YouSaid · the spoken record

Sidney Harman

lines on the record: 93
first: 2022-01-30
most recent: 2022-01-30
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Going to quote Phil Knight in his autobiography Shoe Dog says the exact same thing, so let's these are two smart, accomplished entrepreneurs. Let's avoid their mistakes. I struggle to remember. I close my eyes and I think back. But so many precious moments from those nights are gone forever. Numberless conversations, breathless laughing fits, declarations, revelations, confidences. They've all fallen into the sofa cushions of time. I remember only that we always sat up half the night cataloging the past, mapping out the future. I remember we took turns describing what our little company was and what it might be, and what it must never be how I wish on just one of those nights I'd had a tape recorder or kept a journal as I did on my trip around the world. That is where I'll leave it if you want to buy the book if you use a link that's in the show notes. You'll be supporting the podcast at the same time.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then the last thing he's going to say, and then I'll close on something else, because this is important for us to know because a lot of us, we're still in the climbing aspect. We're at the beginning, maybe middle of our careers, and they're going to tell you you should be documenting, you're overestimating what you think you're going to remember. Don't do it. So he says, I wish I had a collection of products, newspaper clips, memos, and other historical artifacts of my long life and business education and government. I don't. It never occurred to me that what I was doing, that I was doing anything worth preserving in print or product. I urge you not to fall into the same error. Keep a record of what you're doing. It need not be a diary, but preserve the appropriate, relevant memorabilia. I suspect that you'll be grateful that you did.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And he says, I'm 84, yet I work out every day, and I really love my work. It is creative, demanding, interesting, always new, and very rewarding. I have lived a long life. I continue fully engaged, fully responsible, and fully committed.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He talks about the importance of just being prepared. And the way I think about this is David Olgovey quote. Those who approach their work unprepared are ignorant amateurs. If you're not learning from the experience before you, and he talks about when you're interviewing people, he says, nothing leaves me more astonished than the evidence that so many otherwise serious people come to an interview with no preparation. Really? How much trouble is it to learn something about the company and for that matter to learn something about the interviewer? I can tell you that were I to be interviewed by Jack Welch, the moment would come when he would hear me say something to the effect of that is so interesting. I had wondered about that very point when reading chapter 7 of your book. You said of a job candidate, the man displayed business vision and edge. What did you mean by edge? Whether the substance of the question is crucial or not, there is little doubt that Mr. Welch would respond to the fact that I had read his book and thought about it.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sylvia Harran and I divorced in 1970 after 25 years of marriage and four lovely children. We were unable to overcome the tension and pressures in our marriage that were generated by my twenty four seven days. So he said, it's my fault. I was a workaholic and that's going to create tension and pressure. You can't have a relationship. You just can't. If you're working from 7 in the morning till 10 at night, like, come on.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He's got fantastic, fantastic ideas on writing, which he started at the very beginning. He's like writing his discovery. That's freaking fantastic. He says, sadly, writing is lightly regarded in business and often dismisses unnecessary. He's like, that's stupid. Writing is a unique and powerful instrument. Writing is discovery. Anyone who has done any serious writing has experienced a surprise that comes when reading in the morning that which he wrote the night before. The person who invests in writing who exercises the discipline to do it well and who uses it frequently will possess a matchless instrument for discovery, clarity, and persuasion. It is a tool for thought. It is rarely treated as a major tool to be developed and honed. He's in the section, maybe he doesn't come out and say it, but sounds like a little bit of regret.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Similar to Buffett's inner scorecard idea. If you know why you're doing what you're doing, the hard decisions in life that you will never be face will become easier. That's the note of myself. This is what he says. I am not just aimlessly making my way. I am instead setting a reason course. I am prepared to accommodate new information and change circumstances and then act accordingly by proceeding honorably and enthusiastically and with energy and determination I will improve the odds. If it all works, good. If it does not, I am prepared to fold my cards and walk away. My inner compass will surely guide me to another worthwhile undertaking.