[REPLAY] HUBERT JOLY - At the Heart of Business

HUBERT JOLY is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Best Buy and is now a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. He is also a member of the board of directors of Johnson & Johnson and Ralph Lauren Corporation, a member of the International Advisory Board of HEC Paris, and a Trustee of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Joly has been recognized as one of the top 100 CEOs in the world by the Harvard Business Review, one of the top 30 CEOs in the world by Barron’s and one of the top 10 CEOs in the U.S. by Glassdoor.


Quotes:

• Marcel asks Hubert what he believes business is about. “At the heart of business... is the pursuit of a noble purpose, putting people at the center, embracing all stakeholders, and treating profit as an outcome, not the goal,”[3:12] Hubert responds. 
  
  
• “There are three imperatives to an organization and tackling them in the correct sequence leads to optimal outcomes: a people imperative - having the right teams properly motivated and equipped; a business imperative - having happy customers who you sell good products to; and a financial imperative - about profit. [10:05]” Hubert shares how financial results have to be the end focus. First, you have to start with people; when you do this, the financial results will come. 
  
  
• “The old model of leadership portrayed a leader as a superhero here to save the day, probably the smartest person in the room, and, unfortunately, too driven by power, fame, money or glory,” Hubert claims. “This [type of leadership] doesn’t work... [people] want to be part of the journey and the solution.” [16:55] Hubert debunks the concept of perfectionism as a key to success; he shares how demonstrating his imperfection actually helped create the right environment for optimal performance at work. 
  
  
• “Operational progress creates routine degrees of freedom, so sometimes you have to start with the basics before you think about creating an amazing future,'' [35:47] Hubert advises. He describes the five ingredients for creating a fabulous work environment, which are: connecting dreams, developing authentic human connections, fostering autonomy, achieving mastery, and putting the wind at your back. 
  
  
• “Work is love made visible... Business is about embracing all stakeholders… This is a beautiful friendship you’re building with all stakeholders, treating all of them, in a sense, as customers.” [50:30] Hubert shares how he thinks leaders love in a practical way, day in and day out.

Mentioned in this episode:
Hubert Joly
Marcel Schwantes

Send Marcel a text message!