execUTive Speaker Series Features Joe Weller
The Knoxville Chamber’s execUTive Speaker Series continued March 6 at the Crowne Plaza. The event, sponsored by Bandit Lites, welcomed University of Tennessee graduate and admired business leader Joe Weller back to Knoxville. Weller retired as the Chairman and CEO of Nestlé USA in January 2006. He was with the company for 37 years. He spoke to members of the Knoxville business community about Nestlé’s four culture drivers that have enabled the company to become extremely profitable.
"The first culture driver is teamwork," Mr. Weller said. "Teams always, always, always outperformed individuals.”
During his time with Nestlé USA, Weller insisted that the company hire and train people that had the ability to be team players. The company hired lot of athletes over the years because: “we didn’t have to teach them how to be team players,” said Weller.
The second culture driver is alignment.
“If businesses can identify one, two or three elements critical to the success of that business and if that business can inoculate every single employee with those elements so that they think about them everyday that they come to work, then it becomes pretty hard for that business to lose in the market place,” Weller said.
The company’s third culture driver is passion.
“I have never met anyone that is truly successful in any field or endeavor that didn’t have a real passion for what they were doing,” said Weller. “I made it clear that our folks needed to have a passion for their work or we would invite them to go somewhere else to work, it was as simple as that.”
Weller said Nestlé’s fourth culture driver is balance.
“I realized early in my career that, in reality, a balanced life is absolutely essential to having a healthy and productive business life,” he said.
Under Weller’s leadership, Nestlé achieved seven consecutive years of unprecedented internal growth and profit growth. Through multiple acquisitions and divestitures, Weller is responsible for shaping Nestlé’s U.S. brand portfolio into the world leader that it is today. His speech, entitled "A Blueprint for Success,” was designed to help area businesspeople understand what he feels are necessary traits to become successful. The blueprint consisted of spirituality, family, friends, career, hobbies and giving back to the community. Weller highlighted Nestlé’s “Adopt A School” program.
“We gave our employees paid time off so they could become mentors at area schools,” he said. “It was important for our employees to become involved in these schools because I wanted our kids to be able to qualify to attend the universities in our area.”
Weller was the second speaker in this series that highlights UT-bred business leaders. The execUTive Luncheon Series features speakers sharing stories and insights from their journey from the UT campus to their leadership positions. For more information about future editions of these midday events, contact Lori Fuller at (865) 637-4550.