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When I'm reading the words of an 80 or 40 year old founder, this guy has built a successful company for six decades. He knows some shit. Some stuff I do not know. Yes, I want to read this book. So it says getting to know what you believe in is tough work. But once you've done it, it challenges that once seemed insuperable lend themselves to solution. Disappointment or failure can be placed in perspective and opportunity can be attacked with enthusiasm. Talks about being a complete human. For me, life is exciting and rewarding when I'm mentally and physically alert. I work at both parts, my body and my mind. I work to develop improve particular skills, writing, speaking, physical stamina, the exercise of curiosity, and the ability to succeed financially. He's talking really about developing an inner compass, which to me is very...”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now, this is the last chapter of the book. He just goes into really random thoughts on life. Upon rereading this book, I've considered that I've drawn from the experience of writing it. My reflections are embodied in the following paragraphs. This is my almanac. So think about wise words from an 84-year-old founder. I remember, and this is why I kind of get excited, and I've done this multiple times when I'm reading these books by these older people, older, successful people, know a lot of things. The greatest way, the most succinct way it's ever been put. I was listening to this interview with an athlete one time and he had flown all the way from New Zealand to Los Angeles. And they're like, he's giving an interview, our podcast rather. Flying to New Zealand to LA is a long journey. It's like, why are you out here? He was meeting with another athlete in his sport that was like a generation older. And they're like, oh, why are you meeting with them? He's like, because he knows some shit. That's the most succinct way I could think.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Some of these people I've never even heard of because they're, you know, this is three or four decades before I live, but their print ad would just be a great musician. And then their little name, Harmon Carden, on there. So it says we continue to celebrate the artistry of great musicians in our advertising. So Harmon Carden, celebrating great musicians, Nike selling great athletes, Apple selling great creative thinkers.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so Steve Jobs identified this with Nike. He's like, look at Nike's ads. He's like, they don't even talk about the product. They don't talk about laces and the rubber they use. He goes, what does Nike do? They celebrate great athletes. And he's like, there's a great speeches on YouTube, but he's just like, and that's what we're going to do. And so that's why that's when Steve Jobs had the idea. He's like to do the here's the crazy one commercial where when he comes back to Apple, he's like, we're going to celebrate the great thinkers and influential people of our time because we know some of them are alive today, some of them are dead. But if they were alive today, they'd use a Mac. They would use our products. And so here's some of the crazy ones, the rebels, the trouble makers, the misfits. That's where I got the idea for the misified. So it's the same thing. It's the same idea. And so I don't even know. I think I might have skipped over my point here at the point, but the part from the book was that his early ads would just celebrate great musicians. And you'd have like, I don't know, like...”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He is telling you one of my favorite maxims ever, actions express priority. It's not what you say that's important to you, it's what you do that's important to you. It's how we understand what's important to other people by just fearing their actions, right? Well, Steve Jobs is telling us with his actions that marketing is extremely important to him. We're also going to see more of Steve Jobs' view, Nike's view as well. Well, first, I have a sentence for you. Our goal has been to create a customer for life. So he's talking about the importance of prioritizing long-term thinking. It's like if I capture a customer now and they buy me from four decades because I'm always prioritizing for the long term, it's a lot better than trying to just get a sale today. Once they buy the product, I have crappy service, whatever the case is, they're just never going to interact with my company again. It doesn't make any sense. Don't optimize for the short term. Your goal is to create a customer for life. And so he goes through about some of his early ads. Remember, they're producing high-end audio equipment.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He's going to give two examples of that. The beauty of marketing is just that. There is no one and only right way, no standard operating procedure, no template, but it's fundamental is this. Know what business you are really in. Apple does not think it makes computers. It believes that it makes tools for creative minds. JetBlue does not behave as though it is in the airplane business. It is in the business of facilitating your life through transportation. And he says you got to focus on this. This is not something you're going to outsource. I believe that marketing is a central responsibility of management. Steve Jobs also believed that he met with the marketing team every Wednesday and reviewed every attendant. He looked at every ad before it could go out, every TV ad, every billboard, every print ad all of them.