If you have the desire to be a true leader, all you have to do is follow the nine key principles in this book—and open yourself to a new way of thinking that is guaranteed to inspire top performance, from yourself and those around you.
It’s no secret that Mary Kay Inc.—home of the famous “Pink Cadillac”—is one of the best run and most successful companies in the world, prompting Harvard professors and U.S. Government agencies to study what made the company a global phenomenon. But what many people may not realize is that Mary Kay is much more than a Pink Cadillac. While this widely recognized icon is a symbol of top performance, it stands for something greater - a way of doing business with a personal concern for people that has made Mary Kay a different kind of company. This book explains the methods and mindset that can bring the same kind of success to your organization.
More Than a Pink Cadillac provides insights into a unique and extraordinarily successful business—one that grew out of, and is still founded upon, a simple set of powerful principles. It represents the first time the company has given an outside author—Jim Underwood—unlimited access to its employees and management. The principles he reveals in this book have already influenced the lives of hundreds of thousands of men and women around the world—and they can do the same for you and your organization.
Inside, you’ll find inspirational stories from Mary Kay management and leaders of the independent sales force that illustrate the “nine leadership keys to success,” which can be applied in any company. From “Never Leave Your Values” and “Think and Act Strategically” to “Have a Higher Purpose” and “Innovate or Evaporate,” More Than a Pink Cadillac gives you the strategies and tools you need to build binding ties of trust and loyalty—to your customers and employees—and adopt the leadership thinking necessary for high performance.
More Than A Pink Cadillac
Introduction: A Different Kind of Company
Section I
1. How a Texas Entrepreneur Built a Global Company on the Philosophy of “Everyone Wins.”
2. Character Counts: Lessons from the Master Herself
Section II
3. Create and Maintain a Common Bond
4. Create the Future: Think and Act Strategically
5. Make Me Feel Important!
6. A Pink Cadillac in Every Garage: Motivate Others with Recognition and Celebration
7. The Heritage Department: Never Leave Your Values
8. A Laurel Sat upon Wilts: Innovate or Evaporate
9. God, Family, Career: Foster Balance
10. Have a Higher Purpose
11. OK Never Does It: You’ve Got to be Great!
Section III: Conclusion
12. The Golden Rule and Mary Kay’s Leadership Practices
13. Walk the Talk...All the Way to Russia
Jim Underwood, Ph.D., is an award-winning author and business professor. He has been a strategy consultant to many international organizations and has written five books on the topics of leadership and corporate strategy. He lives in Irving, Texas, with his wife Patsy.
