The DNA of Success with One of America’s Top CEOs #104
It's a Good Life
Brian Buffini
4.4 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2018
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“As a leader, you’re the tip of the spear for change.” — Greg Lucier
One of the most successful CEOs in the U.S., Greg Lucier has led companies including General Electric, Life Technologies (now ThermoFisher Scientific) and NuVasive to success. However, what stands out most is how he’s handled the challenges he’s faced along the way.
In this Takeover Tuesday episode, Dermot Buffini and Greg discuss success and leadership. Greg delves into his journey from the Philadelphia suburbs to Harvard Business School to his start at GE during the era of Jack Welch. He shares the three lessons he learned at GE, the biggest mistake he made during his transition to Life Technologies and the daily habits that keep him sharp and healthy.
You’ll learn the five must-have characteristics of successful leaders, why self-awareness is vital to becoming an effective leader, and the one thing parents must instill in their children in order for them to thrive. Whether you’re currently leading a business, an aspiring leader or raising future leaders, you won’t want to miss this episode.
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Inspirational quotes from today’s interview:
“Culture is actually teamwork. If you have a great team, you can be in a room with white walls and no pictures and actually feel awesome.” — Greg Lucier
“As a leader, you’re the tip of the spear for change.” — Greg Lucier
“Visions are easy to come up with; achieving them is hard.” — Greg Lucier
“The ability to understand abstract concepts will become critically important.” — Greg Lucier
“Leaders have the don’t quit mentality because they believe they matter and if they pull themselves out, it’s not going to work.” — Greg Lucier
“Our goal as elders is to create a world where kids leave their house and have a good launch. If nothing else, a good sense of self confidence. If parents aren’t thinking of that one thing to launch their kids, they’ve missed it all.” — Greg Lucier
“Transitions are important in your career; but always make sure you walk out the front door.” — Greg Lucier
Mentioned in the episode: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to TakeOver Tuesday, I'm your host Dermat Bafini and as you know, once |
| 0:20.5 | a month I take over the Bryan Bafini show and I interview people that have been there |
| 0:24.7 | and done that, people that have achieved superior performance in different areas of life. |
| 0:30.1 | And my guest today is Mr. Greg Lucere and he has certainly done that and Greg has served |
| 0:35.2 | and is widely recognized one of the most successful CEOs in the country today, former corporate |
| 0:40.4 | officer at General Electric and then moved on where he led life technologies from being |
| 0:45.5 | a small biotech company with 1500 employees and grew the company to over 12,000 employees |
| 0:52.0 | with 50,000 products that were sold in over 80 countries. |
| 0:56.4 | And in 2014, the thermal fisher acquired the company for almost 14 billion dollars. |
| 1:02.3 | And today, Greg serves as the CEO of Neuvessef, which is a San Diego based company that's transforming |
| 1:08.2 | the world of spinal surgery. |
| 1:10.5 | He's a great leader, a great entrepreneur and an even better person. |
| 1:14.7 | And I'm glad he's here today to share with his story and his wisdom. |
| 1:18.2 | So Greg, welcome to the show. |
| 1:19.8 | German, what a pleasure to be here. |
| 1:21.8 | It's great to see you. |
| 1:22.8 | Well, a little backstory here to give people some context of how we met. |
| 1:26.3 | So a few years ago, when I just taken over a CEO of a Fini company that was very, very busy, |
| 1:30.8 | I thought I could do the job of CEO, but I wasn't sure yet because I hadn't done it. |
| 1:35.3 | And I got an opportunity to go play golf at the crossings and a friend of mine, Gary Goss, |
| 1:39.5 | a mutual friend, invited me and I said, you know, I'm too busy. |
| 1:42.6 | I'm a CEO now, I'm kind of a busy guy and I don't know if I can be spending the time |
... |
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