwork. Nooyi is a master of substance, knowing PepsiCo’s product lines and financial metrics in depth.

Keep an eye on this dynamic leader as you are going to hear much more about her in the coming years.

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Indra Nooyi is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

He’s an American radio commentator with an estimated audience of 22 million people a week—and yet when you hear his broadcast, you feel certain that he’s talking directly to you and you alone. That’s a rare talent indeed. However, Paul’s had lot of practice. He’s 90 years old, one of the oldest syndicated radio personalities in the U.S., and is among the very few remaining radio talents who are older than the medium itself.

Radio has always been part of Paul’s life. Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he built radio receivers as a young boy. Noting this interest, a high school teacher suggested that he get a job at the local radio station, which he did. Although he started by just cleaning up around the KVOO studio, he later moved on to fill in on the air, reading commercials and news.

He continued his work at KVOO as he attended the University of Tulsa, first as a radio announcer and later as a program director. Radio was in his blood. His career took him to many radio stations in many cities, which is a requirement for success in this industry. He moved on to be a station manager, a newscaster, a director of special events at many stations and also worked as a roving reporter.

After serving in the military, Paul moved to Chicago in 1945 and returned to broadcasting for the local ABC affiliate. He soon became the most popular newscaster in the Windy City. His popular shows included “Jobs for G.I. Joe” and “The Rest of the Story Paul Harvey News and Comment.” He could be heard weekdays in the morning and noon and again on Saturdays. He shared news in such a way as everyone could understand it … and has been doing it ever since. For 20 years starting in the late 1960s, Paul’s televised, five-minute editorial was offered to local stations to follow their news or be shown separately.

In 1976, ABC Radio Networks premiered “The Rest of the Story” as a separate series which captured the imagination and curiosity of listeners as Paul dug into stories behind the world’s stories of famous events and people. This show was so well-received that it lead to a series of best-selling books. Harvey’s son, a concert pianist, created and produced the series. He remains the show’s only writer.

“Harvey’s News and Comment” is streamed on the World Wide Web twice a day. Paul Harvey News has been called the “largest one-man network in the world,” as it is carried on 1,200 radio stations, 400 Armed Forces Network stations around the world and 300 newspapers. His broadcasts and newspaper columns have been reprinted in the Congressional Record more than those of any other commentator. In late 2000, Harvey signed a 10-year, $100 million contract with ABC Radio Networks.

To give you an idea of how well he connected to his audience, consider the fact that loyal listeners have had an on-going relationship with Paul’s wife, lovingly referred to as “Angel.” She was recognized throughout the industry as “The First Lady of Radio,” as one of the great broadcasting figures of the past century, and the first producer ever inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. Radio obviously runs in this family. Paul lost his beloved “Angel” earlier this year after a year-long battle with leukemia.

Paul is back on the air part time after taking some time off earlier this year to deal with pneumonia, bronchitis, cataract surgery and, of course, the death of his “Angel.” Harvey has returned to telling us “The Rest of the Story” on a full-time basis, but has cut back on his daily news duties. If you’d like more info as to his current schedule, go to paulharvey.com.

Paul is well-known for his simple, but memorable, catch phrases—often imitated but never duplicated. He begins one of his stories with: “Hello Americans, this is Paul Harvey. You know what the news is, in a minute, you’ll hear the rest of the story.” His sign-off is also short, simple, but one that sticks in your mind until you hear him again: “Paul Harvey … Good day.”

It would be interesting to peek into Paul’s home office to get a glance of the many honors he’s achieved in his illustrious career. He’s received 11 Freedom Foundation Awards, the Horatio Alger Award, and appeared on the Gallop Poll list of America’s most admired men. He’s been elected to the National Association of Broadcasters Radio Hall of Fame, and the DeMolay Hall of Fame (a Masonic institution). He’s also been named the Commentator of the Year, American of the Year, Father of the Year, Person of the Year and Salesman of the Year. He’s also the proud recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ most prestigious civilian award.

Paul’s best-selling books include:

• Autumn of Liberty
• The Rest of the Story
• Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor
• Paul Harvey’s the Rest of the Story
• More of Paul Harvey’s the Rest of the Story
• Destiny: From Paul Harvey’s the Rest of the Story 
• Paul Harvey’s for What It’s Worth

Due to my travel schedule, I can’t catch every one of Paul’s broadcasts. Therefore, I simply get my computer and go to this link where, at a click of my mouse, I can listen to his program for each of the previous four days.

Let’s hope we have access to this unique commentary for years to come. At 90, Paul is obviously in the prime of his life. Good day!

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

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Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Paul Harvey is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

I must admit that I would know little or nothing about Robert A. Lutz if not for my long-time relationship with Chrysler, Ford and General Motors as a trainer and consultant. It didn’t take me long to recognize the fact that he was highly respected by all three corporations and contributed greatly to each in many critical ways as well.

• He’s not only a very talented man, but he falls into many other genres as well.
• He’s a “Car Guy” through and through.
• He’s a proud former Marine fighter pilot and still lives the values he learned in the Corps.
• He’s the quintessential maverick who says what he believes rather than what he believes others want to hear.
• He’s a high achiever and very successful businessman who didn’t graduate from high school until he was 22.
• Born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1932, he’s a vegetarian who relishes a good cigar.
• He’s well-known as an avid collector of classic automobiles and military jets.
• He’s a firm believer in the balance of common sense and free-wheeling creativity, and that’s certainly a rarity in today’s world.
• He has held senior management positions in four of the world’s top car companies: Ford, General Motors, BMW, and Chrysler.
• He has a tremendous sense of humor and upbeat look on life. For instance, he often shares his “Law of Life” which he borrowed from an old Rolling Stones song which suggests: “You Can’t Always Get What You Want—But If You Try Sometime, You Just Might Find, You Get What You Need.”

Let’s take a quick overview of an incredible career.

• He was a U.S. Marine aviator from 1954 to 1959 (and remained in reserves until 1965).
• He began his automotive career in September 1963 at GM, where he held a variety of senior positions in Europe until December 1971.
• For the next three years, he served as executive vice president of sales at BMW in Munich and as a member of that company’s board of management. He’s credited in the development of the BMW 3-Series. He is one of few senior automotive executives with experience in both hemispheres and more than one major manufacturer.

Lutz joined the Ford Motor Company in 1974 where he held several senior executive positions until 1986 … Chairman of Ford of Europe, Executive Vice President of Ford International Operations, Vice President in charge of Ford Truck Operations and a member of Ford’s Board of Directors. At Ford he led the creation of the Ford Sierra, initiated development of the original Ford Explorer and spearheaded importation of models from Ford of Europe to the United States.

In 1986, Lutz moved to Chrysler Corporation as the executive initially primarily responsible for product development where he oversaw the development of the Dodge Viper, Plymouth Prowler and Chrysler LH platform automobiles; subsequently he became president and chief operating officer, and then vice chairman. In 1998, Lutz became the Chairman and CEO of Exide Technologies.

In September of 2001, Lutz returned to General Motors as Vice Chairman of Product Development. He then became an Interim President of GM Europe. Lutz has been Vice Chairman of Global Product Development of General Motors Corporation since March 2008 and serves as its Acting Chief Executive Officer of GM Europe.

Read his best-selling book GUTS, and you’ll get valuable insight into not only his rare sense of humor but also his unusual, but successful, approach to business in today’s ever-changing, chaotic and competitive environment. In this book he shares his Immutable Laws of Business. At first glance, you may think he’s way off base. After all, these laws go against everything we’ve ever been taught. However, read on to laugh, understand, and quickly agree with his philosophy.
 
LAW #1: The Customer Isn’t Always Right.
LAW #2: The Primary Purpose of Business Is Not to Make Money.
LAW #3: When Everybody Else Is Doing It, Don’t!
LAW #4: Too Much Quality Can Ruin You.
LAW #5: Financial Controls Are Bad!
LAW #6: Disruptive People Are an Asset.
LAW #7: Teamwork Isn’t Always Good.
LAW #8: When You Inherit a Really Big Rat’s Nest, Don’t Try to Lure Them out with Food. Use a Flamethrower.

Robert Lutz truly believes that every organization must cultivate a “split personality,” combining common sense with freewheeling creativity. It defines the leader’s role in maintaining a healthy balance between the two. And it argues that a dynamic tension between them is the prime attribute that enables top-performing companies to introduce new products and achieve record profits.

This is a leader you’ll definitely want to learn more about. 

