THE SPECTACULAR RISE of EMC, the data storage systems company, from nonentity to world leader illustrates classic entrepreneurial zeal. For years, the company’s top management led its sales force on an intentionally frenzied race to outdo the competition. In fact, CEO Michael Ruettgers said that he selected sales managers based on that drive to win, and he attributes EMC’s success to the aggressiveness of its marketing force. As one EMC sales executive told us, “We’re like pit bulls—but the difference is pit bulls let go.”
That tenacity reaped enormous returns: In 1995, the first year EMC shipped open-storage systems, sales reached $200 million. By 1999, EMC—the company that hadn’t been on ...
Get Primal Leadership, With a New Preface by the Authors now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
