In the News

Good afternoon. It’s my pleasure to introduce today’s key note speaker, bestselling author, Jason Jennings. I have to say that I was thrilled to hear that Mr. Jennings was selected as our speaker for this year’s leadership conference, as he has made a significant impact in my professional journey. In fact, I can honestly say that if it weren’t for Jason Jennings, I wouldn’t be working for Eaton. In 2005, Mr. Jennings was the keynote speaker at one of my former employer’s annual leadership meeting in Denver, much like this one. Our management team had taken on a major business transformation and re-organization. Though we were very energized, we were also walking a fine line of too much internal focus which drew our full attention away from our customers…focusing on our new structure, our initiatives, and internal change. We were feeling good. Some of us had new positions and promotions. It was an exciting time of change. Within this time and place, Mr. Jennings speech caught my attention. With the backdrop of major corporate accounting scandals at Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom, Mr. Jennings spoke of the powerful leadership qualities of some very successful and ethical businesses, that had sustained superior performance spanning decades – for the most part, these were not common household names, but rather companies like Koch Industries and Nucor Steel. The two leadership values that came through loud and clear were: humility and stewardship. This message really resonated with me, and I reflected on these values...not just that day, but over and over again. It was a message that I needed to hear and internalize at that point in my leadership development. It’s not enough to have great products or to be in great markets. Nucor and Koch were subject to business cycles and competition. For the most part, they are in commodity markets. The values and the leadership culture were the key differentiators. And so, I bought 3 of Mr. Jennings books to learn more…and listen to these titles:  -        Think Big, Act Small -        Less is More -        Its Not the Big that Eat the Small, it’s the Fast that Eat the Slow   I don’t know about you, but those phrases spoke to me then and still do today. Humility. Vision. Focus. Efficiency. Speed. Keeping it simple. Building a culture where everyone thinks and acts like an owner…and moving away from a sense of entitlement. Creating value for our customers and shareholders. This may seem overly simple, but the decisions and actions we each make, impact our organization in one of two ways: by either creating value or destroying value. There is rarely a neutral position. None of us work for free. That is stewardship. It’s not about us. It’s about our customers and shareholders. How will we delight our customers and create value for our shareholders? That’s the type of leadership that inspires me. So how did this draw me to Eaton? Coincidentally, a year later, a recruiter called me about a position at Koch Industries. I was so intrigued by Mr. Jennings coverage of Koch, I moved my family from Denver to Wichita and I went to work for Koch. After awhile, we were pretty homesick and lonely in Kansas. We really wanted to go back to Colorado…but at the precise time that I learned about an opportunity to come work for Eaton in Minnesota, my grandma in Minnesota was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I had been away from my home state for 16 years, and had no prior intentions of returning to the long northern winters, but the timing was perfect and so here I am, happy to be with Eaton today. With that, I say “thank you” to Mr. Jennings, for leading me to the path that led me here today and for inspiring me to keep striving to be the leader that I hope to be.