Strategies of top leaders & daily habits of the rich

In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits.  —Lee Iacocca

A businessman told me that beauty entrepreneur Dr. Vicki Belo and Hayden Kho have signed up to join the Holy Land Christian spiritual tour of Israel from March 28 to April 12 of the Christ’s Commission Fellowship (CCF), led by realty entrepreneur, CCF founder and senior pastor Peter Tan-Chi.

The same businessman said that another celebrity couple also signed up for the same spiritual tour of Israel: Senator Bong Revilla and Cavite Congresswoman Lani Mercado Revilla. He also shared that during the height of the recent Napoles investigations, Bong and Lani Mercado sought refuge in weekly Bible study sessions with their Christian businessmen friends.

* * *

Lee Iacocca & Ray Kroc management strategies

At the recent birthday dinner of a young tycoon at the newly opened Cucina Italian resto on the 24th floor of the Marco Polo Hotel Manila in Ortigas Center, Pasig City (near the Aboitiz clan’s Union Bank building), I met 33-year-old Iriga City Mayor Ronald Felix “Gang-Gang” Alfelor.

An engineer by training, Mayor Alfelor said that due to climate change, his city and their part of the Bicol region have had no big typhoons in the last four years. He urged, “Please encourage the many businessmen who read The Philippine STAR to invest more outside Metro Manila and in our mainly agricultural Bicol region. For Iriga City, my focus will be promoting information technology (IT), call centers and BPOs. We have many well-educated people due to two big universities and a college; the minimum wage in Iriga City is P236 a day.”

When asked which leaders he admires, Alfelor surprisingly cited two iconic business executives: Lee Iacocca and Ray Kroc. Now retired and 89 years old, Iacocca was famous for turning around and reviving the giant carmaker Chrysler Corporation in the 1980s.

* * *

Hire bright people, be decisive, ensure good-quality products

Some management advice from Lee Iacocca:

1. Hire people who are brighter and let them be. “I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.”

2. Strengthen top management by hiring mavericks. “The kind of people I look for to fill top management spots are the eager beavers, the mavericks. These are the guys who try to do more than they’re expected to do. They always reach.”

3. A good leader should be decisive and act, not just know and analyze. “If I had to sum up in a word what makes a good manager, I’d say ‘decisiveness.’ You can use the fanciest computers to gather the numbers, but in the end you have to set a timetable and act.”

4. Be sure to gather accurate information. “There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men.”

5. Most important in business is quality of product or service. “When the product is right, you don’t have to be a great marketer.”

6. Perseverance is key to success. “Boys, there ain’t no free lunches in this country. And don’t go spending your whole life commiserating that you got the raw deals. You’ve got to say, ‘I think that if I keep working at this and want it bad enough, I can have it.’ It’s called perseverance.”

7. Leaders set the pace. “I’ve always found that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team.”

8. Concentrate and wisely use time. “The ability to concentrate and to use time well is everything.”

9. Positive attitude is one secret to real success. “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.”

10. Be forthright in your plans and goals. “I have found that being honest is the best technique I can use. Right up front, tell people what you’re trying to accomplish and what you’re willing to sacrifice to accomplish it.”

* * *

Grow continuously, focus on the customer & not on profits

Mayor Alfelor said most people remember Ray Kroc as the man who built McDonald’s into a fast-food giant, but he was really a rich real estate tycoon, too. Here is Ray Kroc’s advice to businesspeople:

1. Always grow, reinvent and innovate. “As long as you’re green, you’re growing. As soon as you’re ripe, you start to rot.”

2. Take bold, calculated risks. “Take calculated risks. Act boldly and thoughtfully. Be an agile company.”

3. Be creative, work hard. “Creativity is a highfalutin’ word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.”

4. Work to delight customers as your No. 1 goal and not to amass money. “If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customers first, success will be yours.”

5. Take risks or else get out of business. “If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.”

6. Luck comes from hard work. “Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.”

7. Seize opportunities, be open to opportunities. “The two most important requirements for major success are: first, being in the right place at the right time; and second, doing something about it.”

* * *

Read, watch less TV & other daily habits of the rich

A very interesting book for people who want to earn more money — whether entrepreneurs, professionals or investors — is the book Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals by Tom Corley. He spent five years studying the daily activities of 233 wealthy people and 128 people living in poverty, I want to share some of his research discoveries:

• 70 percent of the wealthy eat less than 300 junk-food calories per day; 97 percent of poor people eat more than 300 junk-food calories per day.

• 23 percent of the wealthy gamble; 52 percent of poor people gamble.

• 76 percent of the wealthy exercise aerobically four days a week; 23 percent of the poor do this.

• 63 percent of the wealthy listen to audio books during the commute to work vs. 5 percent of poor people.

• 81 percent of the wealthy maintain to-do lists vs. 19 percent of the poor.

• 63 percent of wealthy parents make their children read two or more non-fiction books a month vs. 3 percent of the poor.

• 80 percent of the wealthy make “happy birthday” calls vs. 11 percent of the poor.

• 67 percent of the wealthy write down their goals vs. 17 percent of the poor.

• 88 percent of the wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day for education or career reasons vs. 2 percent of the poor.

• 6 percent of the wealthy say what’s on their mind vs. 69 percent of the poor.

• 67 percent of the wealthy watch one hour or less of TV every day vs. 23 percent of the poor.

• 6 percent of the wealthy watch reality TV vs. 78 percent of the poor.

• 44 percent of the wealthy wake up three hours before work starts vs. 3 percent of the poor.

• 74 percent of the wealthy teach good daily success habits to their children vs. 1 percent of the poor.

• 84 percent of the wealthy believe good habits create opportunity luck vs. 4 percent of the poor.

• 76 percent of wealthy believe that bad habits create detrimental luck vs. 9 percent of the poor.

• 86 percent of the wealthy believe in lifelong educational self-improvement vs. 5 percent of the poor.

• 86 percent of the wealthy love to read vs. 26 percent of the poor.

* * *

Thanks for your feedback! E-mail willsoonflourish@gmail.com or follow WilsonLeeFlores on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and http://willsoonflourish.blogspot.com/.