Professional Briefings: Wisdom and Advice from the schools new NAC Lecture Series

Jeremy Andrus  President, Skullcandy 

First days at Skullcandy 

I drove from San Francisco to the Park City office in my old Ford Explorer. I show up at the company’s office on day one and someone says, “Hey, there’s a closet over here; it’s pretty big. I think you could fit a desk in there.” It was a little different from the consulting firm I’d once worked for, where I had a beautiful office with a view of Malibu. But I cleaned out the closet and bought a desk and chair. I was thinking, “Yeah, this is kind of fun. It’s kind of unusual.” 

The next day I show up at work and no one’s there. It’s nine o’clock. It’s ten o’clock. I barely know what I’m supposed to be doing, so I’m setting my stuff up, and I get a call from the founder. He says, “Hey, where are you?” I said, “Well, I’m in the office. Where’s everybody else?” He said, “Look outside; it’s snowing. We’ve got a powder rule: six inches of fresh snow, and we are on the mountain!” 

Every employee still gets a season pass to the Canyons. It’s important to the culture, and it’s fun too.
I’d love to go back to my first days at Skullcandy and do it again, because I’d actually have some clue about what I’d be doing, but it was a great way to learn.

Brand management 

There are two pillars in the business: brand and product. We collaborate with other brands because part of the way we build authenticity is putting Skullcandy next to other great brands. In the early days of Skullcandy, when no one knew anything about our brand, we partnered with Giro snowboard helmets, and people in the action sports community started to recognize us. 

Great brands are really an outgrowth of great company culture. The authenticity of the Skullcandy brand is an indication of what happens in our office. It’s a very authentic culture. We win by brand, team, and product—those are our points of differentiation. However, there are other functions of the business where we still have to be good; we’ve got to be able to sell, finance, and ship millions of units in the right mix to thousands of retailers around the world, and each unit has to be high quality.

Get your feet moving 

When I was in your seat, I thought I knew where I was going. About six months into my first job I called home and said, “Dad, I hate this.” With every opportunity you learn a little about what you like and what you don’t. The best piece of advice I would give is get your feet moving. Find something you think you like, have a direction and a strategy, but be willing to let that change when your gut says you should do something different. I had what I thought was my dream job in San Francisco, but Sunday night would roll around, and I’d think, “I don’t feel like going back to the office in the morning.” At Skullcandy I’ve found a place where I don’t check my watch. I just have to make sure I’m home for dinner. 

True networking 

Opportunities and people are more important than titles and compensation. Often people go to networking events and pass out their business cards, but that’s not really building a network. A network is nothing more than people who like you because you’ve done the right thing—you’ve treated them with respect and with kindness. Reputations are powerful; you can’t get away from them. It’s great to have a good reputation, and it’s rough when you don’t. The business world is a small place. 
When people learn you went to BYU, they are a little bit intrigued and impressed by you. It’s an opportunity to live the values that you have. When I come back I realize it’s the greatest foundation I could have asked for, and I feel lucky to have been a part of it.

Mark Russell , President, Worthington Steel, Worthington Industries 

About Worthington Industries 

Worthington Steel is Worthington Industries’ base company. We are 51 percent steel processing, but we also have significant businesses in other areas. We’re the No. 1 pressure cylinders business in the world. We have a metal framing business, which is No. 1 in North America. We also have some joint ventures, which generally are the dominant companies in their particular market niches. 

The steel processing business is part of the United States’ seventy-five-million-ton steel market. Of that, our particular flat-rolled steel niche is 40 percent of that total, and that niche itself is highly fragmented. We’re the biggest of the swarm of gnats that contends for this business—it’s very competitive.
We pride ourselves on our joint ventures. We have one with Armstrong World Industries. The ceiling in this room [Tanner Building] is almost certainly made of our stuff, probably an Armstrong tile, and the white part holding it up is made from our steel. We supply the steel, Armstrong supplies the tile, and we’re the market leaders in that business worldwide. 

Serviacero Worthington, our Mexican steel-processing business, is another I’m responsible for. The Mexican market has the virtue of growing considerably faster than the United States’ market in the last year, and we’ve taken advantage of that.

Tailor Welded Blanks is another joint venture. It makes blanks for automobiles that have different grades of steel welded together so one part has different characteristics than the other, like a door that’s rust-resistant at the bottom and very light on top. 

