On the Road 85based on the principles that they were supposed to be im-
plementing. Every day these people saw evidence that the
companies were not walking their talk. Who could blame
them for becoming cynical? From a leader’s point of view all
decisions matter, especiallythe small ones.
Here is a quote from Jack Welch, CEO of the American
firm General Electric. Welch was generally acknowledged
as a strong, capable and unsentimental business leader. He
acquired the nickname of ‘Neutron Jack’ from his efforts
to reduce the workforce and get rid of under-performing
subsidiary businesses – the buildings were still there but
there was hardly anybody left in them. He is quoted as say-
ing, ‘Trust is enormously powerful in a corporation. People
won’t do their best unless they believe they will be treated
fairly – that there’s no cronyism and everybody has a real
shot.’ And a further quote: ‘If you are not thinking all the
time about making every person more valuable, you don’t
have a chance. What’s the alternative? Wasted minds? Unin-
volved people?’^5
When Welch speaks of making people valuable I would
translate that as making people feel valued. You do this
by finding out and acting on what is important to them.
Being value focused does not mean being soft or easy or
non-competitive, but gives you strength to fight, to com-
pete, to be tough and clear about decisions, because you
can trace them back to what is important to you and the
people you work with.
Sometimes it seems that what we cannot count does not
exist and values and purpose are not easily quantifiable. We
have not yet evolved a way to measure them easily. But we
can measure their effects in the hardest currency of all –
money. What do you think would be the asking price for
Microsoft? (Always assuming there is any organization or
country on the planet that could afford to make an offer.)
It would be billions of dollars. What would the buyer be
paying for? Certainly more than the Redmond Buildings
in Washington State and Bill Gates’ smile. They would be
buying a company capable of generating huge profits