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“These got some really interesting ideas about marketing. He talks about the importance of understanding psychology. And so he says, marketing demands attention. This is his first sentence about also, but say it's like the summary of this section. Marketing demands attention. Like life, it is always one thing after another. It sits atop a gathering of tectonic plates and they keep shifting, altering, shifting, altering the relationships among theme, packaging, negotiation, advertising, brand and distribution. This is fascinating, so I'm not skipping any parts, right? I'm going to read this in its entirety. Two more paragraphs for you. And he talks about knowing, oh, say, marketing demands attention, and you must know what business you are really in.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I have to add this one paragraph. This is really important. He's just saying it's not for me. If you're into that, then do it. He's saying this, there is surely room for financial engineers in the business world. That's just not the business I'm in. And it is vital that everyone knows what business he is in”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think Buffett would say that his requirements are straightforward and consistent. Number one, do not bother me with highly sophisticated technology. I want a business that is easy to understand. Number two, the business must have excellent and dedicated management. Number three, I must be able to buy it at a low multiple of earnings or a low multiple of cash flow. The Buffett track record over the past 30 years is an impressive testament to the discipline with which he sticks to that model. In contrast, there are transactions designed by financial engineers, which he repeats over and over again, the basic idea is to use the currency of one company to buy another company that fits a financial model. Strategic fit be damned. Often the suggested targets come from investment bankers who are primarily seeking transaction.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“our costs have been modest. Although we have made twenty acquisitions since nineteen eighty, acquisition is not the way we have grown. The acquired companies were invariably very small at the time we found them. We built them over the years. So he says, for example, when our US automotive OEM company, which is main revenue his business now, was purchased in 1981 its annual sales were 15 million. So he bought it when it's 15 million. 20 years later, the sales are now 500 million. When we acquired Becker in 95, its sales that year were 150 million, and it was generating enormous losses. Today they have a billion in sales from that same company he bought, and the company is very profitable. It is also growing at almost 50% a year. And then I don't mean to repeat this, but he repeats it, so I got to repeat it to you. This is more on how we agrees with Buffett as opposed to what is popular at the time Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway clearly follows the strategy of value-driven acquisitions.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Other investment for which the company might use its funds So, this is what I mentioned earlier about he's an advocate for small, well thought out acquisition. He does not like financial engineering. He uses that example, like you'll see, okay, what if we combine? We have two public companies. What if we combine our two companies? The stock would be more than ours combined. So he's like the primary motivation for your acquisition is an increased share price. And he's like, again, this is what Buffett has told us over and over again. He's like, that doesn't make any sense to him. He's just like, this is the way I did it. Harmon had been consistent has had consistent success in acquisitions because we have chosen these small wealth. He saw we have sought underlying value and have been guided by key strategic considerations rather than by funny money arithmetics. So that's what he's talking about financial engineering. Again, I repeated this, but it just sounds a lot like what I've learned about Munger and Buffett. This guy has a very similar thought process because we have usually acquired companies that were in significant financial difficulty.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To get that understanding, if you can't teach and persuade me, then I will pass on it. So then you get into this idea of stock buybacks, Warren Buffett talks about this a great deal, Henry Singleton. Really, I want to read this paragraph to you because we've talked in the past, like for public companies, but it just hit me after reading Bloomberg's autobiography that this might be a prudent action for private companies too, where he talked about the Merrill Lynch deal, where he buys them out two times. They'd at one time own 30% of the company. He winds up buying in two separate transactions that 30% back. And the reason that you might want to do that is because the fact that you know when you have a series of investment decisions to make, what you're going to do with your cash, why would you want to buy back percentage of your company? Because you know more about that company than anybody else does. And this is exactly what Sidney says here. The best reason to employ the company's cash to buy its own stock is the