Adam Bryant conducts interviews of senior-level executives that appear in his “Corner Office” column each week in the SundayBusiness section of The New York Times. Here are a few insights provided during an interview of Ashok Subramanian, chief executive of Liazon, an employee benefits company. He says he once stood at a company event and tossed its handbook into the trash. “We’re not going to be governed by a culture that defines a set of rules.” .

To read the complete interview as well as Bryant’s interviews of other executives, please click here.

Photo credit: Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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Bryant: Were you always interested in being an entrepreneur?

Subramanian: No. I was not the prototypical 12-year-old who had three businesses. I got to it a little bit late. I spent some time in consulting, and I enjoyed helping people figure out thorny issues. What I missed was actually calling the shots, and building the team and structure and process to execute the plan.

Bryant: What were some dos and don’ts you learned from consulting for other companies?

Subramanian: What struck me was that as companies get larger and larger, the communication gap between folks in the executive offices and people on the ground grows over time. What I’ve seen in some of those situations is a complete lack of trust among decision-makers and their people. So I came away saying that I wanted to create a culture with complete transparency, openness and communication.

Bryant: Where did you get your drive?

Subramanian: There were a couple of key influences. My parents are immigrants. My dad came to this country with a good education, but literally less than $10 in his pocket. And he taught us that, regardless of what you have or don’t have, you can’t let others outwork you.

I think the second influence was where I grew up: Buffalo. It’s a town that’s been hit pretty hard. You get kicked in the teeth pretty good when you come from a place like Buffalo. There was a cohort of us at business school who all grew up in the Rust Belt, and we all sort of bonded. There’s a certain work ethic, a certain attitude, a certain humility.

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Adam Bryant, deputy national editor of The New York Times, oversees coverage of education issues, military affairs, law, and works with reporters in many of the Times’ domestic bureaus. He also conducts interviews with CEOs and other leaders for Corner Office, a weekly feature in the SundayBusiness section and on nytimes.com that he started in March 2009. In his book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, (Times Books), he analyzes the broader lessons that emerge from his interviews with more than 70 leaders. To read an excerpt, please click here. To contact him, please click here.