One. Welcome everybody to another
smart money Circle update. I'm Adam.
Sorry, Han with me today is on ders Gustafsson, CEO at zebra
Technologies, ticker symbol zbra unders, welcome to the show,
thank you. So I always like to begin by
asking me, how did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in Sweden. I was born in Sweden, born and
raised in Sweden. I got my masters in engineering
from Chalmers University of Technology in my hometown of
Gothenburg. Sweden, then I first came to the
states for an extended period as a Fulbright scholar, and then I
stayed and got a, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and
worked mostly in Telecom or Datacom companies.
Motorola tell ups, and then I became CEO of a company called
spire and Communications before joining cebra CEO, 15 years back
wonderful and very interesting season Sweden.
What brought you States initially was it that to pursue
for education? Or was there a family here or
you know what was that move? Yeah, true to two things.
I guess, my the trigger event was coming to, I got a
scholarship to study in the US. Okay, that's cool.
But I was, as I was four years old, when I decided to immigrate
to the US, my aunt used to live in New York City.
She was a fight attendant, and she would come home and visit.
And there was a away from the, from the big, big, big world.
And I think it was four years. Old.
And I said, I'm moving to the states.
That's awesome. That is so cool.
I love that. So okay.
Can you tell us a little about you but I'm very persistent.
Yes, you are. I like that.
That's a good trait to have and it's all right on this can you
tell us a little about your business?
Please like a general overview and any message you want to send
to investors? Yeah.
So you know we kind of joking this every been hiding in plain
sight for 20 years you know we know that household name but
most people come across us frequently in Their daily lives.
So you know, if your you go shopping at the any large
grocery chain and most most retailers your delivery driver
for your, for e-commerce packages.
You know, all use a lot of our equipment.
So a Retail transportation Logistics, manufacturing
Healthcare or four main verticals.
But what we really do for our customers is that we give them
that Performance Edge for the front line or their businesses.
You are our Solutions really are used to Intel intelligent to
connect company assets data and people.
And we have our vision that we call Enterprise asset
intelligence. That is when every acid and
worker on the front line is connected visible and and
optimally utilized. So here we're very much focused
on how to digitize and automate workflows to help Drive
productivity and better service levels for the front line or
business and Frontline employees.
I love that. So, can you give us an example
of a case study where it is a problem, and then solution how
you guys can automate things, make it more efficient and
increase overall productivity. Yeah, one example would be, if
they see something that became a big use case during covid, that
was not really a big use case prior to that.
But I will see you buy online pick up in store.
Sorry, I'll be before covid. Most people went to the store
and they bought the groceries, you know, the traditional way,
right? And covid happened.
You know, stores were not allowed to have people in and or
you people weren't all that comforter going in the store so
they would, you know, order online and it didn't drive to
the store and pick up curbside. And to do that, you know, at
scale, you had to have be able to your order on a website but
then move that order in. To a task management system, so
that could identify the best Frontline employee at that.
Grocery, to fulfill the order. We have the software to help
identify that person through a mobile devices and, and to make
me have translate the order into a pick list.
Okay? Help guide, you know, through
our mobile devices, guide the Picker through the store, as to
where everything is, and they will scan the product and put it
in there in the basket and that And you know, we would help do a
mobile point-of-sale check out so we can take all the payments
information and then do that. And we could also put a print, a
label with our printers and put it on the back on the bag so
that the right customer picks up the right bag and and that
enables our, you know, the grocery industry to really scale
up that use case when covid happened.
You know, I love it because I mean, I see the company's
earnings have grown substantially, they've almost,
well, I guess more. Than tripled since 2015 or 2016.
So, I mean, obviously keep up the congrat great.
Congratulations. And think about the great work,
we, I shop at the grocery store and both the old-fashioned way,
the new fashion way. So I'm using zebra without even
realizing it, and thank you for that ability to do.
So it's very attention. He was, you'll see us plenty of
times. I definitely will.
So, can you list your competitive advantages please?
Or some, you know, the unique value.
Propositions that Seaver offers? Yeah, we have a lot of strong
competitive advantages and value.
That's a first I told me that Vision which is maybe not what
people normally say but I think we have a very compelling Vision
about where we think the industry is going and how we can
help our customers digitization, automate, their workflows and
that enables us to also have a more strategic partnership with
our customers. They think of us, not just to
solve the problems today, but they want to work with us to
partner to help solve future problems.