judgment that the purchase represents the best investment that the company can make. After all, the CEO knows more about the company, about its process and about its stock price than any other company or any”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So he goes into this. There is something to be said for a top manager who understands the material but is not an expert. It is the very seeking of understanding and the requirement that it be expressed in simple and unambiguous language that can assure a minimum of heavy-handedness. The numbers are merely symbols for the important stuff. What counts is knowing what the numbers really mean I buy into nothing that I do not understand, and the more convoluted or sophisticated the material, the more determined I am to understand it. So he says I have never forgotten my experience in government being snowed in by some who knew the jargon and use it to obscure rather than clarify. So they were trying to take advantage of my inexperience and the fact that if they use these big words and these acronyms that they seem to be like the one in a position of authority. As a result, I always reject the suggestion that this is too complex for you to understand. I prefer the Warren Buffett view. If I don't understand it, I'll invest the time and energy.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so that idea, it's really he's talking about the importance of simple communication because simple communication enhances understanding. You're building an organization. The more people you add to it, the more complex it gets, the more simple you have to speak, right? And he compares the experiences he has and realization in business, in education and government, why this is important. He's like, listen, this is exactly what Warren Buffett gets.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And we settle it with something as simple as a coin toss. But much of high finance depends on that very, or sophistication inside knowledge, the aura. So he's saying it's actually not true. It is a good thing to recognize that nearly all of it reduces to pretty straightforward common sense. And it is a very good thing not to be intimidated, not to hesitate to ask. Please explain the process to me. I know very well how to make the product we sell, but yours is another world, and I need some help understanding it. That may seem an invitation to more, not less artfulness or deceitfulness or whatever term you want to put on this, but I have found that by insisting on a simple explanation, the mystery disappears, and with it most of the nonsense.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And harm and prose four. After considerable agreement I summoned that earlier experience and suggested. Thirty-three years later, mind you, that's wild, right? And suggested to Bob Rubin, it's late, and we've been arguing this for a long time. What do you say we toss for it? He quickly responded. It's amazing how much this works. Maybe he says something about the gambling nature of entreferrance. I don't know. He quickly responded, you're on. When I said, great, Utah saw call. He reacted. I'm the senior figure here. You toss all call. I tossed, he called, he lost. We did the deal 4%. And then he gets to his unexpected point of the story. High finance as it is practiced in the real world is frequently a great deal simpler, less complicated, less sophisticated, and less mysterious than it is usually presented. But much of high finance depends on that very aura of sophistication and inside knowledge. So his whole point is like, think about this. We just were taking a company public for God's sake. We can't agree on the sport.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In the fall of 1986, so now we're talking about 33 years after this happened. Check this out. In the fall of 1986, six years after reacquiring Harmon International from Beatrice, this is that triple dip, and operating as a highly leveraged privately owned company, we determined to go public. I found myself sitting in an impressive meeting room at the prestigious investment firm Goldman Sachs. Goldman was then, as it is now, widely regarded as one of the preeminent banking firms in the world, and we were about to launch an IPO. I represented Harmon International, and Robert Rubin, who would eventually become the legendary secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton, was the Goldman Lead. There were 20 Goldman people in that room and at least 100 more in the conference call as we hammered out the offering price and the spread. So you just as fine spread in case you don't know is the term used to identify the commission percentage earned by the bank. So they're arguing like how much money are you going to make on me basically? We managed to agree on an offering price, but disagreed on the rate. Goldman proposed 6%.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Do you really want to beat up on some young kid? You know you have the experience, you're smarter, you've just seen a lot more. You're going to wind up kicking that kid's ass. You know that. And look what he does. He's like...”