Leaders Excellence; Vegar Wiik, Sybil Alfred, Natalya Sabga, Debra Delach-Dodd, and the entire team from Florida Atlantic University's Executive Education department; Elaine Eisenman and Joe Weintraub from Babson College's Executive Education team; Romeo Ruh and team from ZfU International Business School in Zurich, Switzerland; Graciela Gonzalez Biondo, Chris Stanley, and team from World of Business Ideas (WOBI); Alper Utko, Didem Gurcuoglu, Labeed Hamid, and team from the Management Centre Turkey in Istanbul; Soliman Arab, Sherihan Hassabo, and team from Vigor Enterprise in Kuwait; Christianna Tsiterou and Marie-Louise Adlercreutz from Innoverto, in Dubai, UAE; Hugo Fernando Gutierrez, Alena Cabova, Lenka Krivkova, and team from Seminarium Mexico; Jorge Venegas and Maria Pia Venegas from Seminarium Costa Rica and Panama; Sven Kroneberg from Seminarium International; Juan Carlos Linares and Paulette Manrique from Lee Hecht Harrison in Bogota, Colombia; Faith Chinogurei and Samantha Mawarire from Manifest HRC in Zimbabwe; Bhaawana Devaraath from Synerggie Events in Oman; Muneer from CustomerLab in India; and CB Bowman and the entire Association of Corporate Executive Coaches family. I want to extend special thanks to Joan Bigham, Des Dearlove, Stuart Crainer, and the team from the Thinkers50 for their belief in me and my work. I want to thank Taha Farhan and the team from Globalgurus for their support and belief in me and my work. And, of course, I want to thank all our global speaker bureau partners for their support as well. Special thanks to all my executive MBA students at Florida Atlantic University. I want to extend a special thank-you to my good friend and personal coach, Linda Mattia Potts, who has given me many gifts along the way, but the ones I most cherish are her honesty, wisdom, and inspiration. I want to thank my colleagues and friends from AlignMark – Cabot Jaffee Sr., Cabot Jaffee, Glen Jaffee, and Mike Struth for what I learned from you and for providing me the wisdom and passion to do what I do today.
Lastly, this project would not have been possible without the outstanding efforts of Senior Editor Matt Davis and his team at Wiley. Thank you very much.
Acknowledgments
THIS BOOK IS THE CULMINATION of years of effort – and a philosophical and career transformation from a data-centric empiricist to a creative strategist. In many ways it is also a statement of personal growth from the constrained and limiting thought process required of a scientist to the realm of possibilities expected of a philosopher.
I want to specifically thank a few people who were instrumental in helping me make this journey.
My mother, Nirmala Vaidya, has been a pillar of support all my life and has always been there for me and the family in every conceivable way, ensuring difficult times pass in care and love. Her dedication to the family and its well-being has been her sole focus in life and she succeeded splendidly despite incredible odds. She gave up career opportunities because her children needed her at home. A mother like that needs to be saluted and revered. I also want to thank my father, Narendra Vaidya, for his unwavering focus on education and his family's well-being.
My three daughters, Ashima, Ahna, and Anika, bring such incredible joy and learning into my life. Without the lessons their presence in my life brings, I would not be evolving as a human being. They are the source of my strength and happiness in life.
The support of my incredibly loving extended family including my two brothers, sisters-in-law, nephews, and niece is the reason that I have crossed some difficult times without faltering along the way. Nitin, Namit, Sharmila, Soumya, Amol, Priyanka, Apoorv, and Avie Vaidya – I love you all and cannot thank you enough for being there.
I want to thank my late grandparents, Raghubir Saran in particular, for embodying values that I cherish and make efforts to live by – integrity, responsibility, and compassion. They are the reason I am part of an absolutely adorable and loving family of uncles, aunts, and cousins who are always there for me.
Thanks go to Suma Nithya and Faisal Kalim – my closest colleagues, partners, and friends whose unyielding support for the cause of our group is critical to its survival, as well as Abryl Acosta, the au pair for my children and a dear friend, without whom I would not be at work even for a single day. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for being there in my life. I would be remiss if I did not thank my long-time friends Dr. Ranvir Singh, Dr. Sunny Singh, Dr. Sanjay Misra, Dr. Steven Sivo, Punita Srivastava, and Vivek Gujral.
I want to thank my friends Joseph Emmett and Ritu Asatkar, who introduced me to the ancient philosophy of the Vedanta and spent hundreds of hours in discourses that have influenced my thinking about leadership and life in general. Without doubt, this book would not have been possible without my co-author John Mattone, whom I cannot thank enough. He took the project by the horns and made it possible during the most difficult time of my life. I owe thanks to every single person he thanks. I want to thank Dr. Victor Wilson, at Texas A&M University – my doctoral advisor and a huge supporter – and Paul DiModica of Value Forward Marketing Group, my executive coach and advisor who helped me make the transition from a statistician to a strategist.
Thanks also go to my business associates and supporters – David Schmoock, president, Dell, Inc., my former boss and mentor; Tariq Shaukat, chief commercial officer, Caesars Entertainment Corporation; and Alex Vratskides, CEO, Upstream – my colleagues at the start of my career with whom I learned the initial set of tricks; Brett Hurt of Hurt Family Foundation, whom I delight in calling a friend and who means a lot to me.
The role of my guests on The CEO Show may not be apparent but is paramount in the development of this book. I could not possibly thank each one of them by name, but they are all in my heart and deserve special thanks. Let me also not forget to thank all the contributors to the CEO magazine and all of my readers. Thank you all.
This acknowledgement would not be complete without thanking Missy, my pet Maltese, who sits by me all day long in the office and keeps me company.
Foreword
JOHN MATTONE'S CULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS: Lessons of Leadership and Corporate Reinvention from the C-Suite Elite builds on the wisdom and lessons of his 2013 bestseller, Intelligent Leadership. Working with co-author Nick Vaidya, managing editor, CEO magazine, they demonstrate how an organization's culture – specifically how it reflects and embodies the values and character of its CEO – is the key to creating an environment that intentionally seeks and embraces change in order to succeed in a global economy that is increasingly globalized, decentralized, and driven by the new, nimble, and bold.
Through revealing and candid interviews with 14 of the top CEOs in the world, John Mattone and Nick Vaidya provide an intimate look at the triumphs and, maybe more importantly, the wisdom gained through failure from some of the world's best CEO mentors. Through their experiences readers will be inspired to achieve more for their organizations – and themselves.
Cultural Transformations is a tremendous resource to teach leaders how to unlock their own potential by being willing to confront hard truths – better known as the truth – about themselves and then work relentlessly to improve their personal and professional abilities every day. And, by doing so, these same CEOs set examples and expectations for their leadership teams to emulate, embrace, and disseminate throughout the entire organizational structures. Mattone's leadership development process thoughtfully and thoroughly shows how creating a successful, dynamic, and supportive culture is the cornerstone to building a sustainable, flexible, and competitive business model that can survive and thrive in any market climate.
As president of Babson College – the world's recognized leader in entrepreneurship education, of which John Mattone is a proud alumnus – I, along with my fellow academic leaders, am currently confronting major challenges to the traditional models of higher education. Put simply, we need to transform or be rendered obsolete.
Our customers, students and parents, are increasingly questioning the conventional wisdom of a college education serving as an automatic ticket to career success. As costs continue to rise, student debts mount, and long-term outcomes become less certain there is increasing scrutiny of the return on investment for a college degree.
Adjusting and thriving during this period of rapid