Finding your true compass for more success, service

It happens. You see a fork road and, according to poet Robert Frost in “The Road Not Taken” poem, sorry you “cannot travel both” roads. “I took the one less travelled by—and that made all the difference,” he proclaimed.

This book, “Tough Calls from the Corner Office,” 39 inspiring and thought-provoking stories are brought to the readers in a well-organized structure. The author, Harlan Steinbaum, who is the 39th story teller and annotator of the revelations and confessions of the 38 CEOs, has organized the book that provides perspective to us readers.

Organized into nine sections, the book has interesting and intriguing titles: The Road Taken: Making Career Choices, Leaving the Mother Ship: Taking the Entrepreneurial Leap, Love and Marriage: Finding or Shedding Business Partners, Betting the Farm: Risking Success for More Success, Hearts and Minds: Creating a New Corporate Culture; The Mother of Invention: Transforming the Company’s Business Model, Sea Change: Repositioning, Refocusing, and Renewing a Business, When to Fold ’Em: Knowing When It’s Time to Step Aside, and  Paths to Service: Defining Moments That Transcend Business.

On changing careers, author Steinbaum spoke of “making the entrepreneurial leap. It was difficult, he said, because “Entrepreneurs are wired a little differently,” he says. “And there is no such thing as a sure thing,” he adds underscoring the uncertainty—and yet the rewards of getting lucky or blessed!

One of the motivations of a would-be entrepreneur is “not to have a boss.” “There are more great number-twos, not great number ones,” he rues.

One difficult decision is how to part ways with your original business partners when the alliance sours. This was the experience of Jack C. Taylor, founder, chair and CEO of Enterprise Rent-a-Car.

Taylor began  his business as Executive Leasing, the precursor company to Enterprise Rent-a-Car in 1957. Soon enough the market became promising, driven by his strategy of getting away from airports which were crowded with rent-a-car businesses. With prosperity came differences of strategy and philosophy with his partner, Earl. So Taylor decided to break the partnership, which was easier said than done.

Yet, as destiny has it, when he was about ready to tell his partner, Earl, something happened. Taylor narrates: “As it turned out, Earl predeceased me, and I bought his 25 percent share, and that’s how I ended up owning the entire company.”

The story of a CEO who changed the culture at Time Inc. is an interest read. When Reginald Brack became chair and CEO of Time Inc., he was greeted by a well-entrenched culture in this outstanding magazine firm.

Brack begins his account with this:

“When I took over Time, Inc., it was well known for its old-boy network. I was the first non-Ivy Leaguer to ever head the company.” (Brack graduated from Washington & Lee.) “Cronyism was rampant. Before me, success depended much more on your golf handicap and who you knew, not your work skills and abilities.”

In short, Brack began changing the corporate culture by professionalizing it.  He appointed a woman to a high position in Time Inc.—when that post was reserved for men. The new culture at Time Inc. meant high levels of performance. “Do your job better than anyone else” was Brack’s battle cry. In his memoirs, a lady was presiding over the giant magazine enterprise.

Repositioning, refocusing and renewing a business is another interesting subject in this book. The author clarifies that it is “not finding a better way, but finding a better mission.” It is reinventing the company.

He adds: “It’s one thing to change the way you go about competing in your market, and it’s quite another to shift to a different market altogether.

One of the finest examples of the “reinventing course” is that of Richard Mahoney, chair and CEO of Monsanto Company. Mahoney made dramatic business moves—and set an entirely new course for Monsanto, transforming it from a chemicals company.

As a chemicals firm, Monsanto used petroleum as a base to produce plastics, resins and herbicides. But the volatility of the supply and prices of oil has discouraged Mahoney. He steered the company to move into enterprise involved in life sciences, agriculture and pharmaceuticals.

He gives this insight: “I didn’t want to have somebody else deciding whether we were going to make money that year.”

And volunteers this cyclical reality in Monsanto’s previous business: “There is a rule in the commodity chemical businesses, the Rule of Twelve: There are 12 years of agony and then 12 months of enormous prosperity.”

So, with his leadership, the firm bought Searle and NutraSweet, which turned out to be a very good decision. They also invested in agriculture biotechnology. Each company Monsanto owns is now enjoying a 20-percent return on equity. “Not bad,” he says.

He retired, and he shares these life goals for others: “It’s said that the first third of your life you learn, the second third you earn, and the third you return.” The Monsanto executive is now lecturing, counseling and writing on business and public policy. What a way to conclude a flourishing business career!

What about defining moments when CEOs leave business and do something different?  In the section, “Moments to Transcend Business,” two stories emerge: George Herbert Walker III, chair and CEO, Stifel, No olaus & Company, who became ambassador to Hungary; and Tadataka (Tachi) Yamada, president and executive director general, Global Health Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Walker’s defining moment is not about his career in business but about leaving the business world behind and beginning his life’s second act at age 61.

With fortunate timing, he placed the business in the hands of a superb successor and began a new life devoted to family, community and national service.

“In January 2003, the president, George W. Bush, asked Walker:  “Do you want to ride down in my limousine?” Once inside, President Bush told him that he is being considered to be Ambassador to Hungary.

He became ambassador to that country, stayed three years, receiving medals for outstanding service from the US government and was even conferred two honorary doctorates by two Hungarian universities.

Yamada, a medical doctor and a scientist, was confronted with ethical dilemmas in a pharmaceutical company he worked with.

He asked a question which has become the defining moment in his life: “In my life and work, should it be about solving the problems of the few—or the problems of the many.

“This was a turning point in my career,” he confesses. To cut the story short, he met Bill Gates, and Bill invited him to head the Global Health Program of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—which will be giving away nearly $10 billion to bring medicines and health to countries and people needing them.

Yamada now says: “I have taken this path because I have an internal compass and the compass points to my true north. You have to have some kind of true compass that defines your decisions.”

The book moves from pure business to better and loftier things life has to offer. Yamada speaks of an “internal compass” that will define your goals and your life. This compass must have grown inside and must have been placed there by a Supreme Being who, as one philosopher puts it, is the “ground of all being.” From there comes the impulse to work, to serve and to make a difference. ([email protected])