|
Good To Great, by Jim Collins
First Who...Then What
Chapter 3, page 42
Consider the case of Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo began its 15-year
stint of spectacular performance in 1983, but the foundation for
the shift dates back to the early 1970s, when then-CEO Dick Cooley
began building one of the most talented management teams in the
industry (the best team, according to investor Warren Buffett).2
Cooley foresaw that the banking industry would eventually undergo
wrenching change, but he did not pretend to know what form that
change would take. So instead of mapping out a strategy for change,
he and chairman Ernie Arbuckle focused on “injecting an endless
stream of talent” directly into the veins of the company.
They hired outstanding people whenever and wherever they found
them, often without any specific job in mind. “That’s
how you build the future,” he said. “If I’m not
smart enough to see the changes that are coming, they will. And
they’ll be flexible enough to deal with them.”3
Cooley’s approach proved prescient. No one could predict
all the changes that would be wrought by banking deregulation.
Yet when these changes came, no bank handled those challenges
better than Wells Fargo. At a time when its sector of the banking
industry fell 59 percent behind the general stock market, Wells
Fargo outperformed the market by over three times.4
|