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

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Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Robert A. Lutz is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

• UPS is 101 years old.
• It was founded in Seattle, with world headquarters in Atlanta.
• UPS has 425,300 employees worldwide (358,000 in the U.S.).
• 4 billion packages and documents were delivered last year.
• 15.8 million packages and documents were delivered daily last year.
• 2.3 million packages and documents are delivered daily by air.
• 1.9 million international packages and documents are delivered daily.
• The service area includes more than 200 countries and territories; every address in North America and Europe.
• 7.9 million customers are served daily (1.8 million pick-up, 6.1 million delivery).
• There are an average of 18.5 million daily on-line tracking requests at UPS.com.
• Retail access can be found at: The UPS Store® (4,647 locations), Mail Boxes Etc.® (1,306 locations); 1,000 UPS customers centers, 17,000 authorized outlets, and 40,000 UPS drop boxes.
• There are 1,801 operating facilities.
• UPS has a delivery fleet of 93,637 package cars, vans, tractors and motorcycles, including 2,218 alternative-fuel vehicles.
• UPS has a jet aircraft fleet of 268, the 9th largest airline in the world.
• It has 311 chartered aircraft.
• The daily flight segment includes 1,130 domestic and 796 international.
• UPS serves 424 domestic airports and 389 international airports.
• UPS air hubs are located in Louisville, Kentucky; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Dallas, Texas; Ontario, Canada; Rockford, Illinois; Columbia, South Carolina; Hartford, Connecticut; Miami, Florida; Cologne/Bonn, Germany; Taipei, Taiwan; Pampanga, Philippines; Hong Kong, Singapore; and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
• There are 1,033 facilities in more than 120 countries, occupying 38 million square feet.
• UPS is the leading provider of less-than-truckload services coast-to-coast with 6,353 tractors; 21,818 trailers, and 215+ service centers.

The next time you see one of those big brown trucks on the road or a bermuda-clad delivery person hustling a package to a customer, you’ll know a little bit more about the organization behind what you see. You might be interested in knowing that this is one of the most creative and innovative businesses in the world. Check out Make the Right Turn to Save Gas and Don’t Underestimate UPS for a few shocking examples.

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Leadership Training or Leadership Keynote Presentation Information Leadership Boot Camp Leadership Training Modules Leadership Keynote Presentation Topics Leadership Speakers and Leadership Training Leadership Articles Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders and Businesses (Category contains many articles on leaders) Generational Gems for Future Leaders (Category contains many articles on leadership) Words of Wisdom on Leadership Leadership Lessons We MUST Pass On A Beacon of Leadership Dire Need for Leadership Middle-Management Crisis Escalates Today's Invisible Leadership Challenge Leadership Messages Seldom Change Engagement + Execution = EDGE (E + E = E) Leadership Books and Leadership Posters Leadership Book Reviews Top Leadership and Management Books Leadership Posters

Little-known Facts about Well-known Businesses – “Big Brown” Is More than It Appears is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve asked friends, neighbors, relatives, and clients what they knew about Warren Buffett. The majority of them had heard the name before. Few knew why. Some knew him for his wealth, a few for his relationship with Bill Gates, a smattering knew him as a noted philanthropist, some knew him as one of the world’s greatest stock market investors, a couple knew of his sense of humor and frugality, others knew him as ad advisor to governments and organizations, and several knew him as the largest shareholder, Chairman & CEO, of Berkshire Hathaway. Oddly enough, those in the last category knew little or nothing about Berkshire Hathaway. All were correct.

This is indeed a very complex man who has little concern for being in the spotlight. Let’s take a quick look at each of the areas mentioned above in hopes of gaining greater insight into a man we should know more about.

Wealth

The 78-year-old Warren Buffett happens to be the richest man on the planet. He has seen his fortune swell to an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago. As of February of 2008, this tidy bundle puts him ahead of his good friend, bridge partner, and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates who was the richest man in the world for 13 straight years.

Frugality

Buffett’s current salary as CEO is a mere $100,000 per year with no stock options, which is among the lowest CEO salaries in the U.S. among larger companies. He lives in the same house in his Omaha, Nebraska, neighborhood that he bought in 1958 for $31,500—today valued around $700,000. He does not carry a cell phone, does not have a computer at his desk, and drives his own car. Not one for dining out at fine restaurants unless absolutely necessary, Warren Buffett is reputed to usually eat burgers; he drives himself to McDonalds for meals—steaks and Cherry Cokes.

When Buffett plays golf with his friend, Bill Gates, who’s on his board, their typical bet is $1. He chooses to fly coach rather than first class. His children will not inherit a significant proportion of his wealth. Buffett once commented, “I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing.”

Philanthropy

Buffett is a noted philanthropist. He also announced plans to contribute additional Berkshire stock valued at approximately $6.7 billion to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and to other foundations headed by his three children.

In June of 2008, e-Bay conducted a five-day online charity auction for a “Power Lunch with Warren Buffett.” It was won with high bid of $2,110,100 allowing the winner to dine with Buffett, at New York’s Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse, along with up to seven companions for the private lunch. They were allowed to ask Buffett anything at all, except what he’s buying or selling. Auction proceeds benefit the San Francisco Glide Foundation.

In 2006, he auctioned his 2001 Lincoln Town Car on eBay to raise money for Girls Inc. Also in 2006, Buffett announced a plan to give away his fortune to charity, with 83% of it going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The donation, which will come from his Berkshire Hathway shares, will amount to about $31 billion, based on current values, making it the largest charitable donation in history.

Sense of Humor

Often called the “Oracle of Omaha,” he was listed in 2007 among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. Buffett’s speeches are known for mixing business discussions with humor. Each year, Buffett presides over Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders’ meeting in the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska, an event drawing over 20,000 visitors from both United States and abroad, giving it the nickname “Woodstock of Capitalism.” Buffett’s writings are known for containing literary quotes ranging from the Bible to Mae West, as well as Midwestern advice and numerous jokes.

Berkshire Hathaway

In 1962, investor Warren Buffett began buying stock in Berkshire Hathaway. After some clashes with the owners, he bought up enough shares to change the management and soon controlled the company. Buffett initially maintained Berkshire’s core business of textiles, but by 1967, he was expanding into the insurance industry and other investments.

Today, Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, whose core business is insurance, including property and casualty insurance, reinsurance and specialty nonstandard insurance. However, it also oversees and manages a large variety of subsidiary companies which include: International Diary Queen, Benjamin Moore & Co., The Pampered Chef®, H.H. Brown Shoe Group, Helzberg Diamonds, GEICO Auto Insurance, See’s Candies, Fruit of the Loom®, Star Furniture, Nebraska Furniture Mart, Boat U.S., Buffalo NEWS, NetJets®, and the Acme Brick Company to name just a few. It also has a controlling stake in Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, and Wells Fargo.

Early Years

Buffett, son of a Nebraska politician, was the second of three children, and displayed an amazing aptitude for both money and business at a very early age. He delivered newspapers and would go door-to-door selling chewing gum and Coke from his grandfather’s grocery store. He purchased six packs of Coca Cola for a quarter and then sold them for a nickel a bottle. He bought his first stock at age eleven and filed his first tax return at age 13, claiming a $35 deduction for his bicycle. He bought a 40-acre farm at the age of fourteen, using money he had saved from his paper route. Acquaintances recount his uncanny ability to calculate columns of numbers off the top of his head—a feat Buffett still amazes business colleagues with today. In his senior year of high school, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in a barber shop. Within a few months, they owned three machines in different locations.

Buffett graduated from Columbia Business School. While working as a stockbroker on Wall Street, he purchased a Sinclair gas station as an investment. During that time, Buffett also took a Dale Carnegie public speaking course. Using what he learned, he felt confident enough to teach a night class at the University of Nebraska, “Investment Principles.” The average age of the students he taught was more than twice his own. His investments and partnerships continued to grow until his destined relationship with Berkshire Hathaway. The rest is history.

Major Weakness

He admits his inability to put up with bureaucracy and inefficiency. Though Berkshire has about 190,000 employees, he runs the $141-billion company with 17 employees at its Omaha Headquarters. He says, “We delegate almost to the point of abdiction.”

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Leadership Training or Leadership Keynote Presentation Information Leadership Boot Camp Leadership Training Modules Leadership Keynote Presentation Topics Leadership Speakers and Leadership Training Leadership Articles Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders and Businesses (Category contains many articles on leaders) Generational Gems for Future Leaders (Category contains many articles on leadership) Words of Wisdom on Leadership Leadership Lessons We MUST Pass On A Beacon of Leadership Dire Need for Leadership Middle-Management Crisis Escalates Today's Invisible Leadership Challenge Leadership Messages Seldom Change Engagement + Execution = EDGE (E + E = E) Leadership Books and Leadership Posters Leadership Book Reviews Top Leadership and Management Books Leadership Posters

Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Warren Buffett is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

Obviously, things weren’t always that way. The co-founders first met as Stanford University graduate students in computer science in the summer of 1995. Sergey was in a group of potential new students which Brin had volunteered to show around the campus. They actually weren’t very fond of one another until they found a common interest retrieving relevant information from large data sets. They went on to co-author what is widely considered their seminal contribution, a paper entitled “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine.” The paper has since gone on to become the tenth-most accessed scientific paper at Stanford University.

