Posted on Mon, Aug 08, 2011
Know the CEO is based upon the presumption that decision makers prefer buying from people they know. As such, this Series presents the background and principles of CEOs leading key suppliers to the print and mail industry.
Murray Martin
Chairman, CEO and President of Pitney Bowes, Inc.
Part 2
Andy and Julie Plata, OutputLinks’ owners, continue their conversation with Murray Martin, Pitney Bowes’ Chairman, CEO and President.
Welcome back Murray and thank you for sharing yourself so openly last week. In this part of our conversation we look forward to learning more about you and the principles that influence the leadership you are providing at Pitney Bowes.
In leading a $5.5 billion company, what do you perceive your personal and business strengths to be?
My personal strength is that of ‘consigliore’ - a coach and counselor – which is very intuitive for me.
My business strengths include seeing what tomorrow will be and envisioning the future. I am also good at driving execution of plans.
Any weaknesses?
I am sometimes a little too patient. I always hold out hope that someone can succeed in a role, even if it may take them a little longer to do so. This can be an asset because it reduces the fear of failure and experimentation, but it can also be a weakness when it causes me to wait too long before taking action with someone who is not getting the job done.
Murray, you have had a great and successful career but what have you had to give up in your success journey?
Nothing. But I have had to be willing to give up things and that is crucial.
For example, I was once offered a promotion that I turned down for personal reasons. When I turned it down, I offered to resign from the company – I was willing to give up my career at Pitney Bowes over a personal issue that was important to me. As it turned out, the company was fine with my decision. When I was offered the same promotion the following year, I was able to accept it and feel good about it.
We get the strong impression that personal values and attributes are important to you. What do you look for in your key associates?
I value people with an unwavering sense of ethics who are self-motivated problem solvers with a determined passion about what they are doing. Other critical traits are customer-focus with a strong commitment to business discipline and business results.
We know there must be a great number of challenging times in your career but what do you find personally rewarding and satisfying as a business executive?
- Change: I embrace change and love the opportunity to take something and make it better, or start something entirely new from scratch.
- Mentoring: I enjoy teaching and mentoring, and value the chances I have had to recruit and develop talented colleagues.
- Customer Contact: I love customer contact and get very excited about collaborating with customers to help accomplish their business goals.
Have you met your original career goals?
I surpassed my career goals long ago. It has been a long and very exciting and satisfying journey from my roots in small-town Canada.
What are your current goals?
As CEO of a 91-year-old, Fortune 500 company, I have a special responsibility. I have to lead the changes that will keep Pitney Bowes thriving for another 90 years. My goal now is to lead a successful transition through Pitney’s Strategic Transformation, to allow the company to begin reaping the rewards of faster growth.
I am also focused on cultivating the next generation of leaders who will help make Pitney Bowes even stronger than it is today.
What advice would you give to aspiring business people in our industry?
As much fun as I have had over my 20+ year career, there are days when I wish I were starting out all over again. The next 20-30 years in our industry should be breathtakingly exciting.
The overall amount of communications has exploded in volume, and has multiplied into a vast array of forms: social media, texting, email, web-based communications, and of course mail. Plus, power has shifted to the recipients of messages, who are going to dictate the means of message delivery to them. Weaving all this complexity together to make it easy for customers to access and use is the opportunity of our lifetimes.
If you had it to do over again, what would you change?
Nothing. Seriously, nothing.
When you retire, what will retirement look like for you?
My retirement time will be very, very active. I expect to be busier in retirement than many younger people who are working full-time! I am committed to helping businesses and individuals achieve success, and I will always find ways to continue to do that.
As we close our time together Murray can you share a few final comments, wisdom or observations with our readers?
I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts with the two of you. My parting advice has to do with customers and memories.
Get to know your customers as well as you possibly can. Customers are the only reason businesses exist. Our objective should be to continually enhance the value that we provide to customers on whatever goods and services we deliver.
Envision the memories you would like to have when you are at the end of your career, and then forge the path to create those memories.
Thank you, Murray. We appreciate your openness in sharing Murray Martin, the man, with our global OutputLinks community. We look forward to your and Pitney Bowes’ future developments during these exciting times of change.
We invite you to share your views and opinions on this profile or the Know the CEO series in the comments section below.
