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Our travels for The CEO Collection have introduced us to corporations 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 corporations on the planet. They digitize and automate workflows for corporations, have roughly 10, 000 staff and do about $5 billion in income. I had the possibility to take a seat down with CEO Invoice Burns to learn how 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 allows companies to intelligently join knowledge, 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 most important retailers all over the world — 86 % of the Fortune 500 corporations — are our clients at present. 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 help the NFL. We use the identical forms 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 published. 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 of us like Verizon and others. After which I took a job main Europe, the Center East, and Africa from a gross sales aspect and expanded into advertising and providers 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 sort of in a single day a $1 billion enterprise turned 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 clients, our staff and our traders. In the end we’re in enterprise to proceed to develop and to generate profits. However you have to do the correct issues first. You’ve got received to have the ability to reward and entice and retain the perfect staff all over the world. When you try this, then you definately’ll serve your clients greatest. When you serve your clients greatest, you will develop your topline income and your profitability and your inventory will go up and you will deal with your traders.”
Main by way of robust occasions
“I feel that demand for our providers 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 packages. We considered creating new alternatives for individuals throughout the group. It labored out nice, but it surely’s at all times laborious to get smaller. It is at all times much more enjoyable to develop. However you have to make these robust enterprise choices at occasions.”
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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 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.