In August 1996 the initial version of Google was made available, still on the Stanford University website. Although they don’t quite qualify as a “rags to riches” story, they did share a humble beginning by renting a garage in Menlo Park, California, for $1,700 a month. Today they boast four core buildings, fondly called Googleplex, in Mountain View, California, totaling 506,317 square feet as well as branch offices all over the globe. This complex must be seen to be believed. We’ll tell you more about this unique culture in a future article. The original two employees now lead a staff of about 17,000 full-time employees.

That growth is a result of the fact that this dynamic duo have virtually cornered the search engine market, holding about 58% of the market while their next two competitors, Yahoo and Microsoft, hold 22% and 9% respectively. Even if these two competitors were to join together they would still trail Google by 27%. They also extended ad business into TV, cell phones, and various online venues; they bought Web video portal YouTube for $1.65 billion last year and recently partnered with EchoStar, LG Electronics, Salesforce.com.

Page and Brin ran Google as co-presidents until 2001 when they hired Eric Schmidt to become Chairman and CEO of Google. Now that Google is the world’s entry point to the Internet, Google plans to become the world’s dominant advertising broker, the world’s dominant social network, the world’s dominant mobile supplier, and the world’s dominant product of alternative energy. Talk about ambitious goals!

Now let’s take a look at the co-founders individually:

Mikkhailovich Brin

• Mikkhailovich (Sergey) Brin is a 35-year-old Russian-born American entrepreneur.
• Brin was born in Moscow in 1973 and emigrated to the U.S. in 1979 at the age of 6 with his mathematician parents. His father gained work as a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland and his mother went on to work at NASA.
• He attended grade school at a Montessori School in Maryland, received further education at home, attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School, and enrolled in the University of Maryland to study computer science and mathematics, where he received his B.S. degree in 1993 with high honors.
• Brin began his graduate study in computer science at Stanford University on a graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation. He earned his Master’s degree in August 1995 ahead of schedule in the process of his Ph.D. studies.
• Brin has also received an honorary MBA from the IE Business School.
• Brin expressed interest in the Internet very early on in his studies at Stanford. He authored and co-authored various papers on data-mining and pattern extraction. He also wrote software to ease the process of putting scientific papers often written in TeX, a text-processing language, into HTML form, as well as a website for film ratings.
• While studying for his Ph.D., he met Lawrence Page and went on to work with him on a project to organize the Internet and improve the way people search for information. They first nicknamed the project “BackRub” as it relied heavily on the number and relevancy of links pointing to a website.
• Brin has appeared on television shows and many documentaries, including Charlie Rose, CNBC, and CNN. In 2004, he and Larry Page were named “Persons of the Week” by ABC World News Tonight. In January 2005 Sergey Brin was nominated to be one of the World Economic Forum’s “Young Global Leaders.”
• In 2007, Brin was cited by PC World as #1 on a list of the “50 most important people on the Web,” along with Larry Page and Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
• In May 2007, Brin married Anne Wojcicki in the Bahamas. Wojcicki is a biotech analyst and a 1996 graduate of Yale University with a degree in biology. She co-founded 23andMe, a personal DNA genotyping service.
• He is also an investor in Tesla Motors, which is developing the Tesla Roadster, a 221-mile-range battery electric vehicle. He has also placed an order for the Roadster. It is reported by Conde Nast Portfolio that Brin drives a Toyota Prius.
• In June 2008, it was announced that Brin had made a $5 million investment in Space Adventures, the Virginia-based space tourism company. His investment will serve as a deposit for a reservation on one of Space Adventures’ proposed flights in 2011. So far, Space Adventures has sent five tourists into space.
• Brin currently holds the position of President of Technology at Google and has a net worth estimated at $18.5 billion as of March 9, 2007, making him the 26th richest person in the world and the 5th richest person in the United States. He is also the fourth-youngest billionaire in the world.

Lawrence Edward Page

• Lawrence Edward “Larry” Page is a 35-year-old U.S.-born American entrepreneur.
• Page was born in Lansing, Michigan, in 1973 to the late Dr. Carl Victor Page, a professor of computer science and artificial intelligence at Michigan State University and one of the University of Michigan’s first computer science Ph.D. graduates, and Gloria Page, a computer programming teacher at Michigan State University. Page is also the brother of Carl Victoer Page, Jr., a co-founder of eGroups, later sold to Yahoo! for approximately half a billion dollars.
• Page attended a Montessori school in Lansing, Michigan, and graduated from East Lansing High School. He holds a B.S. degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan with honors and a Master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University.
• While at the University of Michigan, Page created an inkjet printer made of Lego bricks. He was also a member of the solar car team and served as the President of the HKN, a national electrical and computer engineering honor society.
• After enrolling for a Ph.D. program in computer science at Stamford, Page was in search for a dissertation theme and considered exploring the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web. His supervisor encouraged him to pursue this idea, and Page later recalled this as the “best advice I ever got.” He focused on the problem of finding out which web pages link to a given page, considering the number and nature of such backlinks to be valuable information about that page.
• Sergey Brin soon joined Page in his research project, nicknamed “BackRub.” They developed the Page Rank algorithm and realized that it could be used to build a search engine far superior to existing ones.
• In 2007, Page was cited by PC World as #1 on the list of the 50 most important people on the web, along with Brin and Schmidt.
• Page is also an investor in Tesla Motors, which developed the Tesla Roadster, a 250-mile-range battery electric vehicle.
• Page currently holds the position of President of Products at Google and has an estimated net worth of $18.5 billion, placing him at rank 26 on Forbes’s list of the richest persons in the world, together with Brin.
• The World Economic Forum named Page as a Global Leader for Tomorrow, and The X PRIZE chose Page as a trustee for their board.
• Page married Lucinda Southworth at Richard Branson’s Caribbean island, Necker Island, on December 8, 2007.

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Leadership Training or Leadership Keynote Presentation Information Leadership Boot Camp Leadership Training Modules Leadership Keynote Presentation Topics Leadership Speakers and Leadership Training Leadership Articles Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders and Businesses (Category contains many articles on leaders) Generational Gems for Future Leaders (Category contains many articles on leadership) Words of Wisdom on Leadership Leadership Lessons We MUST Pass On A Beacon of Leadership Dire Need for Leadership Middle-Management Crisis Escalates Today's Invisible Leadership Challenge Leadership Messages Seldom Change Engagement + Execution = EDGE (E + E = E) Leadership Books and Leadership Posters Leadership Book Reviews Top Leadership and Management Books Leadership Posters

Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Larry Page and Sergey Brin is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

I recently returned from facilitating my second annual Leadership Boot Camp at Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation (CFSC) in Nashville, Tennessee. CFSC is the financial arm of Caterpillar Inc., a Fortune 50 company, a technology leader and the world’s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, natural gas and diesel engines, and industrial gas turbines.

Living in Michigan, it’s always nice to be able to head south to a warmer, snow-less climate during the icy month of February … except this year. I arrived on the same day the Music City received their first snowfall of the year — all day long! At least it made me feel at home as I always do when I share time with the good folks at Caterpillar Financial.

During my four-day stay, I was again constantly reminded how pleasurable and also unique it is to be able to work in a very positive environment … generated, of course, by a rich, enduring culture. I must assume that the majority of those who work there might take this privilege for granted. I say that only because everyone in the building acts as though this unconventional environment is a natural thing experienced by all organizations everywhere. Little do they know.

On the surface, this business doesn’t look any different than any other. They boast an exquisite 11-story, 312,000-square foot building as the world headquarters for Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation. This eye-catching structure is situated across the street from Vanderbilt University and just a few blocks away from Nashville’s treasured Music Row.

At the entrance, a paved-stone circle drive surrounds a red granite-clad fountain pool containing a fountain sculpted by a California artist. The backdrop for this fountain is the revolving building entrance door with a canopy in the shape of a bulldozer scoop, which recalls Caterpillar’s origins as a heavy equipment manufacturer.

Entering the decorative two-story granite-clad lobby, you find a fully restored 1930 Caterpillar tractor prominently displayed in a place of honor. Stand under a state-of-the-art technically transparent umbrella apparatus, and you can hear the history of the tractor as well as the organization.