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So let's go back to this. He's saying, no, no, you call. Are you toss? I'll call. A moment's hesitation, and then from Mr. Schooper. Okay, I've tossed. What's your call? Tails, I said. There was a terrifying pause at the other end of the line. Finally, an annoyed voice. Okay, shipped to damn things. I'll send you eight thousand dollars tonight. Twelve months later, I encouraged Mr. Schooper at a hotel in Chicago. You son of a bitch, he said to me. I tossed heads, but I was sure that if I said so you would think I was cheating a poor kid. You got me. It was a lesson. Bless this guy's heart. I really hope his older entrepreneur is like they just.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hundred of these amplifiers. A good move. Send them along and I'll put my check for $7,000 in the mail tonight. Okay, Mr. Schooper, but there seems to be a misunderstanding. The price is $80. That means the check is for $8,000. You a gambling man, son? And he says the scourge of Las Vegas, Mr. Schooper. So saying yes. And then Mr. Schooper says, I'll toss you for it. Meaning cointos. Gulp, $1,000 was a lot of money to me back then. You're on, I said. Good, Mr. Schooper says. Toss I'll call. I managed a horse No, you toss and I'll call. That was the moment. My immediate instinct was to anticipate how the next steps would develop. I had arrived as an entrepreneur. What does he mean? Check this out, and this is how he does multiple times in his career.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“From Seoul's office, he's going to refer to him as Mr. Schooper. So let me not confuse you. From Mr. Schooper's office, when he did, I heard Mr. Schooper's voice patronizing me. And so again, he's a young kid. This is a guy who has many more decades of experience in business, and we've seen this over and over again. Ingvar Kamprad had the same experience with an older entrepreneur. He wind up doing a negotiation. He makes a mistake, and the older entrepreneur and their competitors at the time, he said it's taken advantage of them. He's like, listen, what you're doing, that's a big mistake. You can't do this. And so they're arguing. He's like, you accepted my deal way too early. And he taught him the art of negotiation. He did this, even though he's a potential competitor. Because again, there's something in it where you have these older entrepreneurs that want to educate the new generation. They are us and we are them is the way to think about it. And we're going to see that here. How are you, kid? I'm fine, Mr. Schooper. Good, kid. I understand that you want to unload.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I really do hope you pick up the book because you're going to find more stories like this. He's explaining, he's a fantastic storyteller. And so I'm going to read this whole, what a story. Going to read this to you. It's going to happen over, I think, like two or three pages. It's fantastic. And he says, I was first persuaded I had the instincts of an entrepreneur at the end of our first year in business. So now he's an old man looking back at the first year he started his company. In that year, we produced a tuner and an amplifier. At the end of the year, I found myself with an inventory of 100 pieces. And so he's starting a new improved version of that product. It's already going into production. So what the hell am I going to do with these old products? That's essentially the problem he's trying to solve, okay? Eager to cleanse the old inventory, I authorize our sales representative to offer the entire quantity to this company called Radio Television Supply Corporation. That offer I understood it needed to be a bargain. So he's like, let's reduce the price. So they offered to the owner of that company. This guy's name is Seoul. This was 1953, a half century ago. And for us, it was a very big deal. Indeed, I authorized the salesman to telephone me collect”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Life, I was running a traditional autocratic top-down company. Somehow I had not recognized the disconnect between what I was learning about supervision and responsibility at the college and the very different way I supervise and manage my employees. Talks about over and over again. The importance of being fully engaged in your work when you're younger, it's extremely easy. He's like, don't give this up. I'm 84 years old. I'm on the ball. I'm in this every day. I'm paying attention to what's going on. And so part of this is because he was interested in building a life of the opposite of what I'm about to describe to you. He says, I imagine myself getting out of bed in the morning, looking forward only to returning in the evening with no wish to do anything, but grab a beer and sit before the TV. What must it be like, I wondered, to be convinced that what you're doing now you'll do for the rest of your life, to have a sense of your own worthlessness?”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Teacher. They're both teaching and they're learning at the same time. It's a two way street. It's not like he's against top-down hierarchy, which he repeats over and over again. So he applied that in business. He's applying the same idea to this different educational domain. From a distance, an observer would not be able to tell who was the teacher and who was a student. Each taught and learned from the other. The effect would be electrifying, and I was often the most stimulated on the campus. So that's pretty crazy. He's most stimulated in the campus. That's the second half of his day. He'd already spent the first half of his day building his own company. Now, granted, he's now 20 at this point in the story where he's like 25 years down in the building of his company. But he just found a new way to get excited about these things. And then he gets into why this experiment, like working on this experimental college, was helpful to his business. And so he says, although I believed I was supervising an important new experiment in American education, I have failed to realize that at the same time in my business.