You probably know John C. Bogle best as the founder of The Vanguard Group Inc. and creator of the first index mutual fund. Maybe you saw him named one of Fortune magazine’s four investment giants in 1999 or one of Time’s 100 most powerful and influential people in 2004.
But when you think of Bogle, you probably don’t picture a waiter.
Before starting the company in 1975 with 28 employees, 11 funds and $1.8 billion in net assets, Bogle spent his younger years serving tables. Today, when you ask the 80-year-old investment guru — who has served as the president of Bogle Financial Markets Research Center since stepping down as Vanguard’s chairman in 2000 — how leaders should act, he refers back to that experience.
“When you learn to wait on others, you’re learning important lessons about dealing with other human beings,” Bogle says. “You’re always going to act [kind and decent] to those above you, but you better act the exact same way to those who are under you in the pecking order.”
That stewardship carried into Bogle’s service-centered mission at Vanguard — which, as of 2009, has grown to 12,500 employees, 160 funds and $1.3 trillion in mutual fund assets — and continues to drive his leadership style today. While he acknowledges that guiding the course of an organization can be fun, he also recognizes it’s evanescent.
“You don’t run your company forever,” he says.
So he focuses on a kind of leadership that’s longer-lasting and more meaningful.
“I’ve been known to say, when I speak at business schools, that 100 percent of the leaders that come in and talk to these MBA classes say the first attribute of leadership is integrity,” Bogle says. “I agree with that, even as I point out that while 100 percent of the speakers at these things say that, less than 100 percent deliver it.
“I’m concerned about leadership in the wrong direction, leadership that is self-serving, leadership that has forgotten what fiduciary duty and stewardship are all about.”
Smart Business spoke to Bogle about three key traits good leaders exemplify.
