Ursula Burns: Following John Wooden, Leading by Example

By Carolyn Gray Anderson and Nathan Moorman

Left to right: Dean Judy Olian, Ursula Burns, Maggie Wilderotter

On Tuesday evening, before an audience of nearly 500 invited guests gathered in the ballroom of Beverly Wilshire, Xerox chairman and CEO Ursula Burns received the 2015 John Wooden Global Leadership Award as its eighth honoree. In a MAKERS video interview screened during the gala event, Burns described humble beginnings as the child of a single mother in a New York City housing project — and the humbling experience in 2009 of being invited to lead the company she joined as an intern 30 years earlier.

Dean Judy Olian introduced Burns by comparing Burns’ values and life’s inspirations with Coach Wooden’s. Where Wooden was singularly influenced by his father, Burns looked to her mother for the wisest advice and most upstanding example. “I’m sure Coach would have approved of this year’s recipient,” said Olian. “Ursula’s mother reminded her and her siblings that where you are is not who you are.”

Burns was interviewed on stage by Maggie Wilderotter, executive chairman of Frontier Communications, who serves on the boards of Xerox Corporation and other private and nonprofit organizations. As Burns’ “boss” — and Anne Mulcahy’s before her — Wilderotter helped select Burns for the Xerox helm and is in the best position to know how capably she has led and transformed the company. Wilderotter asked her about her role models, prompting Burns to grin at her boss and say, “This is the ultimate kiss-up.” Wilderotter paused and quipped, “All right, bring it on.” At which guests laughed and to which Burns replied seriously, “Maggie can always find a way to build a bridge between what people can do best.”

Burns also delved into her early education, explaining that when she was young she really had no industry role models that looked like her or embodied her experiences (a star math student, she attended an all-girls’ Catholic school and later went to an engineering school that was all male). She said, “I found role models in people I admired because they did things so differently from the way I did, or who did things a lot like I did.” She said the most important quality of leadership is authenticity. “You have to bring your whole self to work,” she said. It was Mulcahy who steered Burns away from the “don’t let them see you sweat” ethos of big business; Burns said, “Your team needs to know you’re concerned about the same things they are.”

Burns told Wilderotter that when making decisions, “Very rarely do I go back to my office and do analysis. You have people who are credible speaking to you, people you can trust. These things make it possible for me to make good decisions. Most of my time is spent making sure we can all fit together as a team. Not all companies work well together, because they don’t have the right fit.”

Risk is a reality in leadership, she said. Burns led the $6.4 billion purchase of business process outsourcing company Affiliated Computer Services, which she invoked as an example of taking chances, or “leaning over the edge, as she put it. “The simpler thing would have been to stay close to home and stick with photocopying,” she said.

On the future of Xerox, Burns said, “History matters and relationships matter. Making a decision as you go forward, you need to think about whether the person you partner with will be there for you going forward, for good or for bad. We are here for the long term. We have the best people to do what we do. You can’t get a better team of people on your side. We will be with you from the beginning to the end and that’s what you need as a company.”

Burns sits on the board of American Express and considers CEO and chairman Ken Chenault, a past Wooden Award honoree, another influential colleague, and she admires his calm and measured style. Chenault, whom Burns thanked for urging her to accept the Wooden Award, delivered a video tribute to Burns, along with other Wooden Award recipients Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Frederick Smith of FedEx and Contrarian Group founder Peter Ueberroth, who knows Burns from their service together on the U.S. Olympic Committee. “Just think how much more successful the 2024 bid for Los Angeles is going to be with your skills,” he told Burns — to the delighted cheers of the audience.

Coach Wooden’s daughter Nan also expressed congratulations, as did Ariel Investments president Mellody Hobson. Nooyi said, “As much as I admire you on a professional level, I am proud to call you a close personal friend.” Chenault praised her character: “She is pragmatic and she also inspires,” he said, observing her “willingness to take on the status quo and make tough calls.”

 “It’s so much more about you and how you attack problems than how opportunities and problems happen to you,” Burns told Wilderotter, recalling again her mother’s example. “My mother had unbelievable tenacity and unbelievable focus.”

Ann Meyers Drysdale and Keith Erickson

On accepting her award, Burns said, “I am humbled to be included in this list, all of whom I know. It’s an amazing honor to have them speak so highly of me. I always say I just do regular work… I happen to do great regular work,” she said with a smile, and added, “in a great company.”

In the spirit of candid congratulations, Dean Olian called Burns “a perennial rock star in the world of CEOs.”

Along with Burns’ conversation with Wilderotter, the awards ceremony included tributes to Wooden by two athletes who knew him well. U.S. Olympic silver medalist and pioneer of collegiate women’s basketball Ann Meyers Drysdale, who led UCLA to the AIAW national championship in 1978, said, “His door was always open. He was a teacher, that’s how he looked at himself. He wanted to be a better person every day and treat people with respect.” NBA champion Keith Erickson played on Coach John Wooden’s first two NCAA Championship teams in 1964 and ’65. He remembered Coach starting with a team lesson in putting on socks, of all things. “If you do the little things right,” said Erickson, “they turn into good big things.”