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, rather than the unchallenged fountain head. So if you think of all these entrepreneurs when we pick up these biographies and autobiographies, they essentially become our teachers, right? And that's the way. It's like there's a resource I'm tapping into. I'm tapping into the fact that this guy had 60 years of education. He's been thinking about business longer than I've been alive. And I pick up the book and I don't read like, okay, I'm just going to, they teach, they tell you explicitly, you should question it. Don't just accept in general conventional wisdom, like think through yourself. It applies to what they're telling in the book. These books are a resource rather than as an unchallenged fountain head. That's just fantastic writing. The college looked to the student to design and execute his or her own study program, of course. Charlie Munger would tell you to build your own curriculum, right? At its best, it was the embodiment of Horace Mann's metaphor of the student and the teacher on a log teaching and learning. So he's talking about the responsibility between the student and the teacher.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As you can imagine, Sidney mentioned he was a voracious reader, lifelong, he loved education, he's got a lot of thoughts about that, so he talks about this is in the 1970s what I mentioned earlier, when I realized that there's no way this guy's personal relationships. He's spending half his time in the 1970s building this educational institution. I think it's called Friends World College. And so he says, this college operates with a conviction that young people learn best when they take responsibility for their own education. This view contradicted educational tradition, which held that teachers possess the knowledge and information students needed, and that it was their responsibility to somehow deliver it to the students. Our college viewed that the teacher as a resource rather than as the unchallenged fountainhead. This seems very, like what he's saying is extremely obvious to you and I because we're lifelong learners, we're clearly doing this on our own time. Like, of course it is. I don't think many people understand this, which is baffling to me. So it says, you know, the teacher is a resource.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Then we're going to see more like Warren Buffett thinking. He says, listen, I'm the one writing the annual reports here. Many firms farm out the creation of the annual report to advertising agencies or report specialists. We do not. We write every word of our annual report, and I am its principal author. I believe if the manager of a company cannot summon an authentic voice to review and evaluate company operations,”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then as the book progresses, we get more into his philosophy. Really, it's more romance is the way I would call this. When you run a business, he sees this as a living thing. When you run a business, you never leave it. You never approach the day as something merely to get through, something to get behind you. Each day is a new adventure, a new experience, and a new challenge. If the business lives, then so do you. I forgot who it was. It might be Toby Luke, the founder of Shopify. I've mentioned this before. I just can't remember who said it, but he said he once said that building a business was one of the most pure forms of self expression. I thought that was a fantastic way to put it.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That at every single expense for my ranch, I write myself. And he said the reason he did that was interesting. He called it a form of discipline. And then we see this is just a fantastic anecdote about his boss. We see this old school tough fist that these people had. And he talks about when he worked there, he said, terrified of the boss, the bookkeeper was always the first employee to arrive. Yet on that day, he was not only 30 minutes late, but bleeding from a head wound. His clothes were torn and dirty. I'm so sorry he offered as he staggered from the elevator. I left for work early, but a group of ruffians threw me down three flights of subway steps after a brief pause mister Bogan responded. Three flights of steps doesn't take thirty minutes.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He talks about the one leader that he learned the most from. I learned a great deal about leadership from Mr. Bogan, my first and only boss. He gave diligence a very good name. So that's another thing Sidney repeats all over again. The important of being diligent. Pay attention to details. Know exactly what the hell's going on in your business. And he's an example of that. Mr. Bogan devoted every Saturday to the adding machine. I would come into work and find him in the accounting office. Personally cranking out every receipt, every invoice, all the billing. He knew where the pulse of the business was and never took his finger off of it. I came to respect the importance of attention to detail. I never lost it. This reminded me of what I wrote down when I got to that part is Henry Singleton after he left Teledyne. He was like the third largest landowner in the United States or something like that. I forgot the exact number, but he owned a lot of land, a lot of real estate. He went to go work on a ranch. And he said something in that book that was interesting. He's like, I write every single check.