Podcast: Leadership success begins with purpose says McDonald’s’ Henry Lyles
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Excellence comes from setting your career sights high says Henry Lyles—who one day hopes to appear on the cover of CIO surrounded by an army of robots
Photo by Heidi Sandstrom. on Unsplash
Love has been a driving force in Henry Lyles’ working life—from the football field to the world of accounting, and most recently in his role as director of Global Business Services in Continuous Improvement, Data Excellence & Automation at McDonald’s.
With an accounting mind and technical acumen, Lyles’ role provides a strong liaison between the business and IT, as he oversees the mammoth task of continuous improvement for one of the largest restaurant chains in the world. And with more than 69 million customers served daily across the world—that’s no small feat!
Listen in:
“No matter what you do, you can always have improvement,” Lyles tells AI Network Podcast host Seth Adler. “As a process person, you just see it.”
Reflecting on his experiences to date, Lyles recalls the typical inefficiencies he sees on a regular basis and the simple process changes that can overcome them—even if it is as simple as walking to the copier once, not twice, or eradicating the use of Post-It notes on a wall.
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Read more: Innovation begins with growth mindset says Microsoft’s Rohit Amberker
“Everywhere I go I try to learn a new and different skill. I call it my tool belt,” he says. “It’s about making sure I’m innovating myself with technology.”
“I ask people, ‘hey, what are you doing?’ and come back with so many ways to improve processes.”
Tune in as Lyles shares his top tips for improving processes at work—and at home—as well as what it means to truly do what you love and love what you do.
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Transcript
Key:
Interviewer: Seth Adler
Guest: Henry Lyles
Interviewer: Henry Lyles… yeah so intelligence automation Chicago 2017.
Guest: You’re in the hometown.
Interviewer: This is your hometown.
Guest: This is my hometown.
Interviewer: Alright, let’s just start from the beginning.
Guest: Okay.
Interviewer: Right. You remember the 1970s?
Guest: No I don’t.
Interviewer: You remember the ‘zero’ of the 1970s?
Guest: I remember, I was one year into the 70s.
Interviewer: Oh that’s it?
Guest: That’s it.
Interviewer: I’m older than you.
Guest: I’m sorry.
Interviewer: I look terrible, this is horrible.
Guest: Well you don’t look old.
Interviewer: I see, okay that’s how it goes. Fair enough, so you saved me.
Guest: I want to make you feel better.
Interviewer: That’s it. So before we got to the 90s the 80s in Chicago, what was it like for little Henry?
Guest: It was all about sports. You know, sports was the Mecca of Chicago. You know when a young guy from North Carolina was dragged in, that started the journey right there. So six championships, sports has been a real big thing, then we had the Bears.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Guest: It’s [03:04] with the championship as well.
Interviewer: One of the great NFL teams of all time.
Guest: It was, it was and it put really the city of Chicago on the map. You know, I can’t say so much but I can. Let take that back. Black Hawks.
Interviewer: Sure.
Guest: Black Hawks came in …
Interviewer: Some people forget about the Black Hawks.
Guest: We do sometimes because it’s been about Baseball and Football so … but the Black Hawks have brought a couple of championships to the city so we have a lot to be excited about, you know Cook Sox, Kerb…
Interviewer: Kerb’s just one, right.
Guest: Yeah, Sox won in 2005.
Interviewer: A little while back. Has he gained that nut job.
Guest: Yeah.
Interviewer: Lovingly, I said lovingly right?
Guest: Yes, yes. So we had a lot of [03:45]
Interviewer: Yeah.
Guest: You know looking up this sports was a wiz sports town.
Interviewer: The only thing that was missing was Walter Payton should have scored a touch on that super bowl, right?
Guest: But you know what, everything that he did led up to that, so we think that’ll be okay with him last score touchdown he got us there.
Interviewer: It was sweetness, being sweetness that got us to the Super Bowl.
Guest: Right, so we did need them, he told he can relax at Super Bowl.
Interviewer: And we’ll have refrigerator Perry run one in, you remember that? Isn’t that crazy?