Join us next week for the next CEO we profile in our Know the CEO series. Can you guess who it will be?
Happy day,
Andy & Julie Plata
Co-CEO’s
OutputLinks Communications Group
Posted on Mon, Aug 01, 2011
Know the CEO
Know the CEO is based upon the presumption that decision makers prefer buying from people they know. As such, this Series presents the background and principles of CEOs leading key suppliers to the print and mail industry.
This issue of Know the CEO introduces you to:
Murray Martin Chairman, CEO and President of Pitney Bowes, Inc.
Andy and Julie Plata, OutputLinks’ owners, recently met with Murray Martin, Pitney Bowes’ Chairman, CEO and President, to talk about the values behind the man.
Greetings, Murray. As the leader of one of our industry’s great firms , we’ve been looking forward to learning more about your background and the values that guide you as the Chairman, CEO and President of Pitney Bowes, Inc.
Andy and Julie, it’s good to talk with you and I look forward to our discussion.
Let’s begin at the beginning. What kind of upbringing was it that formed the Murray Martin we see today?
Well, I’m from a big, close-knit family – sixth out of seven children. I have three brothers and three sisters. My father, John Martin, was a minister and both my parents were very active in the community. We lived in Hawkesville, a little village in Ontario, Canada, with a population of 200 - counting all the cats and dogs.
In my family, we were expected to work from a young age, to pull our own weight and be very self-sufficient. At age five, I started a kennel and I ended up shipping dogs all over the country. I worked at Angie Martin’s general store and was the de facto general manager there by the time I was 12. A neighbor, Edgar, owned the local repair garage, where I learned about machines and how to fix things.
Sounds like quite the early childhood business education.
I feel like I’ve always been in the business world.
The experience of running my dog kennel certainly taught me all the factors that go into making a successful business – my dad even charged me rent for using the barn. In theoretical terms, I suppose you could say I had an early understanding of the full cycle of market dynamics and how to create, deliver and support a product or service. I learned that customers are the only reason businesses exist.
So a solid family background has been an important factor in your life?
Yes, of course. And, I now have a wonderful family of my own that keeps me grounded. My wife, Ruth, and I have been married for 39 years and we have three children – two sons and a daughter – and four grandchildren, including the latest addition, Toby Hunter, who is just a few weeks old.
What is your educational background?
It began in a 2-room country school. After high school I attended the University of Waterloo in Canada. But, I never completed my studies because I was too busy building my career.
However, the University of Waterloo honored me a few years ago with a Distinguished Fellow award from the Center of Applied Cryptographic Research and later with an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree. I also received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Sacred Heart University in 2011.
It looks like your life accomplishments have provided you academic accomplishments as well.
Yes, that does seem to be the case.
Your business accomplishments seemed to begin for you at quite a young age.
Well, at age 29 I became President of Monroe Systems, a division of Litton Industries. I was also elected to a couple of the main boards at Litton.
Three years after I joined Dictaphone, a Pitney Bowes company, I was appointed president of its Copier Systems division in the United States.
You were appointed Pitney Bowes’ CEO in 2007 and Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2009. How have you managed the stresses of your current position?
Stress is a sign that you are taking accountability away from other people, which is something I really work hard not to do.
I am blessed to have a great team as well as a strong, supportive, and thoughtful board of directors. As I said before, my wonderful family keeps me grounded.
I do take genuine joy and pleasure in my work. Every day I have the satisfaction of knowing I am delivering everything that I am capable of.
What do you feel are your most important contributions to the company’s success?
Number one would be leadership. I really like to challenge people to go beyond their traditional ways of thinking. I ask a lot of questions and that gets people to understand business challenges in a new way.
Second would be business results. I helped to build the strong, international presence that has helped create the truly global enterprise that is the modern Pitney Bowes.
I would also include strategic transformation in that I have led the transformation of the company’s framework in the past two years.
How many acquisitions have occurred as you were helping transform the company?
We have made 70 acquisitions, and we will continue making targeted investments in technologies and business opportunities that set the stage for our future growth.
Click for Part 2 of Murray Martin’s Know the CEO profile.
We invite you to share your views and opinions on this profile or the Know the CEO series in the comments section below.
Happy day,
Andy & Julie Plata
Co-CEO’s
OutputLinks Communications Group