New Word City: The Business School for Busy People

For two decades while building Marriott Hotels’ international operations, Edwin D. Fuller has demonstrated his leadership ability in dozens of countries around the world. Now he has distilled the lessons of that experience into a series of brief, practical guides to effective leadership. In this one, he explains why it is absolutely essential for leaders to get out of the office and onto the front lines.

In the film Up in the Air George Clooney, playing a for-hire corporate layoff specialist, confesses that he dreams of accumulating 10 million frequent-flyer miles-winning him, among other things, his name on an American Airlines jet. I can relate: I’m Ed Fuller, the President of Marriott International, and I’ve logged more than 10 million miles, enough to get my name painted on the side of a United Airlines jetliner.

Back in the 1990s, when Marriott International was just getting started, I was racking up 700,000 or so miles a year, many of them on United. One year, the airline decided to put the names of its top 50 high-mileage customers on aircraft fuselages. The next thing I knew, ‘Ed Fuller Customer’ was spelled out in big white letters just below the pilot’s window on a Boeing 747. It was a heady moment, I will admit-but, I’m sad to say, that’s where my resemblance to Clooney ends.

Nelson Mandela was born into a royal family, attended elite schools, became a lawyer, and could have settled into a comfortable life as a member of South Africa’s black middle class. But his sense of dignity and injustice was fierce, and he dedicated himself to the struggle for freedom and democracy. He paid a heavy price for his choice, often putting his life in danger and spending 27 years in prison, away from his family, barely knowing his children. Guided by a deep pragmatism, he evolved into one of the greatest leaders in modern history, a man who inspired and uplifted the world. His story offers valuable lessons for leaders everywhere.

Nelson Mandela is a fierce opponent of injustice, a proponent of nonviolent resistance, a moral beacon for the world, a man who changed the course of history and created today’s South Africa. He occupies a place in the Parthenon of great leaders-a symbol of the struggle for freedom and human rights, an inspiration to us all. But his has been a complicated life, filled with nuance and ambiguity. Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, yet he once advocated the violent overthrow of South Africa’s apartheid government and was instrumental in creating a guerilla army dedicated to that end. A child of privilege born into a royal family, he benefitted mightily from his family’s connections but was suspended from college and ran away to the slums of Johannesburg to avoid an arranged marriage.

Over the past 25 years, New Word City’s writers and editors -- New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Harper’s and Wall Street Journal veterans -- have turned out some of the bestselling business books of all time. Working closely with clients, the New Word City team has produced more than 70 books, of which more than 7 million copies have been sold. These titles have logged more than 500 weeks on The New York Times, Business Week, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Now, in a new series of digital shorts, they are telling the stories of some of the business world’s most inspiring and instructive leaders and companies.

Like a young entrepreneur with nothing but an idea, the iconic Alabama football coach Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant used his will and talent to escape hardscrabble poverty and invent himself as an American monument. His secret: He was able to learn from his mistakes, adapt to change, and earn the devotion of his players.

Bear Bryant's life was football, and he once predicted that he would "probably croak in a week" if he ever stopped coaching. In an ending that no self-respecting scriptwriter would have concocted, Bryant died of heart failure at 69, just a month after announcing his retirement and 37 days after coaching his last game, a 21-15 victory over Illinois in the 1982 Liberty Bowl. In Alabama, the impact of his death was so great that three Tuscaloosa churches were needed to hold the 1,500 mourners at his funeral, and people lined the highway for 53 miles as the cortege traveled to the cemetery in Birmingham. President Ronald Reagan called Bryant "a hero who always seemed larger than life."

Over the past 25 years, New Word City’s writers and editors -- New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Harper’s and Wall Street Journal veterans -- have turned out some of the bestselling business books of all time. Working closely with clients, the New Word City team has produced more than 70 books, of which more than 7 million copies have been sold. These titles have logged more than 500 weeks on The New York Times, Business Week, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Now, in a new series of digital shorts, they are telling the stories of some of the business world’s most inspiring and instructive leaders and companies.

Ronald Reagan was a product of America’s heartland, a kid who had a Huck Finn childhood and never lost his aw-shucks, all-American optimism. He moved to Hollywood, became a minor film star, and got involved in politics- at first on the left. But in the shadow of the 1950s anti-Communism furor, he moved to the right and began a steady rise to the pinnacle of power. Initially derided as a lightweight, a none-too-bright actor incapable of leading a nation, he proved his detractors wrong. Using extraordinary charm, conviction, communication skills, and stagecraft, Reagan became one of the most beloved, admired, and influential presidents in American history.