Three entrepreneurs 

You should be entrepreneurs in everything that interests you. Whatever you decide to pursue will give you the opportunity to exercise faith. Let me cite three examples of entrepreneurs who demonstrated faith. First, Andrew Carnegie. He was a penniless Scottish immigrant, yet he became one of the richest men on the planet and industrialized North America. North America is built out of steel. The car you drive, the bus you rode in, this building we’re sitting in—all of it is made of steel. And he was the one who made that happen. Carnegie was constantly borrowing and risking everything to keep his business growing. Every time he grew he had to exercise faith. 

Second, John D. Rockefeller, who was famous for oil. Carnegie built things, and Rockefeller gave them the energy to move. In fact, if his company, Standard Oil, hadn’t been broken up in an antitrust exercise, it would be as big as one of the largest countries in the world. He started quite an enterprise. 

Let’s go to a more modern example: Richard Branson. He’s started all kinds of enterprises, but he’s probably most famous for his airline. Why did he start that? He was stuck in the Caribbean, and the regularly scheduled flight was canceled. He’s sitting there with a bunch of other passengers, when he noticed a charter flight desk. He walked to its customer service agent and asked, “Do you have a plane I can charter?” The agent responded, “Sure, but it’ll cost you.” “How many does it seat?” “Fifty.” Branson walked around the terminal, asking people, “How much would you pay to fly out in a half hour?” People told him, and he sold fifty tickets; he chartered the plane, made some money in the process, and also realized that he liked the business. That’s how he started his airline. 

Not only do you have an opportunity to exercise faith and be entrepreneurial in whatever interests you, but you also have opportunities to be entrepreneurial in every situation. Even the ones that look horrible and bad. Even the ones where your flight has been canceled, and you’re stuck on an island and need to get home. That was a bad thing, but did it turn into something good? Absolutely.

Natalie Gochnour , Executive Vice President and Chief Economist, Salt Lake Chamber 

Be ready 

That’s an easy thing to say but a harder thing to do. When I was working at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I found myself in a situation where readiness took on new meaning. 
I had only been working at HHS for about three weeks. Secretary Mike Leavitt and the chief of staff were on a plane and unavailable. The surgeon general came to me with a problem. There is a Navy ship called the USNS Mercy, an oil tanker that has been converted to a floating hospital that is sent around the world to provide medical help. The ship had just left Indonesia as this beautiful country was recovering from the 2004 tsunami. After lending health care services, the USNS Mercy was on its way home when an earthquake caused a second disaster in Indonesia. The surgeon general wanted to turn the ship around, but the protocol required permission from the secretary.

At the time, I was the only one in the office who had authority to speak on his behalf by virtue of our longstanding relationship and my position as his counselor. I wanted to turn the ship around, but that decision would cost millions of dollars and would affect the lives of the people on board who had already been away from home for a long time. So I asked a lot of questions: Is this the right protocol? How much will it cost? Who will it affect? Who else would we need to tell about it? After talking it through I told the surgeon general, “You’ve got the green light from the secretary’s office.” Then I immediately emailed Secretary Leavitt and the chief of staff. I said, “This is what came to me, this is what I told them, and I hope you feel good about it.” I was relieved when Secretary Leavitt emailed me upon landing saying, “That was the right call.” 

Turning the ship around was the obvious decision, but it still took courage to say it under the circumstances. Looking back, I recognize how helpful it was for me to be a sponge around the people I worked with. You have to be a continuous learner to know how they would make decisions so that when your moment comes, you can turn that oil tanker around.

Let your feminine values shine 

Feminine and masculine values transcend gender. Both men and women possess feminine and masculine values to differing degrees. Our society—our political and economic structure—is geared toward the masculine values of efficiency, competition, power, and achievement. Feminine values like compassion, service, fairness, relationships, stability, and cooperation are important, but underrepresented and undervalued in our society. Feminine values come from a place of goodness; masculine values come from a place of strength. And in every case they’re both important. 

We are best as a society when our strength and our goodness come together. I can have all the wonderful feminine values, but without strength, goodness is unrecognized, unheard, unseen, and unfulfilled. Without goodness, strength turns to harm, abuses of power, and petty fighting without purpose. The best societies are those that combine strength and goodness to make progress in our community. As you become civically engaged, I encourage you to recognize the importance of feminine values and let them shine. We need more of them in civic life. 