They may come across as they believed in our vision.
We also have a number of more traditional, say, competitive
advantages one. We have a, the broadest product
portfolio of anybody in our industry that allows us to
recruit more Partners resellers because they know they can solve
most of the problems. The most of the opportunities
that come across with our customers by working with us
exclusively and they know that an investor would recruit more
Partners we can then drive. More Revenue, invest more in
R&D, expand, our product portfolio recruit more Partners,
becomes a self-fulfilling, self-reinforcing circles.
I, that becomes a great scale Advantage for us.
You know, we have well over 50% market share in some of our core
product categories. And that's a, yeah, that's so
those are some of the Strategic advantages of competitive
advantages that I think that we have wonderful and Big question
from a business standpoint, but also overall standpoint.
How do you handle risk? And then what are some mistakes?
You see people make with respect to risk management.
I think when, when when companies deal with risk
Enterprise Risk Management Programs, say one thing that I
think is very important that we try to make sure we do is that
we did the risks, we identify are the risks that we also can
have them work on. So it's not an abstract risk.
That you think of on you? It on the slide and you put it
in the bookshelf, right? So we have our management
meetings and the things we work on that.
We talked about tense also to be highlighted as the bigger bigger
risks there. So making sure that they are
real and you, you work them as part of your daily lives rather
than making it a paper exercise, another more opportunity, I
would say that we how we look at it is that there's you know, we
highlight the same Market These as risks.
If you get them wrong, you can be very painful but it's also an
opportunity. You know, make sure that you put
the right emphasis on looking at the mess sick, growth
opportunities, how can how do we, how can we make sure that we
capture some of those discontinuities and we get that
disproportionate share of those new markets.
I love that. And then let's shift.
Gears a little blue spoke about the company.
Zebra were speaking about the management style with, with
respect to risk. What are some Timeless lessons?
You've learned in the business World or in life that you'd like
to share with the audience, I'd say no one is around.
I think of you know, from the from a business perspective
certainly having a compelling Vision.
I think it's very important to have a big Vision that can be
compelling. Employees can rally around
customers feel is compelling that provides to a lot of
guidance and kind of a thread to through the organization as to
what we prioritize and what we focus on.
At all said that as a as a market leader, and we are strong
market leader. It's important to focus on kind
of what you know that that Vision.
What they what where the market is going, what customers want
and not get too sidetracked with competition.
If you try to address, you know you're what all the moves your
competitors, do it becomes a bit of a whack-a-mole you used, you
lose track of where you're going and you become more defocused or
I meant that in that. So I think those will be two
two, two things that I would think of top of mind.
Now I love that and then I love the vision part.
So let's talk about that. When you were for you decided,
you had a vision to come to America.
We have have, you had other big Visions throughout your life
that you've been able to go ahead and Conquer.
Go ahead and go, you know, do What first comes to mind will be
my wife. Nice set.
My eye on my wife when we first met and and we last week, we
celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary.
So happy anniversary. Wow, that's awesome.
That would be my biggest biggest achievement so far.
I love that. So, are you one that you
visualize things in your mind's eye and then you go out and get
them or you more? Hey.
Let's go do this and set the vision for the team and then
let's go conquer that. How do you measure I guess
productivity or actual results versus the big visions that are
there? I think little bit of both.
I think, you know, I think from a, from a business perspective,
i setting a big vision and figuring out, how do we break
that into two chunks that we can execute think is very, very
helpful. That's, that's definitely been
something I've tried to do for Long time, what my personal
life? I'm not sure if I have quite the
pi. Never had a 30-year plan so
much. I think there's a little
dangerous because I saw some people who had those.
They got to focus on where they wanted to be, rather way they
were right? So you got to keep mix to get
where you want to be. You're going to make sure you do
a good job in your current role so don't get too.
You know too. Yeah don't lose sight of what
you need to do today in order to get to the to the future, I
guess. Yeah.
That's really Really smart. So, what about some we spoke
with Timeless lessons? What are some Timeless mistakes?
You see, people make and or that you've made and then a that
you've learned from them and then how do you avoid them going
forward? Yeah, well, I think one mistake,
the companies often do is that they may not be bold enough in
how they pursue. New new new business
opportunities and new Innovations timid as far as how
much budget to to put on in it or Or how to set the aspiration.
