Our travels for The CEO Collection have introduced us to firms of all sizes and scopes, and for this episode, we went to at least one that’s simply large. Zebra Applied sciences is likely one of the most dynamic B2B know-how firms on the earth. They digitize and automate workflows for firms, have roughly 10, 000 workers and do about $5 billion in income. I had the prospect to take a seat down with CEO Invoice Burns to learn the way he leads such an enormous operation.

Under are some highlights of our insightful dialog, which have been edited for size and readability. Watch the total video above.

World attain

“You see our firm Zebra in on a regular basis life. We’re a digital resolution supplier that allows companies to intelligently join knowledge, property, and folks. You see us in a point-of-sale checkout at a grocery store, when a postal employee is delivering a parcel to your own home, and in so many different locations. Firms use our cellular units to scan the package deal, get signatures, and issues like that. All the biggest retailers all over the world — 86 p.c of the Fortune 500 firms — are our clients at present. We consider it as retail, transportation, logistics, manufacturing and warehousing, well being care and authorities.”

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The NFL Connection

“As an organization, we assist the NFL. We use the identical sorts of tags that might be utilized in retail or transportation logistics to trace parcels or stock to trace each cleat, each shoulder pad, each helmet worn by a participant. The NFL’s preliminary use case was for fan engagement and to reinforce the published. After which the newest use instances are actually round defending the well being and security of the gamers.”

The CEO’s Journey

“I began my profession in gross sales, in a big telco gross sales into people like Verizon and others. After which I took a task main Europe, the Center East, and Africa from a gross sales aspect and expanded into advertising and companies and different areas. After which I joined Zebra about 9 years in the past to guide the acquisition piece. Zebra was a billion-dollar specialty printing enterprise. They purchased two and a half billion {dollars} in income from Motorola to the enterprise enterprise and so form of in a single day a $1 billion enterprise grew to become a $3.5 billion enterprise.”

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Management accountability

“There’s three legs of the stool, proper? That is how I view the enterprise: our clients, our workers and our traders. In the end we’re in enterprise to proceed to develop and to generate profits. However you have to do the suitable issues first. You have bought to have the ability to reward and entice and retain the perfect workers all over the world. For those who try this, then you definately’ll serve your clients finest. For those who serve your clients finest, you will develop your topline income and your profitability and your inventory will go up and you may handle your traders.”

Main via robust instances

“I believe that demand for our companies skyrocketed throughout COVID, after which in 2023, demand reset again to 2019 ranges. So we have been put able the place we needed to do the conventional issues that almost all companies would do. Have a look at your actual property and your journey prices and all these issues internally. We additionally did issues like voluntary retirement applications. We considered creating new alternatives for individuals throughout the group. It labored out nice, nevertheless it’s at all times laborious to get smaller. It is at all times much more enjoyable to develop. However you have to make these robust enterprise selections at instances.”

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Profession recommendation to future leaders

“Nobody else cares as a lot about your profession as you do, but additionally be affected person as a result of it would not occur in a single day. And when you’re at an ideal firm and you’ve got alternatives there, there’s nowhere else that you simply’re extra revered than inside that firm. They know you might be prepared, so be affected person.”

Try extra profiles of progressive and impactful leaders by visiting The CEO Collection archives.