Name: Aflac CEO On Leadership: Take Care of Your People.. They'll Take Care of Business
Uploaded: 2019-10-09
Duration: 7 min 14 s
Description: It also helps that the popular duck made Aflac a household name and boosted sales.

[ MUSIC ] Dan, you've been CEO of Aflac for almost 30 years. This is unheard of for a fortune 500 CEO to stay in charge that long. Usually, it's something like five years, So How did you make that last so long? How did you do it? Well my family started the company and although we don't own it, it's a publically traded company, there's the pride of that element that I know makes a difference. I care more and want it to be. So I'm not interested in this quarter's earnings. I'm interested in what the future will hold. And I think that's part of it and I truly love it. I mean, I would work for nothing. I like it that much. And it's been fun to me and I love setting goals and achieving them. But as you said, Said your uncles and your father founded AFLAC more than sixty years ago Right. We knew you were a young man in your twenties you joined the company I did. as an insurance salesman so you really saw how they were running the The business. What was as you reflect on it the most important leadership lesson that you learned from them? They had a saying that I really like and I use it today and that is, if you take care of your people, they'll take care of the business. And it really applies, and I've tried to do that and making sure that we have Diversity, equality. When the employees are happy, everything else works better. Well, it seems like they were big believers in the importance of things like social responsibility, which is something that only recently now business leaders are talking about. They were ahead of their time. Well, I think they were, and even my first year CEO I sent a survey out to the employees and said what's important to you? And the thing that came back was put in a daycare center. Well, none of the lawyers want us to so you got liability you've got I said, Look, that's what they want. That's what I want to do. Why would have survey I'm not gonna do what they want. So we put in the first on site daycare center for a corporation in Georgia. If you're really doing the social responsibility the correct way it improves the image or the brand of the company. And in addition to that it ultimately helps the bottom line. Because it's a good financial decision as well. Well, there's a debate as you know now about the business roundtables decision recently to change its definition on what is the mission and purpose of American corporations is now is gone is that long held view that the one and only responsibility of a business is to make money for shareholders. Now, The commitment is to serve all stakeholders and by this means employees and customers, your communities and and the shareholders too. So about 200 prominent business leaders signed the new mission statement. You were one of them. Why do you think that this is such a significant development? I see it is a good business decision to me building the brand of an image That we care about people. We care about all of these aspects. To me, ultimately is what makes the shareholder return better. So they go hand in hand, to me. And I don't see how you can separate them. If all you're talking about is making money Then I don't think long term, you'll succeed as a company. So what do you say to the critics who say, this is just window dressing and that there's a risk that it could backfire and lead to worse returns for shareholders. What do you say to that? I say that you'll wait and see But it hasn't been in our case, and I think ultimately it's gonna work. And those that don't take it on and really do what they're saying they're gonna do, then they're gonna be in trouble. Let's turn now to another important topic. All right. The Aflac duck, you came up with the idea of a duck. Why a duck? Well why a duck was because we Did some surveys and found that quack quack Aflac, they sense that they can remember that. So that's how the duck ended up coming into play. And from there, we ended up making a commercial and the commercial tested through the roof. And so the scared part was We were kinda making fun of our name and back then no one was using humor so we didn't know what would happen. Well the answer was after one week, we got more hits on the Internet than we did the entire year before. It was a huge success. Huge. And you did turn the AFLAC name into a household name, and the duck became A rock star, but was there any business lesson or leadership insight here from what you did? You've gotta broaden your perspective and take chances. That's the real issue here is you were having Prudential and the rock, you were having all these things about financial security. And here we were making fun of ourselves. But it was that is what catapulted us. We only had 5 % name recognition. We jumped all the way to 90 in three years and our sales doubled. So taking risk. Is worth it. Part of being a great leader is also having a great succession plan. And you're obviously young and energetic and you wanna keep on working. But what is your timeline for choosing the next CEO for Afflack .>> Well, what I'd state is, I would stay until atleast I'm 70. I've now felt that I'm not going to make a very good retiree and I want to stay a little longer. But I'm preparing now to have succession. I annually meet with the board of directors and go through. All the key positions in the company and who is the heir apparent for that particular position? It changes. But that's very important and I'm planning on doing that with me as well. What are the qualities, leadership qualities that you think the next CEO has to have? We've been very family oriented, and so a great personality of leadership is very important. The next thing is understanding the financials, understanding that we're now very investment- driven, and so I need someone that truly understands investments in the financial And then the third, you've got to understand Japan. 75 % of our businesses, Japan, you have to truly understand the culture, what's going on there and how it's developing. And so, and then have a strategic vision for the future to continue to grow. So Dan, how about you? What do you want people to say about your legacy? I want him to say that he was a good businessman, and a good person. I want to be more than just business, but that I cared about people and if they think I cared about him, that's pretty good way to go out

Aflac CEO On Leadership: Take Care of Your People.. They'll Take Care of Business

Leadership

It also helps that the popular duck made Aflac a household name and boosted sales. 