CEO Stories: Leadership Through Communication and Involvement
Over the course of his career, Steve learned that to serve all stakeholders, a business leader must find the right balance in meeting the needs of customers, employees, owners, community, and the environment.
SUPER START IN THE SUPERMARKET BUSINESS
Steve Odland is CEO of the Conference Board, a premier business research organization, which provides deep insight into the economy and human behavior. He considers it a fitting step for someone who started his career in the low-margin, data-rich supermarket business. Everyone shops at supermarkets, he notes, voting with their dollars and cents, giving critical insight into what drives consumers. According to Odland, big data is nothing new, as grocery stores started capturing data for more than 20 years ago.
FROM CEREAL TO AUTO PARTS
His first major CEO job was at Auto Zone, at the beginning of the 2001 recession. While a DIY business focused on keeping cars running is somewhat insulated from other recession-related trends, it was a time, in Odland’s mind, to focus on leadership, ethicism, and invigorating both the shopper and the staff with a strong emphasis on culture. Odland’s bet saw the Memphis-headquartered company stock increase by more than 400%.
MR. ODLAND GOES TO WASHINGTON
The Committee for Economic Development was a seventy-five-year-old think tank in Washington D.C., which merged a couple of years later with the Conference Board—an unusual move for two non-profits. One of the first products of the newly merged groups: A public policy book called Sustaining Capitalism. Odland points out that he believes Adam Smith did not so much create capitalism in 1776 when he wrote The Wealth of Nations but instead described what was happening around him.
BUSINESS RESPONSIBILITY FOR RESTORING TRUST
Odland thinks it is the responsibility of the business community to restore public trust that has eroded in corporations and believes that in order to sustain capitalism, it must evolve. One evolution is going beyond the popular B-School theories promulgated from his time as an MBA student, which centered on short-termism and shareholders, in favor of a longer-view that focuses on a broader group of constituents: customers, employees and owners, community, and environment.