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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 large. Zebra Applied sciences is among the most dynamic B2B expertise corporations on this 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.
Beneath are some highlights of our insightful dialog, which have been edited for size and readability. Watch the total video above.
International attain
“You see our firm Zebra in on a regular basis life. We’re a digital resolution supplier that permits companies to intelligently join information, belongings, 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 own home, and in so many different locations. Firms use our cell units to scan the bundle, get signatures, and issues like that. All the most important retailers all over the world — 86 p.c 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 assist 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 boost 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 of us like Verizon and others. After which I took a task 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 type 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. Finally we’re in enterprise to proceed to develop and to earn cash. However you have to do the precise issues first. You’ve got obtained to have the ability to reward and entice and retain one of the best staff all over the world. For those who do this, you then’ll serve your clients finest. For those who serve your clients finest, you will develop your topline income and your profitability and your inventory will go up and you will handle your traders.”
Main via robust occasions
“I believe that demand for our companies skyrocketed throughout COVID, after which in 2023, demand reset again to 2019 ranges. So we have been put ready the place we needed to do the conventional issues that almost all companies would do. Take a look at your actual property and your journey prices and all these issues internally. We additionally did issues like voluntary retirement applications. We thought of creating new alternatives for individuals inside the group. It labored out nice, however 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 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 additionally be affected person as a result of it does not occur in a single day. And if you happen to’re at an excellent firm and you’ve got alternatives there, there’s nowhere else that you just’re extra revered than inside that firm. They know you’re prepared, so be affected person.”
Take a look at extra profiles of revolutionary and impactful leaders by visiting The CEO Collection archives.