Of all American presidents, few could match Ronald Wilson Reagan in the art of leadership. He knew America. Ronald came into office in 1980- when the national mood was glum and the future looked problematic (sound familiar?)- and he lifted the country’s spirits on a wave of hope, purpose, and unabashed patriotism. In the years that followed, productivity and prosperity- at least for the upper and middle classes-increased at home, the Berlin Wall came down, and the Soviet Union collapsed, making America the de facto winner of the Cold War. Ronald’s policies played a part, of course, but it wasn’t just his management style that captured the heart of America. He brought something intangible to the national stage, an innate optimism that simply made Americans feel better.

Over the past 25 years, New Word City’s writers and editors -- New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Harper’s and Wall Street Journal veterans -- have turned out some of the bestselling business books of all time. Working closely with clients, the New Word City team has produced more than 70 books, of which more than 7 million copies have been sold. These titles have logged more than 500 weeks on The New York Times, Business Week, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Now, in a new series of digital shorts, they are telling the stories of some of the business world’s most inspiring and instructive leaders and companies.

Business success stories may be instructive, but we need to know more about why smart people make bad decisions. Sydney Finkelstein, a professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School who has studied these crucial questions for 15 years, tells how decisions really get made and describes the four signals that can alert you when emotions are interfering with your thinking.

Business bookshelves teem with success stories. Companies in search of excellence always go from good to great; Jack Welch tells how he made General Electric a winner; we learn the "seven secrets of intelligent people" and "the art of investing." Writers pay lip service to learning from mistakes, but, in practice, no one says much about failure.

Yet, bad decisions pose some of the most interesting questions in business. Why did so many smart people invest with Bernie Madoff? As the housing bubble swelled, why did so many bankers keep doubling down on subprime mortgages? In the great meltdown, why did Ken Lewis, then CEO of Bank of America, overpay so wildly for Merrill Lynch? Why did Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers refuse to sell his company until it was too late?

The New Orleans Saints were already pro football's longtime losers. And after Hurricane Katrina turned them into refugees without a home field, their wreckage seemed complete. A permanent relocation was rumored. Enter Sean Payton. Hired as head coach by the Saints in 2006, the rookie turned the hapless team around with a determined mix of inspired recruiting, motivation, discipline, flawless execution, and a willingness to take calculated and prepared risks. In Payton's biggest gamble, the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV. Leaders on and off the field can learn from him.

On February 7, 2010, the once-forsaken New Orleans Saints shocked the football world by upsetting the seemingly invincible Indianapolis Colts. Their improbable and gutsy Super Bowl XLIV win capped perhaps the greatest turnaround ever recorded in professional sports. Sean Payton, just four years into his first job as a head coach, showed himself a model for leaders everywhere.

The Saints had long been ridiculed as one of the worst franchises in pro sports--and not without reason. It took them two decades to record their first winning season and 33 years to win a post-season playoff game. In the early years, fans wore paper bags over their heads and dubbed the team the "Ain'ts."

For close to 45 years, Jon Luther, a 2010 inductee into the National Restaurant Association Hall of Fame, has been running some part of the U.S. food-service industry--from managing the cafeteria at the Wurlitzer jukebox and organ company to leading Dunkin' Brands, serving three million customers a day around the world. Drawing on lessons learned in that long career, he describes how he overcame organizational inertia and reset the strategic direction of three of the companies he has led. In each case, he began by identifying the epicenter of the brand, the strategic heartbeat.

By its very definition, the word leader evokes the concept of change. Leaders take us toward or away from something, into a new reality. But change is almost always frightening, and leaders have to persuade their teams that the risks are worth taking, that the work is worth doing, and that the payoff will improve their lives. I've been through that process many times, and I'm here to tell you that it can be done--and that you can do it, too.

In our personal lives, if we are content with the status quo, we don't need to look for someone to carry us to a new place. Businesses don't have that luxury. They cannot stand still because their environment is in constant flux: Employees come and go, competitors adopt new strategies, technical breakthroughs transform markets. So organizations must have leaders who can plan, initiate, and execute the strategies that will deliver the required change.

