16th December 2010
`Man's greatness lies in his power of thought'
Blaise Pascal
Great people have many things to offer to those who want to know how they became great. Just like we do a reverse engineering of a good product, we have to study the thinking pattern of great people and if we do it properly, we can also duplicate their excellence in us.
William L McKnight started working for 3M as an Assistant Bookkeeper in 1907 on a salary of US $ 11.55 per week, and rose to become the Chairman of 3M Corporation and he served as Chairman from 1949 to 1966. I was curious to know what made him to achieve this and I happened to read what he believed about people. Read the following:
`Listen to anyone with an original idea, no matter how absurd it might sound at first'.
`Encourage; don't nitpick. Let people run with an idea'.
`Hire good people and leave them alone'.
`If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need'.
`Encourage experimental doodling'.
`Give it try – and quick'.
Do you know what this belief system meant to 3M? Can you guess how many products 3M has? As of 1990 it is over sixty thousand products and over forty separate product divisions!
N C Sridharan
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