The building includes an on-site, fully staffed, state-of-the-art fitness center with locker rooms and an aerobics room. The 7-story concrete-frame underground parking garage can accommodate 1,200 cars. The fantastic all-purpose dining room offers employees just about anything they might want for breakfast and lunch daily, and a gift shop offers a nice variety of Caterpillar souvenirs and trade-marked merchandise.

Their training facility offers an environment for just about any type of training you might envision, and I’m almost certain their experienced technical support staff hides outside every room entrance waiting to address your every need. However, two years running I’ve had no need to call on them for assistance. Regardless, they check in regularly to see if all is well.

By the way, at a time when most organizations feel totally justified in reducing their training schedules for a myriad of reasons … every classroom, large and small, was filled with attendees from all over the world. My program was graced with employees from Australia, Japan, Germany, the U.K., China and, of course, many states within the U.S. The opportunity to network was easily as valuable as any program content. Those classrooms were filled with enthusiastic, focused employees because CFSC views employee development not as a cost but as a critical investment. Evidence of that view can be found in their ROL (Return on Learning) practices. Again, evidence of a unique culture.

It was quite obvious to me, whether they noticed it or not, that everyone enjoyed being there. Everyone wore a smile as they greeted each other in the cafeteria, in elevators, every level of the parking garage, in hallways and classrooms — everywhere. During my recent stay, I had 14 people from last year’s program stop by my training room to say “hi” and wish me well.

From what I’ve been told, what I’ve witnessed and what I’ve researched about CFSC, it’s quite obvious that they have a sincere and dedicated focus on “excellence.” They speak often of their “never-ending journey to excellence.” It was decided early on that excellence was going to define company culture and be its guiding principle.

Their business model integrates excellence into its vision, mission, critical success factors, and Values in Action. That’s as it should be — but seldom is in so many organizations.

Caterpillar Financial maintains a constant focus on process improvement. Tools such as 6 Sigma, a highly disciplined, data-based methodology, helps them prioritize and manage projects, design products, and improve processes. Ninety-seven percent of employees are trained in 6 Sigma procedures for designing new processes!

Specially trained employees called Black Belts, experts in the 6 Sigma process and team facilitation; Green Belts, subject matter experts; and Yellow Belts, trained in basics of 6 Sigma, comprise teams of employees that implement these procedures.

Since 1993, CFSC also has been using the Baldrige performance excellence criteria as the overall framework to assess the organization and guide improvement efforts.

Investment in employee recognition programs, such as Eye-on-Quality Awards and CAT Bucks — which allow employees to instantly recognize other employees — increases annually.

They also recognize employees with incentive pay, which is paid quarterly and directly aligned with company goals. This, of course, certainly goes a long way in helping them meet their strategic goal of attracting and retaining skilled employees.

The overall Employee Satisfaction Index has risen consistently and employee retention is following that trend as well. Ninety three percent of employees participate in the Caterpillar Healthy Balance program, which earned a national C. Everett Koop Award for Wellness Promotion and the Wellness Councils of America “Well-Workplace Award.”

The majority of what I’ve shared above is known and spoken in most of today’s competitive organizations across industries. There’s little or nothing new here. The difference I discovered, appreciated and greatly respected is that it’s not only spoken at Caterpillar Financial … it’s supported, practiced, and continually growing in this unique culture!

It’s a rare pleasure and privilege to witness this vibrant culture placing smiles on the faces of so many employees. However, don’t let me mislead you. They have their problems and challenges as so many other organizations do. We discussed several of them during our Leadership Boot Camp program. The difference I found lies in the fact that they view these speed bumps and barriers as opportunities and treat them as such. That makes the difference.

The crowning touch to my most recent visit was a very pleasant surprise indeed. At the close of the program, I was approached by a Black Belt participant who presented me with a “CAT Buck” for what he explained was his appreciation of my performance during the Leadership Boot Camp. I’m proud to say that I have since laminated and framed that special token, and it is currently hanging in a very honored spot on the wall of my office!

I’m scheduled to return to Nashville in August of this year for another Leadership Boot Camp, and I’m certainly looking forward to sharing that environment, working within that powerful culture and especially seeing those enthusiastic smiles!

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Little-known Facts about Well-known Businesses – Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

When I informed him that I was currently writing an article on Howard Schultz, he asked me two questions. The first was “Who is Howard Schultz?” The second question was “Why Howard Schultz?” I found both interesting and had to admit that many people might very well ask the same questions. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to begin this article by answering those questions.

Why Howard Schultz?

Once you know who this man is and what he has accomplished in a relatively short period of time, I would think you’d automatically want to know more about him, how he did what he did, and what he may be capable of in the future.

I’m sure you’ve heard of Starbucks, but how much do you really know about them?

• Starbucks is a dominant multinational coffeehouse chain based here in the U.S.
• Named after the first mate in the novel Moby-Dick, Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world!
• Boasting 7,521 company-owned and 5,647 licensed stores in 41 countries, worldwide locations total 13,168.
• Industry experts predict a future of 50,000 stores, trumping even McDonalds. Think about that for a moment.
• Last year they registered revenues of $7.786 BILLION!
• They are currently opening coffee shops at the rate of 3½ a day worldwide and that figure is expected to increase soon!
• They currently employ over 147,436 employees!
• They are currently hiring 250 people a day!
• Their subsidiaries include Starbucks Coffee Company, Tazo Tea Co., Seattle’s Best Coffee, Torrefazione Italia, Hear Music, and Ethos Water.
• Starbucks brand ice cream and coffee are also sold in grocery stores, and they have ventured beyond refreshments into books, music, and film.
• Here’s the most amazing fact. At a time when this country is facing financially challenging times, this company bases its success on the fact that they are selling a product that averages $12.88 a gallon while consumers are complaining about $3.00 a gallon gasoline!! More power to them.

Hopefully, I’ve answered the question of “Why Howard Schultz?” This man is the Wizard behind the Coffee Curtain.

Now let’s tackle “Who is Howard Schultz?”

He’s an American businessman and entrepreneur most widely known as the Chairman and Chief Global Strategist of Starbucks and former owner of the Seattle Supersonics.

Howard was born in 1952 and grew up in a subsidized public housing project in Brooklyn, New York as the eldest of three children. A football scholarship to faraway Northern Michigan University was his ticket out of the projects, and he became the first in his family to earn a degree.

After graduating, Howard worked at a variety of jobs for six years before becoming the manager of U.S. operations for Hammarplast, a Swedish maker of stylish kitchen equipment and housewares.

In 1981, he traveled from New York to Seattle to check out a popular coffee bean store called Starbucks that had been buying many of the Hammarplast drip coffeemakers he was selling. He immediately fell in love with not only that great smell but with the care the Starbucks owners put into choosing and roasting the beans. He was also very impressed with the owners’ dedication to educating the public about the wonders of coffee connoisseurship.

He walked away from that visit saying, “God, what a great company, what a great city. I’d love to be a part of that!” The rest is history. What a fantastic story! What serendipity! What inspiration! This is a perfect example of why we chose to share these stories!

Determined as he was to become part of this organization, it took Howard a year to convince Starbucks owners to hire him. As their Director of Marketing, he traveled to Italy in 1982 where he had still another epiphany. He couldn’t help but notice that coffee bars appeared on almost every block. After investigating this phenomenon, Howard discovered that there were over 200,000 coffee houses in Italy, and they did much more than serve espresso. They served as meeting places or public squares … they were a critical piece of the Italian culture.

Inspired by what he had witnessed, he hurried back to the U.S., resolved to create a similar experience. Shocking long story short. Starbucks leadership said they simply weren’t interested in getting into the restaurant business. Schultz responded by quitting to start his own company, ll Giornale. It was a small, friendly café which soon became a popular gathering place for Seattle sophisticates. As it grew more popular, Schultz planned to expand his chain. That’s when he heard a rumor that the Starbucks leadership team had decided to focus on Peet’s Coffee & Tea. In 1987, he bought out the Starbucks partners for $3.8 million and hasn’t looked back since.

Taking great pride in his knack for “Thinking Outside the Cup,” Schultz developed a series of practices that were unprecedented in retail. He insisted that all employees working at least 20 hours a week get comprehensive health coverage, including coverage for unmarried spouses. Then he introduced an employee stock-option plan. These moves boosted employee loyalty and led to extremely low employee turnover, even though salaries were fairly low. To this day, leaders in every industry claim these benefits simply aren’t feasible.

Quick reminder:

• 13,168 stores!
• 3½ new stores daily!
• 147,436 employees!
• 250 new employees per day!
• Revenues of almost $8 billion!

Starbucks has managed to blossom without national advertising.

