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Our travels for The CEO Sequence have introduced us to corporations of all sizes and scopes, and for this episode, we went to at least one that’s simply large. Zebra Applied sciences is without doubt one of the most dynamic B2B expertise 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 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 total video above.
World 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, belongings, and other people. 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 bundle, get signatures, and issues like that. All the most important retailers all over the world — 86 % of the Fortune 500 corporations — are our clients right this moment. 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 may 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 most recent 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 facet 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 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. In the end we’re in enterprise to proceed to develop and to earn money. However you have to do the best issues first. You have bought to have the ability to reward and entice and retain the very best staff all over the world. In the event you do this, then you definitely’ll serve your clients greatest. In the event you serve your clients greatest, you will develop your topline income and your profitability and your inventory will go up and you will handle your traders.”
Main by powerful instances
“I feel that demand for our providers 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 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 packages. We considered creating new alternatives for individuals inside the group. It labored out nice, however it’s all the time arduous to get smaller. It is all the time much more enjoyable to develop. However you have to make these powerful enterprise selections at instances.”
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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 would not occur in a single day. And in the event you’re at an amazing firm and you’ve got alternatives there, there’s nowhere else that you simply’re extra revered than inside that firm. They know you’re prepared, so be affected person.”
Take a look at extra profiles of modern and impactful leaders by visiting The CEO Sequence archives.
