CEO from CDW Speaks at Alumni Entrepreneur Conference

One key to success for CDW has been building a culture of continually trying to do things better, said John Edwardson, ’72, chairman and CEO. “It’s constantly looking at, ‘What did you do today and how could you have done it better?’” said Edwardson, keynote speaker at the first annual Chicago GSB Alumni Entrepreneur Conference February 16 at Gleacher Center.

The event drew about 150 students, alumni, and friends of Chicago GSB for a daylong discussion on building a workplace for growth. Panel sessions were led by faculty including Tanya Menon, associate professor of behavioral science; Harry Davis, Roger L. and Rachel M. Goetz Distinguished Service Professor of Creative Management; Damon Phillips, associate professor of organizations and strategy and Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow; and Luis Garicano, associate professor of economics and strategy.

Edwardson described how CDW hired a consultant to give employees the cardboard box test, which asks participants to list every possible use of a cardboard box. Of more than 2,000 companies whose employees have taken the creativity test with the same consultant, the three highest scores have come from employees at CDW, Edwardson said.

As a successful CEO, Edwardson said, the most difficult thing to learn was to get out of his staff’s way. “The hardest thing for me to do has been to not make decisions and to try to make sure that other people who work for me are making decisions,” he said. As former CFO of Northwest Airlines, Edwardson set $500,000 as the amount he would be willing to let staff lose in doing something their way instead of his. “I would let them do it the way they wanted to do it, but I would also let them know I disagreed with what they were going to do. Usually letting them know that, they worked twice as hard to prove me wrong,” he said. “Most of the time, they were right.”

—Phil Rockrohr