Last year, Forbes Magazine ranked Schultz as the 354th richest person in the U.S., with a net worth of $1.1 billion!

Despite their tremendous success, they have less than 6% market share of coffee consumption. They are in the infant stages of growth in this business! Maybe more leaders should be “Thinking Outside the Cup.”

Asked the secret of his success, Schultz shared his four major principles:

• Don’t be threatened by people smarter than you.
• Compromise anything but your core values.
• Seek to renew yourself even when you are hitting home runs.
• Everything matters!

To discover more about the man, the company, and the industry, check out the following books:

• Pour Your Heart into It : How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang
• The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary by Joseph Michelli
• How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else by Michael Gates Gill
• My Sister’s a Barista: How They Made Starbucks a Home Away from Home (Great Brand Stories series) by John Simmons

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

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Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Howard Schultz is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

After a while, success stories begin to blend into a familiar blur. Although informative and rewarding, they often share many of the same customary elements we’ve heard time and time again.
 
This narrative is different. It has the makings of a “made-for-television fictional sit-com.” For over 25 years now, I have followed, with great interest, the growth of an organization that began with extremely humble beginnings right in my own back yard. I was recently asked to present a keynote at the annual meeting of this most unusual organization.
 
Two Men and a Truck® started in the early 1980s as a way for two brothers to make extra money while they were in high school. Brothers Brig and Jon Sorber
started helping people move people in the Lansing, Michigan, area using an old pick-up truck.
 
They had their mom, Mary Ellen Sheets, develop a logo to put in a weekly community newspaper. That same stick-men logo still appears on every truck, sign and advertisement. Obviously, the brothers did a great job, and word of their services traveled quickly. After her sons left for college, Mary Ellen kept receiving calls for their services, so in 1985 she decided to make things official by purchasing an old 14-foot moving truck for $350 and hired two movers.
 
That $350 is the only capital Sheets has ever invested in the company. Today, the company has grown to more than 1,300 trucks operating out of 201 locations in 31 states, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and South Africa! They’ve completed well over two million moves and boast a phenomenal 94% customer referral rate! Last year alone, they completed 352,292 moves systemwide.
 
Today, Two Men and a Truck® is the nation’s largest franchised local moving company. Their customers benefit from having thoroughly trained, uniformed movers who are insured and bonded to handle any home and business moving tasks.
 
The home office has changed quite a bit as well. The operation has moved from the dining room table of Sheets’s home to a state-of-the-art corporate headquarters, boasting solar power and a recently installed windmill, which will soon generate 30% of their power. Local schools will get the chance to plug in to Two Men and a Truck’s software to study wind current.
 
I recently toured this beautiful facility and was astounded at what I saw. Giant solar panels and an enormous windmill turbine can be seen as you enter the parking lot. The landscaping includes a lawn that could easily rival any golf course in the area. Entering the building, you approach a reception area surrounded by hallways lined with awards, recognition plaques and pictures as far as you can see from the lobby.
 
Before a new franchisee can open a location, he or she must come to Lansing, Michigan, and be trained for three weeks by the home office staff through Stick Men University®. Within this exquisite building is a fully furnished two-story home equipped with everything you might find in a typical moving situation. During what is called “house training,” students are taught how to maneuver, wrap, pack and load items like a grand piano, a china cabinet filled with breakables, glass tables, a washer and dryer, and a big-screen television. There’s also a bulky bedroom set and a home office. Trainees are expected to be able to recognize any possible obstacles, and empty the house as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I was then shown a truck bed (built to scale) in the training facility. Trainees must be able to fully pack the back of the truck with the items from the home. The sides of the bed are clear so trainers can make sure each item is stacked properly.
 
In a near-by classroom, fully equipped with the latest technology, franchisees are taught how to market their new business by the marketing department. They are taught about the computer systems in place by the technical staff, and they learn how to hire, manage and lead by the operations department. Stick Men University® trainers also host regional management training courses throughout the year and a two-day frontline staff conference in Lansing.
 
There are many other tools available to franchisees including detailed monthly reports, newsletters, Intranet, annual meetings, a resource library, a toll-free support line, a tradeshow booth, an in-house shop with a complete line of Two Men and a Truck® logoed clothing and professional marketing materials and a system-wide purchasing system.

While the well-known logo has remained the same over the years, the fleet has obviously been updated. That old pick-up truck logged many miles and has been transformed into a modern fleet of fully equipped vehicles serving clients across the country.
 
After extensive growth, Sheets asked her daughter, Melanie Bergeron, to assume the role of company president. Two Men and a Truck®’s long track record of aggressive growth continues under Bergeron’s progressive leadership and keen business strategies. Bergeron is now Chief Executive Officer, and her accomplishments have been showcased on the cover of Franchising World magazine and in numerous other publications, including Franchise Times.

Brig and Jon Sorber returned to their Lansing roots in the mid-1990s to team up with their mom and older sister. Brig Sorber is the president, and Jon Sorber serves as executive vice president and franchisee for the Lansing and Grand Rapids, Michigan, locations. Both also serve on the Board of Directors.

During our short breakfast chat prior to the annual meeting, Sheets spoke proudly of her organization, staff, franchisees, and continued growth. It was quite obvious why she has been so successful. Over the years, she has been honored with many national and international awards—far too many to be listed here. Prior to my keynote address, Sheets spoke briefly to those who had gathered for the two-day annual event. She articulated the importance of teamwork, training, customer service, quality and pride. There was absolutely no doubt that she spoke from her heart and her audience appreciated her message. She was certainly a tough act to follow.

Upon completion of my keynote presentation, I was presented with a beautiful Collector’s Edition replica of an official Two Men and a Truck® moving van, which is currently occupying a position of honor in my office trophy case.

Everything about this organization reflects success. From The Grandma Rule® and mission statement to their core purpose and core values, expectations and purpose are indeed obvious. Mary Ellen Sheets is a very humble leader who has obviously established “leadership” as a family tradition!

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Little-known Facts about Well-known Businesses – Two Men and a Truck® is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

However, to highlight a single chapter in his on-going saga would indeed be a momentous challenge. Think about the choices:

• He was an American industrialist.
• He was president of Ford Motor Company.
• He was instrumental in the development of the Ford Mustang.
• He was fired from Ford Motor Company.
• He saved the Chrysler Corp. from bankruptcy via restructuring as chairman.
• He secured a loan guarantee from the U.S. Congress in 1979 to save the company.
• Unlike so many other industries, he repaid the entire loan — seven years earlier than expected!
• He was responsible for Chrysler’s acquisition of AMC in 1987, reducing the Big Four to the Big Three. This move also brought the profitable Jeep division under Chrysler’s corporate umbrella.
• He was a passionate advocate of U.S. business exports in the 1980s.
• In 1982, Ronald Reagan appointed Iacocca to head the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which was created to raise funds for the renovation and preservation of the Statue of Liberty. He continues to serve on the board of the foundation.
• In 1999, Iacocca was the head of EV Global Motors Co. a company formed to develop and market electric bikes with a top speed of 15 mph and a range of 20 miles between recharging at wall outlets.
• He is the author and co-author of several best-selling books.
• He is a strong advocate for better medical treatment of diabetes. In 2000, Iacocca founded Olivio Premium Products, which manufactures the Olivio line of food products made from olive oil. He donates all profits from the company to diabetes research. 
• Iacocca has been an advocate of “Nourish the Children,” an initiative of Nu Skin Enterprises, since its inception in 2002. He is currently its chairman. He takes an active interest in the initiative and helped to donate a generator for the Malawi, Africa, VitaMeal plant.
• Iacocca led the funding campaign to expand Lehigh University into buildings formerly owned by Bethlehem Steel. Iacocca Hall on the Mountaintop Campus of Lehigh University houses the College of Education, the biology and chemical engineering departments, and The Iacocca Institute, which is focused on global competitiveness.
• In July 2005, Iacocca returned to the airwaves as Chrysler’s pitchman, along with stars such as Jason Alexander and Snoop Dogg, to promote Chrysler’s “Employee Pricing Plus” program; the ads reprise the “If you can find a better car, buy it” line that was Iacocca’s trademark in the 1980s. In return for his services, Iacocca and DaimlerChrysler agreed that his fees, plus a $1 donation per vehicle sold from July 1 through December 31, 2005, would be donated to the Iacocca Foundation for diabetes research.
• Most recently, he wrote a book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, in which he challenges both political parties and business leaders everywhere to return our country to the levels of strength, quality, success and integrity it once enjoyed. He minces no words in this particular best seller. Visit our book reviews on our web site for greater insight. 

See what I mean? Where would you focus? I hope I have, in some way, encouraged you to do some personal research on your own into this very multifaceted leader who will forever grace the pages of history books everywhere.

