Bear made us all better employees and more importantly, better people.
Always Innovate
and Never Surrender
-Heath Wruble
Business
leaders with a game plan continually move forward, never sit still, and are constantly
innovating, creating, and building. Jeff Bezos,
Mark Cuban, and Warren Buffet charge forward and effectively lead their
businesses to new heights. As a leader, you are charged with never giving up;
if you fail, make the changes necessary to succeed, learn
from your mistakes,
pivot, regroup, and never
surrender. I speak to business leaders every day and give this same advice,
today it's free!
Do Not
Rush
Sumner Redstone
took over his father's drive-in
movie business, called National Amusements Inc. He helped expand it, and
slowly over time, he was able to build it into a massive movie
theater
business; it is said that Sumner Redstone coined the phrase “cineplex”. It took
decades not years, for Redstone, to methodically build his business by continually innovating, keeping one step ahead of his competition, and being
underestimated by his peers.
Eventually, Redstone, saw that video
and on-demand entertainment may put pressure
on the theater business which would impact revenue,
instead of allowing that to happen he recognized
that his company had to grow and change with technology and that
owning the content
was the key to future success. Rather than give up on a business he
spent decades building, he engineered a billion-dollar takeover of Viacom,
which then led to the takeover of Paramount Studios and eventually the Tiffany
network, CBS. This allowed him to own not only the content but the production
and distribution as well. This did not happen overnight, it was a slow
drawn-out process, where Redstone
saw the changes in the entertainment world and was able to adapt and build
slowly upon his previous success.
The Paley family owned a small
cigar manufacturer, William Paley joined his father’s business and started
to advertise their
cigars on the local radio
network, a new medium at that time,
due to the success of radio
advertising, business picked up and their cigar business was booming.
William Paley
saw the potential
in radio, that it held the key to potential revenue growth for his small cigar business and others.
Paley realized that advertising was the future, he saw an opportunity and
executed a growth strategy. William Paley brought this idea to his father and
convinced him to buy a local radio station; soon one became many. This led
Paley to branch out into purchasing billboard locations, soon the advertising
revenue from these new business ventures left their cigar business in the dust.
Eventually, they were making so much more money from these new business
ventures that the small cigar manufacturing business was sidelined for the
larger growth business. Technology kept evolving, as did the Paley family
empire. The Paley family expanded into another new technology medium at the
time, television which along with their radio stations and billboards their
empire spanned coast to coast.
William Paley built this business up into what we now call the Tiffany network,
CBS, which was eventually bought by none other than Sumner Redstone.
Both businesses started small, and concentrated on one product; through the years and with
vision, they slowly began to build upon their success, it didn’t happen overnight
but over decades. They were able to see the future and adapt.
There have been many other
companies that failed to adapt and have disappeared from the landscape, Barnes and Noble, AOL, Netscape,
and Blockbusters, to name a few. They failed to innovate and eventually faded into the
night.
Taking
a slow, methodical approach is much better for you, your customers, and your
shareholders. By taking the long-term approach to building your business, at
the same time taking care of your employees, your investors, and especially
your clients, you will be more successful, you will be able to innovate
and pivot with the ever-changing business cycles. By maintaining an eye toward
the future and continually staying ahead of your industry
and the technology around you
will help make you a better leader.
Allow others to Flourish
Never take shortcuts and always be considerate to others, If it takes
a year or two or even ten, the
satisfaction you and your clients will receive will be much more meaningful.
Remember you may be the brains behind the operation, but if you are smart and
do not allow you’re too ego to get in the way, you, your team, your company,
and your clients will be successful. Surround yourself with great people, trust
them, allow them to contribute, and do not crowd and micromanage your team, this will only breed
resentment and will destroy the creativity and innovation you will
need to succeed.
Later
on, when Bezos and his team were looking into creating a loyalty program a
low-level engineer suggested the Amazon Prime program, an Amazon customer can
join this program by paying a small
membership fee and these members
get free 2-day shipping. This program was so
successful it now numbers 112 Million members paying approximately $119 a year
generating 14 Billion dollars in revenue every year.
Two
different people, same organization, two different positions and departments
making two very different suggestions which changed the company for the better,
one helped improve efficiency and the other helped create a program that
generates billions of dollars for the firm every year. When you surround yourself
with good people
and you are open to suggestions from others, success is just right around
the corner. Do not allow your ego to interfere with your
efficiency. Bezos was able to grow his business
not just on his merit alone but by listening
to his employees.
Leave the Others Behind to Eat Your Dust
Blockbusters did not hit it
out of the park, they failed to
innovate, fell behind, and went belly up, Barnes and Nobles rose to the top, got complacent, failed
to innovate, and now is barely a blip on the horizon.
Some
companies evolve and others get lost in the shuffle. Sometimes it’s a failure
to innovate, and for others, it is due to a lack of funding, in all cases it is
because of poor leadership. A management structure that failed to be forward-looking, to listen and take advice,
failed to keep up with their customers’ needs and
the ever-changing technology.
