Connecting the Dots: Leadership Lessons in a Start-up World

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Dad wanted to invest in building a better future for West Virginia. That’s why he also played a key role in consolidating the hospital system and persuaded West Virginia University to set up a satellite operation in Charleston that became one of the first regional health science campus operated by any university in the country. He didn’t try to revive the coal industry or convince Kaiser to keep its aluminum plant operating in Ravenswood. Those industries were dealing with forces beyond his control or influence. What he did see were opportunities to enhance the state’s role as an academic research hub and make cities like Charleston more attractive places to live and do business. Dad wasn’t trying to fight the market shifts. He wanted to anticipate and move ahead of them. In every crisis, he was always calmly focused on the outcome.

Those lessons were reinforced early in my career at IBM and Wang. IBM was a revered tech giant when I joined its Indianapolis office in 1976. I wasn’t all that interested in technology but I was intrigued with what it could do. The computer revolution had hit Corporate America and no brand was more powerful than Big Blue. It was the home of the mainframe computer, which relied on massive room-sized systems to process mountains of data. The technology was so compelling that IBM’s leaders couldn’t imagine people going anywhere else.

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