ACHIEVING LONG-TERM IMPACT THROUGH VALUES-DRIVEN LEADERSHIP

Abstract

The author, a former Chief Executive Officer/CEO and Chairman of Pitney Bowes, notes the leadership importance of “values, culture, and vision.” He writes that the company was founded in 1920, and “invented secure postage payment through meters that directly imprinted postage on envelopes and labels.” He relates examples from his own tenure at the company, and going back to its roots with Walter Wheeler, its longest serving CEO (1938–1960 and 1963–1969), who “was a kind leader, who offered all employees a generous profit-sharing plan and free health insurance.” This influence led to the author’s own emphasis on the health of those in the organization, also drawing on his own lifetime of healthy living. There were many benefits to this healthy organizational culture, which “reduced healthcare costs 23% or $40 million annually below industry benchmarks. Disability, absenteeism, and workers compensation costs also flattened out.” Further, “We created what Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson calls a ‘fearless organization,’ which avoided the destructive effects of a culture looking for people to blame for mistakes.” The success of these initiatives became examples to other leaders and managers, as explained in Professor Michael Porter's and Jennifer Baron's 2009 Harvard Business School case study about the company.