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Our travels for The CEO Series have introduced us to firms of all sizes and scopes, and for this episode, we went to 1 that’s simply huge. Zebra Technologies is likely one of the most dynamic B2B know-how firms on the earth. They digitize and automate workflows for firms, have roughly 10, 000 staff and do about $5 billion in income. I had the prospect to take a seat down with CEO Bill Burns to learn the way he leads such an enormous operation.
Under are some highlights of our insightful dialog, which have been edited for size and readability. Watch the complete video above.
International attain
“You see our firm Zebra in on a regular basis life. We’re a digital answer supplier that permits companies to intelligently join knowledge, belongings, and other people. You see us in a point-of-sale checkout at a grocery store, when a postal employee is delivering a parcel to your home, and in so many different locations. Corporations use our cell gadgets to scan the package deal, get signatures, and issues like that. All the most important retailers world wide — 86 p.c of the Fortune 500 firms — are our prospects right this moment. We consider it as retail, transportation, logistics, manufacturing and warehousing, well being care and authorities.”
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The NFL Connection
“As an organization, we assist the NFL. We use the identical kinds of tags that may be utilized in retail or transportation logistics to trace parcels or stock to trace each cleat, each shoulder pad, each helmet worn by a participant. The NFL’s preliminary use case was for fan engagement and to reinforce the printed. After which the newest use instances are actually round defending the well being and security of the gamers.”
The CEO’s Journey
“I began my profession in gross sales, in a big telco gross sales into people like Verizon and others. After which I took a task main Europe, the Center East, and Africa from a gross sales aspect and expanded into advertising and companies and different areas. After which I joined Zebra about 9 years in the past to guide the acquisition piece. Zebra was a billion-dollar specialty printing enterprise. They purchased two and a half billion {dollars} in income from Motorola to the enterprise enterprise and so type of in a single day a $1 billion enterprise grew to become a $3.5 billion enterprise.”
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Management accountability
“There’s three legs of the stool, proper? That is how I view the enterprise: our prospects, our staff and our buyers. In the end we’re in enterprise to proceed to develop and to make cash. However you have to do the best issues first. You have acquired to have the ability to reward and appeal to and retain the very best staff world wide. When you do this, then you definately’ll serve your prospects finest. When you serve your prospects finest, you will develop your topline income and your profitability and your inventory will go up and you may maintain your buyers.”
Main by means of robust instances
“I feel that demand for our companies skyrocketed throughout COVID, after which in 2023, demand reset again to 2019 ranges. So we had been put able the place we needed to do the traditional issues that the majority companies would do. Have a look at your actual property and your journey prices and all these issues internally. We additionally did issues like voluntary retirement applications. We thought of creating new alternatives for individuals inside the group. It labored out nice, but it surely’s at all times arduous to get smaller. It is at all times much more enjoyable to develop. However you have to make these robust enterprise choices at instances.”
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Profession recommendation to future leaders
“Nobody else cares as a lot about your profession as you do, but in addition be affected person as a result of it does not occur in a single day. And if you happen to’re at a fantastic firm and you’ve got alternatives there, there’s nowhere else that you simply’re extra revered than inside that firm. They know you might be prepared, so be affected person.”
Try extra profiles of revolutionary and impactful leaders by visiting The CEO Series archives.