Do good 

I know of no one who exemplified generosity in our community more than Larry H. Miller. I have seen the power of goodness in this man. He used to say, “Go and do good till there’s no more good left to do in the world.” 

Great communities have great people. It’s the responsibility of each of us to be civically engaged, to know the issues, to speak up, to listen, to support those who serve, and to vote. We have a responsibility to contribute to the greater good.

Sam Dunn, Senior Vice President Finance, Walmart Global Sourcing 

Finding a mentor, developing talent 

No matter how smart you think you are, no matter how talented, hardworking, or ambitious, you need a mentor. You need somebody who’s got the wisdom of years and experience. At this stage in my career, the favorite part of my job is mentoring young professionals who are ambitious, humble, and eager to learn. I love sitting down with them and talking about how they can grow.
I had a mentor early on in my career, Lee Scott, and he eventually become CEO of our company. Lee had a favorite saying: “If you always hire people who are better than you, our company will continue to be successful.” The truth is, most of us are a little insecure. We’re afraid that if we look for talent that’s better than we are, those people may take our jobs. Actually, I have found that hiring and developing top talent is a key not only to our company’s success but also to our own personal growth.

Sam Walton 

Sam was one of the hardest working men I’ve known. I was fortunate to join Walmart when he was chairman of the board, and he was an active chairman. My first job there was as general accounting manager. We had a team of accountants, about sixty clerical people, and one of our responsibilities was to close the books every month. A lot of it back then was not automated; a lot of it was manual. We were always challenged by Sam to get the books closed within five working days. He saw that having early access to performance data was a competitive edge. The only way we could do that was to work overnight.

Many times at month-end, we’d be up late, and invariably at three or four in the morning, Sam’s truck would pull up outside the office, he’d come in, and he’d ask us for his Profit and Loss Statements. This man probably needed only three or four hours of sleep a night. His motor just kept running. He was voracious about studying numbers. He loved to see what the numbers could tell him about the business. He’d memorize sales figures from virtually every store in the chain and would visit these stores regularly, so he could talk to the managers about their performances. 

A lesson in adversity 

There was an instance when Truman Madsen—one of my heroes—was traveling in the Holy Land with President Hugh B. Brown, and they visited the place where it’s reputed that Abraham was asked to face the greatest test any father could face: sacrificing his only son. Truman Madsen, as they sat together, said in effect to President Brown, “The Lord knew Abraham. He knew his heart; He knew his mind; He knew exactly how Abraham would respond to this test. Why, then, did the Lord require him to undergo this most severe and challenging of tests?” President Brown paused and then gave this very profound answer: “Because Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham.” 

When you face adversity in your lives, you’re going to learn something about yourself, and through your responses you’re going to become prepared for even greater tests and blessings. Respond to every adversity with faith, courage, and determination. Your response is sometimes the only difference between success and failure. 

Lifelong learning 

Most of your important life lessons are still ahead of you and will not come in a formal classroom. They’ll come to you in the form of adversity, which you choose to bravely face. They’ll come to you in the form of mentors who will guide your steps. They’ll come in the form of marriage and family and through the callings that you accept and strive to magnify. Finally, they’ll come through helping people in need and never being satisfied. Rather than focusing on the weaknesses of others, focus instead on how you can be better.

Frank Crespo, Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer, Caterpillar Inc. 

Personal accountability 

There are a lot of definitions of personal accountability. The one I like the most is: the willingness to claim 100 percent ownership for the results provided as a consequence of your involvement, both individually and collectively. 

Sometimes responsibility and accountability get mixed up, but they shouldn’t. Responsibility involves what you’re required to do. Accountability is really about the outcome and actions you’re taking, proactively and strategically, to ensure you’re reaching your goals. Accountability is a mindset and has more to do with giving up certain negative attitudes and trying to behave in different ways. 
If you’re part of a team or an organization, you’re not going to be measured by effort and intent. You’re going to be measured by results.

Commitment and performance 

A couple of years ago, I took a job that I knew was going to be a big task in terms of re-engineering the organization and transforming the company. The company had hit near rock bottom; they were just coming out of the ashes, and there was a lot of work to be done. I didn’t know what the chemistry and culture were going to be like until I got there. I walked in the door ready to go. On day three I got a call from my boss, the CFO. I went up to his office, and he sat me down and said, “We’ve had some challenges the last year and a half, and I need you to save $1.1 billion in three years. I need you to commit to that right now. Can you make it happen?”

