Harry Kraemer's Mission

Harry Kraemer's on a mission. It's a good and important mission. He wants to raise the bar on the values and processes by which CEOs, managers and professionals lead and manage America's businesses and organizations. He knows that is the only way to make them more productive, more innovative, more accountable, and better stewards of America's human resources and intellectual capital.

Harry has recently written a new book on the subject, From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership, and he is on the road whenever his busy schedule allows speaking to companies and groups to share the insights of his career-long experience from financial professional to CEO, and beyond. How has the book been received? It has received high praise, indeed, from CEOs and executives of some of America's largest and best companies, and from academics alike--including from one of the very best-led companies in America:

"In the post-crisis world, values and culture are paramount to corporate leadership. Kraemer's book provides leaders with the tools to develop their talent and fit inside a social context. His focus on self-reflection, balance, true self-confidence, and genuine humility ring true to me and are practiced inside GE. This is a new world. Values count. Get with it." 

--Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO, General Electric Company 

Who is Harry Kraemer? He is an old and respected friend, and former colleague at what was then Baxter Travenol. He is now the former chairman and CEO of that global healthcare products giant, now Baxter International, and an executive partner with Madison Dearborn Partners, one of the largest private equity firms in the U.S., where he consults with CEOs and other senior executives of companies in MDP's portfolio. He is also a faculty member at Northwestern's Kellogg School MBA program, and a Vice Chairman of the Conference Board, a global, independent business membership and research association that provides the world's leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society.

Why did I write this and send it to you?  Because Harry Kraemer is the real deal. I like him, respect him, and really like what he is doing. He's been there and done that--and he's still doing it. And because I think his book should be read by anyone working in organizations or leading them.

So what are those four essential principles?

 Self-Reflection: The ability to reflect and identify what you stand for, what your values are, and what matters most.

Balance: The ability to see situations from multiple perspectives, including differing viewpoints, to gain a holistic understanding.  

True Self-Confidence: More than mastery of certain skills, true self-confidence enables you to accept yourself as you are, recognizing your strengths and your weaknesses, and focusing on continuous improvement.  

Genuine Humility: The ability never to forget who you are, to appreciate the value of each person in the organization, and to treat everyone respectfully.

Harry has been living and growing in these principles since the years we worked together at Baxter in the '80s. That's the Harry I remember. Sometime in 1999, when I was working at Textron, I picked up my latest edition of Fortune Magazine, and who was staring back at me from the cover but the new CEO of Baxter International, Harry Kraemer. And the story line was about how he was bringing his evolving convictions about higher value-based leadership to his role as CEO at Baxter. He believed strongly in those values then, he led by them as a CEO, and he writes, teaches, speaks, and consults about them now.

The principles appear simple, but as he says, implementing them in organizations can be very difficult. His many real-life examples help ground it, make it real, and provide assurance that these principles are not only workable, they are essential to a high-values, high-performance culture. And for those whose companies or organizations could benefit from learning more about Harry's message and experience, they can contact him through any of his organizational affiliations' links I've highlighted above, or by contacting me. I'd be pleased to put you in touch.

Some closing comments from Harry's book:

Values-based leadership is a life-long journey no matter how much a person achieves. This point was brought home in a discussion I had a few years ago with Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric. Jeff and I have been friends for many years, going back to the days when I was CEO of Baxter and he was running GE Medical, based in Milwaukee. When I reached out to Jeff at the request of the Kellogg School dean to see if he would be the 2008 commencement speaker, he graciously agreed.  

As we had lunch together before the commencement, I asked him what he saw as the biggest challenge in his role as CEO of GE. "Harry, I am trying to figure out how I can be a better leader for my GE team around the world," he told me. 

Here was a talented executive who was running a company that at the time generated more than $180 billion in revenues and employed more than 300,000 people, yet he was striving to become an even better leader! Jeff was correct, of course. Values-based leadership requires lifelong learning and a continuous process of self-reflection to discover those areas in which we need to grow and develop. We are always traveling toward a forward-moving goal; we never arrive. 

Values-based leadership doesn't happen automatically, and it isn't always easy. You will encounter distractions and pressures that can derail the best of intentions. When that happens, return to the four principles and take a moment to reflect. [They will take you] back to the heart of who you are as a person and as a leader.