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David Novak—one of today’s most engaging, unconventional, and successful business leaders—lived in thirty-two trailer parks in twenty-three states by the time he reached the seventh grade. He sold encyclopedias door to door, worked as a hotel night clerk, and took a job as a $7,200-a-year advertising copywriter with the hopes of maybe 1 day becoming a creative director. Instead, he became head of the world’s largest restaurant company at the ripe old age of forty-seven.
While David never visited business school, he did learn from the greatest of teachers—experience—and plenty of other very smart people as well: Magic Johnson on the trick to teamwork, Warren Buffett on what he looks for in the firms he buys, John Wooden on ego, and Jack Welch using one thing he’d do over. Now he wants to share with you what he learned about getting ahead and getting noticed; motivating people and turning businesses around; building winning teams and running a global company of nearly one million people; and always staying true to yourself.
The Education of your Accidental CEO is filled up with David Novak’s street-smart wisdom:
From his formative years...
• Walking through your anxieties
• Preventing the poison of stereotypes
• Staying “right-sized”
• Breaking through the clutter
From his years as an ad executive and chief marketing officer ...
• How never to roll over like Fluffy the dog
• Seeing yourself as a brand
• When to pull the plug on the Super Bowl
As the COO of Pepsi Cola and then as president of KFC and Pizza Hut ...
• Why a gold watch can have less value when compared to a floppy rubber chicken
• Knowing when “the answers are in the building”
• Knowing when to do nothing
• What it takes to revitalze a company
And as CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc. ...
• How exactly to “shock the system”
• How to avoid the slow-no’s
• Managing two up and two down
David Novak’s ideas for building an entire culture around reward and recognition—getting everyone from division presidents to dishwashers to buy into recognizing the achievements of others—is studied by others and discussed here in great detail. Whether you will be the CEO of a worldwide conglomerate or a budding entrepreneur, there is something here that may help you get where you want to move.