Guest: Who’d have ever thought?
Interviewer: Yeah, I think everybody right, Super Bowl shuffle, that was ...
Guest: That was a fun video I tell you.
Interviewer: Oh my goodness yeah.
Guest: But it got a lot of air play.
Interviewer: Let’s make our way into kind of management of people and leadership by way of the amount of ego that it takes for the team before they win the Super Bowl right? Months in advance of that to record a music video saying that we’re going to be the Super Bow champs.
Guest: You know I think it was destiny.
Interviewer: Obviously.
Guest: It had to be to get on video and sing a song.
Interviewer: It had to happen.
Guest: It had to be completely destiny, so...
Interviewer: Alright. So were you an athlete, were you …?
Guest: I was, played football, Detroit.
Interviewer: Where were you on the field there?
Guest: Long backer.
Interviewer: Okay, so you’re quick is what it is.
Guest: I was quick, I was small.
Interviewer: You might not be fast, but you’re quick.
Guest: I was quick, I was small. I think the biggest thing for me was the coach kept on … I hit hard, and they were impressed with that, but I was like one of the smallest guys on the football field but I think that [05:18] that passion for it, you know it comes out and makes you play a different kind of way.
Interviewer: Now here’s the thing right. For those that have ever met me was not on the football team. So it was obvious if you see me that I shouldn’t have been on the football team.
Guest: I like the way you say that, you know it didn’t matter …
Interviewer: Every football team needs kickers.
Guest: Well it’s not that, I think it’s all about heart. I mean I think heart plays a big part of it. You could be the most athletic but if you don’t have heart, I would take a person with heart over skill any day.
Interviewer: Well that’s what the coaches were saying, with you hitting so hard, you’re not supposed to hit that hard, it’s just the energy, it’s the effort …
Guest: The effort that I want to put in because I want to be on that field, every moment of the game. So [06:11] was necessary so like I say I had the heart for the game and it was about the love too as well.
Interviewer: When did you turn on the brain, when did that happen.
Guest: Probably after my freshman year when they say, well we’re going to go a different direction, we want more bigger players.
Interviewer: Yeah, it’s great that you’re hitting so hard.
Guest: Let’s say, let me go [06:28] now. The career of sports is over.
Interviewer: Yeah it’s not happening. What subjects kind of turned you on?
Guest: You know I was really big into math and the science, I think that’s kind of pushed me into direction I started my career [06:43] performances.
Interviewer: Okay, what happened there?
Guest: And I quickly understood that that means you have to have science every quarter, pretty much every class, different direction.
Interviewer: Too much.
Guest: How about accounting, so I ended up becoming an accountant.
Interviewer: Yeah, so we’ll take the science and the math, okay, not all science but I will do all math.
Guest: Alright, I picked one of them. I went with the disciplines of math.
Interviewer: Alright, up through college or?
Guest: All the way through college, graduated with an accountant degree. At a certain point in my career I started off with my career being an accountant, at some point I think I just kind of got tired of the day-to-day income statement, close the books, do the reconciliation, I was like a little bored and had a great friend that taught me how to program.
Interviewer: Okay.
Guest: Found a new love and that’s exactly what I've been. On the programming side but more of a liaison between IT and the business and that’s kind of a role I play, project management, had a wonderful career and I think I’ve learned something from every company that I went to, that’s kind of my mantra, I tell folks, wherever you go try to gain a different skill, I call it my tool belt. So I was trying to put a different tool in my tool belt and that’s kind of with different skills, so I've had a good run which has led me into a new facet or new technology.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Guest: We’re talking about RPA, robotics, AI. So I think I’m just being trying to keep up with the times and making sure I innovate myself with technology.
Interviewer: So that’s the guy that’s kind of responsible for it, wouldn’t that simply be the advice for anybody that’s affected by it as well, whether it be the frontline up to top management, hey get new skills.
