#153 Keith Creel: Lessons from Life on the Railroad

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

Shane Parrish

Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.7 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2022

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Keith Creel calls on nearly a decade of experience working with the Canadian Pacific Railway to discuss his strategies for leadership and how he’s turned the company around over five years in charge.

We discuss all you need to know about the rail industry and how it affects our daily lives, what changes he sees coming in the future for the industry, how he thinks about leadership in times of change, and how Canadian Pacific secured a $27 billion deal to take over its rival, Kansas City Southern.

Creel became the President and CEO of Canadian Pacific in 2017, giving him executive control of one of the largest Class I rail systems in North America, with more than 13,000 miles of rail network stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 2021 he helped broker a deal that marked the first major merger in the railroad industry in the U.S. in two decades and created the first freight rail network linking Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

Want even more? Supporting Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/

Every Sunday, our Brain Food newsletter gives you a mental edge in 5 minutes with timeless insights you can use. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/

Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Our Sponsors:

MetaLab: Helping the world’s top companies design, build, and ship amazing products and services. https://www.metalab.com

Aeropress: Press your perfect cup, every time. https://aeropress.com

House of Macadamias: Nourish your daily routine, and nurture your lifestyle. https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/TKP

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	In your career, you're going to work with a lot of managers who want to do things right,
0:03.6	but very few that want to lead and leaders do the right things, even if they're not the
0:07.8	comfortable thing to do. You know, often change threatens people. You've got to be able to
0:13.6	articulate why you need to change and how you need to change and stick with it, even if it's not
0:19.1	comfortable. Those lessons, you know, to me, I think are universal and I think they're undeniably
0:24.6	true and I think they lead to success in any business and most specifically in our business.
0:46.6	Welcome to the Knowledge Project. I'm your host, Shane Parish. This podcast is about mastering
0:52.1	the best of what other people have already figured out, so you can apply their insights to your
0:56.7	life. If you're listening to this, you're missing it. If you'd like access to the podcast
1:00.9	before public release, private episodes that only appear in your feed, hand edited transcripts,
1:06.4	including my personal highlights, or you just want to support the show that you love, you can
1:11.5	join at fs.blog slash membership. Check out the show notes for a link. My guest today is Keith
1:17.9	Creel, the CEO of Canadian Pacific Railway. For those of you that don't know, Canadian Pacific
1:23.6	is one of the large class one rails in North America. It has over 13,000 miles of rail network.
1:29.2	11 ports served on both the West and East Coast and over 100 trans-load facilities. Keith has
1:36.4	helped Canadian Pacific go from one of the worst operated rails to one of the best in the world.
1:41.6	While trains are such an important part of our supply chain, they remain misunderstood and
1:46.3	underappreciated. I wanted to talk to Keith to learn more. We discuss common misunderstandings
1:52.0	about rails, the symbiotic relationship between trucks and trains, self-driving technology,
1:57.0	and how it changes the landscape, high speed rail, reshoring, and the role that rail plays,
2:02.8	leadership, and some of the lessons he's learned from legendary rail rotor Hunter Harrison.
2:08.4	And also from investor Bill Ackman. We also discuss the $27 billion acquisition of Kansas City
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Shane Parrish, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Shane Parrish and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.