Bill Amelio: Computing the Science of Success

Well you know I got into traditional martial arts about 20 years ago. This came after a long sports career in high school and college. I wrestled and played football in high school and was lucky enough to get a scholarship to wrestle at Lehigh University. With the competitive juices that were still flowing through me after I left college I was still interested to try something else that would not only work me physically but also mentally. I think the disciplines I learned have stuck with me even today. I still train intensely, I have been able to maintain my endurance and strength levels throughout my adult life. Additionally I might add the philosophies which I have learned in martial arts is still very much a part of who I am. It’s a lifelong discipline as you know and it’s influenced by what I’ve learned from being a traditional martial artist that I strive to continue to do and it’s one of these things I would tell you I’m most grateful for in my life.

Now I understand your instructor is the one and only Shihan Hidy Ochiai based out of New York and for those of you out there who are not aware Mr. Ochiai is a karate legend, a successful multi-school operator and he has twice been inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame. Bill, what’s it like learning martial arts from an instructor of Mr. Ochiai’s caliber?

Well it’s easy to be awestruck by somebody like Master Hidy Ochiai with his fame. However since they have taught us all and taught us students that he will teach you at your own pace and your own skill level and I’ve noticed that his patience was clearly remarkable. At a time when we first met I was working in Endicott, New York and I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of co-workers who had been at the dojo and from the first visit on I was hooked. This was the beginning in my mind of a lifelong journey. Traditional karate I learned from Sensei has stuck with me throughout my life. Master Ochiai clearly taught me that victory in a tournament is a victory in a game but victory in self-competition is a victory that will lead someone to a heightened sense of self.

This has taught me what I’ll call self mastery. It’s key to my own personal leadership. The idea of competing with yourself each and every day instead of defeating someone else really never crossed my own mind. It’s a simple concept but yet very powerful. The idea of why not rise the tide so all boats can float instead of just your own. You realize his teachings and philosophy have become a real part of my everyday life. I can hear his words almost as if they were today and if I was with him today echoing in my mind as if I were just learning in his dojo and training with him. His idea of mind, body and spirit he would often say. This is a key message that has helped keep me together in times of trouble and crisis.

Clearly there are lessons for others here that I’ve learned from Master Ochiai are very much an important part of my life and I’m sure would be an important part of the many students that he has taught. And for that I’m forever grateful to Master Ochiai for what he’s taught me at such an early age. Just out of curiosity what are a couple of things that stick out in your mind about Mr. Ochiai’s teaching style or his leadership qualities that you’d like to share with other instructors to help them do a better job?

[04:06] Well through his teachings he demonstrated the idea of inner strength, sincerity and integrity. He said that will shine in all fields when the principles of living karate are applied appropriately. The true karate student that Sensei Ochiai has said many times seeks peace and harmony. As you know the first move of the karate is a block or a dodging technique. Being passive yet defensive instead of aggressive and violence is a true basis of true strength and confidence. It means your mind, body and spirit have to be in harmony and aligned. This alignment gives you undeniable strength and confidence. The traditional martial artist is humble yet at all times you can see his inner strength shine through in all that he does. It gives one the ability to focus. And I mean this idea of laser focus on a task until it’s completed.

This dogged determination is what sets apart executives who can learn the art of getting things done by executing flawlessly. They make it look easy but the core of their success is the ability to stay on task and to ensure results do happen. This is exactly what the traditional martyrs learn as they develop their inner self through the teachings like that of Master Hidy Ochiai. Now you’ve been doing martial arts for a very long time. You’re a serious practitioner and you’re senior vice president of a multi-billion dollar corporation, Dell Computers. Is there a connection?

Did your martial arts training help you in any way as you were rising to the top of Dell?

