4. Focused on the opportunities
Entrepreneurial leaders see opportunity where others see disruption and chaos. This is exemplified by our winner, Manny Stul, Chairman and co-CEO of Moose Enterprises, who increased sales by 7200% in just 15 years. But it wasn’t a smooth ride upward. Success came after being confronted with one of the largest toy recalls in history.
Ignoring advice to declare bankruptcy, he reached approvals with local and international governments, signed ongoing trade agreements with each and every distributor around the globe, and ensured there were no staff layoffs. All this helped the business not only to survive but thrive. Stul was always determined that Australia would be a starting point to global success — and Moose Toys is now the fourth-largest toy company in Australia and the sixth largest in the US.
5. Not afraid of risk and failure
As José Neves, CEO of luxury fashion retailer Farfetch says, “The biggest risk is not to take risks at all. In a world that is constantly changing, the biggest risk is to stand still.” One of our US winners, Jayschree Ullal, would certainly echo this.
Back in 2008, when she became President and CEO of Arista Networks, the vision was to build a company led by engineers to take on established tech giants. The reality was that Arista had no revenues and under 50 employees when she took the post. Under Ullal’s tenure, alongside Chairman Andreas Bechtolsheim, Arista has grown into a billion-dollar business in revenue.