Business Quotes – Kenneth Feld

Few interesting quotes from an interview with Kenneth Feld, published in New York Times on October 24, 2010. The interview by Adam Bryant.

About Kenneth Feld from Wikipedia: Kenneth Jeffrey Feld (born 1948 in Washington, DC) is the CEO of Feld Entertainment, which owns Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, Disney on Ice!, Doodlebops Live! and Disney Live! He is also the producer of several Broadway plays. The business was started by his father Irvin Feld and Ken became CEO upon his father’s death in 1984.

Quotes from the interview:
How to be respected by your employee: “It is an absolute lesson in earning respect. Respect does not come from a title. It comes from what you do, and how you do it, and how you work with people, and I think that’s a difficult thing for people to understand.”

You need employees who you can trust: “There’s a trust I have with him that is the same kind of trust that I had with my father and that I have with my daughters, and I think that’s the hardest thing to find? people you can absolutely trust. I don’t need people to give me good news. I mean they’re waiting in line to give you good news.”

How Kenneth interview for a job: “You’re really smart, but do you know how to make money? Tell me some things about how you made money.”

“(…) if they’re going to come to work for our company, it’s great that you have all this knowledge, but how can you translate that into something that is absolutely going to make money for us? Can they think unconventionally? Can they think outside the box?”