You bet. Let me share with you a couple concepts that have served me well as a leader and are powerful in business as well as the rest of my life. There are just a few of the many lessons that Sensei Ochiai has taught me. One was called sukei no kokoukura or mind of the moon. It’s a mind that is not clouded and it’s clear enough to perceive all that should be perceived around you. That’s wonderful for the idea of an executive when you have complex problems to be able to see through the complex problem. Or the concept of misu no kokoukura or mind of the moon. Only the undisturbed water pool can accurately reflect the true image without distortion or self-deception. Or mushun, the mind free of conceptualization, the mind of a child, a mind that does not perceive but uses one’s own intuition.

These concepts we see things others might miss, therefore be able to have solutions to perplexing problems. We focus our energy on simple solutions that are easily implemented across the organization instead of really complex ones. As leaders, these have helped us decisively make clear-cut decisions without overanalyzing the situation. They have proven to be truly valuable throughout my professional life and my time in business. Let’s shift gears for a moment and focus a little more on business. Whether it’s a huge corporation like Dell Computers or a small business like a martial arts school, I imagine many basic marketing concepts are the same. Bill, what’s your philosophy on marketing?

Well, first and foremost, you need to know your customers. You’ve got to know them well. Only then can you drive highly effective marketing. At Dell, we have a fundamental belief of being direct and understanding our customers’ needs and having no intermediates, mediaries, or distortion or dilution of information. We have an excellent customer segmentation model at Dell that allows us to tailor our marketing program so we can be cost effective and clearly generate results. And speaking of marketing, I was chatting with the legendary marketing guru Jay Abraham today and he says to say hello. Oh, Jay’s a good friend. We visited his place down in California several times. So we’ve been friends. I lived in California for four years. Yeah, he had said to say hi and he said, is Bill still out in Singapore?

And I said, yes, sir. He sure is. So I’ll be sure to tell him you said hi back. Please do. Now, if you would be so kind, talk to us a little bit about servicing clients. What’s your philosophy when it comes to customer service?

How important is this? Well, we have a saying in Dell. We want to deliver the gold standard of service. That’s what we aspire to do. There’s no compromises. Every customer we want to delight and they’ll reward us with our repeat business, but also their endorsement of their families, their friends, and their business associates. Satisfied customers clearly become our best ambassadors. Yeah, I would agree with that entirely. And clearly, Dell Computers is always innovating. I see your commercials on TV all the time and it seems like you’re constantly introducing newer, better leading edge products to the marketplace. What’s interesting is that many of the top martial arts schools out there are always innovating too. What are your thoughts on the importance of innovation in business?

[08:43] Well, innovation in our minds is establishing a culture of continuous improvement. We strive at Dell to drive this in everything that we do, whether it’s in the supply chain, giving us a competitive advantage to deliver products to our customers when they want them, or in a unique product features that may appeal to a broad set of clients. Innovation clearly keeps us competitive and one step ahead. Innovation must also be relevant and bring additional value to customers and employees. In other words, innovation needs direction and purpose. Having customers at the core of our thinking has allowed us to ensure all of our investments are targeted and relevant. We strive to deliver better products and services that exceed our demanding customers’ needs and wants, both today and also in the future. And in the martial arts field, there are certainly very many successful, traditional martial artists, and one of the reasons they are successful is they’ve intermingled tradition with innovation.

I think that’s the key in large part to their success. Bill, let’s focus for a moment on continuing education. There’s a saying that says, your level of success will only grow as much as you do. How true is this?

And what advice would you give to every martial arts school owner when it comes to furthering their knowledge base in business?

Well, we really have to be masters of our own destiny. We can choose to make the best or worst of any situation, just as we can choose to learn or not learn. I think that the owners of martial arts schools are in a very unique position. They can leverage the disciplines and learnings from their own forms of art to benefit their businesses, just as I have personally experienced in my professional development. Take the concept of self-mastery and self-competition. Compete with yourself every day to improve. You will run a business that’s also improving day by day. Take execution. Stay focused on one’s business objectives is just as important to the well-being of your students as it is the understanding of the principles of living karate. If your business is not successful, how can you continue to teach and influence me?

