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If you've got enough talent in the
company, under hard times or ad–
verse conditions, just the sheer qual–
ity of the people will see you
through in many cases.
O.
How do you deal with your em–
ployees?
PEROT:
First is the selection, and
second is the training, and third is
the opportunities that you create.
You can only keep talented people
if their own goals and dreams can
materialize here. They're not inter–
ested in working their hearts out to
have
my
goals and dreams materi–
alize. They all have goals and
dreams of their own. So you basi–
cally need to keep an environment
that allows them to use their creative
abiJity, their wit, their initiative, and
to grow as big as they are capable of
being - an environment where they
don't feel that they will be harshly
penalized for making an honest mis–
take. We feel that honest mistakes in
business are like skinned knees on
children - they are painful, but
they're superficial and heal quickJy.
lt's not the honest mistakes that hurt
you. l t's the dishonest mistakes.
Q .
How do you deal with the dis–
honest mistakes?
PEROT:
We have very high stan–
dards for our people. These stan–
dards attract the kind of person we
want. We place a very high store on
integrity, a man doing what he says
he will do, when he says he will do
it, the way he says he will do it.
We take a dim view of divorce,
but you've got to take that one case
at a time. 1 think a man and a wife
who have children have a very seri–
ous obligation to those children.
People who are thoughtless about
keeping a marriage together and
making it work place a tremendous
burden on the child. So, in situ–
ations Like that, we take a careful
squint.
lf we have a married employee
who has a girl friend, we termínate
him. He's got a lifetime contract
with bis wife, and if she can't trust
him, how can 1? It's that simple.
And if he's got children and still has
this problem, then 1 really have seri-
ous doubts about whether he's
thin.king about anybody except him–
self. He couldn't successfully man–
age people at that mentality. lf he's
going to be a successful manager,
he's got to think about his people
first, and himself second. And if a
person is this narrow in bis per–
spective, we can do without him.
You show me a fellow with a wife
and a girl friend , and 1'11 show you a
fellow with bis best creative
thoughts directed toward keeping
those two sítuations separate. So we
think a man with a strong family
unit, wi th a happy marriage, is a
better employee. But the heart of
this philosophy is, we expect our
people to reflect credit on the com–
pany, around the clock.
We tire employees for drunk–
enness. I've told sorne of these fel–
lows, "Look, if you want to kili
yourself, that's one thing, but for
you to run the risk of killing a com–
pletely sober family while driving
home is another. If that's your set of
personal standards, 1 don't want to
be associated with you.
It
shows me
that you're absolutely irresponsible,
part of the time. That irresponsibil–
ity could occur while you're on the
job, and that would be damaging to
the customer and to the company."
So our posture is that if a man
drinks, that's his business. But if he
gets drunk, that's our business, and
we tire him.
Q .
Do you believe that the family is
the cornerstone of the American way
of life?
PEROT:
Absolutely. 1 consider it
tbe most efficient unit of govern–
ment the world has ever known. Tbe
family is the key to our society, the
key to the future of our country, and
I feel very strongly that the most
significan! thing that I have to do in
this world is to raise good children.
And no matter what happens to me
in business, if my children didn' t
turn out to be good, productive, use–
fui citizens, then 1 would be a bro–
ken-hearted old man at the end of
my business career. So 1 try to keep
my priorities straigbt.
In today's society; parents tend to
lose control of their children wben
tbey are teen-agers. Tbey tend to
stop being able to guide and direct
them.
It's an abandonment of responsi–
bi lity on the part of the typical par–
ent. And it's very damaging to the
strength of our society. A teen-ager
in today's society needs his parents
more than at any other time, in my
judgment.
As a child, 1 was loved and shel–
tered, and my parents made great
sacrifices to see that my sister and I
had opportunities. They taught us
always not to resent people that
were very wealthy, and, in fact, 1
didn't .
lt
turned out that I wound up
in that spot.
Q .
How do you mainta in your vigor–
ous pace in business?
PEROT:
As much business activity
as 1 have and as complex as my life
is, one of the biggest assets I have is
good health. If 1 keep myself in
good health, I'm a more productive
person. Thousands of people de–
pend on me for their jobs, and that's
a happy responsibility, but one 1
want to be geared up to do well.
And we've created thousands of
jobs that didn't exist. 1 guess of all
the things that I've been involved
with, I'm probably the most proud
of providingjobs, creating new jobs.
O.
You're very successful in creat–
ing jobs for thousands of people.
Presumably your primary aim has
not been to make money?
PEROT:
I never had as an objective
to make a lot of money. One day I
realized, on paper at least, that
J
was worth a lot of money. It was not
a factor that drove me or motivated
me, but suddenly, there it was. So
the question was, what todo with it?
My wife and 1 decided that the
most intelligent use of this money
would be to put it back into the
country that gave us the opportunity.
Q .
What do you want to accomplish
now?
PEROT:
My contribution as a citi–
zen wiJI be to create and protect
jobs. 1 think that's my niche in life,
and 1 try to use the by-products of
success in a useful way.
O