Leadership is highly valued in our society, with leaders usually reaping the greatest rewards in business. However, while many aspire to the mantle of leadership, we too often confuse some of the perks and byproducts of leadership — social status, celebrity, wealth, visibility, management, or operational authority — with leadership itself. However, leadership is about far more than fame and fortune. If you strip away the trappings, leadership boils down to one thing: the ability to positively affect others. Simply put, in any given organization, community, social group, or field of endeavor, leaders don’t just make a difference; they are the difference.
The importance of leadership was paramount to us as we prepared our 36th Annual Report on Black Business, featuring the 2008 listing of the BE 100S, the nation’s largest black-owned businesses. In the arena of commerce, in particular, there is nothing like the threat of recession, economic turmoil, and market uncertainty when it comes to separating the real leaders from the pretenders. In the midst of a rapidly shifting global economy, seemingly filled with limitless amounts of both adversity and opportunity, true leaders stand out from the rest.
Leaders don’t chase fortune and fame; they serve missions and are able to articulate a future for that mission in clear, simple language. They understand that wealth and power are not primary objectives, but inevitable byproducts of fulfilling a need and making a consistent, positive investment in achieving a larger goal. Leaders have vision.
Leaders are able to adapt, evolve, and expand to fit the times, without ever losing sight of their mission and core values. They see change not as a threat, but as a natural part of their environment, and understand that what worked yesterday will not necessarily work today or tomorrow. They are willing to strike out in new directions to get better results. Leaders take risks.
Leaders make a tangible difference that goes beyond revenues and profits, measurably influencing and changing lives. They understand what matters to people, including their workers, customers, and partners, and can get them to act to serve those interests. Leaders motivate.
Leaders rarely need to actually declare that they are leaders; their work, products, services, personal conduct, and professional performance speak for themselves. Leaders lead by example.
Leaders don’t do things to, with, or for people; they do things through people. They are masters at communicating the vision, inspiring and equipping their people to serve the mission, welcoming their ideas and contributions, and clearing the way for their success. Leaders empower.
For great examples of leadership, you need only look to this year’s Companies of the Year: Harpo Inc., Corley Automotive Group, and Atlanta Life Financial Group.
Few people in the world enjoy a greater combination of fame, fortune, social status, and wealth than the inimitable Oprah Winfrey, CEO of Chicago-based Harpo Inc., our 2008
Company of the Year. Yet, for all the ways she is celebrated — as a dominant media force; an extraordinary producer for television, stage, and screen; a world-class philanthropist — she is rarely celebrated as one of the most consistently excellent business leaders of our generation. In fact, Winfrey hardly sees herself that way. Yet the results speak for themselves, as Harpo continues to spin gold from nearly every media venture and partnership it undertakes, from O: The Oprah Magazine to the Oprah & Friends XM satellite radio channel to the television juggernaut that is The Oprah Winfrey Show.Yet, the $345 million in revenues generated by Harpo last year is almost beside the point. As counterintuitive as it may seem to commonly held notions of leadership in business, Winfrey is far better known for enriching others — giving away automobiles to her studio audience, building schools for girls in South Africa — than she is for achieving wealth for herself. To say that she excels in the business of empowering others is no exaggeration.
Ed Corley Sr., the CEO and patriarch of family-owned and -operated Corley Automotive Group in Grants, New Mexico, our 2008 Auto Dealer of the Year, represents the kind of leadership that shines during times of great adversity. The last several years have been difficult — even devastating — for black auto dealers, especially those most reliant on sales of domestic vehicles, which
have declined as import car sales continue to thrive. Against this backdrop, Corley Automotive has flourished, with a total of eight dealerships selling a diversified portfolio of domestic and import nameplates. The leadership trait of understanding what is important to people is amply demonstrated by the fact that Corley’s sales and service personnel have tailored their operation to serve a customer base that is largely Latino and Native American — hiring from those populations and even learning Spanish and Navajo to better understand the needs of the customer. An even more impressive indication of Corley’s leadership is that he has successfully developed, groomed, and empowered all eight of his children to run his dealerships. The result is a dealership that generated $107 million in revenues in 2007 — a 16% increase over 2006 — in a year that saw many BE 100S auto dealers exiting the business.Our 2008 Financial Company of the Year, Atlanta Life Financial Group, knows that the value of great leadership can be most keenly felt when it is lost. On April 29, as this issue was going to press, Atlanta Life lost its CEO, Ronald D. Brown, due to complications after surgery. Thanks largely to Brown, Atlanta Life Financial Group (a holding company for Atlanta Life Insurance, Jackson Securities, and Atlanta Life Investment Advisors, one of the nation’s largest black-owned asset management companies) has emerged as a modern-day financial company by building on
the legacies of some of the greatest black business leaders of the 20th century, including the late Maynard Jackson, former Atlanta mayor and founder of Jackson Securities, and the legendary Jesse Hill, former Atlanta Life Insurance Co. CEO. Atlanta Life has come a long way from selling insurance policies door-to-door to emerge as a diversified financial services company. Yet, true to its leadership legacy, the company continues its mission of providing top-notch financial services to an underserved black community. The BLACK ENTERPRISE and Graves families join the Atlanta Life and Brown families in mourning the loss and celebrating the life of an exemplary business leader.The leadership demonstrated by our Companies of the Year, and by other businesses covered in this year’s BE 100S report, must be emulated by all of us, as individuals and organizations, as we face what will likely be a difficult and challenging economic environment in the year to come. We offer this to you, as is our intent with the 2008 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference, as both inspiration and a blueprint for what we need to do to continue to thrive in business.
However, it’s not enough for us to know leadership when we see it. I challenge you to take on the mantle of leadership in your own business, professional, and personal lives. That means you must not only make a difference — you must be the difference.