I think it's generally, you know, if you aim high use, you
will be more likely to reach the Treetops.
Then if you set the sights of the Treetops, I think the other
part with that would be if you want to do that, you know, you
can't quite wait to start executing before until you have
all the answers. My in that case, the market
would already be there and remove past you, right?
So making sure you stay agile. Violin bow to learn quickly from
from what you, what you see when you get into the market, when
you start working or something and Implement those lessons
quickly, I love that. And then from your point of
view, what makes a great leader. I would say three things first,
you know, setting a vision again that that I think is that you
know, the organization's customers can rally around their
provides a clear identity forward to or idea for what
you're trying to achieve second building, a strong team that can
be aligned and can have no work together, you know, to to
achieve that. And the third thing would be To
make sure you can execute, hmm? You sure you have a good good
plan for how to execute be able to dig in and be be detailed and
when need to be. So, it's something one of the
early pieces of advice or inside the my, my boss gave me when I
first became a general manager was that the as a general
manager need to know when to stay high and went to stay, go
deep, always say hi or always go deep, you be able to kind of go
up and down, based on the, on the situation.
I love that. It's really, really good advice.
And then what's the best lesson you've learned about leadership?
You know, I think one thing that I think is very important is
that you are going to start with who you are.
Be atheltic to who you are, is hard to go through a whole
career and roleplay. So I think that would be that
would be one. One thing I think another part
will be staying connected to the business you know in your
organization with your customers.
I think that in order to lead the organization you have to
have a good feel for the Business.
So I think that's, that's helpful.
And and also that helps you to be more connected across the
organization. And I believe that you should
kind of interact with everybody the same way.
And I think that that also helps create followership in the
across the organization or with customers.
And what are some obstacles that you've had to overcome?
A what was the obstacle and or obstacles and then be, how did
you overcome them? Yeah, 11 obstacles was the in
2014. We we acquired the Enterprise
business from from from Motorola.
That was a very large transaction for us.
There was two and a half times the size of of our of our zebra
was at the time, certainly betting the form, which we as,
you know, you can think of it as a private Equity leveraged
buyout in the public markets. So great, not a debt.
And you know, we there was Market risk.
There was you know all sorts of things that we had to overcome
but certainly one one big thing we focused on that.
We see that I saw as a risk or strong culture Drucker.
I think Professor Drucker was the one who said that culture
eats protest rally for breakfast or something like that.
All right, we got everybody to feel that there was one team as
we didn't have the Assurance to say that zebra had the right
culture. For a much larger organization
and so you can put it over and we put 7,000 people through two
days of culture training. Oh wow.
So I think that ended up being, you know, when you go through a
big integration like that, you make a lot of decisions.
You obviously think that each decision is moving the ball
forward but this was one which was much more impactful than I
ever expected. Well that's wonderful.
I mean the stock price has gone up.
I think of almost four, five, six fold since then.
So it's been a very rough not more.
Exactly. Okay.
Wonderful. So that mean hats off to you on
that one adversity under is how do you handle adversity?
Whether it's a cultural adversity or its adversity,
internal or external. Yeah I think that you know
whenever there's guests everything over there may be
many, many ways I guess. But one thing that I find very
helpful is to make sure that you know, go back to the team
building part of it, you know, having a strong team where we
are all aligned and we all in the same boat rowing in the same
direction it. Once you have that it's much
easier to be able to get the get aligned.
So That would be I think also from the pressure perspective
you if you share share kind of the burden with you know it
makes it a lot easier to get to get through that.
I'd say also that the Yeah, I think that's probably probably.
That's actually really smart. So, what you're saying is, if
you put the interests of the relationship ahead of one
individuals, interests are two individuals interest if there is
adversity. Well, if when adversity comes
our conflicts arise, I guess you could use as a barometer, is
this good for the relationship? And if it is then go ahead and
do it. If it's not good then one person
can back off. And this way it's not about you
know two people butting heads. That a good way of articulating.
Yeah. And I remember my thoughts train
of thought here that was the other part estimation is that
the I think facing up to adversity quickly so don't don't
sugarcoat it and look at it and see what it is for for, for what
it is. Yeah, and, and can address it
early. So I said better to take a
medicine quickly and I, I I use a metaphor internally when I
talk about this and they kind of race car analogy.
