Adaptable Leaders

The Red Barn at Boeing Field

​Adaptability. 
 
It’s the expectation that our leaders will be flexible and able to adapt to changing conditions. Being adaptable also means being resilient – and being resilient can get you far in life, as William E. “Bill” Boeing taught us. Boeing, founder of The Boeing Co., was the quintessential leader – resourceful, visionary, always striving for perfection, and adaptable. 
 
The Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle is a time capsule for the commercial and military aviation and space industries. It’s here that I stood beneath the first commercial Boeing 747, the towering “City of Everett,” that ushered in the age of the jumbo jet in 1969. It’s here I that walked through the cabin of the Boeing 707 that transported then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to Dallas, Texas, on that fatal November weekend in 1963 when John F. Kennedy was slain by an assassin. And it's here, in an historic building known as the Red Barn, that I discovered Bill Boeing’s desk and the framed photos and other artifacts associated with his life and career.
 
Boeing was a timber man in Washington, a state known for its logging industry. He built boats before creating an airplane company in 1916. His first factory, the Red Barn, was built on the Duwamish River in Tukwila, Wash., and remained at that location until 1980, when it was moved — literally by the steady hands of 344 Amish men who lifted it from its foundation, then transported it by trucks and a barge — to its current location at Boeing Field. 
 
At his desk in 1917, Boeing was faced with a critical decision: How might the then-Boeing Airplane Company survive after its government contracts were canceled, when the aviation industry came to a near-standstill at the end of World War I?  To keep the company open and retain his workers, Boeing was forced to diversify. He did so by manufacturing furniture, counter tops, phonograph cases and flat-bottomed boats called “Sea Sleds.” He adapted.

At the end of the war, Boeing began concentrating on commercial aircraft and he secured contracts to supply airmail service, and later, passenger service. The rest, as they say, is history. 

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​​​“A new broom sweeps clean but you can have more fun with an old rake!”

Regardless of their time in history, great leaders are adaptable.

The legendary Stanley Marcus, “America’s Merchant Prince,” transformed Newman-Marcus into one of the world’s finest luxury retailers during three decades of leadership. Before becoming CEO, Marcus in his early years was a floor-walker, a role he told me he loved. Moving around the various departments of Neiman-Marcus each day, he learned the power of engaging associates and customers. He used everything discovered through “listening” to elevate the needs of customers and to adapt Neiman-Marcus to the fickle, ever-changing demands of retailing.

Marcus prided himself on his staff's ability to provide exceptional service and value for each client, often citing his father’s words of wisdom: "There is never a good sale for Neiman Marcus unless it's a good buy for the customer."

"Consumers are statistics,” Marcus once said. “Customers are people.”

When I met with him in his Dallas office on one visit, I remember the quaint couch pillow with a needle-point inscription that read: “A new broom sweeps clean but you can have more fun with an old rake!” It was his way of reminding us that while new leaders may impose radical changes, those with prior experience often have more knowledge of how to adapt to radical change and make it stick.

America's "Merchant Prince," Stanley Marcus

​“You meet circumstances the way they come and then you adapt to them”

In his Memphis office, FedEx Founder, Chairman and CEO, Fred Smith, proudly pointed to a framed term paper with a grade of “C” scrawled in red from a Yale University undergraduate economics class. His report outlining a new overnight delivery service presaged the creation of a $27-billion global delivery business that has engrained FedEx as one of America’s greatest corporations.

In the early years, Smith said he knew the ideas behind the company were profound. “There wasn't any doubt in my mind about that,” he told BusinessWeek. “The fundamental forces that were driving it were inexorable. But I don't know if I foresaw the way things evolved. I think you meet circumstances the way they come, and then you adapt to them.”

Along the way, he created a “People-First” corporate mission – the renowned People-Service-Profit (P-S-P) philosophy – based on the belief that when we create a positive working environment for employees, they will provide better service quality to customers, which then will lead to customers using FedEx products and services. Ultimately, by taking care of their people and serving customers well, FedEx can expect to provide a fair profit for its shareholders.

Through decades, P-S-P has been the “True North” of Fedex’ corporate culture – that is, as long as the focus has remained on keeping people first. At times when the focus has shifted to making profit the dominant theme over people and service, the culture has waned.

FedEx Founder, Chairman & CEO, Fred Smith

“Don’t ever lock this door again!”

​The garage workshop that Bill Hewlett and David Packard used in 1938 when they started Hewlett Packard today sits at the epicenter of Silicon Valley. It is an iconic reminder of the Shared Values that lie at the heart of the culture of one of the world’s great technology companies. Trust and respect for individuals is one of the most important values of the HP Way.

Trust and respect were threatened at HP in the late Sixties, however,  when a cost-saving initiative went into effect. As sometimes happens during these cycles of change, legend has it that a bean-counter decided allowing a stock room door to remain open on weekends was a license to steal. So, the lab stockroom door was promptly padlocked after working hours and on weekends. 

At that time, Bill Hewlett often worked in the plant on weekend evenings. One night, when he was in search of needed parts from lab stock, Hewlett found the door locked. He located a guard who brought a bolt cutter. Hewlett cut off the padlock, got his parts and left a terse note on the stock room door that read, “Don't ever lock this door again!” and signed it. This vignette became the stuff of legends. “Guess how many years that note prevented stock room doors from being locked?” wrote HP’s John Minck. “Such action gets around – everywhere!”

Eighty-one years later, the spirit Hewlett and Dave Packard brought to their company lives on in the important Core Value of Speed and Agility: “We are resourceful and adaptable, and we achieve results faster than our competitors”

There it is again: Adaptability. 

What is it about leaders that fascinates those among us who study corporate cultures and leadership? It’s a curiosity to know more about their motivations, their leadership style, and how others respond to them. It’s the longing to know how they face adversities in their leadership and adapt. It’s the stories and anecdotes that give us background, details, context and the history of what shapes their leadership. 

It’s understanding, in the end, that character is not what we’ve done. It’s who we are. 

The iconic garage workshop of Bill Hewlett and David Packard