Yum! Brands’ Former CEO on Why You Should Never Stop Learning

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After 15 years leading the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, David Novak wanted to help others become better leaders. He believes the key is to put learning at the center of everything you do, whether you’re an entry-level worker or a multinational executive. Novak outlines three main areas for learning: from your own life experiences, from the people and situations available right now, and from the habit of curiosity. Above all, he says the most effective leaders turn their learnings into action, something that takes insight and practice. Novak’s new book is How Leaders Learn: Master the Habits of the World's Most Successful People.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Got 30 minutes?
0:02.0	Join Capital Group CEO Mike Gittlin for a new monthly edition of the Capital Ideas
0:07.2	podcast brought to you by Capital Group, home of American Funds Distributors Inc.
0:12.0	subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Home of American Funds Distributors, Inc.
0:12.6	Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the HBR Ideacast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Kurt Nickish. I'm Kurt Nickish.
0:33.0	I'll confess, when I hear someone say that person has a lot to learn I picture
0:45.4	someone in over their head or maybe new in their career just starting out in a
0:50.3	corporate job or green in their dream role at a nonprofit.
0:55.1	I don't picture someone at the top of the organization, the executive director or CEO.
1:01.6	But our guest today does picture that person because our guest today was that person,
1:07.3	a long time executive who fundamentally believes that the best leaders recognize the
1:12.4	need to learn continually and they actively
1:15.8	pursue the best ways to do that. David Novak is the former chair and CEO of
1:21.1	Yum Brands where he scaled KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell into one of the globe's biggest
1:26.8	restaurant companies.
1:28.5	He didn't have the education and pedigree you might expect, but he attributes his success to the fact that he's
1:35.0	always been hungry to learn. Novak wrote the new book How Leaders Learn
1:40.2	Master the habits of the world's most successful people.
1:44.0	David, thanks for coming on the show to share what you've learned.
1:47.0	Kurt, it's my honor.
1:48.0	I look forward to the conversation.
1:50.0	Why is learning so important to you?
	...

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