Blockbusters
was a brick and mortar store, they started by renting videos, VHS tapes, of the
latest movies to members, they adapted and started to rent out video games, and
adapted again and changed the VHS tapes to DVDs and Blu-ray but they failed to
adapt fast enough, others beat them to the punch
and started to stream movies
straight to your television, these
businesses bypassed the expensive real estate brick and mortar stores by
being innovative and by utilizing the most recent technological advances, soon
Blockbusters disappeared from the scene.
Netflix
started as a competitor to Blockbusters, they initially sold and rented DVDs,
they would send them directly to your door. In 2007, they saw a different need,
a new revenue source, streaming videos directly to your homes. They saw an
opportunity and adapted to the market quicker than blockbusters. In 2013 they
shifted again, adapted again, saw that content was essential to gaining and
maintaining members (remember Sumner Redstone) and started to produce their
shows and movies. Netflix was able to see around the next bend and react
quicker than its competitors, including Blockbusters, eventually, Blockbusters went bust and disappeared from the scene, yet Netflix is
still thriving. Netflix has approximately 200 million paid subscribers with an
average monthly rate of $9 their revenue is over 20 billion dollars a year.
Barnes and Nobles was the largest bookseller in the world, they had massive stores
in almost
every city. The small neighborhood bookstores couldn’t compete, Barnes and Nobel were able to
buy in volume and sell the same books much cheaper than the smaller stores.
There were demonstrations and newspaper articles about the big goliath box
stores pricing the neighborhood books stores out of business, these big box stores were destroying the fabric of the neighborhood, Barnes and Noble did not
bat an eye, they kept growing and building and selling books.
Then
along came Amazon and Jeff Bezos who said he could do this better, he started
to sell books online, then that turned
into eBooks and that turned
into selling other
items, now amazon sells everything from hard copy
books that get shipped to you in two or three days, to eBooks which get
downloaded to you in 60 seconds, they even sell toilet paper, TVs, computers,
and hammers.
Barnes and Noble failed
to innovate, they failed to think big and bold,
they got complacent. Their leaders did not keep up
with what was happening around them, they failed to see the
trends. While Amazon started
to get into eBooks, delivering an entire book to you in less than 60 seconds, Barnes and Nobel stuck to
their brick and mortar approach, confident no one could
defeat them. They let their guard
down, did not see the future, did not listen
to their customer’s needs. They were not willing
to change, and Amazon left them in the dust.
Both Blockbusters and Barnes and Noble
failed to react, to change,
to see the future, and lost the
battle. Their corporate leaders were complacent with being number one, failing
to read and listen to who and
what was coming up right behind them. These companies had the name brand, a
loyal customer base, but failed to spend the extra dollars to adapt, to listen.
They could have started to sell books online or started to stream videos to
your home, but they did not. They lost and others came up behind them and beat
them out in the race to innovate and change. In effect, they failed to listen
to the customer and take the action needed to maintain their brand identity and
their loyal customers.
Be Giving and Never Give Up
Never
give up and always give of yourself, it will keep you grounded. This starts at
the top and others will follow.
When I worked for Bear Stearns, they had a requirement
that senior managers were required to give at least 4% of their
total take-home pay (salary and bonus) to charity, most executives give
more, no one ever gave less, because it was enforced by the top. The leaders of
the company received yearly reports, they required employees to provide their
tax returns to the company for review.
Unlike most other companies where giving to charity was encouraged, Bear Stearns took it to another level.
Giving became part of the company's culture and was embraced by others within
the company that was not required to give. Why? Because they saw their mentors
giving and wanted to emulate them.
Bear
Steans was known as one of the most charitable banks on Wall Street, it helped
create a better culture and also a better company.
It was very rare for employees to leave the company,
creating a much different atmosphere from its competitors. If you ask anyone
who worked at Bear, “do you still give”, every single one of them will say
“yes”.
Bear made us all better employees
and more importantly, better people.
In 1993 the ESPY was awarded
to Jimmy Valvano
and it was one of the most inspiring speeches ever given at an award show.
It's worth your time to go to YouTube and check it out.
Jimmy
V., as he was affectionately known, was a star basketball player turned coach
and someone who inspired
his players and who will be remembered for years to come. In 1993 when he was awarded the ESPY he was
terminally ill, he never let cancer take him down, with his body full of
tumors, a few months left to live, he got up on that stage to tell the world
his message, he lived each and every day with love and joy, and he never gave
up.
[i]During his
inspiring speech he said the following “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up”… “To
me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every
day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh
every day. Number
two thinks. You should spend
some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions
moved to tears, which could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you
laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full
day. That's
a heck of a day. You do that seven
days a week, you're going to have something
special.”
Every
day I try to laugh, try to think,
and try to be moved, but I also try and give back. It could be a simple gesture
to someone else,
helping them with their bags crossing the street, a smile, or even asking them how they are doing.
Charity does not necessarily have to be in the form of a dollar bill, it could
be a helping hand. When you see someone down, help bring them up, when you see
someone struggling, give them a hand. Your thoughts, speech, and action will
help you become a better person, a better friend, a better parent, a better
sibling, and a better business leader. Instill these lessons into your life,
pass them down to your employees, your coworkers, and your friends. It will
change your life; it may very well change theirs too.
[i] https://jamesclear.com/great-speeches/dont-give-up-by-jim-valvano
