"Since we have a public company, the annual average increase
in our stock has been 50%.
Not only does that make for highky motivated employees,
it makes it very difficult for anyone to acquire us."
General and Personal
1) I didn't have anything to apologize for.
2) I don't know technology and engineering. I don't know accounting.
3) I expected results.
4) I have some assets that over time will be worth something. I've been in the process of selling others.
5) I know I lost my temper, but I tried to be human along the way.
6) I know what I don't know. To this day, I don't know technology, and I don't know finance or accounting.
7) I never thought anything like that would have gone on.
8) I put those people in place. I trusted them. I had no idea they would do anything like this.
9) I used practically all the money I had available.
10) I was a pretty good coach and working with marketing was like coaching.
11) I wasn't ever advised by Scott Sullivan of anything ever being wrong.
12) The coach's job is to get the best players and get them to play together.
13) We have the right assets for a fast-growing digital business.
14) We were a fast-growing company, and I was a demanding boss.
New People, New Views
15) If you look at my direct reports, only one has been with me since the beginning. Every other person came through an acquisition. That has been a great opportunity for us because we get many different perspectlves about the way things are done."
16) The way I see it, my function is not to be the most knowledgeable in any specific area. My challenge is to make sure that I have blue chip players in each area-and we are fortunate now that we have a lot of Michael Jordans-and then try to get them to play on the same team.
17) One of the most difficult things in doing mergers is that you don't know a lot about the people that you are getting with the acquisition. But the opposite is also true.
18) The critical rhing for me is to recognize that I am not the company.
19) I guess everybody has a desire to be 'successful,' or be able to provide for their family.
20) I recognize who I am. And if I do that, and I deal with people on a person-to-person basis, not a title-to-title basis, then people generally participate.
21) What has always worked for me is having a very casual relationship with people.
22) One of the worst things that can happen is you have people do something because you said to do it instead of having them do something because they agree that it's the right thing to do. That doesn't change as you get bigger. It becomes a little bit more complex, but it doesn't change.
23) We have tried very hard to make sure we do not have an oversupply of ego in the company. For my part, I know I am very fortunate to be here.
