How Jim Kavanaugh Went From Olympian To CEO

Fortune

The World Wide Technology CEO Talks About What He Learned As A Soccer Player That Helped Him In His Career.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to Leadership Next, the podcast about the changing rules of business leadership.

00:07I'm Diane Brady.

00:08Being called a systems integrator is fine, but I would say at the same time, different

00:16people describe us different ways because we do cover a lot of ground.

00:20On one hand, we're a value-added reseller of technology equipment and working with Cisco

00:26for almost 30 years now, worked with John when he was a CEO, and now Chuck with him

00:31being the CEO.

00:32But worldwide, it's evolved from what I would say is a fairly simple value-added reseller

00:39to literally being a value-added reseller, growing not just locally here in St. Louis,

00:45growing domestically, growing globally, but adding services.

00:49And the first services sector that we added was around networking, but then from there,

00:54we expanded that portfolio in a pretty significant way, adding voice, video, networking, compute,

01:01storage, cyber, software development, consulting, advisory services, along with now AI and digital

01:11transformation that is relevant to just about every company in the world.

01:17People forget that Cisco was once the most valuable company on the planet at that point,

01:22by market cap, and then it wasn't.

01:25I think it lost probably about 90% of its value.

01:27So we talk about bubbles now and we talk about bubbles.

01:31We often refer to the dot-com bubble as the bubble that everybody fears will happen again.

01:39What did that teach you?

01:41Well, I would say that being willing to understand that there will be tough times and you need

01:48to roll up your sleeves, and depending on where you are in the life cycle of your company,

01:53you want to try to create a balance sheet or a structure that you don't put everything

01:58at risk every day, that if a domino falls the wrong way, it literally can put you out

02:03of business.

02:04So as much as you can, you want to create, I would say, some reserves and some capacity.

02:10But when you're in the early stages of growing a business, sometimes you don't have that

02:14luxury.

02:15You glossed over very quickly that you were an Olympian.

02:19You played pro soccer for a few years.

02:22Let's pause a second there because that is incredibly cool, obviously, incredible discipline

02:28you get as an athlete.

02:29But can you tell me some of your favorite moments?

02:34This is an Olympics year.

02:35I'm talking to a former Olympian here.

02:38What is it like to compete at that level?

02:40Yeah, the competition is eye-opening.

02:46And as you move from every level and you play and compete with people at different levels,

02:52it was such a great experience.

02:54I grew up, my dad was a bricklayer, my mom really was a stay-at-home mom for most of

03:01our upbringing.

03:02So we came from a pretty modest upbringing.

03:06And then, you know, making the Pan Am and Olympic team back in 83 and telling me, okay,

03:12for that point, I traveled with the team for almost 15 months.

03:15And the experience was just amazing, considering I've never really traveled out of St. Louis.

03:21And at that point, now I'm traveling all over the world.

03:23The first tournament we played in was in Seoul, Korea.

03:26You know, that was a President's Cup.

03:28We had another tournament in Beijing, you know, Great Wall Cup in China.

03:33And then all over Europe, Central America, Pan Am Games in Caracas.

03:38So it was such a great experience of, one, just the people on the team meeting different

03:44people, but then meeting people and competing with just really world-class players around

03:51the world.

03:52How do you lead now versus when you started?

03:56I know there's a size component, but maybe in essence, what I'm really asking is where

04:01do you get the most joy from your job?

04:03You know, the strengths that you play to, because you go deep, but at the same time,

04:09you have to take that big view and connect the dots.

04:14For a leader to be able to go deep and really understand what your business does and really

04:21how the sausage is made, I think it's very important.

04:24But at the same time, it's not your job as a leader to stay in the detail.

04:30It's to understand what you do, have an appreciation for that, but then you need to rise up to

04:36the 30,000-foot level and make sure that you're setting the right vision and mission and direction

04:44for the organization.

04:45So I think there's this ability, I believe, for leaders is to be able to set that vision,

04:53that mission, and the direction, but also have a true understanding, an authentic understanding

05:00of the work that needs to be done to drive the execution, because vision and mission

05:06with no execution is nothing.

05:09And you need to be able to bring those together.

05:12And from my perspective, when you do that and you do that with ambitious, passionate

05:19people, that's where the real excitement.

05:22That's where I get inspired, when I see the amazing teams and the people coming together

05:28that do amazing things.

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