Lee Iacocca was born Lido Anthony Iacocca in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Italian immigrants who had settled in Pennsylvania’s steel-making belt. After high school, he graduated from Lehigh University with a degree in industrial engineering. He then attended Princeton University on a Wallace Memorial Fellowship.

Beginning a career at Ford Motor Company as an engineer in the early 50s, he quickly proceeded to turn them on their ear. He made tremendous inroads in engineering, sales and design and became president on his 40th birthday in 1964. Ironically, he clashed with Henry Ford II and ultimately was fired in 1978 despite Ford posting a two-billion-dollar profit for the year!

Rather than retiring, which he was certainly in a position to do, he moved across town to the Chrysler Corp. and performed what was considered to be miracle after miracle as he made automotive history. After retiring from Chrysler, you’d think Lee would be ready to settle down and enjoy his much-deserved retirement. Instead, he appears to have considered that retirement as a launching pad for the second half of his life. He’s accomplished more since retiring than most people do in their entire lives. 

You’ll want to learn more about this very unique leader and will be inspired to share what you learn with others. We need more leaders like this man, and we need them today!

By the way, when embarking on your research, you can remember how to spell his last name by using the method devised by his Chrysler employees. They devised the mnemonic slogan: I Am Chairman Of Chrysler Corporation America.

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Leadership Training or Leadership Keynote Presentation Information Leadership Boot Camp Leadership Training Modules Leadership Keynote Presentation Topics Leadership Speakers and Leadership Training Leadership Articles Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders and Businesses (Category contains many articles on leaders) Generational Gems for Future Leaders (Category contains many articles on leadership) Words of Wisdom on Leadership Leadership Lessons We MUST Pass On A Beacon of Leadership Dire Need for Leadership Middle-Management Crisis Escalates Today's Invisible Leadership Challenge Leadership Messages Seldom Change Engagement + Execution = EDGE (E + E = E) Leadership Books and Leadership Posters Leadership Book Reviews Top Leadership and Management Books Leadership Posters

Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Lee Iacocca is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

However, what followed has the making of a traditional “Horatio Alger” rags-to-riches classic. My prediction, based on what I’ve witnessed thus far, is that this organization will someday be studied as part of most MBA programs as Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines and G.E. are today. What these gentlemen have accomplished in a relatively short time is nothing short of phenomenal! Steve & Barry’s® is changing the way that consumers shop for their clothes and changing the way that retailers cater to them. They’re stripping away the gloss and giving consumers something real.

If you’ve never seen or heard of one of their operations, you must make an effort to experience their unique offering. A couple of my grandchildren dragged me into one of their stores in our local mall, and I was overwhelmed and very impressed with what I saw. On the other hand, I gave them a year before they would fold and ride off into the sunset, leaving nary a trace of their previous existence. I made that prediction because I knew there was no way any company could sell that quality of merchandise at those prices and hope to realize anything resembling a decent profit. I’ve since added that particular prediction to my growing list of major miscalculations.

Steve & Barry’s® is an American casual apparel clothing chain with about 200 locations in 33 states and plans to open an additional 70 stores in 2007. Those who shop there typically pay 50% to 90% less for the same quality clothing found at competing department and specialty stores. The majority of their locations are between 50,000 and 100,000 square feet, and offer casual wear for the whole family: a wide selection of jeans, T-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, sweaters, polos, cargos, footwear, accessories, and more. They also feature licensed apparel from top American brands, including Marvel Comics, WWE, Hasbro, General Mills’, Hershey’s and Ford, and the largest collection of collegiate licensed apparel in the nation. Most every item in the store is priced around $9.98, although they often run store-wide specials as low as $7.98. Visualize a quality varsity jacket at prices like that!

By providing premium apparel at impossibly low prices, this retail phenomena is single-handedly changing the retail landscape. They’re enthusiastically busting the model. As a result, they’re also significantly impacting entire communities, altering shopping patterns, and impacting local economies. Competitors would be wise not to ignore this rapidly growing customer favorite as they aspire to re-imagine their company daily.

But how did it all begin? Childhood friends Steven Shore and Barry Prevor
have been business partners since they were teenagers living in suburban New York. They started their business careers by screen-printing T-shirts and selling them for $1 at flea markets across Long Island and New Jersey. In 1985, they opened a modest collegiate apparel store at the University of Pennsylvania. Steve & Barry’s® quickly became a landmark destination, as students found they could purchase the same quality collegiate-licensed clothing sold at the campus bookstore for dramatically lower prices.

The success of the original store at the University of Pennsylvania fueled an expansion to other universities across the country such as Michigan State, the University of Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Purdue. The mall superstore format began to take shape in the late 1990s, upon the opening of its first mall-based location near Detroit, Michigan.

This fantasy fairy tale could easily end here as old friends Steve and Barry gallop off into the sunset on their white steeds to live happily ever after. But wait, it appears that their legend is just beginning. I remember reading about this next chapter in their epic tale in the business section of USA Today. What a concept!

In 2006, Steve & Barry’s® made retail history when the company teamed up with NBA basketball star Stephon Marbury of the New York Knicks to develop an affordable, high-quality, basketball sneaker. Believe it or not, they did it. They sell the sneaker for just $14.98 compared to shoes of comparable quality selling between $100 and $150! When I heard about this development, I assumed the obvious … the shoes must be made of cardboard to sell at that price. Then I saw them featured on a segment of ABC’s “20/20″ television news show. They pointed out that Marbury actually wore these very shoes during all of his NBA games. If that weren’t enough, “20/20″ commissioned a professor of footwear design at the Parsons School of Design in New York City to test the sneakers. He cut them in half and discovered they are similar in construction and materials as the most expensive basketball sneakers offered by other top brands retailing for over $150! This Starbury Collection of shoes, high-quality jeans, jackets, hoodies, T-shirts, hats and more will certainly put smiles on the faces of many youngsters who, until now, simply couldn’t afford clothing of this quality. Hats off to Stephon, Steve and Barry!

However, things didn’t stop here. Public response to the Marbury project was so monumental that Steve and Barry sought out other similar opportunities to offer their growing horde of loyal fans.

You’ve probably seen the popular television commercials promoting their next line. They’ve partnered with popular TV/movie actress and fashion icon Sara Jessica Parker to create the BITTEN collection designed for women of all ages and sizes. The collection, offering nearly 1,000 apparel and accessories pieces, including jeans, woven and knit shirts, suit separates, wool and cashmere sweaters, dresses, jackets, lingerie, T-shirts, sweatshirts, sleepwear, swimwear, bags, jewelry, belts, footwear, and much more, just recently hit their stores. The name BITTEN reflects Sara Jessica Parker’s initial reaction upon entering a Steve & Barry’s® store. She said she was blown away by the store, the company’s mission statement, their products, prices and employees. She says she was “bitten” by the Steve & Barry’s® bug.

If this organization can create opportunities like this for themselves as well as their customers, why can’t other retailers do the same? My guess is that they can and choose not to. The lure of the profit is far too great. Apparently they have yet to take notice of Steve & Barry’s® tremendous success and continuing growth.

By the way, the story is far from over. In 2005, Steve & Barry’s® purchased over 3.5 million square feet of space in shopping centers throughout the United States, the most of any mall-based chain in the country. The result was 62 brand new supermarket-sized stores, which doubled their outlets. Steve & Barry’s® is planning a series of blockbuster announcements over the next 12 months that will continue to shake the retail landscape. In fact, before the summer ends, former Nickelodeon star Amanda Bynes will also debut a clothing line, “Dear.” Similar to the BITTEN line, Dear will be a women’s brand that will appeal mostly to younger women.

Keep an eye on this very unique retailer as they will be setting standards for their competitors and raising the expectations of eager and appreciative customers for years to come. You might find it very beneficial to take a closer look at their culture, philosophy, mission, and methods as much of what they do so well can easily be applied to any business focused on customer satisfaction … regardless of your product or service.

