Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings

A p p e n d i x
2 8 1 
PEOPLE FACTORS 
1. To become more successful, a firm needs a leader with a deter-
mined entrepreneurial personality combining the drive, the 
original ideas, and the skills necessary to build the fortunes of the 
firm. 
2. A growth-oriented chief executive must surround himself with 
an extremely competent team and to delegate considerable 
authority to them to run the activities of the firm. Teamwork, as 
distinct from dysfunction struggles for power, is critical. 
3. Attention must be paid to attracting competent managers at 
lower levels and to training them for larger responsibilities. Suc- 
cession should largely be from the available talent pool. The need 
to recruit the chief executive from outside is a particularly dan- 
gerous sign. 
4. The entrepreneurial spirit must permeate the organization. 
5. More successful firms usually have some unique personality 
traits—some special ways of doing things that are particularly 
effective for their management team. This is a positive not a neg-
ative sign. 
6. Management must recognize and be attuned to the fact that the 
world in which they are operating is changing at an ever increas-
ing rate. 
a. E very accepted way of doing things must be reexamined peri- 
odically, and new, better ways sought. 
b. C hanges in managerial approaches involve necessary risks, 
which must be recognized, minimized and taken. 
7. There must be a genuine, realistic, conscious and continuous 
effort to have employees at every level, including the blue collar 
workers, believe that their company is really a good place to 
work. 
a. E mployees must be treated with reasonable dignity and 
decency. 
b. The firm’s work environment and benefits programs should 
be supportive of motivation. 
c. People must feel they can express grievances without fear and 
with reasonable expectation of appropriate attention and 
action. 

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