David Novak was recognized by Barron’s as one of the “30 Best CEOs” in the world. Fortune named him one of the “Top People in Business,” and Harvard Business Review named him to its list of the “100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World.” As chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc., he has seen all three of the company’s restaurant chains — KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell — solidify their positions as global leaders in fast food.
In his new book, Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen, he serves up the answers for this success. The book’s equal parts of motivation, strategic planning and management skills make for a not-to-be-missed opportunity to learn from a remarkably successful leader.
That has not gone unnoticed by other CEOs, who have lavished the book with praise.
The book jacket includes comments from Jamie Dimon (CEO of JP Morgan Chase), Alan Mulally (CEO of Ford), and Jeffrey Immelt (CEO of General Electric). Words of praise from the likes of Warren Buffet and Jack Welch also showcase the esteem in which business experts hold Novak.
Novak’s success is shown by his financial track record as well. Yum! Brands Inc. stock has increased over six times, and the company has had 13 percent growth or more for the past nine years. Yum! Brands today is the world’s largest restaurant company.
A preliminary insight into Novak’s style is this: All proceeds from the book are being donated to the United Nations World Food Program.
That sentiment is part of the grounding premise for this book: We all need people to help us along. Novak exemplifies this in his philosophy, but more importantly, in the way he operates.
“You can only go so far by going it alone,” he says. “If you want to start a business, if you want a big promotion, if you are developing or launching a new product, if you want your company to move in a new direction, if you want to expand your sales territory … even if you become the coach of your child’s soccer team, which has lost every game so far, and you want to show them what it feels like to win, you’re going to need people to get you there.”
If it sounds as though Novak has abandoned the notion of the strong leader who fights his way to the top alone, he has. Along with it, he has also discarded the idea that “it’s lonely at the top.”
Instead he believes that a leader should remember that people tend to follow the leader’s actions. It is the leader’s role to set the example and “cast the right shadow of leadership.” Simply put, a leader can’t say one thing and then do another and expect people to follow.
Novak terms his methodology “an insight-driven approach to leading people and achieving big goals.” Part One focuses on how you must be your best self first before leading others. This involves being an avid learner and listener, as well as believing in yourself and others.
Part Two shows the importance of creating a strategy and personalizing it before getting it into alignment with appropriate resources and tools. The leader creates a culture of “winning together.”
Follow through is the topic of Part Three. The successful leader must not only “be a bold ad” in marketing change but must understand and undertake the obstacles to success. Under Novak, Yum! Brands has driven performance by using recognition at every level.
Novak says he personally casts his shadow of leadership by two means: 1) uniquely recognizing people for their achievements; and 2) leading people in the uniquely energizing and engaging Yum! Cheer. His distinctive recognition awards have included floppy rubber chickens while at KFC. His creativity has been mirrored around the globe. For example, miniature Taj Mahal awards were given for excellence in India and a camel award for steadfastness and perseverance in Dubai.
Taking People With You was written based on a training program of the same name developed by Novak over a 15-year period. More than 4,000 employees of his organization have experienced its pragmatic and action-plan approach.
In writing this book, Novak has extended yet again his “right shadow of leadership” well beyond his own company. In doing so, he has provided each of us with the tools and the opportunity to extend our own.