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Little-known Facts about Well-known Businesses – Steve & Barry’s is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

• Ray was born in 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois. Ironically, decades later, he would return to this neighborhood to establish the famous McDonald’s Hamburger University, the worldwide management training center, in nearby Oak Brook.
• At the age of 15, this brash young man lied about his age to join the Red Cross as an ambulance driver, working with another future entrepreneur, Walt Disney. Upon completion of his training in Connecticut, he never left for Europe because the war ended. He then moved on to become a piano player before realizing there was little chance for a career tickling the ivories. In 1922, he became a salesman for the Lily Tulip Cup Co. by day as he continued to play piano at night for a local radio station.
• In the course of selling paper cups, he encountered Earl Prince, who had invented a five-spindle multimixer milkshake machine and was buying Lily cups by the truckload. Fascinated by the speed and efficiency of the machine, Kroc obtained exclusive marketing rights from Prince. Determined to succeed, he crisscrossed the country peddling the mixer for the next 17 years.
• Kroc discovered a remarkable restaurant in San Bernardino, California, owned by two brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald, who had ordered eight mixers and had them churning away all day. Most of his customers used only one multimixer. Kroc saw the restaurant in 1954 and was entranced by the effectiveness of the operation. He had never seen anything like it. They were fast, efficient, cheap and extremely popular as customers lined up consistently for 15-cent hamburgers, 19-cent cheeseburgers, 20-cent milkshakes, 10-cent sodas and 10-cent fries.
• While the brothers were content with their successful business, Kroc visualized the establishment of the golden arches all over the country. In another display of salesmanship, Ray Kroc convinced the brothers to make him their exclusive agent. In 1954, Ray Kroc opened his own McDonald’s drive-in in Des Plaines, Illinois. He officially established the McDonald’s Corporation. The rapid growth later proved to be much too ambitious for the brothers so Ray bought the brothers out in 1961 for $2.7 million — a fortune for the brothers but a mere pittance of what Kroc would ammass decades later as the golden arches dotted the world’s surface! As he noted later about the purchase, “I was 52 years old. I had diabetes and incipient arthritis. I had lost my gall bladder and most of my thyroid gland in earlier campaigns, but I was convinced that the best was ahead of me.” Obviously, he was right. Ray Kroc was the first businessman to apply the principles of mass production on a large scale in a service industry.
• By 1963, more than 1 billion hamburgers had been sold, a statistic that was displayed on a neon sign in front of each restaurant. That same year, the 500th McDonald’s restaurant opened and the famous clown, Ronald McDonald, made his debut. He soon became known to children throughout the country, and kids were critical in determining where the family ate. According to John Mariani in his remarkable book America Eats Out, “Within six years of airing his first national TV ad in 1965, the Ronald McDonald clown character was familiar to 96% of American children, far more than knew the name of the President of the United States.”
• In 1974, Ray Kroc became a hero for reasons completely unrelated to business. He purchased the San Diego Padres baseball team and prevented them from moving to Washington, D.C.
• Today McDonald’s is serving 47 million people a day through the efforts of 1.5 million employees in 31,000 locations in 119 countries on 6 continents! Can you imagine that kind of growth from one single location similar to the one pictured here? 
• Ray Kroc passed away from a heart ailment in January 1984, at the age of 82, just ten months before McDonald’s sold hamburger number 50 billion. Later that same year, The San Diego Padres went to the World Series.
• Kroc was included in the TIME 100 list of the world’s most influential builders and titans of industry. For more information, read Grinding It Out:The Making of McDonald’s.

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

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Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Ray Kroc is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

Boasting seven production facilities across the nation and in Brazil, ACIPCO’s Birmingham headquarters has grown into the largest individual iron pipe casting plant in the world. It’s located on a 2,100 acre site that runs the length of 52 football fields and has nearly 60 acres under roof. It has to be seen to be believed!
 
I’ve had the rare opportunity to visit this facility to provide two keynote presentations to a very enthused, interactive staff of seasoned professionals. Prior to the presentations, I received a guided tour … conducted, I might add, by two very enthusiastic and obviously proud employees who knew the 100+ year history of every inch of the compound. I broke bread with staff members in the company cafeteria and found it intriguing to observe white-collar and blue-collar colleagues sharing conversation, laughter, camaraderie and nourishment as though they were home with their family. In fact, the majority of the employees I met considered ACIPCO to be their “home” and their fellow employees as “family.”
 
Culture, tradition, environment … call it what you will. It’s rare. It’s refreshing. It’s difficult to understand in this day and age of cynicism, unrest and distrust. However, knowing the history of this unique organization not only restores your faith in mankind but explains why you feel you’re entering Alice’s Wonderland as you pass through the front gate.
 
Consider the following:

• They’ve located their headquarters in the city nicknamed “The Pittsburgh of the South” because Birmingham’s major industries are centered around iron and steel production.
• ACIPCO was founded in 1905 and has long been recognized as an innovative manufacturer.
• Fortune magazine has recognized ACIPCO as one of “The 100 Best Companies to Work For” the past eight consecutive years.
• Temperatures in a pipe casting shop can reach 130 degrees. ACIPCO has installed individual air conditioners for its employees in parts of its Birmingham plant.
• ACIPCO is renowned for offering its employees an “outstanding” pension plan, on-site training programs, tuition reimbursement, and a state-of-the-art wellness center for employees, their families, and retirees.
• Workers at ACIPCO have one very good reason to stay. Collectively they own the plant and share in its profits — even after they retire. Founder John Eagan was a firm believer in running a business based upon the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Upon his death, Eagan created a trust that made employees beneficiaries. Last year, employees enjoyed bonuses of more than $29 million. Eagan’s philosophy and legacy have reigned for 102 years and continue to be the cornerstone for the company’s prosperity. As this organization celebrates 102 years of success, it is quite evident that the more than 3,000 employees not only believe but support and practice this philosophy.
• One of ACIPCO’s most unique characteristics is their on-site health care facility, which provides primary care to 10,000 people — not only their employees but also all retirees. Having personally toured the facility, I can attest to the fact that it rivals anything you’ll find in any major city in the country. I also found it very interesting that they actually reward their employees for maintaining good health in areas such as proper weight, body fat percentage, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.
• ACIPCO is proud to boast the title of producing the first 16-foot-length pipe in the world as well as being the first to provide cement lining of water pipe and pioneering the development of centrifugal pipe casting.
• Add to that these other perks: wages that are 10 percent higher than the industry average; the employee suggestion system, which pays workers for good tips that result in increased efficiency of operations; and a continuing education program.
• The company has also implemented a Threat Response Team to prevent the workplace violence that threatens many industries.
• This summer the company is spending $70 million to add 61,000 square feet of space to house a state-of-the-art, electrically fired, pollution-friendly furnace that will be one of only two in the world. This venture could create 35 more jobs in the area.
• They created an employee-at-large position, which was added to represent employees to management, and a continuous improvement program made up of current and retired employees.
• A few years ago, ACIPCO established Eagan College, an expanded employee training program and the Eagan Center for Wellness with an employee participation rate that exceeds 80 percent.
• While the industry is challenged with a turnover rate ranging from 80% to 100%, ACIPCO has a turnover rate of LESS THAN A HALF PERCENT PER YEAR!
• In my pre-appearance research on this very unorthadox organization, I included conversations with Birmingham locals at the airport, in the taxi, at several restaurants, and in a major shopping mall. I began to believe that everyone I talked to had been coached before our conversation. It’s very evident that the city of Birmingham respects, supports, and appreciates ACIPCO’s presence.
• I heard only one compliant, but I heard it several times. People wanting to go to work at ACIPCO must expect a long wait for a job opening. One gentlemen told me that everyone monitors the retiree announcements as well as the obituary page of the local papers because that’s the only way there’s going to be an opening at ACIPCO. I have a feeling that’s a complaint ACIPCO can live with!

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Little-known Facts about Well-known Businesses – ACIPCO is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION

United Technologies Corporation (UTC) is one of those many organizations in the U.S. that impacts our lives every single day in a variety of ways while the majority of us who benefit from their products and services have never heard of them. 

It’s certainly not that they’re in hiding. Not by a long shot. They have a beautiful corporate headquarters located in historic Hartford, Connecticut. They conduct business virtually everywhere in the world, boasting 4,000-plus locations doing business in approximately 180 countries in 30 different languages. They employ approximately 215,000 employees and are recognized as the 47th largest employer in the world on the 2006 Global 500 list, in Fortune.) 

Boasting revenues of $47.8 billion last year, UTC is a diversified, American, multinational conglomerate generating more than 50% of their revenues outside the United States with 60% of their employees working abroad.

While you may not recognize the corporate name, you may very well be familiar with many of their products and services. Their business units include: 

Carrier heating and air conditioning systems
Hamilton Sundstrand aerospace and industrial systems
Otis elevators and escalators
Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines
Sikorsky helicopters
UTC Fire & Security protection services
UTC Power
United Technologies Research Center

RANKING
20th largest U.S. manufacturer (2006 list, Industry Week)
43rd largest U.S. corporation (2006 list, Fortune)
55th largest publicly held manufacturer in the world (2006 list, Industry Week)
126th largest corporation in the world (2006 Global 500 list, Fortune)
Named “Most Admired” aerospace and defense company (2001-2006 lists, Fortune)

The core group of United Technologies companies was founded in 1929 as United Aircraft & Transport Corp. by the merger of Boeing, Chance Vought, Hamilton Standard, Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky Aircraft. As a result of the Air Mail Act of 1934, United Aircraft and Transport broke up into three independent companies: Boeing, United Aircraft, and United Airlines. United Aircraft changed its name to United Technologies in 1975. Otis Elevator was acquired in 1976, Carrier Refrigeration in 1979, and Sundstrand in 1999. UTC entered the fire and security business in 2001 by purchasing Chubb Security. In 2005, United Technologies acquired Boeing’s Rocketdyne division, which was merged into the Pratt & Whitney business unit.

