Name: Pitney Bowes' CEO Wants Employees to Take More Risks
Uploaded: 2020-01-03
Duration: 3 min 55 s
Description: Marc Lautenbach explains his philosophy.

 Marc, you're trying to reinvent Pitney Bowes. And what kind of leadership skills does this take to pull this off? Well, first of all, you need to have great team. So I would say the first characteristic of leadership in general, and certainly at Pitney Bowes, is you need to assemble the right set of skills around you in order to get to that next chapter. The second is that there needs to be a vision that unifies people. But both a business vision that candidly, I would say at most companies, but particularly true at Pitney Bowes, what is your true north? What is the culture? What are the values that are important to the institution? And then the third is resilience. Transformations are not straight lines. They're difficult. Most companies don't make them. So you inevitably have bumps in the road. But you've got to dust yourself off, and then get back on the horse, and go. What are you doing to keep the most valuable people so that they don't bail out? It's a great question. And I worry about that every day. I would tell you, we've seen the opposite. So when I came four years ago, we needed to make a lot of quick changes in the leadership team. So people said, OK, I'll come for two or three years. And what I found is two or three years became three or four years, it's now become four or five years. People really believe in what we're doing. How do you keep up with all the changes going on in technology? Are there things that you read, sources you go to, are there special people you talk to? Yeah. I think-- listen, I read a lot. I still have a lot of friends broadly in the technology industry. I go out to Silicon Valley probably three or four times a year. So you talk to as many different people. You talk to a lot of the startups, just kind of see where the money is going. You talk to the venture capital guys. So it's not a single source, but it's hard. And you've got to stay current, because it does move so quickly. Mm-hmm. It seems like you're also trying to change the culture of Pitney Bowes into a culture of innovation. So what do you say to everyone at all levels of the company to try new things, rather than doing everything the old fashioned way? To help people understand that listen, if you're going to be in business you have to take risks. There is no choice. And standing still is a risk. So we prefer to make risks thoughtfully of commission as opposed omission. And the second is speed. So we're all about if you're going to fail, fail fast. And fail fast in a measured kind of way. And to make that OK. So those are the two aspects of innovation that we've worked on, risk taking and speed. And how do you communicate that message? Do you have any kind of special techniques, whether it's telling stories, or storytelling? What is your technique to get that message across? The most effective way to change culture-- and all the literature supports this-- is storytelling. So we have a meeting every 90 days with all the senior executives. And we go back through what happened over the last 90 days, what's going to happen in the next 90 days. And I would say for the first couple of years, the meetings were very stilted. People were anxious. They were nervous. We've finally gotten to the point where now people are confident to talk about what's worked, what didn't work. They know the world's not going to end. So you have information sharing, and all of a sudden they're telling the stories to one another. So it's not just me. Marc, you've spent a couple of decades at IBM and now you're at Pitney Bowes, and you must have had a lot of-- gotten a lot of advice along the way. What's the best leadership advice you've ever received and why has it resonated with you? The best leadership advice I ever got was from my dad. And his advice was very simple-- get the best team around you that you possibly can and let them do their work-- help them. I very much believe in the concept of leadership as a service. So you try to make people better and you try to make that improvement enduring. But the advice was very clear, and it was get the best team that you can. 

Pitney Bowes' CEO Wants Employees to Take More Risks

Leadership

mark, you're tryingto reinvent Pitney bows. And what kind of leadership skills does this take to pull this off? Well, first, I need to have a great team. So I would say the first characteristic of leadership in general and certainly Pitney Bose is you need to assemble the rights that skills around you in order to get to that next chapter. The second is that there needs to be a vision that unifies people, but both a business vision that candidly, I would say at most companies, but particular to a pity. Because what is your true North? What is the culture where the values that are important, uh, to the institution and then the third is resilience? Transformations are not straight lines. They're difficult. Most companies don't make them, so you inevitably have bumps in the road, but you have dust yourself off on Get back on the horse on go. What are you doing to keep the most valuable people says that they don't bail out. It's a great question, and I worry about that every day. I would tell you we've seen the opposite, so when I came four years ago, we needed to make a lot of quick changes in the leadership team. So people said, you know OK, I'll come for two or three years and what I found is two or three years became three or four years now, become four or five years. People really believe in what we're doing. How did you keep up with all the changes going on in technology? Are there things that you read sources? You go to our They're special people you talk to. Yeah, I think I read a lot. I still have a lot of friends broadly in the technology industry, I go out to Silicon Valley probably three or four times a year. So you talked to many different people. You talk to a lot of startups, just kind of see where the money is going to talk to the venture capital guys. So it's not a single source, but it heart, and you've got to stay current because it does move so quickly. It seems like you're also trying to change the culture of Pitney bows into a culture of innovation. So, you know, what do you say to everyone at all levels of the company to try new things rather than doing everything the old fashioned way. You help people understand that. Listen, you're gonna be a business. You have to take risks. There is no choice instead, and still is a rest. Uh, so we prefer to make, uh, risks thoughtfully of commission as opposed omission in the second of speed. So we're all about if you're gonna fail, fail fast and fell fast in a measured kind of way and to make that Okay, so those are the two aspects of innovation that we worked on risk taking in speed. And how do you communicate that message? You have any kind of special techniques, Whether it's telling stories or story telling me what is your technique to get that message across the most effective way to change culture and all the literature supports us, this story time. So we have a meeting every 90 days with all the senior executives, and we go back through what happened over the last 90 days. What's gonna happen the next 90 days? And I would say for the first couple of years that means we're very stilted. People are anxious they were nervous. Um, we've finally gotten to the point where now people are confident to talk about what's worked, what didn't work. They know the world's not going to end. So you have information sharing and all of a sudden they're telling the stories to one another. So it's not just me, Marky. You spend a couple of decades at IBM, and now you're a Pitney bows, and you must have had a lot of gotten a lot of advice along the way. What's the best leadership advice that you ever received and why has resonated with you? Best leadership advice I ever got was for my dad, and his advice was very simple. Get the best team around you that you possibly can and let them do their work. Help them. I very much believe in the concept of leadership is a service, so you try to make people better, and you try to make that improve enduring. But advice is very clear on it was good. The best team that you can