Marketing Insights From a to Z: 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs to Know

“A leader is a
dealer in hope.”
Robert Townsend, former CEO of Avis Rent-A-
Car, observed: 
“True leadership must be for the benefit of the
followers, not the enrichment of the leaders.”
Leadership works
best when there are committed followers.
Some think that great leaders need charisma, and point to peo-
ple such as Franklin Roosevelt or Winston Churchill. They are for-
getting Harry Truman. The leader does not need charisma to be
effective. Charismatic leaders are often suspect. Some of the greatest
business leaders went about their work in a quiet way touching the
minds and hearts of their staff. They are friendly, approachable, and
caring. They act as role models. Charles R. Walgreen III transformed
Walgreen Co. into a company whose cumulative stock returns since
1975 have beaten the general stock market by over 15 times. Yet he
never takes credit, pointing instead to his great team, and he pins his
success on being “lucky.” Katherine Graham of 
The Washington Post
was another quiet leader who built a great newspaper into a greater
one. The Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu said: