I played a funeral convention once. York Casket Company pays well, in case anyone's wondering!
In 1994, when I came to PepsiCo, there were really three businesses. They were soft drinks, which included both bottling and the concentrate company. There were salted snacks - Frito Lay. And restaurants where we had, we all talk of them, Pizza Hut, KFC and a whole bunch of casual dining chains.
When I came into the music, I was forced to be a CEO. I was forced to be an entrepreneur; I was forced to... because I was looking for a deal. I didn't have this grand scheme of starting a record company and then morphing into a clothing empire.
I think of a traditional CEO as being divorced from customers. A lot of consumer company CEOs - they're not really interacting with consumers.
Everything becomes connected, and cyber security becomes the top issue for CEOs. An average company has 40-60 security vendors, and they have a violation every three months with viruses.
I'm also the chairman of the board of Symantec, which is the world's largest cybersecurity - software cybersecurity company.
I think it's extremely important to think of your company as a series of chapters.
I still have my first paycheck. It was just, I think, a dollar or two that I got when I started as a songwriter with BMI, and I had some songs there that I had through the company, and in the mail I got this big old check for, like, a dollar and a half or something. Somebody had recorded one of my songs.
I just want to make a difference. I want to make Chrysler the most profitable car company in the United States.
Even President Bush has cited the need to outlaw the practice of corporations making loans to their officers. Strangely enough, when the President was a corporate officer, he took out several loans from the company.
Keeping people fired up starts with having a really clear vision for what the company is aiming to do.
At the height of the Enron mania, the company's market value was $65 billion. Once the dust cleared, the final value was $0.
The legacy of Steve Jobs and the strength of Steve Jobs is that he established a company that's clearly firing on all cylinders and clicking very well.
Above and beyond, not only are we an innovation company, we are in service of our clients.
When you manage your company for long-term shareholders, and you manage the company for clients, two of the biggest stakeholders, you will make the right decisions.
Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.
In a web/mobile startup, coding is not an outsourced activity. It's an integral part of the company's DNA.
When Enron collapsed, through court processes, thousands and thousands of emails came out that were internal, and it provided a window into how the whole company was managed. It was all the little decisions that supported the flagrant violations.
In the 1960s, if you were a blue collar worker or uneducated, and you had an injury on the job, the company basically dismissed you.
Sam Walton instilled ownership of the products in the stores into the collective consciousness of every associate regardless of what job they did for the company.