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, I really like this one too. The very best leaders go beyond the mirror setting of an example. The best leaders are catalysts. He used that word catalyst over and over again. It's very interesting. The best leaders are catalysts who prompt others to reach beyond their most natural abilities to find something they had previously thought beyond their reach.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And respecting the time of associates, it's important. I have been turned off time and time again when someone who has been asked to speak briefly to me goes on endlessly, indifferent to the fact that there are other speakers or that the audience has its own time limitations. Another way to think about this master, the terse memo, I guess. I'm going to say this one, and I know you're going to get mad at me because I repeat this so much, but it just happens over and over again. The leader teaches. There is no more important responsibility than the development of those around him. Jim Senegal says if you're not spending 90% of your time teaching, you're not doing your job. Sidney's saying that you're the leader, you're the teacher, there's no more important responsibility than the development of those people that are around you. And then he says, the leader develops others. This in my mind is the singular distinction of a handful of great leaders. In the Tao Te Ching, they say that the leader, having accomplished great things, the leader, having accomplished great things, the people all feel they did themselves.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Age is just the amount of information available. It's just beyond our comprehension, so you have to know what you don't know. The leader knows what he doesn't know. No one knows everything. And the willingness of a leader to acknowledge that he does not know everything is a great attribute. Many outrageous errors are made in industry by people who barge ahead failing to recognize that they are out of their depth in an area in which they are not properly equipped or because they are unwilling to acknowledge that they don't even understand the vocabulary. And so his point is like, I don't do this. Earlier he talks about parts that he did some business, but also when he was serving in government and he's like, listen, anytime I do not understand what the other guy is talking about, I ask for clarification. He doesn't care. He's like, no one knows everything. I'm not going to look stupid. I'll look dumber if I just sit here and act like I know what he's talking about. The leader knows the meaning of two minutes. I use this as a metaphor, respecting his own time.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is fantastic. Again, something he repeats the leader should never underestimate the value of disciplined, hard work. I'm not talking about clock and hours. Years ago, Gary Player, the great South African professional golfer, known for his unmatched diligence, met with a journalist after winning a major tournament. A reporter commented, You were very lucky today, Gary. His reply I notice that the harder I work, the better I play, and the better I play the luckier I get. The leader promotes closure. It is important that matters of consequence are driven to constructive conclusion. Many otherwise skilled executives have difficulty making a decision, closing the deal, wrapping the matter up and moving on, business leadership includes the ability to recognize that the moment is right and the time has come if the moment is right, get it done, finish the job, wrap it up. I think this one's particularly important information.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is something he's already mentioned earlier, but he repeats the leader must see the company as a coherent whole. It is not enough to be a marketing guru or a manufacturing or financial star. The leader must see the interrelatedness and interdependence of those disciplines and must promote the whole of it.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People want work to be more than drudgery. They want to see meaning in their jobs that justifies and warrants the hours they devote to them. Inspiration promises something beyond wages, a sense that the company has a greater meaning, its own values, and its own reason for existence. A leader must find the way to deliver that message and keep on delivering it. I love this one. The leader should be the evangelist, believing in the mission, committing to honorable, ethical conduct, and wishing for creative products in marketing are not enough. The leader must sell those views restlessly and relentlessly.