Baxter's Kraemer introduces us to Kellogg

Harry Kraemer, ex-CEO of Baxter was our 1Y incoming speaker, and he was awesome. The room was in total silence as in walked a man in the top 1% of wealth in the USA, though he today drives a Toyota Avalon, and his insights from his time at Baxter following Kellogg were very moving. Kraemer teaches a class on leadership. and while many continue to argue whether leadership is natured or nurtured, Kraemer contends that this debate notwithstanding, there are simple facts that are critical of any leader. His equation, he's a mathematician, is pretty transitive: reflection = balance = confidence + humility. Critical of every leader is that the leader must be self-reflective, and I think at the heart of this process is the need of malleability. Change is essential, and if the leader, who drives the firm, is intransigent to change, then although he/she may be the right leader at the right time for the company, inevitably he/she will become too high a cost to the firm and the company will suffer.

Kraemer's words that rung with me were leadership is not about "being right, but doing the right thing". Of course, the counter-argument can be that if the leader is proven wrong consistently, he will lose the trust of his employees. Not true, since as Kraemer sees it, true confidence is having the ability to discern between what you know and what you don't know, and making clear to those who you employ of this difference. The strategic leader is he who then surrounds himself with the gaps in the leader's knowledge base to ensure that what the leader doens't know is relegated to someone who does, and more importantly, someone whom the leader trusts.

Thinking back more on how Kraemer leads, I find that his style of leadership is more focused on his internal structure than externally on the company's goals and let's face it, profits and market. But is this wrong? By the law of transitivity, if Kraemer builds a structure of leadership at his firm where the incentives and goals are mutually aligned within the company, then Kraemer is in fact focusing on the bottom line of the company. He just gets to do it while taking his daughter camping while the rest of his crew works over at Baxter. After all, he is CEO :)