Rick Belluzzo learned a lot during his 40+-year career in Tech. From trying to sell behemoth $50,000- $100,000 HP data center printers, to being handed the reins of HP’s LaserJet division and growing it into a $20 billion global business… to Silicon Graphics, Microsoft and Quantum, Rick has pretty much seen it all. He was at the crossroads of a lot of big moments in Tech and told multiple stories that all illustrated his core business beliefs—that companies must have the right strategy and execute with conviction, that they must both embrace change early and look for the “second wave”, and that employees and culture must be aligned at all costs.

Rick believes that a major part of business is change, and that companies win when they embrace the kinds of transformation that prepare them for change. Leaders, he said, should identify the forces of change in their industry, provide clear direction about how their companies will meet those changes, and aggressively maintain that preparation.

Belluzzo not only believes these are best practices, he cautioned against the costs of not following them. He discussed the example of Kodak, where the company actually created a digital camera decades before that platform became the norm, and failed to embrace the technology.

Rick discussed the importance of company culture and how the move toward a goal must be hardwired into everyone. The culture must understand the changes that must be made, and they ought to support the needed transformation to make those changes.

Rick shared an anecdote from early in his career when a manager at HP offered him the simplest advice – “Just don’t screw it up.”

That’s deceptively simple, because it’s not just about not making mistakes; it’s also about recognizing when you have a good thing — whether that thing is product or culture or serendipitous timing – and not letting that thing get diluted or ruined.

And it isn’t always easy to notice when something is being ruined, because ruin often happens gradually.

When Belluzzo took the helm of 16 divisions of Microsoft, those pieces of the company were collectively losing $1 billion every year.

Microsoft, however, was big enough to hemorrhage that kind of money and with little panic or urgency about changing those businesses. There is a complacency and an inertia in companies that become that large. Beyond a certain amount of market share, nobody can imagine failure, and “success” becomes harder to define. It’s the classic parable of the bigger ship taking longer to change course.

Rick was in the room for heated discussions when Microsoft was trying to decide whether to launch or kill the Xbox. At the time, the prevailing sentiment was that the PC should be the center of the home and gaming could be done there. But Sony had a huge hit with the PlayStation and ultimately, Belluzzo and his group convinced the Gates and the rest of the company to put their considerable marketing powers behind a non-Windows machine. Their faith and courage paid off – as Xbox was a big success without cannibalizing PC sales.

Belluzzo credits that success to clear direction and an aggressively supported launch.

Rick summarized his talk by underscoring the need to avoid compromise and try to be first, but if you can’t be first, to “look for the second wave” – a follow-up trend that invariably follows a major paradigm shift. He reminded listeners to make sure culture is always aligned with strategy, and in an insightful and humorous twist on the old adage “don’t let a crisis go to waste,” he said that if there isn’t a crisis, sometimes it’s useful to invent one. Rick cited a time when an HP division was hesitant to adopt a new technology, so he moved the older technology product line to a new division in Spain. Problem solved.

Leaders are leaders largely because of their judgment. They apply what they have learned across long careers, and it helps them surmise where things are heading. And to be successful preparing for that, they must drive and embrace change, for themselves and their organizations. “Leaders must be hard headed and soft hearted”, Dave Packard.

To learn more about CLM or Flint & Steel schedule a discovery call with us.