🎧︎ EP1. A Service Driven Journey with Robert A. McDonald ‘75
Episode Summary - This episode features an interview with Robert Allen McDonald. Bob is the Former Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs and retired Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of the Procter & Gamble Company, and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point class of 1975. He currently serves as the April & J Graham Fellow at the George W. Bush Institute.
On this episode, Bob shares his invaluable insights around leadership, innovation, and empathy garnered from his journey through West Point, his three-decade long career at Procter & Gamble, and his tenure as the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Key Takeaways
You don’t want to do anything 2nd best. Put your entire self into whatever you’re doing or nothing at all.
As soon as you feel like you aren’t being challenged at your company, it’s time to switch.
Trust is the epitome of leadership.
Final Timestamps:
*(2:00) Bob’s purpose
*(3:45) How Bob’s North Star developed
*(6:00) Bob’s childhood in Indiana
*(8:30) West Point days
*(10:25) Post West Point
*(13:30) Leaving the military and joining the private sector
*(15:40) Procter & Gamble gains Bob
*(18:00) Don’t fixate on a particular position
*(22:25) The hardest decision Bob had to make
*(24:40) Equating leadership in the military vs. leadership at P&G
*(27:00) How P&G operates
*(29:45) Developing empathy as a business leader
*(31:00) Inventions are almost never used for their original purpose
*(34:00) What Bob did before joining the VA
*(35:42) If it weren’t for the VA, American medicine would be nowhere
*(36:50) Lessons learned while at the VA
*(41:00) The courage needed to run the VA
*(43:15) The next generation of the VA
*(45:20) Bob’s core advice for younger veterans
Links
Quotes
“I don't consider myself successful. I consider myself a work in progress. But I think the common theme throughout the thread of continuity throughout the various experiences I've had is my purpose. The purpose is to improve the lives of the people that I can touch and that desire to improve lives led me to want to go to West Point. It led me into the infantry and the 82nd airborne division. It led me to the Procter and Gamble Company, whose global purpose is to improve the lives of the world's consumers. And it led me to the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. So, I mean, that's the consistency and I think I recognized at a very young age, probably as a boy scout or during some of the church organizations I was a member of that I really enjoyed helping other people. And I wanted to make a difference in that way.”
“My advice to young people is to focus on the purpose and the values of the organization you're going to, the character of the people in the organization. Forget about the job title, forget about the salary and focus on the things that really matter and that are enduring because those things aren't enduring.”
“Leadership is at one time a blessing because you're given responsibility for someone's life. It's also a tremendous obligation to make sure that you do it with the kind of care that's needed.”
“I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, ‘help me to choose the harder right rather than easier wrong.” That phrase from the West Point cadet prayer may be the most insightful phrase in the English language. I’ve had a lot of experience in business, businesses never start out to fail. Organizations don't start out to fail. But what happens is they do the wrong thing when it's small.
And that small wrong thing to lead to a larger wrong thing, which leads to a larger wrong thing, which leads to the downfall of the company.”
