Page 48 - Cityview Jan-Feb 2017

around townCONVERSATIONSgeorge kordato resist or say no to this particular governor. I said “you know, I don’t think I would be good in government,” and he said “you know, everything that you believe is true, that things are going to take three times longer than it wouldin business, and you’ll have probably ten times as many stakeholders that you’ll have to bring along, but if you can get something done it can be transformative.” And in that one year that I was workingwith him as a specialadvisor, we got somemajor things done. Wemanaged to create theDrive to 55, which isan overarching visionnot just for highereducation, but forour state. And thenwe created severalmajor initiatives:most well-known ofwhich is TennesseePromise, a programwith an endowmentthat would allow usto o er technical andcommunity college freeof charge to every highschool graduate in thestate of Tennessee, in every county,in perpetuity.Korda: You thought your government service was over?Boyd: I le , came back to Knoxville, and started back with my company, and the two things that I’ve learned from my one year in government are rst, that someof the skills that you learn in business are leverage-able to government—not all, but many. In a company, you can re an associate who doesn’t buy into the vision; you can’t re a Tennessean who doesn’t buy into your vision, so things are di erent. Second, I learned thatmy company could do just ne without me. People think that you’re making asacri ce because you’re not getting paid, but the real sacri ce is the opportunity cost of not leaving your company. The truth is that the company was doing better without me than with me. A er a year of being back and seeing how well the company was doing, I could either insert myself back into the leadership and try to usurp some of what my existing team was doing, or I could let them continue to grow and develop theThey execute our strategy, and I have total con dence in them. We do great things for animals all across the world.Korda: Let’s give you a chance to blow your horn here. What great things have you and your sta at the department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) accomplished that ten years from now will come to mind?Boyd: The thingthat we always do is recruit new businesses and help businesses expand. In two years we’ve had over 200 business expansions or new recruitments that have led to over 40,000 jobs. Those jobs will be there for a long time. In addition, I think we’ve created a new levelof transparency and empowerment. We’ve changed the culture of ECD, which I hope will last long beyond my and the governor’s tenure. We knocked out all the walls. It now looks like my company, so there are literally no walls,no partitions. My desk looks like everyone else’s desk.Korda: Is this a Japanese model?Boyd: I actually learned it fromthe Mars Company back in 1994. It provides a level of transparency and collaboration, and there is a levelof energy that you don’t get when people are cloistered in o ces. Ithink we created that more dynamic, collaborative culture. Some of the other things that we’ve done are more global. Based our reputation and foreign investment o ces in Tokyo, for theCONTINUED ON PAGE 154company. So I spent 2014 mostly working as chair of the United Way Campaign. We set a new record for the UWC that year.Korda: Well I can’t tell you how many business types that I’vedealt with who say, “I’m stepping back,” and they just can’t do it. Your experience is not typical in my opinion. You’re very lucky.Boyd: All credit goes to my team. I’ve got a great leadership team, but every oneof our 800 associates all over the world believe in our mission and our values.46 JANUARY FEBRUARY 2017