The next time you’re riding an escalator, relaxing in air conditioning, or enjoying your airplane flight, you’ll know just who was responsible for your comfort and safety.

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Little-known Facts about Well-known Businesses – United Technologies Corporation is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

I’ve been following the career of this charismatic leader for quite some time now. If you’re looking for a role model for your children or grandchildren, look no further. Share the details of her past and simply focus your attention to your newspaper, magazine, television or the internet to see what she’s mastering at the moment. Her bio reads like a fairy tale, and just when you think her career has peaked, she takes it to another level. Today’s average business leader, if there is such a thing, would be pleased as punch to boast of just one of her previous accomplishments. Wait until you see the entire list and you’ll see what I mean.
 
Why all the success? What drives this woman to unparalleled success at a time when your daily newscast reveals another leader thrown to the curb or even on his/her way to prison? Listen to her employees, associates, and competitors, and it quickly becomes blatantly obvious. Education, experience, worth ethic, focus, integrity, unlimited passion, creativity, keen judgment, listening skills, the ability to earn respect, a pioneer mindset, a respect and belief in customer feedback and the expertise to create, encourage and support community. The list goes on, but I’m sure you see why she continues to excel in everything she undertakes.
 
Margaret C. “Meg” Whitman has been the President and CEO of the online marketplace we know as eBay since 1998. Whitman joined eBay when the company had 29 employees and operated solely in the United States; eBay is now a global organization with over 11,600 employees.
 
She led the company from a few customers to nearly 50 million … revenue jumped from a few dollars to nearly $6 billion.
 
In addition to managing eBay, she currently serves on the Board of Directors of Procter & Gamble and Dream Works Animation. According to Forbes magazine, Whitman is currently worth an estimated $1.3 billion. She is one of only seven women to have been repeatedly ranked among the world’s most influential people by Time Magazine.
 
Now let’s take a look at her incomparable track record. Buckle your seatbelt … here we go.
 
She attended Princeton University as an undergraduate with every intention of securing a career in medicine. However, she became an economics major after a summer job selling advertising for a campus publication … obviously a major turning point. She went on to receive an MBA from Harvard Business School.
 
Whitman began her working career at Procter & Gamble from 1979 to 1981. It was at Procter & Gamble that she built her experience in brand management. She then spent eight years working for Bain & Company, a leading global business and strategy consulting firm, eventually becoming a vice president.

From 1989 to 1992, Whitman worked at the Walt Disney Company, where she served as the Senior Vice President of Marketing for the Disney Consumer Products Division.

From 1992 to 1995, she served as President of the Stride Rite Corporation’s Children’s Division where she was responsible for the launch of the highly successful Munchkin baby shoe line and the repositioning of the Stride Rite brand and retail stores. She has also held the positions of executive vice president for the Keds Division and corporate vice president of strategic planning.

From 1995 to 1997, Whitman was President and CEO of FTD (Florists Transworld Delivery), the world’s largest floral products company. While at FTD, she oversaw its transition from a florist-owned association to a for-profit, privately owned company.

She then left to become the general manager of Hasbro Inc.’s Preschool Division, responsible for global management and marketing of two of the world’s best-known children’s brands, Playskool and Mr. Potato Head. During her tenure, Meg oversaw the reorganization of the Preschool Division and its resulting return to profitability.

As you can plainly see, as the corporate prodigy made her way through a series of posts at blue-chip companies, she certainly left her mark in a most positive way.

In 2005, she was interviewed by Disney’s board of directors to succeed Michael Eisner as CEO, but dropped out a week later, prompting the board to give the job to Robert Iger.

She then joined eBay and has been growing the organization at a fever pitch. I have a strange feeling she is far from slowing down.

Whitman is a multi-billionaire and one of the richest female CEOs in the world.

Whitman donated a significant sum of money to her alma mater, Princeton University, said to have totaled more than $30 million, which has allowed the construction of the university’s sixth residential college, Whitman College, opening this year.

She is married to Griffith R. Harsh IV, a neurosurgeon.

It might be interesting to keep your eye on this dynamic leader in the future. I’m certain her career and continuous success is far from finished.

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Leadership Training or Leadership Keynote Presentation Information Leadership Boot Camp Leadership Training Modules Leadership Keynote Presentation Topics Leadership Speakers and Leadership Training Leadership Articles Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders and Businesses (Category contains many articles on leaders) Generational Gems for Future Leaders (Category contains many articles on leadership) Words of Wisdom on Leadership Leadership Lessons We MUST Pass On A Beacon of Leadership Dire Need for Leadership Middle-Management Crisis Escalates Today's Invisible Leadership Challenge Leadership Messages Seldom Change Engagement + Execution = EDGE (E + E = E) Leadership Books and Leadership Posters Leadership Book Reviews Top Leadership and Management Books Leadership Posters

Little-known Facts about Well-known Leaders – Meg Whitman is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.

• Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Procter & Gamble community consists of over 135,000 employees working in more than 80 countries worldwide.
• What began as a small, family-operated soap and candle company now provides products and services of superior quality and value to consumers in over 180 countries.
• William Procter, a candlemaker, and James Gamble, a soapmaker, immigrants from England and Ireland respectively, might never have even met one another if they hadn’t married sisters, Olivia and Elizabeth Norris.
• Since both their industries used similar resources, the “Panic of 1837″ caused intense competition between the two and, as a result, it led to discord within the family. Alexander Norris, their father-in-law, decided to call a meeting where he convinced his new sons-in-law to become business partners. As a result of the suggestion, a new enterprise was born in October of 1837: Procter & Gamble.
• The company prospered during the nineteenth century. In 1859, their head count reached 80 and their sales reached one million dollars.
• In the 1880s Procter & Gamble began to market a new product, an inexpensive soap that floated in water. The company called the soap IVORY. It seemed to be an instant favorite for consumers and seemed to kick off an aggressive development and marketing program that placed P & G in a leadership role for decades to come.
• In April 2006 the company’s operations were categorized into three ”Business Units” with each unit divided into “Business Segments”:
  • P & G Beauty & Health Unit (Beauty Care segment — Health Care segment)
  • P & G Household Care Unit (Pet health, snacks, and coffee segment — Baby Care and Family Care segment — Fabric Care and Home Care segment)
  • Gillette Unit (Duracell & Braun segment — Blades & Razors segment)
• While hundreds of millions of consumers world-wide are very familiar with the many P & G brands, those same patrons may not be aware that their favorite brand belongs to the P & G family of growing products.
• The following 21 brands have reached the level of MORE than a billion dollars in sales annually!
  (Always – Bounty – Braun – Charmin – Crest – Dawn – Downy – Duracell – Folgers – Gillette – Gillette Mach 3 – Head & Shoulders – IAMS – Olay – Oral-B – Pampers – Pantene – Pringles – Tide – Wella – Fab)
• Procter & Gamble produces close to one hundred other very well-known products you see on your grocery shelves every day. That list would include popular staples such as Bold – Bonus – Bounce – Camay – Cascade – Charmin – Cheer – Clairol – Comet – Cover Girl – Dash – Dreft – Dryel – Febreze – Fixodent – Gaub – Gleem – Ivory – Joy – Loving Care – Luvs – Max Factor – Metamucil – Mirage – Miss Clairol – Mr. Clean – New Wave – Nice’n Easy – Noxema – NyQuil – DayQuil – Old Spice – Pepto-Bismol – Prilosec OC – Puffs – Safeguard – Scope – Secret – Sure – Swiffer – Tampex – Tempo – Thermacare – Vicks – Vidal Sassoon – Wash & Go – Whisper and Yes to name a few. 

Their ability to meet the needs of today’s consumer world wide seems to be as strong as ever. God Bless Fathers-in-Law. 

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management.  For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2MAX or fill out our contact form.

Little-known Facts about Well-known Businesses – Procter and Gamble is a post from the AchieveMax® Blog, which includes articles on business, change, leadership, motivation, teamwork, time management, and more. Please visit our site for more information on our professional speakers, custom-designed training, and keynote presentations.