What they’re saying about CEO Road Rules
“The people dimension is the great management multiplier, especially for top executives. Positive, knowledgeable, inspiring managers are always in short supply. This book's case histories will cause good managers to reflect on improving their talents.”
L. Daniel Jorndt, CEO & Chairman (ret.)
Walgreen Co.
“Winning in business and being successful in the competitive environment is all about leadership, teamwork, and focus. Key and Stearns offer strategies, tools, and insights into how it's done and what's really important.”
Angel Ruiz, President & CEO
Ericsson Inc.
“A collection of simple but powerful rules to live by in business and life! The combination of the right focus, right people, and right execution will work for you.”
William E. McCorey, Jr., VP Information Technology
Circuit City Stores
The Road Map
Right Focus is about defining your purpose, setting a vision you can attain, declaring your guiding principles and understanding the thing in your world at which you can be best. Determine your focus and you'll improve the decisions you make at work and at home as life gets more complicated and time gets more precious.
Right People is about selecting and/or hiring those who will help you excel in your work and in your life. It includes everyone you care about and who supports your success.
Right Execution is about executing with excellence and getting the right things done on time and with high impact at work, at home and in your community. Right Execution is also about going beyond your self-interest and leaving a lasting legacy beyond financial success.
From Authors Mary Key, Ph.D. & Dennis Stearns
When we researched CEO Road Rules, we found examples of entrepreneurs who were succeeding despite the trend toward overseas outsourcing. They were also doing well against big Fortune 1000 competitors and actually thriving despite tough economic conditions in their own backyards.
The top CEOs interviewed for CEO Road Rules did three things very well, day in and day out. They focused their business better than other company leaders, they surrounded themselves with better people and they were better at executing their plans at work and at home in a balanced and consistent way.
The Path to Success
Right focus involves finding the right type of work, work that makes you jump out of bed in the morning and seize the day. Our top CEOs found their niches early on and threw themselves into their work with passion and zest. This was contagious for their work team and customers. They also did more and better planning toward their life goals. They made sure their mission, vision and values were well thought out and developed with input from their entire work and family teams. Many entrepreneurs have their business plan on a napkin in their back pocket. But our top CEOs had done a lot of early planning with experts in business development and their products or service niches.
Right people means surrounding yourself with the people who will support you on the road to success and help you when things inevitably go south. Our top CEOs were deliberate over spans of 20-30 years in their selections of a life-mate, friends, mentors, employees and senior managers. They believed that, when you surround yourself with people of optimism and good will, you will find success no matter what challenges are thrown at you along the way. Resiliency, the ability to bounce back after failure and make something good come of bad, was a consistent trait in these leaders.
Right execution seems simple: have the right focus and surround yourself with the right people to act on that focus. Many a good plan and people have failed because execution fell short of the mark. Our top CEOs learned when to be a good cheerleader or a devil's advocate, and they learned how to bring accountability into play that would encourage better work after failure, not crush the spirit of those who don't quite reach their goals. People pay attention to what is measured and reinforced.
Ultimately, effective execution is also about the footprint you leave behind. Legacy, looking beyond just material success to attaining significance in one's life, is the pinnacle achievement for the top CEO group. They don't want their net worth statement emblazoned on their tombstone – what will they accomplish in their life that makes a lasting difference?
Melding Focus, People and Execution
Peter Heineman grew up in New York with a father, uncle and friends of the family who mentored him on how to be a great entrepreneur. He found his passion, fish farming, early on, but had to go through several not-so-successful attempts before finding his real niche, smoked salmon. He was an early adopter of going overseas and sourced some of his premium product in Scandinavia. His business steadily grew and had a record year in 1988. Then disaster struck.
In January of 1989, his business burned to the ground. He and his employees were standing in the burned-out shell of their building, looking up where the roof had previously been and watching as the snow fell on them. The blanket of white on the charred remains of their livelihood was an eerie scene. A man came up and said, "Whoa, bad break I'd say. Really tough luck. Listen, I really need a few hundred pounds of smoked salmon, could you steer me somewhere else?"
Peter and his employees stared numbly at the man, trying to figure out whether he was insensitive or just needed a good pop in the nose. Finally, Peter realized this was the first customer of the rest of his life. They found some undamaged salmon in an outside bin, managed the delivery and were off and running. His employees offered to work for free until they were through the crisis. Peter thanked them for the gesture, but declined since he had put aside enough through his right planning to see them through.
Peter and his team rebuilt the building better than before. They sold more salmon in the quarter the building burned down than in their previous year's record quarter. They went on to a record sales year and won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, beating out some of New York's best.
Peter put his focus and passion, people and network, and execution and resiliency skills to the test and came out with flying colors. This is a nation of Peter Heinemans who find ways to beat the odds. We found that the strength of the entrepreneurial leaders in this country is inspiring. Their creativity and drive can be matched to those of their counterparts anywhere in the world. In fact, many immigrants come here just so they can catch the entrepreneurial fever, and they have been incredibly successful.
The man who wrote the forward of our book, Nido Qubein, is a perfect Horatio Alger example. He came to this country from Lebanon with $50 in his pocket. He learned English and became president of the National Speakers Association. He has won numerous national awards, sits on various boards and is a top entrepreneur who embodies our focus, people and execution themes.
In his inaugural address as the newly appointed President of High Point University in High Point, North Carolina, Dr. Qubein asked the audience to consider what is possible given his own journey from rags to riches. He believes the American dream is alive and well. We hope many of you will read our book, CEO Road Rules: Right Focus, Right People, Right Execution, and visit our road rules web site at www.ceoroadrules.com
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