Jim Irsay Quotes

Why do I need succession planning? I'm very alert, I'm very vibrant. I have no intention to retire.

Strong succession planning is a critical element of all the Johnson enterprises.

All companies of any size have to continue to push to make sure you get the right leaders, the right team, the right people to be fast acting, and fast moving in the marketplace. We've got great leaders, and we continue to attract and promote great new leaders.

There's always, I guess, a philosophy that if you come in, you want to change all the parts, you want to change everything over. I've always tried to preach that consistency and continuity are very, very important. So if I know the baseball people, and I know they're competent and could do the job, I don't see any reason to replace them.

Somehow, the company must stay true to the founding vision while avoiding the pitfalls of rapid growth - and perhaps survive the hiring of a previously successful executive who doesn't work out.

I think we're ready for succession. We just must try to do it right.

You always have years when you go through transition and the side needs to be rebuilt. Or you have changes in terms of managers.

You have to let the team develop. You can't say, 'Oh, I got empty seats, I'm going to change the team.' It just doesn't work that way.

In a perfect world, you make a seamless transition from one great era to the next, but that rarely happens. I've studied these things: how do you go from the Aikman-Irvin-Smith Cowboys to the next era? I'm all for continuity. I wish we could have done it that way with Bill Polian, Jim Caldwell, Peyton.

I think the most important thing is not only do you want to build a roster, but you also want to establish a culture within any given organization.

I don't believe in the coach-in-waiting thing. I don't think that works.

Often, organizations don't know how good they have it with a player or coach.

Good leaders understand that they are stewards. They must find the best people they can, giving them the opportunity to join in the journey developing them, and encouraging them to reach their potential. But they must hold on to people lightly. Those who start with you seldom finish with you.

A company is only as good as the people it keeps.

A leader's most important decisions are about people. Who do you put in which jobs? How long do you leave them in a job?

The healthiest companies are always characterized by organic talent development.

There has been only one manager, and his name is John McGraw.

Back 12 years ago, when Dr. Mathews was president here, we had a plan that when I got ready to quit, we'd bring a certain guy in and he'd take over that day and I'd leave. But as time wore on, I realized that wouldn't have been good at all.

I want to leave this company in the best possible shape.

The biggest part of my job now is to quickly develop successors, and around the world I am working to develop new business leaders in the company.

People say the most important thing is building a world-class team.

Rotary provides training at all levels so that those who have been selected for leadership positions have the opportunity to learn and apply leadership principles to their jobs.

The lesson is that, No. 1, this management has to be at the highest class possible. No. 2, they have to have a succession plan.

CEOs resign when the internal dynamics of the company and the external dynamics of the company actually come together to say it is appropriate. When the internal dynamics ask you whether you have a replacement. I think the transition from CEOships have also become cartoonish.

There would not be enough talent that's educated, developed and ready to take on the next leadership challenge, and it would cap our growth. Now we've put programs in place not to have that happen, but that could be a weakness.