That’s the question I’d ask them. Absolutely. And at NAPMA, we’re all about continuing education. That’s basically the essence of what we do. And if you don’t mind me asking, how many employees do you have working for you at Dell?

Well, all in, a little over 8,000 people out here in Asia Pacific in Japan. Wow. And company-wide, approximately how many employees is there?

Just under 50,000. 50,000. That is huge. So you have approximately 50,000 employees in the company. In general, how important is it to have the right team in place when you’re trying to reach your goals and build a top-quality, highly profitable company?

Please give us some advice on building peak-performing teams. I can say this. We’re winning at Dell because we have a solid team that knows how to succeed. Talent is critical to the company’s performance and longevity. That’s why I spend a lot of my own personal time discussing our people development and planning issues. If given a choice of a great strategy or great people, I’ll take great people every time. The winners in business know that betting on people is the way to leapfrog their competitors and truly develop innovative products and services for their customers. I think we all realize that one of the most important things in any kind of business is to create sales. They say nothing happens until a sale is made. Now, that could mean selling a computer or enrolling a student into the school’s Black Belt Club.

What universal tips can you give our listeners when it comes to selling?

Well, the complete sales experience is important to win and retain customers, as you know. The pre-sales is important because it creates this first impression of the company with a prospect. Even if it doesn’t result in the sale, it could result in the sale in the future. And the post-sales experience is equally important because it creates long-term loyalty and generates referrals. The rule should always be whenever we deal with a customer or a potential customer, whether it be an interviewee, a supplier, or a student, we treat them as if they’re our most valuable client. If we make every engagement with a potential client as a win-win scenario, then for sure your business will grow. The unfortunate part of it is if you don’t, your business will lead to what will most certainly diminish. We spend a lot of time training all of our people to make sure that each engagement they have with a potential client is a rich one.

[12:46] Yeah, and I’ll bet you probably get a lot of repeat business as a result. Yes, we do. Now, on a scale of, say, one to 10, with 10 being the highest, how much strategic planning do you do at Dell?

And why is it important for any business to plan ahead and use strategy in their decisions?

Well, I’d rate it as seven, but I’d add execution as highly integral to what we do at Dell. We have a maniacal focus on execution because plans are important, but ineffective if they can’t be put into action. We also keep an agile perspective so we can adapt to change very quickly in a view where the market is changing on a rapid basis. It’s all about being able to respond promptly and accurately to change. If you can do that, you can be effective. That is a very interesting response indeed. One of the challenges we have in the martial arts field is a lot of folks resist change, and they use tradition as the excuse for that. That’s why I was commenting on tradition with innovation is kind of important. It sounds to me like you believe in change if it makes sense.

Is that accurate? Absolutely. The world’s changing around us, and if we aren’t able to adapt to that change, then we’ll perish. Yeah, yeah. As Tony Robbins says, either grow or die. Just as we never stop trying to perfect our martial arts skills, we should never stop trying to perfect our time management skills. Now, I imagine, Bill, you must be extremely busy in your position. What strategies do you use to manage your time more effectively and stay productive?

I have a simple game plan that we use. We focus on the critical few versus the trivial many. That’s what’s important to help prioritize your time and have effective time management. I leverage technology and tools and resources to keep my schedule efficient. For example, I spend a fair amount of time traveling, so I have a lot of time at airport lounges, whether they’re hotels, and I spend a lot of time catching up on emails. And it’s great to be able to do that with my Dell notebook on wireless technology and easy access to broadband. I also have an excellent administration assistant who keeps me organized. And in my view, talent is everything, especially with the people that most influence your business performance. And you mentioned you focus in on the critical few rather than the trivial many.

I think what you’re saying is to not focus in on the low return activities, but to focus in on the high return activities. I think that’s pretty much a universal concept in any business. You got to focus in on the key result areas. And I imagine that you’re focusing on your key result areas, whatever they may be. As simple as a concept that is, you would be surprised at how many people can’t do it. And it’s important for everybody to reflect almost on a daily basis to say, am I working on the right stuff?

