Start With The Answer (Seelert, 2009)

And Other Wisdom For Aspiring Leaders

Today, we rarely see the words "business" and "wisdom" in the same sentence. For Bob Seelert, Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi, the two go hand-in-hand. At a time when our economic systems desperately need to energize people and produce leaders at all levels, Seelert brings us Start with the Answer.

This collection of ninety-four real-life stories from Seelert's forty-year career as CEO of five companies in three different industries reveals transformative insights and practical instruction for anyone who wants to succeed as an executive, business leader, or entrepreneur. In this highly readable and down-to-earth book, Seelert outlines his strategies, practices, and principle-centered approach to decision-making and problem-solving. Even more important, he shares the wisdom he has gained through exposure to extraordinary people, events, and institutions.

Based on his long and successful career, Seelert boils it all down to the eight dimensions of business life every leader must master in order to succeed—preparation, building and managing a career, business strategy, business operations, finance and economics, leadership, culture and communication, and personal spirit and style.

As he explores these eight dimensions in detail, Seelert provides a wealth of experience-based tactics, principles, and ideas for overcoming all the basic challenges of the modern business world. With both the philosophy and the nuts and bolts of great leadership, Start with the Answer provides critical insight any aspiring leader can use to succeed in any industry.

But you'll find much more here than just business fundamentals, including a philosophical foundation for high-quality leadership in the modern business world. Start with the Answer argues that leaders must first come to know themselves, and then develop the values, beliefs, and principles they will carry through their careers in order to earn the trust of those they lead.

If you want to take your business career to the pinnacle of achievement and success-and lead your organization to new heights as well-you have to know where you're going before you plot your course. You must Start with the Answer.

p.47 My most important management philosophy is "Start with the answer, and work you way back to the solution." As a starting point, I apply this approach to virtually every situation that comes across my desk. Once you understand the basic facts, where you want to position your organization or yourself should become obvious. The real question is, "How do you get there?" Instead of wasting time dwelling on the problems of the past, you should devote all your energy to creating solutions for the future.

p.53 Develop the short list of critical priorities and stick to it.

p.57 An objective can be described as a goal, an outcome, or an "end." It must be measurable. A strategy describes the boundaries you operate within to achieve the objectives. As such, they represent the "means to an end." A plan then is the set of action-oriented steps, taken in conformance with the strategies to achieve the objective... setting strategies is particularly important. By establishing boundaries, strategies help channel the organization's efforts in the right direction and minimize unfettered thinking and actions. They provide the mechanism for evaluating the strength or sensibility of plans as they come forth. The simple question to ask is, "Is the plan on strategy?" ... improperly defining the objective, strategy, and plan invariably leads to sloppy thinking, poor execution, and negative results.

p.65-66 we would no longer be just an advertising agency. Rather, we would reposition ourselves as an "Ideas Company." Ideas, of course, are the underlying strength of what become great ads and the fuel for transforming a client's business.

p.87 "...Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." ... You cannot control chance, but you can control your ability to manage a situation to best advantage when opportunity (or perhaps disaster) comes your way.

p.89 Time is the scarcest resource of all, yet it is the only one we each have in equal amounts... How well you use your time will be a key determinant of your success.

p.93 Great ideas rarely come to you in their final form on day one. Rather, they start as seeds that are planted, watered, fertilized, pruned, and cultivated to produce something beautiful - just like flowers.

p.105 Another bit of wisdom from Woody Hayes was, "Ninety-five percent of winning is anticipating what the other team will do."

p.108 Invest in a defense plan to ensure competitive survival.

p.133-134 If an unanticipated event unfolded in the marketplace, we could respond by launching a new product variation of our own, or alter the timing on a previously planned initiative. We had to stay on top of real-world events and make sure we were flexible and responsive in dealing with them.

We wrote strategies based on long-term principles, but were constantly aware of how to vary execution to adapt to the realities of the market. In our planning, we ran many "what-if" scenarios to prepare us to deal with changes as they occurred.

p.137 Just as with other commodity prices, foreign exchange, and stock prices, there is no such thing as certain knowledge. At best, there are informed judgments. Accordingly, all strategies must be capable of working both ways - how will we behave if the price goes up, and where will we be if it goes down?

The other question this left was, "How do we leverage our knowledge, if indeed, we know more about this than anyone else?"

p.195 Passionate, competitive, and restless are three key characteristics of the people in successful creative companies.

p.198 Be relentless in pursuit of things you are passionate about.

p.215 my formula for success has been "one part brains, two parts common sense." When the formula is reversed, it usually leads to overthinking and undue analysis that invariably produce unsuccessful initiatives... An additional complement to common sense is street smarts.

p.217 If you want to find out what is going on in the real world, talk to the guy who is driving your taxi around New York City... Take advantage of the opportunity to understand the input and the thinking of someone with whom you would not normally have a chance to communicate.

p.225 in an ever-faster moving world, the circumstances and therefore the tactics must keep changing - but rarely do the underlying principles change... As you go forward, the ability to come at things from the vantage point of values, beliefs, and principles, combined with soundness of judgment honed by experience and exposure (wisdom) is a good place to start.

Enter supporting content here