“The key to running a business is making sure you stay in touch with your people.”
Reuben Mark’s advice to a young Stephen Sendar.
“One of the great privileges of my life is that my dad played poker with Reuben Mark who was the CEO of Colgate-Palmolive that brought them from the brink of death to huge success.
And I remember in my early twenties I went to visit Reuben in his office for a little bit of advice in New York City. And Rueben demonstrated the ‘management by walking around’ energy that is required of every great leader. And you can’t live without it. And I was just struck.
We walked around the building, he showed me around, we went down to the mailroom, he wanted to pick something up. The conversation he had with the person in the mailroom was person-to-person – the Rueben I knew who used to come to my house, not the Reuben in his suit overlooking park avenue. And it was that water cooler moment that he tried to recreate with every person in that building at some point in his week.
It’s not how he phrased it, but that’s essentially what he taught me. He said, “Steve, the key to running a business is making sure you stay in touch with your people.”