When Walt Bettinger was finishing his last quarter of college, one
business strategy class required many late nights. The class met
two nights a week from 6 to 10 p.m., and throughout those 10
weeks, he and his classmates often bonded in the halls over
snacks as they dreamed of how they would take on the world after
graduation. On the day of his final, Bettinger and his classmates
felt pretty confident that they would ace their final exam after
doing so many business case studies.
“We were ready to graduate,
thinking we were going to go out and change the world and all be
these successful businesspeople,” he says. The professor handed
each of them a blank white sheet of paper and told the students
their final assignment. “I’ve taught you everything about business
strategy as you go into the real business world,” he said. “Your final
exam is, ‘What’s the name of the lady who cleans this building?’”
Bettinger had no idea.
“We had spent four hours a couple nights a week there for the
last 10 weeks,” he says. “We had taken two or three breaks
every evening to get a soft drink or use the restroom, and she’d
been there every night. I often say to people that I didn’t know
Dottie’s name — her name was Dottie — but I’ve tried to know
every Dottie since.”
That message stayed with Bettinger as he started The
Hampton Co., a retirement services provider, after college and
grew it until The Charles Schwab Corp. acquired it in 1995.
He worked his way up the Schwab ranks, and last year, he
took over as president and CEO of the $4.99 billion financial
services giant. Despite his position, he still remembers to focus
on the people — both himself and his team.
“That’s a powerful message because it reminds us that business and the decision-making is a part of it, but people are the
biggest part,” Bettinger says. “ … If we fail as leaders of people,
we will fail as business executives.”