Guest: Well, I do a lot of mentoring and one thing I can tell the people, my mentees and stuff like that is that you have to innovate yourself with how technology, even just think about your TV. You’re TV’s out of warranty, out of you know you bought a brand new TV, six months later like a HD, next thing they get a HD-K or 10K or 3K whatever it is, it’s the same with your career. Every playing is going to be continually evolving and you have to evolve with it and unfortunately if you don’t, technology will take over, the times will pass you and it’s some that I just stress in all the young high school students that I mentor in summer, some young adults that it’s all about innovating yourself every day.
Interviewer: So it sounded like when you took up computers that was almost like a hobby and love that you found, whereas the continuing innovation that you’ve done since then was more cognitive, pun intended.
Guest: Pun intended, yes you’re totally correct.
Interviewer: But when did you realize that, when did you realize that hey I’m going to need to actually improve myself each step of the way here.
Guest: You know I think it’s just immersing yourself in technology, I think it’s all about research, looking at what’s out there, what’s next to come and really applying yourself. I've been fortunate and all the companies that I worked for everything’s been a new technology, so I've had the privilege of learning new technology, having a continuous improvement background, always looking to look for efficiencies and making the things better, so a lot of [10:19] enabled by technology. So I think it’s really how you immerse yourself in it and that’s what I tell anybody, and the Google’s a wonderful thing. Make sure you tune in with Webinars, seminars like where we are today, those are where you can look at what you have back in your home office and how you can take those things and apply. You know sometimes it’s not easy but I think you have to build the business pace and that’s how we have robotics today, you got to build the business case.
Interviewer: That’s it, you got to build the business case. Let’s just get to where we are as you just kind of foreshadowed. So a tiny little company called McDonalds right? Golden arches.
Guest: Yes very small.
Interviewer: Yeah you guys don’t do much.
Guest: Not much at all.
Interviewer: How many billions served or whatever … do we do that any more?
Guest: Yeah we still do it, billions.
Interviewer: Oh it’s ridiculous. So when did this start for you, when did it start for the company? How did it all begin?
Guest: From a RPA perspective?
Interviewer: Indeed.
Guest: It started about three ago and how it started was, having a conversation with my boss, she came back from a conference and she heard about this thing called RBA and she said, I heard nothing but great things about it. I want [11:32] service. I’m tasking to you to go figure out what this is and make it live and so all you have to tell me is once when I get the directive from the boss. So I went out and I did some research and I talked to several companies and really dug to understand how you’re going to apply to a transaction organization like were into our services.
Interviewer: Sure.
Guest: And from that point on I just started with a PLC and then took a PLC, presenting into [12:00] leadership, leadership says wow is that moving by itself, yes it is. We’ve eliminated the manual key of some of the work that we had in our office, so I brought it to light, and that’s how tell folks, if you really want your organization of embrace it, bring it to life.
Interviewer: To show …
Guest: That’s what it is.
Interviewer: Alright, so I want to kind of investigate this through your mind because basically what you said with … basically your response to my question about innovating yourself was taking you … as I heard it, you said take it from the technologies’ standpoint. The technologies continuously improve it, right?
Guest: Yes.
Interviewer: So, when you were kind of scouring the earth for these solutions, what were you seeing, how did you see it as, I understand you have a shared services mind with a continuous improvement backbone, what did you know that you did want from what you saw, what did you know that you didn’t want that was being offered?
Guest: I think everything that we saw is what we needed to bring into our organization.
Interviewer: All of them?
Guest: All of them. Because I could apply a process to every facet of how to automate it. So when I thought in the end and it could be dealt with by this type of technology, there was a no brainer at that point. And that’s kind of how I explained it to leadership, no brainer, let’s go for this.
Interviewer: How did you choose the solution provider you went with?
Guest: From our PLC it was a little different, so from our PLC basically I just give some cold calls and the particular company that we use for the PLC I think it was just a relationship, I mean just that natural relationship that I built over the telephone and I said, this is who I want do this PLC with and that’s kind of how it happened. When it came to really launching the automation pilot and all of that I think it was just really, this [14:04] was in our company and they were doing some other work and it was kind of a natural kind of flow and we just actually just used the [14:12]
Interviewer: Possibly don’t have to add them as a vendor …
Guest: That’s true they were all in a contract really which is an amendment so it made things a lot easier.
