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Our travels for The CEO Collection have introduced us to firms of all sizes and scopes, and for this episode, we went to 1 that’s simply huge. Zebra Applied sciences 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 workers and do about $5 billion in income. I had the prospect to sit down down with CEO Invoice 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 resolution supplier that allows companies to intelligently join information, property, and folks. 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. Firms use our cell gadgets to scan the package deal, get signatures, and issues like that. All the biggest retailers world wide — 86 % of the Fortune 500 firms — are our clients at this time. 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 will 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 circumstances 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 job main Europe, the Center East, and Africa from a gross sales facet and expanded into advertising and marketing and companies and different areas. After which I joined Zebra about 9 years in the past to steer 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 form of in a single day a $1 billion enterprise turned a $3.5 billion enterprise.”
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Management duty
“There’s three legs of the stool, proper? That is how I view the enterprise: our clients, our workers and our buyers. Finally we’re in enterprise to proceed to develop and to make cash. However you have to do the appropriate issues first. You’ve got obtained to have the ability to reward and appeal to and retain the most effective workers world wide. In case you try this, then you definately’ll serve your clients finest. In case you serve your clients finest, you will develop your topline income and your profitability and your inventory will go up and you may maintain your buyers.”
Main via powerful occasions
“I feel that demand for our companies skyrocketed throughout COVID, after which in 2023, demand reset again to 2019 ranges. So we have been put able the place we needed to do the traditional issues that almost all 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 packages. We considered creating new alternatives for individuals throughout the group. It labored out nice, nevertheless it’s at all times exhausting to get smaller. It is at all times much more enjoyable to develop. However you have to make these powerful enterprise selections at occasions.”
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Profession recommendation to future leaders
“Nobody else cares as a lot about your profession as you do, but additionally be affected person as a result of it does not occur in a single day. And in case you’re at an incredible firm and you’ve got alternatives there, there’s nowhere else that you just’re extra revered than inside that firm. They know you might be prepared, so be affected person.”
Take a look at extra profiles of modern and impactful leaders by visiting The CEO Collection archives.
