CHAPTER 28
Earn respect on day one
“People are going to tell stories about you whether you want them to or not. Choose which ones they tell.”
—BOB MCDONALD, CEO, Procter & Gamble
IMAGINE YOU’RE A midlevel manager at a technology company in Dusseldorf, Germany.1 You’ve worked there for 20 years, since the company was founded by one of your best friends. Ten years ago, it was acquired by an American competitor. Every few years since then, the new owner sends one of its American VPs to Dusseldorf to run the “German operations.” Each time, it’s a disaster. The Americans don’t understand how business is done in Europe, and German customer expectations are as foreign to them as the language. The 15 to 20 percent annual growth rates you’d become accustomed ...
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