I can't make people do anything. What I can do is find the right people—those who fit the culture—and let their humanity shine. Then, I need to create the support and mechanisms for that to happen.
— Ron Shaich Founder and former CEO of Panera Bread CompanyGuantánamo has created more terrorists than have ever passed through. It is the major recruiting tool used… it inhibits the United States' ability to talk about human rights on a global scale… when you have the UN calling-up the United States on their human rights abuses at Guantánamo it makes it very difficult for the United States to then go to other places in the world and demand that they apply human rights.
Individuality is my biggest fight, not #MeToo. People need to realise their own power, their own freedom, and their own ability to be better.
I remember one day though, conversing with a primatologist and saying, 'oh, animals are just like us… we're not that special…' and he said, 'well, when did chimps build their own large hadron collider?' – I was gob smacked. That one comment made me realise how absurd it is to claim we aren't that different from other animals because, clearly, we're amazingly different.
You cannot get rid of identities, but you can reform them. You can take a form of identity that's been historically associated with repression and hierarchy, and make it more egalitarian – that's what we've been trying to do with gender.
You're not going to be a warrior in battle unless you are a warrior in preparation. You have to be single-minded, you can't just show-up on the night.
We cannot use the existing models of development, because those existing models have brought us pollution, disparity of income, and significant challenge. Consumption-led economic development has been the narrative of the 20th century.
It certainly plays a much bigger role than was ever intended to. A number of financial institutions and contracts rely on LIBOR as the benchmark by which other rates are set. I don't think it was ever intended that LIBOR would play such a central role between so many institutions and contracts.
Perhaps the most critical element is the cultural integration. The distinct cultures of the two companies present a significant challenge, consuming 80-90% of our efforts. Our goal is to forge a unified team culture, permeating from senior leadership to the deepest levels of the organization.
I grew up with a fear of the heart as an executioner of men in the prime of their lives.
Very few people know how the bottom feels, but I do. It's like quicksand. It grabs you, sucks you under and won't let go. When life is like that it's easy to drift and continue to make the same comfortable choices that are killing you, over and over again.
I think in the past, it was more of a zero sum game, and now I think we can play in a positive sum game, which really plays into the whole greenhouse concept, because we can all actually grow together and not feel like we are needing to take in order to achieve.
I don't think it's money that corrupts people, I really don't. I think it's the idea that when you make money without having a tangible creation attached to that money, it has no value.