When things don’t go right, the most important thing is how you react to that information — even when it’s information you don’t like.
“It’s more important to react to that in the right way and focus on getting better, than it is to consume yourself with thinking about all of the reasons why something went wrong or to self-loathe,” Voigt says.
It’s better to roughly right and accelerate your learning cycle, than trying to be perfect, which in and of itself is a fool’s errand, he says.
“Rapid improvement cycles are how you build a sustainable competitive advantage,” Voigt says. “It’s not a matter of getting to the perfect solution.”
This is one of the biggest lessons he’s learned over his career, and when he talks to people who are earlier in their careers, he emphasizes this point.
“You can change your trajectory by figuring out how to go faster roughly right and adjusting, rather than waiting for perfection,” he says.
Takeaways:
- Embrace your mistakes in order to fix them.
- Transparency starts with leadership.
- Aim to be roughly right, not perfect.
The file:
Name: Ron Voigt
Title: CEO
Company: Hyperion Materials & Technologies
Born: Saginaw, Michigan
Education: Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Kettering University (GMI at the time) and an MBA from Dartmouth University Tuck School of Business
What was your first job, and what did you learn from it? My first job was working for my father. He owned a small tool-and-die shop in Essexville, Michigan. I started when I was 12 or 13 years old and spent a good part of my summers and some of the school year working as a laborer or toolmaker apprentice.
Seeing a small businessperson in action, you quickly understand that every interaction with a customer is an opportunity to improve your position or move backward. My father was fanatical about the importance of doing things right, treating customers the right way such that we were always advancing the relationship and we weren’t moving in the wrong direction. That was imprinted on me from an early age and on a very fundamental level.
Where might someone find you on the weekend? Just about everything outside of work is with my family — my wife and I have two children. They’re 19 and 21, which means it’s increasingly difficult to call them children. We enjoy doing things with them.
In the summer, it typically involves water sports. We love to ski. We love to participate with them in their college experience and such. So, on a weekend, you’ll find me with my family.
What would you do if you weren’t a CEO? I would be a history professor. I think that there’s little you encounter that doesn’t have a parallel or something that you can learn from what someone has experienced in the past.
So, I’m guessing you’re a history buff? Yes, absolutely. Dwight Eisenhower’s my reference point for someone who dealt with an incredible diversity of challenges, an incredibly difficult environment, but handled it with modesty, great thinking and resolve.
