From Strategy to Execution Some years ago when Vanguard’s CEO Bill McNabb was running the company's Institutional Investing Group, I asked him to serve as our keynote speaker at an Employee and Customer engagement conference we had organized. I still remember Bill’s excellent presentation-- particularly when he spoke about Vanguard’s strategic plan. He held it up to show us as he spoke. It was one page long. His point was simple and powerful: there's no [...]

  I was thrilled to read today’s story of the European Space Agency successfully landing their spacecraft on a comet traveling 34,000 miles per hour. Despite so many things that could have doomed their “comet chasing” mission, the ESA team got enough things to go right to achieve their ambitious goal. What does this wonderful story tell us about how we define success? I see three things: 1. "Overnight success" is a romantic notion. It took ESA ten years [...]

  Some years ago when Vanguard’s CEO Bill McNabb was running the company's Institutional Investing Group, I asked him to serve as our keynote speaker at an Employee and Customer engagement conference we had organized. I still remember Bill’s excellent presentation-- particularly when he spoke about Vanguard’s strategic plan. He held it up to show us as he spoke. It was one page long. His point was simple and powerful: there's no doubt strategic plans [...]

A recent piece by Joshua Wolf Shenk in The Atlantic posits that the 'lone genius' is a myth. Instead, he cites McCartney and Lennon and Jobs and Wozniak, as proof that greatness actually comes from opposite personalities continually competing and cooperating with one another. This is an interesting point of view worth closer consideration. Some level of "co-opetition" among team members can be healthy and make organizations stronger. It can even lead to breakthroughs. But the trick is finding [...]

Among a few friends of mine who play soccer, I’ve heard similar comments when describing the World Cup’s top players. They talk about “vision,” “creativity,” and “composure” when describing the greats like Messi, Muller and Rodriguez. In watching a few World Cup matches, I agree with my friends and think great leaders possess these same qualities. Vision I learned at an early age to keep my head up when playing basketball. I still remember my 6th grade basketball [...]