Or am I getting drug into things that are literally less important?

This idea of constant prioritization and making sure that you are working on the critical things that are going to make a huge difference to your business is so vitally important for every key business leader. So that basically requires self-discipline. It sure does. And that gets back to the basis of what martial arts is all about, is this idea of self-discipline and self-reflection. Because if you’re able to do that on a day-in, day-out basis, you will continue to stay on point on what’s important. You know, I was chatting with Brian Tracy recently. He’s a fellow black belt, and he’s been a columnist in our magazine for the past six years. He was speaking about how important it is to associate with winners and to create a social circle of people who already are where you want to go.

[16:17] Is there anything you’d like to add to that philosophy?

Or do you have any personal experiences you’d like to share when it comes to networking with positive, goal-oriented people?

You bet. It is certainly more energized to be among positive people. But you know the good news?

Everyone can be a winner if they put their hearts and minds to it. We use this term in Dell called champions to describe our winners. These are people who are highly engaged, informed, and committed. Every day we ask each other, are you a champion today?

In the One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, they said everybody is a potential winner. Some people are disguised as losers. Don’t let their appearances fool you. I think that’s so true. I do too, and it’s really great advice for anyone that owns a martial arts school because hey, we know when the classes start, you’re out there on the deck, and if you bring a bad attitude out there with you, everyone in class is going to see that, and that’s not a good thing. You got to be positive all the time. And Bill, as you know, from training with Shihan Ochiai, martial arts instructors are leaders in their school and in their communities. And you’re a tremendous leader yourself. Would you please share with us some of your best ideas, insights, tips, or advice when it comes to being an effective leader?

Well, in my mind, an effective leader rallies and motivates their team by setting a clear vision and instilling trust and confidence with their teams, whether it’s in good times or in tough times. They recognize and they leverage the strengths of their teams, as well as providing ongoing coaching and constructive and timely feedback for their development. And I can’t stress the importance of feedback. Everybody needs to know how they’re doing. I mean, you wouldn’t go to a baseball game and not know the score. So it’s important for you to know how you’re doing. I also think it takes a great sense of integrity and genuine respect for people across all levels and a willingness to continuously improve. Finally, leaders get people excited about the future opportunities. They inspire us to reach goals that none of us ever thought were possible.

So there’s a clear difference between management and leadership, and I think one of the key differences really is vision. Who at Dell, is it maybe perhaps yourself or Michael Dell, or who is setting the vision of the company on a day-to-day basis?

Well, I’d say it’s kind of a joint. We run the company like a two-in-a-box. Kevin Rollins and Michael Dell clearly are setting the ongoing vision of the company. They put this inspiring goal in front of us to go reach $60 billion. And as you probably recently heard, we’re about a year ahead of schedule to be able to do that. It’s just a fantastic stretch goal for the company. And it amazes me how the team can rally around a single idea and be able to put the necessary plans in place and execute flawlessly. Very well put. And I would have to say that if the leader of a martial arts school doesn’t have a vision for the school, that there is a blank spot in the picture. Wouldn’t you agree?

Yes, I would agree. A vision is important to be able to say. Where does a team need to go to?

And then the leader also has to help establish what are some of the key milestones to get to that vision. Believe it or not, some martial arts instructors listening to this interview right now do not have a computer in their school. Can you share with us your view on how computers have expedited the growth of small businesses all over the world and why it is so important to take full advantage of the technological resources that we all have right at our fingertips?

Well, the computer is an amazing invention that empowers and liberates one from geographical and economic boundaries. Dell as a company is a perfect example of a small business when we started in 1984. And it’s grown to a conglomerate as it is today because of technology. We use our own systems. We automate. We link to customer orders, to the manufacturing operations, and throughout our supply chain. And we’re running essentially a highly efficient virtual store online. We have a comprehensive customer database and resources stored on technology infrastructure so we can share and access this information globally. To the martial arts instructors, consider how current and prospective students can get easy access to information about your schools, your classes, and your scheduling online. You can communicate with them conveniently via email to introduce new classes or changes in scheduling.