First Lady Michelle Obama, the direct descendant of slaves, now lives in a house that was built by slaves. This daughter of a nurturing if demanding family grew up on Chicago’s South Side, where she developed discipline and diligence, two traits that carried her to Princeton and then Harvard Law School. She turned her back on wealth and prestige to follow her idealism into the public sector, where she was immediately successful. A young beauty with many suitors, she finally settled on a man named Barack Obama. Together they formed a formidable team that accomplished the seemingly impossible-electing the first African-American President of the United States. Her fascinating story is an inspiration to the world.

It’s the summer of 1860 on the Friendfield plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina-coastal low country whose snake- and mosquito-infested fields produce half of America’s rice crop. A young African slave by the name of Jim Robinson is working in the rice fields. Owned by another man, Robinson has no freedom, no choices, no opportunities. It’s hard to imagine his dreams include a vision of his great-great-granddaughter as First Lady of the United States, living in the White House, hosting state dinners, an inspiration to her own country, and one of the most admired women in the world. But it happened. Her name is Michelle Obama-and we can be sure that Jim Robinson would be as proud of his descendant as she is of him.

Over the past 25 years, New Word City’s writers and editors -- New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Harper’s and Wall Street Journal veterans -- have turned out some of the bestselling business books of all time. Working closely with clients, the New Word City team has produced more than 70 books, of which more than 7 million copies have been sold. These titles have logged more than 500 weeks on The New York Times, Business Week, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Now, in a new series of digital shorts, they are telling the stories of some of the business world’s most inspiring and instructive leaders and companies.

Toymaker LEGO’s resurgence from near-death shows leaders in all fields how to cope with a changing world. With children growing up faster than ever and pop culture running rampant, LEGO's little plastic bricks were inexorably losing appeal. The Danish toymaker lost its way when it tried to recast itself as a lifestyle brand, but a new leader brought a different vision of the future -- and forced his idealistic managers to focus on the bottom line. Here’s what you can learn from their experience.

Over the past 25 years, New Word City’s writers and editors -- New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Harper’s and Wall Street Journal veterans -- have turned out some of the bestselling business books of all time. Working closely with clients, the New Word City team has produced more than 70 books, of which more than 7 million copies have been sold. These titles have logged more than 500 weeks on The New York Times, Business Week, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Now, in a new series of digital shorts, they are telling the stories of some of the business world’s most inspiring and instructive leaders and companies.

Jim Champy has seven rules for leadership, honed from his many years of experience. They are: One, see the world as it truly is. Two, share good ideas with all. Three, make technology everyone’s job. Four, manage change as a campaign. Five, gain control by giving it up. Six, relish change. Seven, make your values everyone’s business.

Jim Champy is recognized as the world’s leading authority on the fundamental redesign of business processes, organization, and culture. His New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution sold more than 3 million copies, and his subsequent books on leadership, change management, and increased growth through counterintuitive thinking have reached wide audiences around the world.

After 75 years, Benjamin Graham’s value investing principles remain one of the surest ways for the small investor to succeed in the stock market. He was the father of value investing. In the shadow of the Great Depression, this author, business school professor, and investment firm founder devised a methodical system for measuring a stock’s intrinsic value. He took emotion out of investing decisions, replacing it with a sound intellectual framework that remains in use today. Here’s how you can put his theories and practices to work.

Over the past 25 years, New Word City’s writers and editors -- New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Harper’s and Wall Street Journal veterans -- have turned out some of the bestselling business books of all time. Working closely with clients, the New Word City team has produced more than 70 books, of which more than 7 million copies have been sold. These titles have logged more than 500 weeks on The New York Times, Business Week, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Now, in a new series of digital shorts, they are telling the stories of some of the business world’s most inspiring and instructive leaders and companies.

At Intuit, the path to innovation and domination in financial software has been paved with customer feedback. To ferret out problems and test progress on products in development, the company sends its engineers out for face-to-face encounters with consumers and entrepreneurs. But the company has struggled to adapt its business from software sold on disks to online financial services. Perhaps the most valuable feedback: Intuit relies on volunteers for improvements and new product ideas.

Over the past 25 years, New Word City’s writers and editors -- New York Times, Newsweek, Time, Harper’s and Wall Street Journal veterans -- have turned out some of the bestselling business books of all time. Working closely with clients, the New Word City team has produced more than 70 books, of which more than 7 million copies have been sold. These titles have logged more than 500 weeks on The New York Times, Business Week, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Now, in a new series of digital shorts, they are telling the stories of some of the business world’s most inspiring and instructive leaders and companies.