CEO

...nd I do appreciate to have the opportunity to speak on this podcast. I think it's a fantastic podcast that you are producing. And well I started as a CEO in 2014 and Svenska Retursystem is a truly circular company providing the Swedish food industry with crates and pallets for the entire supply chain, ...more

...nd through doing that, we could increase the motivation and engagement from from all employees. So that was really the starting point. And the former CEO, he retired when I came to the company, and he was actually taking most of the decisions. So it was a huge change that the company was in need of. S...more

...Lisa Gill: Yeah, there's got to be some catch, right? How did you navigate that as CEO and as the person championing this transformation? How did you hold the space for people to ask those questions and to handle that tension, I guess? ...more

...ay, “Frederic, I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I don’t even understand your question.” I gave them examples. Like I knew that he was the CEO of a fashion brand and I had seen some of their advertising and it was horribly objectifying. There was basically this semi naked woman lying down wi...more

... if I don’t do them. What do I do? I don’t know.” Or, maybe it’s something else that is shocking. You know, maybe it’s the income inequality, like a CEO makes 20 or maybe 300 times the salary of the lowest paid person. Am I okay with that? I’m not no longer okay with it. But that’s our system. I don’t...more

...d is that all of the fears were ego fears. It was that they would be seen as a failure in their circles of CEOs, they wouldn’t be invited to whatever CEO retreats and think tanks… but there was no real danger to their lives in any way. It was just an ego fear, but it’s a real fear. And I wanted to hono...more

...ith in people who are closest to the market and relating to their potential. So I’m curious on what your thoughts are about Zhang Ruimin how he as a CEO is able to hold the space for this organisation to evolve and to be the way it is, which is really quite radical in comparison to most large scale or...more

...te radical in comparison to most large scale organisations we know today. B Fischer: I think that he’s unique. I think that I have never met another CEO who compares to him — in both his intellectual curiosity, and his determination. And, you know, we talked about six incarnations, at least, dependin...more

...n the same camp of this slightly outdated heroic archetype of a leader. But he has this lovely phrase about creating a system where everyone can be a CEO of themselves. And I’m interested in what your experience is of leadership more generally at Haier and how leadership emerges. What does leadership l...more

...rough that story, I will pull out a very core principle. I was once working with an organisation that was a nonprofit service organisation, and their CEO was retiring after 25 years of service. So it was a big, huge transition. And it was looking at some point, like this search process wasn't going to ...more

...like this search process wasn't going to be successful in time. It was a totally traditional organisation. So there were five of them right under the CEO. So it looked like they were going to suddenly have to co lead the organisation for a while until they found a new CEO, which of course, leaves open ...more

...e five of them right under the CEO. So it looked like they were going to suddenly have to co lead the organisation for a while until they found a new CEO, which of course, leaves open the question, why do you then need a CEO? [Laughs] We will leave that aside for the moment. And so I was supporting the...more

...nd what the cost of bureaucracy is? Gary Hamel: Well, I just got very curious because everyone complains about bureaucracy. Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has said it's a disease. Charlie Munger, who's the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, has said it's a cancer. So CEO's are prett...more

...hairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has said it's a disease. Charlie Munger, who's the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, has said it's a cancer. So CEO's are pretty hard on it, and yet I meet very few who have any kind of a credible plan for actually killing it. And it seemed to me that one of the fi...more

...ve. But we're not at the point where you can buy some kind of off-the-shelf playbook from your consultant of choice. Secondly, even when you have a CEO who understands this needs to happen - and I think there quite a few progressive ones out there - they are often stymied by the next layer or two of ...more

...esults for themselves, what for you is really important? NK Chaudhary: I think the problem starts when we create our own identity, as a manager, as a CEO, as the owner of a company. Then we mix two things together, we mix our identity with our role. Our role is separate and our identity is separate. So...more

...use I think that's what many people are afraid of, as you say, to sort of let go of having ultimate power, to let go of being the hero, if you're the CEO is scary and feels like a loss for people sometimes I think. But if you keep role and identity separate, it doesn't have to be a loss. NK Chaudhary: ...more

...y anybody. We often think of leadership as maybe even a higher level or form of management, but that’s leadership with a capital ‘L’, maybe, it’s the CEO or the business unit manager. But leadership with a small ‘l’ is the small things you do to make a difference, to influence others… Even a subordinat...more

...elf forward. You can make a difference. I think so many people, and my heart goes out to them, think: “I’ve gotta wait for some boss to fix it or the CEO to change hands.” In fact, most of us underestimate the impact we could have if we just decided to be brave and committed to making a difference. Eve...more

...erviewed them in the garden. We had cups of tea, kind of true Buurtzorg style, so it's really fun to now get the chance to talk to you as founder and CEO and the person who started it all. So yeah, thank you for being here. So I thought maybe we could start in the present moment. So if I ask you what's...more

...this particular body? And who are the people there? And very often, these people are not necessarily in these management positions, it needn't be the CEO or somebody who's got the so-called powerful positions. And that's what makes this source work very fascinating, because what I've found and felt ver...more

...ly think, they don't give you their real feedback, they don't bring their whole selves to work because they're afraid, and I like to say, even if the CEO is the Dalai Lama, people are still going to be afraid to give that person feedback, to tell them what they really think, to ask the big, hairy quest...more

...ind of machine of Big Brother. So we all got excited when some corporations, some corporate leaders started learning to meditate. One of them was the CEO of Monsanto. And at the time, my colleague was in a meditation group in which he was part of this - this is just when they are coming up with Roundup...more

...owl. And we had them doing the work. And Henri and I were both going, wow, this is still a bad meeting. Is anything happening? And then the boss, the CEO of the whole thing, stood up, very excited, kind of waved his arms, just said out loud: “Everything we just did, that's a final decision. That's the...more

...he cost and bureaucracy will be far greater than the cost savings that you incur. And there's an example in the book from Favi, in France, where the CEO came in to find that people were waiting, you know, to get permission slips for up to 30 minutes for new work gloves. And you know, the cost of the d...more