why life means more when you

8/11/2019 Why Life Means More When You

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Why Life Means More When youreBuilding

Serving as the chairman and chief executive officer at Abbott for almost 15 years, Im often

asked for management advice: What was your greatest lesson? What advice do you give college

graduates entering the workforce? How do you effectively lead a large organization? How do

you anticipate future business needs? These questions all lead to great conversations and I hope

to address many of them in this forum from time to time.

This past summer, Abbott held its annual internship program for undergraduate and graduate

studentswhere more than 500 students from around the globe pour their hearts and minds into

real-world projects for our various businesses. Each year, I spend time with many of these

students and see the foundation of a future generation of leaders. Occasions like these remind us

of our own educations, our early career experiences andmost importantlythe lessons we

picked up along the way. And, the one lesson that stands out to me is a simple oneits the idea

that has been most important to me over the years: Be A Builder. Use your experiences to build

yourself and the world around you; to make all that you see and touch in your life as good as it

can be.


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My undergraduate degree was in engineering and I was going to build things. It turns out that

was truejust not in the way I expected. The building Ive done is less literal, but every bit as

real. Looking at Abbott today and where the company is headed, buildinghas been at the core of

what our people have accomplished over the past 125 years. And its what were committed to

for the next 125 and beyond.

Before working at Abbott, one of the first jobs I held was with the consulting firm McKinsey &

Company. There was a legend at McKinsey, named Marvin Bower. He was one of the founders

of the firm and is widely credited as the creator of professional management consulting. He was

with McKinsey for 60 years and led the firm for almost 20 of them. Every year, Marvin would

have a session with the young employees who were new to the firm.

He talked about what mattered mostnot about competition or profits. Marvin taught us about

doing what is right and thinking and working for the long term. And one reason his words madesuch an impression on me was the way that he couched them. He talked about buildingabout

building the company, your community, your family, and, always, the people they comprise.

And, he encouraged us to be builders, too.

Marvin was a servant leader. He knew that by helping to build those around himby raising and

strengthening their abilities, their understanding, their confidence, their principlesthey would

help build the outstanding firm that he envisioned and the good community of which it would be

part; and that this would help build him, as wellas a leader and as a person. Marvin put thegoal, the principle, the value first. And he led people toward it. In doing so, he built the worlds

leading business consultancy, and, by working with corporations and philanthropies and

governments, that firm helped build the post-war world.

Marvin was a member of what weve come to refer as the greatest generation the people who

built the world of today on a set of strong, fundamental values. Life means more when youre

building, and when you participate in it more actively. When you build, youre thinking of the

future and acting in the present. To me, this is the essence of leadership: to see a goal,

somewhere in the future; to commit oneself to making it real; and to changeoften in difficult

ways, at personal costto achieve it. You are willing to sacrifice to meet your goalsto invest

in yourself in order to grow, personally and professionally.

As were speeding along in our careers and personal lives, its importantto stop and look both

waysto see what we have already accomplished and where we want to go next. And the


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prospect you take in when you look across that vista will be much more satisfying if you bear

that one guiding principle in mind: Be a builder.

Quotes[edit]

The performance of business leaders during the next decade will play a major role in

determining not onlybusinessbut political and social trends for a long time to come. Here are

some of the principal reasons:

- Business leaders control the economic well-being of and stockholder.

- The course of business shapes public opinion.

- Business leaders shape public opinion.

So, in addition to his or her prime responsibility of managing his or her enterprise at a profit, the

business leader of today is faced with new and larger responsibilities. And, at the same time, the

job of managing his or her enterprise at a profit is increasing in complexity. Consequently, the

imposition of additional responsibilities makes the nations task of developing an adequate

number of properly equipped executive leaders a staggering one indeed.

Marvin Bower (1949) The development of executive leadership. Harvard University.Graduate School of Business Administration. p. v

The Wil l to Manage(1966)[edit]

Bower, M., (1966). The Will to Manage: Corporate Success Through Programmed

Management. New York: McGraw-Hill,ISBN 0-07-006735-X

I believe thatleadersandleadershipteams working together in a proper design will run

thebusinessmore effectively than by hierarchical, command-and-control managing. But I

can't prove that. And there are no models.

p. 7

People should be judged on the basis of their performance, not nationality,

personality, education, or personal traits and skills.

p. 24 cited in: Rodney B. Plimpton (1976) Top management leadership and

organizational performance. p.52
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Decisions should be based on facts, objectively considered what I call the fact-founded,

thought-through approach to decision making.

p. 24

Abusinessof high principle generates greater drive andeffectivenessbecause people know

that they can do the right thing decisively and with confidence.

p. 25

Abusinessof high principle attracts high-caliber people more easily, thereby gaining a basic

competitive and profit edge.

p. 25

Fourteen basic and well-known managing processes make up the components from which a

management system for anybusinesscan be fashioned.

1. Setting objectives: ...

2. Planning strategy: ...

3. Establishing goals: ...

4. Developing a company philosophy: ...

5. Establishing policies: ...

6. Planning the organization structure: ...

7. Providing personnel: ...

8. Establishing procedures: ...

9. Providing facilities: ...

10. Providing capital: ...

11. Setting standards: ...

12. Establishing management programs and operational plans: ...

13. Providing control information: ...

14. Activating people: ...

p. 26

Thebusinesswith high ethical standards has three primary advantages over competitors

whose standards are lower:
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A business of high principle generates greater drive andeffectivenessbecause people

know they can do the rightthing decisively and with confidence. ...

A business of high principle attracts high-caliber people more easily, thereby gaining a

basic competitive and profit edge. ...

A business of high principle develops better and more profitable relations with

customers, competitors , and the general public, because it can be counted on to do the

right thing at all times. By the consistently ethical character of its actions, it builds a

favorable image.

p. 26

In large-scale organizations, the factual approach must be constantly nurtured by high-level

executives. The more layers of authority through which facts must pass before they reach

the decision maker, the greater the danger that they will be suppressed, modified, or

softened, so as not to displease the "brass". For this reason, high-level executives must

keep reachingfor facts or soon they won't know what is going on. Unless they make visible

efforts to seek and act on facts, major problems will not be brought to their attention, the

quality of their decisions will decline, and thebusinesswill gradually get out of touch with its

environment.

p. 31

The difference between a leadership and a command company can be very great indeed,

because in a hierarchical situation, people who have concerns about reactions against

themselves would simply not put forward negative information.

p. 34

I believe that in a leadership company most people will like their work. But the company will

be an even more enjoyable place to work if the culture is designed to make it that way.

Leading fosters a working atmosphere that stimulates an open exchange of ideas and

fostersdissent.People should show a genuine concern for one another and treat one

another with fairness, as peers and friends. With such an atmosphere it should be a

pleasure to come to work.

p. 131

... for all the reasons we have discussed in these pages, judgments brought to the board by

leaders are likely to be better than those coming to the board in a command company.
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Moreover, the effective working relationships between leaders and directors in a leadership

company further ensures the exercise of sound judgments for such momentous decisions ...

p. 134

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