Page 146 - The Bible On Leadership

132 THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP

‘‘Take care of our people; they, in turn, will deliver the impeccable
service demanded by our customers who will reward us with the
profitability necessary to secure our future.’’ 3
❖ Dave Quade, vice president of Foster Products Division of H. B.
Fuller, joined his company largely because of the sincere belief in peo-
ple, which he saw carried out in everyday practice: ‘‘Seeing the belief
in people and having people involved in decisions, it was like coming
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to heaven.’’ Sartre wrote, ‘‘Hell is other people.’’ But when organized
and motivated the right way, they can be heaven as well.
❖ Hal Rosenbluth of Rosenbluth Travel wrote a book called The
Customer Comes Second. According to Rosenbluth, who comes first?
The employees: ‘‘If our people don’t come first, then they’re not free
to focus on our clients.’’ 5
In the Associates’ Handbook for Wal-Mart, Sam Walton’s most-re-
peated mantra is ‘‘Our People make the difference.’’ This message is
also posted on the backs of the company’s trucks and the walls of the
warehouses. Any manager who is disciplined for ignoring or abusing
people can’t say he didn’t see the ‘‘writing on the wall.’’
❖ Larry Bossidy, former CEO of Allied Signal, realizes the impor-
tance of each and every person: ‘‘You’ve got to make sure employees
understand how important they are. As a CEO, you need people more
than they need you.’’ 6
❖ Herb Kelleher knows where his competitive advantage lies:
‘‘Southwest is only as good as its people, and we probably spend a dis-
proportionate amount of time concentrating on our people.’’ One mea-
sure of that ‘‘disproportion’’ is Southwest’s review of 150,000
applications for 4,000 to 5,000 jobs. Kelleher, who believes that ‘‘peo-
ple make the difference,’’ says that ‘‘anyone can buy an airplane or lease
ticket counter space, or buy computers, but the intangible things—the
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esprit de corps . . . are the hardest thing for people to imitate.’’ Colleen
Barrett, Kelleher’s ‘‘second-in-command’’ for many years, has the title,
‘‘Manager of People,’’ which reflects the company’s perspective.
❖ Jack Welch (known as ‘‘Neutron Jack’’ when he started out as a
CEO) became increasingly people-oriented as he matured in his posi-