It was day three. I didn’t know my team or the suppliers. I didn’t know the direction we were taking or how competitive we were, but my boss needed a commitment. It wasn’t an option to say, “Let me go figure it out, and I’ll let you know in two months,” Instead I said, “Yes, I’ll do it.” In three years, with a lot of teamwork and collaboration, we ended up exceeding the goal by 18 percent. You’ve got to acquire a mindset that says, “I’ll do it even if I don’t know exactly how.” 

I ask my organizations to have individual employees write their performance goals and figure out what they intend to contribute in meeting our business objectives. A lot of times their goals are calculated goals, meaning that they know they can easily achieve what they’re setting out to accomplish. They’re not really stretching themselves; they’re not pushing into new territory or even going past what’s expected. It makes me wonder: Are you really in the game? Are you really part of the effort, or are you just along for the ride?

Outside the business world 

Personal accountability applies to all aspects of your life—family and church, not just business. You need to reflect whether you have it or not. How many of you have said, “I’m too busy or too tired” or “My calling can take a backseat right now”? We have leaders, both now and in the past, who didn’t allow complacency or a victim mentality to get in their way. They understood that the mantle of accountability rested on their shoulders. They knew what needed to happen, and they were determined to follow that direction. We have plenty of examples to call upon to check and see where we’re at in being personally accountable. 

To reach your destinations and achieve your goals you often have to think and act differently from what is familiar and comfortable. Sometimes this whole process takes courage. Move forward even if you don’t know everything, but listen, observe, and look for opportunities to be that individual people can count on.

Britt Berrett, PhD, FACHE, President, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas; Executive Vice President, Texas Health Resources

The role of business in health care 

Health care is 17 percent of the United States’ GDP and soon will hit more than $3 trillion in economic activity. In comparison, housing and utilities are 13 percent, and food is 5 percent. Health care is a growing segment of the economy for a number of reasons. One reason is our success in treating illnesses and the resulting increase in life span. Before, we couldn’t cure cancer. Now, we’re curing it. In your lifetime we will have a complete cure for cancer. We’ll look at it like we look at tuberculosis or polio. 

Some of the most challenging business relationships and opportunities are in the health care field. By their very nature, physicians are scientists and do not think in business terms. They can imagine new devices for surgical intervention or innovative approaches on treatment protocols. They need wise and capable business partners to support their efforts. You and I have the experience and knowledge to make things happen. 

Reputation and balance 

Earn a reputation. I had a call from a friend who said, “I’ve got a young lady who would like to do an internship in health care. Would you please take her call?” I said sure. I got her name, and I typed it in a Facebook search. I learned a little more about her and didn’t take her call. I got another call from a young man from BYU–Idaho. He called me and said, “Can you give me some advice and counsel?” I said sure. He said, “I need an internship.” I went through the same process and concluded that he would be an excellent fit for our organization. I arranged for him to complete an internship with us. The importance of earning your reputation comes in so many ways, shapes, and forms. 

You’ll hear people talk about having balance in your life. You should have spiritual balance; you should have educational balance, social balance—everything should be balanced. Have any of you ever used that excuse on Friday night? “I don’t think I’m going to study, because I need more balance in my social life!” I believe that there are times in your life when you are out of sync, times when you spend a tremendous amount of your time on your education or your work, family, or social life. That’s just the way it is. Wednesday night I was with my staff, and we delivered a thousand cookies from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. That’s just what you do. 

The importance of caring 

Robert F. Kennedy said, “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself. But each of us can work to change one small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.” I share this with you because I hope you join this great work. I believe that health care professionals, whether they are at the bedside or behind a desk, have a divine calling and a responsibility to bless the lives of those they serve.

Health care executives face some ethical dilemmas. I would like to see men and women of strong moral values help make those decisions. I believe Heavenly Father wants His creations to be cared for. I don’t have the healing in my hands to be a doctor, but I have a good business mind. When I get exhausted from a long day, I go to the hospital lobby. My secretary calls them walkabouts. I watch family members coming and going and that gives me tremendous personal satisfaction. Knowing the things I do will bless lives gives importance and value to my profession.