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 Bill McDermott, co-C.E.O. of SAP, the software company, says employers “will make bold bets on people who have an unwavering passion for success.” The idea can become lost in academia, he adds, “but that’s the real world.”
To read the complete interview as well as Bryant’s interviews of other executives, please click here.
Photo credit: Earl Wilson/The New York Times
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Bryant: Were you in leadership roles early on as a child?
McDermott: When I was around 11 years old, I was the assistant coach to my dad, and we coached my brother’s basketball team. My dad was a huge basketball guy, and my grandfather, Bobby McDermott, was a Hall of Fame basketball player.
Bryant: In that role, did you help with strategy?
McDermott: Every timeout, my dad would always ask my opinion. And I was always quick to give him one. Sometimes I had a different play in mind than he had, and he was quick to listen and try it. Sometimes he wouldn’t take it, but very often the debate led to an even better answer.
Bryant: What about your high school and college years?
McDermott: I had three jobs in high school. And then I traded all those jobs into one, when I went to work at this delicatessen. About a year later, I ended up buying that delicatessen. I was 16.
Bryant: That must have been a lot of work.
McDermott: I came from a working-class family, and wanted to have my own money. I wanted a car. I also wanted to do what I could around the edges to give something back to my family. Plus, I loved to work. I put myself through four years of college on the back of that delicatessen. I took all my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and every other waking hour I was there.
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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.