[20:33] You can keep track of attendance, fees, and run other administrative details on your computer. If you’re not caught up in the PC revolution, you don’t know what you’re missing. And just from martial artists to martial artists here, if a school owner listening to this CD doesn’t have a computer, what would you tell him, Bill?

I mean, just in terms of speaking to a small business owner, how could this help them?

How can it help expedite their growth? Well, clearly getting connected to your constituency, your customers, the people that support you, is all important for every business leader as well as a martial arts instructor. I think if you’re not totally connected, it becomes a problem and you’re going to lose step with others who are. And it’s like any other business. If you don’t stay one step ahead of the competition, what ends up happening is your competition will pass you. And sooner or later, someone will go to a different school because they are in fact equipped with the latest and greatest ideas. Because when they see their instructor pushing the envelope on new ideas, they know that they’re keeping their art essentially fresh and new as well as steep in tradition. So I think you have to have a bit of both.

In fact, I need to tell you that Master Hidy Ochiai is proficient on email as an example and uses the internet regularly. And I communicate from 10,000 miles away on a regular basis. And I’m surprised at some of the notes and accolades that I’ve been able to discuss with him online. So it’s exciting to see someone of his ilk be able to utilize the internet and computer revolution. Well, that’s certainly a sign of the times. I always chuckle when a school owner tells me, I have a computer, but I don’t even know how to turn it on. What one universal principle or what one absolutely unbreakable law of business can you share with us today that if all the school owners listening to this CD were to do would almost guarantee them a higher level of business success?

What one principle or concept would you share? Bet on your people. Whether they’re your customer, staff or your students, they’re the path to your success. You say bet on your people?

Bet on your people. Can you elaborate on that?

What do you mean? What I mean by that is, utilize the skills and capabilities of your entire team. I mean, you have a lot of people that surround you and help you. Make sure you solicit their ideas and listen. I mean, God gave us two ears and one mouth for a certain reason. That reason is to listen twice as much as we talk. So I think it’s that important for us to spend time and get the best ideas of our people. I’m always surprised on a daily basis at the terrific ideas that my people generate. All I need to do is just solicit them as opposed to thinking I have to come up with all the ideas myself. That is so true. I imagine there’s a lot of diamonds in the rough out there and you just have to kind of give them the opportunity to share in the idea generating mechanism of the school.

Well, that’s what this idea of coaching and feedback comes in. I think it’s important on a daily basis to give feedback to people and make sure they understand how they’re doing. You’ll be surprised when people get the appropriate feedback, how they respond and they flourish with respect to their own capabilities. You know, finally Bill, I know that part of Dell’s legacy is that the company has always been on the leading edge of new advancements in technology. Is there anything you’d like to tell us about Dell, such as upcoming products, any new news, your future vision for Dell, or even why all the instructors listening to this CD should invest in a Dell computer for their schools?

In closing, does anything come to mind? I’m hoping that all the instructors that do not have a PC out there today or need an MP3 player will get on our website immediately. Well, fantastic. And I will tell you, we’ve got about 15 or 16 Dell machines here in this office. So we’re helping you reach that $60 billion goal. Well, thank you so much. Well, Bill, on behalf of all the fellow black belts listening to this CD and on behalf of the entire staff here at NAPMAN, Martial Arts Professional Magazine, I want to thank you for the valuable knowledge and wisdom you so generously shared with us today all the way from Singapore. It’s truly been an honor. Well, thank you so much. It was terrific to have this ability to chat with you today. And you take care.

[24:41] Yes, sir. Thank you so much, Bill. We’ll talk again. Take care. Bye-bye. The Sounds of Success is produced in Clearwater, Florida. It is intended exclusively for members of the National Association of Provincial Martial Artists and their staffs.