I said, when you it's a racecar driver you want to break ahead
of the curb and you would accelerate through the curves,
you can come out the strongest strongly or as fast as you can
on the other side, right? So making sure that you can, you
can take your medicine quickly and then move from defense to
offense earlier than others. And I think that tends to enable
you to take advantage of the take advantage of difficult
situation would be to make the most of them.
Yeah, that's really, really smart.
I love that break before the curve and then accelerate
through the curve. So it's almost like
anticipating, what's going to happen next and preparing for
it. What advice would you give your
30 year old self? Yeah, Yeah, from you, if you're
thinking from a, from a work perspective side, You know, I've
used this before we when people said, you know, say marketing
has its five piece and I came up with the four r's.
If you're, we start starting out your career and thinking about
how to apply yourself as a first starting with results, you
eventually. You got to make sure you can
deliver results. It all comes down to that in the
end that you have to be able to deliver results, but how you how
you do this important? So as that reciprocity is the
second one, I think my people will say relationships But that
thinks that people tend to think him anymore is one way that is
what can I get from from from relationships?
But reciprocity is more, how do you help others?
Be successful? How do you make others look
good. So that when you need help, they
are ready willing and able to step in and provide you some
some help. Then risk.
I think, you know, take some risk at times, if you're playing
it too safe that's hard to stand out and differentiate yourself.
So take some projects or assignments that are maybe a
little more different than and maybe a little riskier.
But if you do good job, you have a much better chance of
differentiating yourself there and lastly, resiliency career,
things never go, you know, swimmingly for entire career.
So you've got to have a deep reservoir of resilience in
energy, they Can begin to to kind of work your way through
some of the more challenging situations.
Wow, that is so powerful. I love that.
So results weren't help others risk.
Take risks at a time, like, you did with Motorola but the farm
and make sure it's a smart bet, I guess.
Yeah, and resiliency and there are some reciprocity, perfect.
So risk is not just the rolling the dice.
It's, you know, you have to be somewhat somewhat thoughtful
about what type of risk and how you get it?
I calculated risks. How about that?
Okay, beautiful. And then finally, What's the
best piece of advice? You'd like to share with the
audience as we wrap up? Yeah, I think in this
environment now when we going through covid and started to
come back and stuff, yeah, I think culture is an important
part. We talked about it a few times
already. You know, when things are going
swimmingly, it's easy to have a good good culture.
People feel good about the culture but cultures tend to be
tested, when things are stressed, when things aren't
going as well. When we hit covid, you know, I
was talking to our team about this.
The how you know that was kind of Our Moment to to demonstrate
that. We really had a strong culture
that we just the kind of strong culture.
We believed we want and I think it's proven to be true.
We did well through covid business performance Vice and
our engagement service and I think's showed that our team is
engaged and and believe in zebra, but it is you have to
invest in it you have to continue to nurture and develop
an It in culture. But if you have a really good
culture, I think it can be a strong competitive
differentiator. So that, you know, I should have
mentioned that earlier when you asked about competitive
advantages, I think our culture is want.
Yeah, that's so powerful. And then, how do you build the,
a great culture or a good culture?
Is it? Do you have any advice to doing
that? So you went what we did, I'll
talk about two in two ways, I guess.
First string of the big training, I talked about 47
thousand people. There was a lot of around, you
know, setting the right values, what we value as an
organization. And and some of them are you can
say table Stakes for us. In the integrity and holding
yourself accountable, but Innovation, agility and teamwork
were things that were more specific to us as we coming
through a big integration at that point.
You know, they were men some Being specific to us that they
wouldn't do to it. Maybe how the company's then, we
had a lot of work on kind of Behavioral things.
So we have a lot of things to reach this.
You can have words that we still use.
We you have coming to meeting in somebody's a little grumpy,
maybe it's how I know. You don't know what's going on
in people's head, we can say, oh, I'd like to get you to
curious, you know, to get them. So they open up their mind to be
cures listening with a positive intent.
We talk about trading puzzle pieces so that they are this is
not just You have to give some to get some and to help others
to help the organization as a whole get better.
And not just maximize your business or your or your part of
the business, but maximizing that the whole, I love that.
Well, that's phenomenal. Phenomenal advice.
I love it. Thank you so much for coming on
the show Anders and hopefully, I will see you again soon.
Thank you. I enjoyed it.