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And now later in the book, up until this point, he's mentioned the word leadership, being a leader over and over again. Now he's going to say, okay, I'm going to distill for you right now my 60 years of leadership experience. So he says leading such an organization is vitally important because so many people and their families are directly influenced by that leader's direction. These are important keys to leadership as I've learned them over the last sixty years. Number one, the leader leads. He doesn't number them actually, so I'll just ignore that part. The leader leads. He or she is not a caretaker. He is obliged to set the targets, the standards, and the example. The leader defines the company. He should do so explicitly. Its purpose, its goals, and its processes are his responsibility. The leader inspires. People want to be more than”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This simply does not work. A company requires an articulated mission, a philosophical base, a moral compass here. Again, this is more of like this romanticism that he has a moral compass, critical judgment, and the realization that it is a dynamic living instrument populated by complex human beings. A company must forever reinvent itself as it confronts new problems and new opportunities. You cannot simply unlock the door in the morning, survive the day, turn the sign, and leave. It is no candy store.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“ever since reducing business matters to their essence, whittling away that which obscures are as unnecessary has served me well. I admire greatly those who practice the art. He's got another great story that I left myself. He just gets it. He's been building businesses for five decades at this point. I think I'm actually six. I might be wrong about that. The level of instinct and intuition that he has is just incomprehensible. So he says earlier, recalling my first experiences as an entrepreneur, I mentioned the corner candy store proprietors that he observed when he was a kid. I observed as a young man. They would arrive early, turn the sign in the window from close to open, walk behind the counter, and wait. During the day they would respond to whatever traffic appeared and however long the day might go on. When it was over the lights were shut off, the sign turned around, and the door locked. That part of life had ended for the day. I sense then, and I know now, that running a business demands a different perspective. Sadly, however, many executives of complex, good sized companies think that they're running bigger versions of a candy store.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At a size, weight, and cost simply unimaginable in the analog world. And this is the idea that he builds, this is like his third or fourth act, right, in the company. This is what he does for the rest of his career. It did not require a genius to recognize that I was looking at the future. When I returned to the States, I told Bernie, this is his partner, that we had better find us a digital engineer. Today we have twelve hundred digital engineers in the company. And so he's gonna give us a summary of what his company does. Our systems are in effect the central nervous systems of a new generation of automobiles, including BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, and Audi.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The determination to act on the end streak and the courage to commit the funds. As a result, Herman transformed Becker, and in the process, Becker transformed Harmon. So what does that mean? We built a very successful business centered on the premium music reproducing systems that we were manufacturing for the automakers. And then this is what he referenced earlier about multiple decades in the future. He's going to use that same idea where he transitions from realizing, hey, now we need to shift from analog to digital. Part of that became because he visited a Becker factory after he bought the company. And so it's just a fantastic story. This is going to be a rather longer part. I'm going to read the whole thing to you. And I said, this is a great story. He knows how to adapt shortly after the acquisition I visited Becker's factories in Germany's Black Forest. There was a small group of newly enthused engineers that had sent out a remarkable display on a table that was 15 feet long. They had placed the analog equipment. So boxes representing”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, this is where from here on in his career, their OEM, like that's the majority of their business, talks about the fact that there's a lot of changes in the automobile industry. I just want to point out, like, he picks up, this is on the acquisition. So he buys this company called Becker. And he says this is important because buying Becker made him go down this route that winds up growing. And he uses, and I have numbers for you later on, winds up growing quite a bit from where it was. So he's buying Becker, even though Becker's not doing well at the time. She says, we had little concrete basis for this acquisition. The books were in disarray. The customers were alienated. And the employees were dispirited.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He sees his roars being a compliment to the work of others, which is again really important to Sydney's operating ethos, I would say. He and I have totally different personalities with different strengths, but I had a genuine partner, and our relationship has grown stronger over the years. The meetings ended. The Army of Consultants disappeared, so he talks about the old school way that people inside the business were running it, and we got back to work.”
2022-01-30 · Founders · #229 Sidney Harman (Founder of Harman Kardon) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source