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Our travels for The CEO Series have brought us to firms of all sizes and scopes, and for this episode, we went to at least one that’s just massive. Zebra Technologies is one of the most dynamic B2B technology firms in the world. They digitize and automate workflows for firms, have roughly 10, 000 employees and do about $5 billion in revenue. I had the likelihood to take a seat down with CEO Bill Burns to learn how he leads such a huge operation.
Below are some highlights of our insightful conversation, which have been edited for length and clarity. Watch the full video above.
Global reach
“You see our company Zebra in on a regular basis life. We’re a digital solution provider that permits businesses to intelligently connect data, assets, and folks. You see us in a point-of-sale checkout at a supermarket, when a postal employee is delivering a parcel to your home, and in so many other places. Firms use our mobile devices to scan the package, get signatures, and things like that. All the largest retailers around the world — 86 percent of the Fortune 500 firms — are our customers today. We predict of it as retail, transportation, logistics, manufacturing and warehousing, health care and government.”
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The NFL Connection
“As a company, we support the NFL. We use the same types of tags that will be utilized in retail or transportation logistics to trace parcels or inventory to trace every cleat, every shoulder pad, every helmet worn by a player. The NFL’s initial use case was for fan engagement and to reinforce the broadcast. After which the latest use cases are really around protecting the health and safety of the players.”
The CEO’s Journey
“I began my profession in sales, in a large telco sales into folks like Verizon and others. After which I took a role leading Europe, the Middle East, and Africa from a sales side and expanded into marketing and services and other areas. After which I joined Zebra about nine years ago to guide the acquisition piece. Zebra was a billion-dollar specialty printing business. They bought two and a half billion dollars in revenue from Motorola to the enterprise business and so kind of overnight a $1 billion business became a $3.5 billion business.”
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Leadership responsibility
“There’s three legs of the stool, right? That is how I view the business: our customers, our employees and our investors. Ultimately we’re in business to proceed to grow and to earn a living. But you have to do the right things first. You have to find a way to reward and attract and retain the best employees around the world. In case you do this, then you definately’ll serve your customers best. In case you serve your customers best, you may grow your topline revenue and your profitability and your stock will go up and you will take care of your investors.”
Leading through tough times
“I believe that demand for our services skyrocketed during COVID, after which in 2023, demand reset back to 2019 levels. So we were put in a position where we needed to do the normal things that the majority businesses would do. Take a look at your real estate and your travel costs and all those things internally. We also did things like voluntary retirement programs. We thought of creating latest opportunities for people inside the organization. It worked out great, but it surely’s at all times hard to get smaller. It is often a lot more fun to grow. But you have to make those tough business decisions at times.”
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Profession advice to future leaders
“Nobody else cares as much about your profession as you do, but additionally be patient since it doesn’t occur overnight. And should you’re at a great company and you could have opportunities there, there’s nowhere else that you simply’re more respected than inside that company. They know you might be ready, so be patient.”
Take a look at more profiles of progressive and impactful leaders by visiting The CEO Series archives.