The Best Advice I ever got

May 29, 05

The March issue of Fortune has 28 leaders and gurus from the world of business share ?The Best Advice I ever got?. It has the likes of Peter Drucker, Warren Buffet, Richard Branson, Howard Schultz … the list goes on.

Two that stayed with me:

Excerpt from Meg Whitman, CEO and President of eBay

?Always do the best job you can do at whatever you are assigned, even if you think it?s boring.? Jerry Parkinson, an assistant advertising Manager and my boss at P&G, told me this in 1979. Here I was fresh out of Harvard Business School, and I was assigned to determine how big the hole in the ivory shampoo bottle should be: three-eighths of an inch or one-eighth of an inch. I did research, focus groups..and I would come home at night wondering how I had gone from HBS to this. But I later realised that any job you?re given is an opportunity to prove yourself.?

Vivek Paul, Vice Chairman Wipro

?The second-best piece of advice was something I learned from Jack Welch on one of his trips to India. He was commenting that every time he lands in New York, he imagine that he?s just been appointed chairman and that this is his first day in the role, and the guy before him was a real dud. He said, ?every time, I think, what would I do that was different than the guy before? What big changes would I make?? I took that seriously.?

Try to read the entire article.

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