Dudley Slater learned firsthand how to inspire and lead people. He co-founded Integra Telecom, Inc. and served as its CEO for fifteen years, growing the company from nine to over 2,000 employees. He transitioned the company from a start-up to national prominence as one of the ten largest fiber-based telecommunications companies in the United States, generating over $600 million in revenue. Attributing his company’s success to its people, Dudley became fascinated by the behavioral traits of leaders who successfully create companies that defy national norms and surveys, that indicate some seventy percent of US workers hate their job, and find little meaning in their work. Partnering with other leaders of iconic, nationally recognized organizations, Dudley refined his knowledge and techniques to create the practical, everyday tenets of Fusion Leadership. He earned a bachelor of science in geophysics from UCLA and a master’s degree in business administration from the Harvard Business School. Dudley has two beautiful grown children (Toryn and Kathrina) and lives with his wife of twenty-nine years, Laurie, in Portland, Oregon, and in New York, New York.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Elon Musk
- Steve Jobs
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I had a lot of sleepless nights and there are a lot of things that can really rise up and create big obstacles for any entrepreneur but if I had to isolate on one thing it was this, my business I started was in fibre optic networks and connecting other businesses to the internet and themselves from a date communication standpoint, that business is capital-intensive and I made the decision to grow the business to be quite large, the biggest challenge I ran into was I was able to conceive the vision, I had a vision for what I knew would make the company succeed and it started working but the biggest challenge I ran into was all of a sudden after a couple of years of this I got to the point where it became very clear to me that I could no longer do it all myself”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- Michael Porter books
- Fusion Leadership: Unleashing the Movement of Monday Morning Enthusiasts Book by Dudley R. Slater
Favourite Quote:
“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time”
Recommended Online Resources:
- Fusion Leadership
- Harvard Business Review – Find new ideas and classic advice on strategy, innovation and leadership, for global leaders from the world s best business and management experts
- Wall Street Journal – News, breaking news, latest news, US news, headlines, world news, business, finances, politics, WSJ, WSJ news, WSJ com, Wall Street Journal
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“Take the risk, there’s no better time than now to really take those first steps towards your entrepreneur’s journey, because it’s easy to delay and to talk yourself out of it and if you think too hard you can become your own worst critic and the second thing I would say and this is more to the people that have already taken the entrepreneurs plunge and they’ve stepped out of their comfort zone and they’re out there in the world building those entrepreneurs efforts, to those people I would say don’t do everything yourself, don’t only rely upon yourself to be successful, ask the question how can you inspire others to manifest your vision and think carefully about your behaviour and the work you’re doing to bring others along with you so that you can accomplish something great through the shared journey of a committed team of people”…[Listen for More]
More About Dudley Slater:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.” Josef Albers
Other Quotes From the Chat with Dudley Slater:
- “If it were that simple everybody who graduates from a business school would be successful and that’s not the case”
- “None of us are perfect people, we all have certain things we’re good at and certain things we’re bad at and I think the sooner you get in touch with the things you’re not as good at, the sooner you can stay ahead of change because that’s where you need to be bringing people onto your team that can make up for your deficiencies”
- “If you’re behaving as one individual there’s a limited amount you’ll be able to achieve in this world, on the other hand, if you can inspire others with your entrepreneurs vision and you can enlist the passion and the buy in and the commitment of an organisation of people you can literally change the world and you can accomplish amazing things and the difference between those 2 outcomes of the individual who’s working hard and only achieving what they can achieve by themselves and the organisation that’s led by the individual who builds a phenomenal culture of engaged employees, the difference between those 2 is the culture”
- “Don’t become paralyzed by the process of soliciting input from others”
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