“I’ve learnt
a lot from all my bosses,” says Pasquale Pistorio, founding CEO of
STMicroelectronics, “Bob Heikes was one of the greatest strategists I ever met
and a visionary. I learned the importance of delegating from him, and how to
match your dream with practical problems. Bob was an excellent boss and he
probably had the greatest influence on me. Many people who worked for Bob did
well in their careers later on.”
“In the
States I always respected Tom Connors – he was never my boss direct, he was
always a little bit higher – but I was always very close to Tom. Eventually,
when I became the international general manager in the US, John Welty was my
boss and I also respected him a lot.”
“All my
experiences with my bosses in Motorola were good. My first boss was Dedy Saban
– one of the most hard-driving people, very aggressive and very friendly. He
taught me to be determined, to be persistent, to be hard-driving. Dedy went to
Fairchild and, many years later when I was general manager, I hired back Dedy.
So I worked for Dedy and he worked for me. We had tremendous respect for
eachother. As both a boss and a subordinate the rapport was always
outstanding.”
“Then when I
was regional manager for Italy between 1968 and 1970, my boss was Jim Finke –
the marketing manager for Europe. Again he was a great boss for me. He was a
great strategist, liked Europe very much, he was very sensitive to the cultural
differences in Europe and the richness of the culture, he was very well
educated. He taught me the importance of cultural value and how to maximise
these differences and how to cope with the American culture.”
Asked if the
American company culture come as a shock, Pistorio looks surprised. “For me?
No. I fit very well in the American culture, I found it very easy, and I think
my American colleagues found me very easy. I’m a very basic person, and I think
Americans are basic people and like basic people – they think that if you are
performing, you are a good man; that if you are not performing you are no good.
I am the same. So I think it was an easy fit.”
Does he
really see himself as basic? “I’m a little bit more than basic”, laughs
Pasquale “but I think the basics are very important. I think values like
honouring what you commit to do, not changing your mind, being at ease with
yourself, having business integrity in the broad sense are essential. I value
these things in the American culture, and they are values which I have been
adopting myself all my life.”
“My 17 years
at Motorola were very good. They taught me a lot. I learnt to be a manager
coping with the human side of the Italian environment and the European
environment, while also coping with the American rigour of business
practicality. And this, in the end, is my managerial style – marrying American
rigour with a good sensibility for people.”
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