Maslow on Management

INTERVIEW WITH MORT MEYERSON

Mort Meyerson, former chairman and chief executive officer of Perot Systems and former vice chairman of EDS, has an enviable track record. Under his leadership, EDS was taken public and became a leading company in its industry. The same scenario seems to be playing itself out at Perot Systems. Meyerson and his team have increased revenues nearly 40 percent each year since his tenure. Transformed by what he has learned about the current world of work, Meyerson has implemented many enlightened management techniques at Perot Systems.

Perhaps Meyerson is most famous, not for his corporate accomplishments, but for being courageous enough to admit and smart enough to know, that the ways of the past will no longer work in today’s world.

We first learned of Meyerson from a cover story in a popular business magazine (FAST COMPANY, April/May 1996). The article was one Meyerson wrote entitled “Everything I Thought I Knew About Leadership Was Wrong.” The article struck a chord with readers when he asked questions such as, “To get rich do you have to be miserable? To be successful do you have to punish your customers? Can we create a more human organization?” The article attracted hundreds of letters. His printed words gave birth to a new kind of corporate hero, a role Meyer-son reluctantly plays. Yet play it he does, because he knows it is the right thing to do.

His approach to the reinvention of Perot Systems incorporates what Dr. Maslow wrote many years ago. ...