Dan Perez has more than 35 years of experience in leadership, sales and marketing, manufacturing, program management and supply chain. Most recently, Dan founded OnCore Manufacturing Services and as President and CEO, grew the company into a global and leading provider of product realization services to the medical device, defense, life science and industrial OEM markets. Under Dan's leadership, OnCore grew revenues from $60M to $400M, with industry leading financial results.

Prior to OnCore, Dan held the position of Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Solectron Corporation. His responsibilities included demand creation processes, strategic planning, marketing and market research. While at Solectron Dan also served as Chief Administrative Officer, Vice President of Supply Chain and General Manager.

Prior to Solectron, Dan spent 14 years with IBM in numerous management positions in manufacturing and materials planning, acquisition and control.

Dan serves on the board of the Tech Museum of Innovation and has held Board positions at Lifeguard, Inc., Joint Venture Silicon Valley, El Teatro Campesino (Farmworkers Theater) and Chairman of the Mexican Heritage Plaza.

Dan earned an MBA and a BA in Political Science, both from the University of California at Los Angeles.

An Interview with Dan Perez

What were some of the defining moments as you look back on how your career developed?

I don’t think there were ever lightning bolt moments that defined my career. Instead, I think of how my career developed as more of a continuous learning process of gaining insight into who I was and what was important to me. Understanding what motivates you and others to act was important to me. What was helpful to me was appreciation of the importance of developing self-awareness. I think this enabled me to understand myself better to make necessary behavior adjustments. Also, having worked with thousands of others in many situations over the course of my career has helped me to become more effective as a leader in developing a situational approach to problem solving and helping an organization achieve its objectives. I think focusing on the long run and having thoughtful periodic moments of refection and learning are important in career growth.

In your experience what would you consider the most useful competencies to develop in order to accelerate a career within a large corporation?

I think that the most fundamental step to take is to understand how your responsibility and personal objectives relate to the overall goals of the organization. This is fundamental alignment - sounds simple but it is somehow overlooked in many organizations and therefore it becomes less important to the individual employee. If you do this the right way you can accomplish much more both personally and for the organization. If you feel that your objectives are meaningful and will have impact – you will derive more satisfaction from your job – you will be more motivated and this will create a flywheel effect positively influencing those around you. I found that focusing on the job I was given instead of reaching for the next one helped me get the appropriate recognition and feedback. Most important however is understanding that by definition working for a large corporation requires effectively working with others to get the organizations mission accomplished. Learning to be a focused and dependable teammate in a large organization will provide a solid foundation for growth.    

You have both large corporate as well as earlier stage company experience. What advice would you have for someone in a corporate who might be contemplating leaving and going to a startup?

The first thing that comes to mind is the acknowledgement that there are fewer boundaries in smaller companies (a lot of organization and process white space) than in more mature larger organizations. Because of this you need to recognize your ability to take quick action in an environment of greater ambiguity. I also think that you need to have a good grasp of your ego in a smaller environment as there is typically a temptation to have it grow as your awareness that getting things done is typically easier, faster and with no layers of authority or approval barriers.

Understanding your fundamental principles for growing a healthy company culture is VERY important. You need to be conscious of your intentions in the area of how you want the company and people within it to act. In a small company your actions and behaviors will be transmitted and for better or worse adopted by others without filters. A good rule of thumb is to have an out of body conversation with you as your own manager and ask the question; would I like working for this person?    

What leadership competencies are more important or relevant in an entrepreneurial environment, in your experience?

I think the number one competency is having the desire to be a leader and all that this role encompasses. It’s more than being the smartest product developer or marketer. It’s the tasks associated with effectively working with and through others and the ability to create a principled organization culture that is the foundation for scaling the enterprise. You must have the ability to develop a vision and through consistent and principled leadership build an organization capable of achieving it. You must also have the ability to recruit the right people and with your support allow them to do their jobs. Realize that you must become the leader that you respect and would like to follow.

Intellectual capacity is always important. However, how critical is EQ to effective leadership in your experience?

I think it is equally important in building an organization that allows for deep relationship building with all constituencies. I know of examples where the leader can be Mensa smart but has very weak personal skills. The leaders’ communications can be short and one way so relationships with their coworkers tend to be weak. People generally respect them for their intellectual capacity but often feel undervalued because they end up being told what to do and  having to find indirect ways of getting their points or ideas across. This is a fundamental dishonesty that is not benign in that it saps the organizations ability to scale (trust is low, people valued for loyalty and agreement with the leader instead of competency and independence, creates followers instead of other leaders, tentative organizations do not moving quickly as the leader has to be involved in all decisions, authority is centralized and therefore slows down action). These are just a few of the symptoms of an organization that is led by a person with high IQ and low EQ. You need to be able to be empathic and relate to people. Reading the tea leaves is important to being and effective leader.    

For those of us who may be less endowed with an Emotional Quotient, what advice do you have for developing such skills?

I think the most important step is recognizing that you need these skills to be more effective and have the desire to improve in this area. Then I think slowing things down and starting to give people more space and time to speak without jumping in or in other words – Listening, is a great way to start. Most importantly is, while you are listening you are thinking about what it is they are saying and thinking about why it is they are saying it instead of jumping ahead and thinking of reasons why they are wrong and how you are going to set them straight.

I also think seeking a few people whom you trust to guide you in your EQ development would be very helpful. The feedback is helpful for reflecting your behavior real time so as to get immediate feedback and external perception o consider in modifying behavior. Sometimes people are just unaware of how it is they are perceived so this step can be very enlightening.

You were born in East LA, went to UCLA, joined IBM, and subsequently rose to CEO. What insight might younger executives with a diverse background draw from your experience? 

I think the number one thing is to believe that they can also do what I did better or more. Recognize that there are real obstacles to overcome to be sure but by focusing on overcoming the external barriers, not ones that are self-imposed, will allow you to do more. Believing in yourself is a fundamental trait that needs to be created and nurtured. I also think learning from people that have leadership traits that you admire is also a good way to develop your abilities to get things done. Another important bit of advice is to always focus on job you have at hand, not the next one you want, it will come along as a result. Taking risks is also important. Remember that, nothing ventured is nothing gained.