Читать книгу Stacking the Deck - Pottruck David S. - Страница 11

My experiences in a variety of capacities for corporations that differed in size, goals, industry, corporate culture, and more have shaped how I see change. A brief overview will give a better sense of where these principles came from and the opportunities I've had to put them into practice – or when I failed to put them into practice.

In 1976, I began my career in financial services at Citibank, where I had my first experiences in implementing breakthrough change initiatives. I went from Citi to Shearson, a traditional brokerage that was not interested in change; they were far more interested in sales. When I joined Charles Schwab in 1984, it was still a fairly small company. CEO Chuck Schwab and his chief operating officer, Larry Stupski, were never afraid to dream big. Chuck was the visionary guy and Larry was the strategist and implementation leader. His job was to sift through Chuck's myriad ideas, find the three most likely to work, and get them done. They were courageous leaders and I knew that I was indeed fortunate to join this team.

Originally hired as the director of marketing, I was working on small improvements in the types of ads we were running, the ways we were handling our inbound inquiries, and how we were measuring success. As my career grew, the changes become bolder and more challenging. Joining Schwab when I did was a huge stroke of luck: circumstances and corporate culture combined to provide an unprecedented space for experimentation and risk-taking. I made my first stabs at leading breakthrough change there, and I discovered a lot of ways I would lead differently in the future.

Since those early days, I have served on the boards of many companies – from companies in their earliest stages, to young public companies, to Fortune 50 corporations. I have seen them succeed, and I have seen them stumble and fail. I've been part of two start-ups that invested over $150 million in getting off the ground. One failed completely and the other is blossoming even as I write this. I've been on the board of Intel since 1998, and I've seen their successes and the challenges they've faced.

I have been on just about every side of change, big or small. I've seen and made many mistakes, sometimes of judgment and sometimes of process. Somewhere there may be a file of mistakes labeled, “What was Dave thinking?” The redeeming fact is I usually didn't make the same mistake twice. As a self-proclaimed change junkie, I kept at it, trying new ideas and tactics, and learning; over time, I started to succeed more and more.