10 Business Lessons Learned Along the Way
35 Years and Still Learning

Always put your people first

The Disney Culture
“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality”
- Walt Disney

“You have to treat your employees like customers.” —Herb Kelleher, complete answer, upon being asked his “secrets to success” Source: Joe Nocera, NYT, “Parting Words of an Airline Pioneer”

Be a talent hound and put priority on finding the best people

“Development can help great people be even better but if I had a dollar to spend, I’d spend 70 cents getting the right person in the door.” —Paul Russell, Director, Leadership & Development, Google

Message: Some people are better than other people. Some people are a helluva lot better than other people.

Build on your strengths … work around your
weaknesses

“ Honor individual differences. Take people as they are. Don’t attempt to change or manipulate them to be like or to be someone else”
- Warren Bennis

“…effective executives do not start out by looking at weaknesses. You cannot build performance on weaknesses. You can build only on strengths. Make weaknesses irrelevant.”
- Peter Drucker

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.
-Michelangelo

Keep it simple in everything you do

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” - Steve Jobs

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple... That’s creativity!

Be a change agent … anticipate and embrace change

When the winds of change are blowing, you can either build a shelter or a windmill.

Re-invent constantly … lifetime learning

"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it." - Pablo Picasso

The Importance of Continuous Learning
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs …
by the age of 38!

“It is not the STRONGEST OF THE SPECIES that survives,
NOR THE MOST INTELLIGENT,
but the one MOST RESPONSIVE TO CHANGE”
- CHARLES DARWIN

Lesson 6
Make listening your core competence

It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened to the fourth- grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a bishop or a college president.
He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say.”
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect

Lesson 7
Relationships are what count

Why does a customer choose you instead of your competitor?

1.Trust 2. Confidence 3. Strength of relationship

“The key is to be part of peoples lives. People will always prefer to do business with friends” - Marty Kohr

Lesson 8
Be different to stand out and be heard

Lesson 9
Live your passion

“People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they’re really proud of, that they’ll fight for, sacrifice for , trust.” —Howard Schultz, Starbucks

Lesson 10
Don’t fear failure

“ You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take" - Wayne Gretsky

To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all. -Peter McWilliams

We learn from our failures. Period. Failure to acknowledge failure is a fatal disease. Treating failure like a disease is a fatal disease. - Tom Peters

Explore …
“ Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go .”
- t. s. elliot

In the new era of business and social, playing it safe is the riskiest choice of all.

FINAL THOUGHTS

“ Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bow line. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail.
Explore. Dream. Discover.”
- Mark Twain

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Steve Jobs

About Digital Spark Marketing
WHO WE ARE
Digital Spark Marketing is a Florida-based marketing services and consulting company that assists clients to become customer-centric leaders. We are skilled in the art and science of marketing, customer engagement/experience design, and technology and innovation for future growth.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
• Its all about people … starting with the customer
• Start with what exists … what is hiding?
• In co-creation … sum of parts is greater than whole
• Being visual … a picture is worth 1000 words
• Innovation is growth necessity …prototyping and testing many ideas
Digital Spark Marketing

About Dr. Schoultz
Dr. Schoultz has thirty five years of business development, marketing, technology, and business operations experience.
He served as VP / President of Distribution Technologies, a company he helped to found and grow to a 700 M + / year market leader.
He is founder and President of Digital Spark Marketing
Dr. Schoultz PhD. is from the University of Virginia.
Digital Spark Marketing

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