Interviewer: Sure. For the proof of concept, what did you choose, what process did you choose?
Guest: So we chose an HR process and basically what I’ll give in a lot of detail to it because it’s compliance.
Interviewer: Sure.
Guest: Basically it was just nick of taking a list of names and going to get information off the internet and making a decision based on information as it is received. So it was something as simple as that. We had quite a few people doing this manually keying it and basically we just took all of that manual effort because there was clearly [14:49] and we had automation take over for them.
Interviewer: You said make a decision, how was the decision [14:55]?
Guest: Well the decision was based on a rule because there was some … if this combat in this format do this, if it comes back in this do that, so it wasn’t a subject decision that was needed to be made by human, it was really [15:09].
Interviewer: Alright, so we got a [15:12] thing. You said you sold it up and they say, is this moving by itself and Henry is like …
Guest: Yes it is.
Interviewer: Yes it is. Alright so now we rolling out, you went with a different vendor it sounds like, right? And someone that was already in house, can you share who it was?
Guest: I’m going to tell you exactly … it actually was the same vendor, just through a different passage. So we use the same vendor …
Interviewer: Can you share who was that?
Guest: I don’t know for when I do that because there’s so many other vendors here.
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah we don’t want to offend anybody.
Guest: I don’t want to have any …
Interviewer: Yeah, everybody is doing a good job.
Guest: Now I think I would tell you, you know just on research I think a lot of them do a lot of similarities in their product. I think what I would just stress anybody is to find the right strategic partner for yourself and your company and I think that’s key, that relationship that you have, because I think you’re looking for stability because you probably want scale your program, so it’s all about the strategic partners, so that’s how it is. I think they all do very similar things and when it comes to RPA task kind of [16:09]
Interviewer: I understand.
Guest: I think when you get into the AI and stuff like that, I think that’s where maybe there’s different players for different things.
Interviewer: That’s it. So you found your partner in [16:18] … and that’s what you’re saying, find somebody that culturally fits with your organization and that you feel comfortable with working with and absolutely you actually want to work with this person.
Guest: Right, right. That means a lot.
Interviewer: So what kind of initial processes did you outline and how did you get it underway?
Guest: I think we chose, a lot of it started from having the continuous improvement. So it started off as continuous improvement project. So we were looking at some inane process that we wanted to do improvements and what we did was we put a flayer of automations, so working with this third-party venue, we set criteria of questions that we want to educate the employees to say, when you’re thinking about your process, ask these couple of questions about automation.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Guest: Can you this and do that? And what we found out, we ended up with a list of automation items just based on a simple little bit of education to our employees went a long way and now we have process employment and automation program, so basically what we did we prioritized them and that’s kind of what are the ones we chose to do the [17:26]
Interviewer: And the processes are coming from the ground up by definition. And so folks are brought in.
Guest: Yes, and I think the key of getting use across to employers is really about I think it’s the education. You know talking to them about one, not only what it does but what it can deliver at the end of the day. Everything is not about reduction in workforce. I look at it as about building capacity, so that other people can do more value add things, so more analysis. Maybe this opens up opportunity when you can go do another type of job that you’re interested in. So I look at it as a [18:03] even though we know at the end of the day there is, could be some reduction of workforce that comes with it but we try to focus on the capacity and make opportunities for other things to do.
Interviewer: And you said it yourself, it’s all about integrating yourself, making sure that you have new skills so that if a reduction in workforce does happen or let’s even say when or if reduction in workforce happens you, whoever you are, are not on that side of it, or you’re choosing to be on that side, because you got new skills that you can [18:35]
Guest: Yeah and I think you own your career and so you need to keep that in the forefront of anything that you do and say, how do I continue innovating, how do I get more skills, and I could be not in a technology thing, I could be you know I want to learn more about [18:52] I want to be a black belt, or something like that.
Interviewer: Well let’s talk about, you brought out continuous improvement a couple of times, are you a black belt?
Guest: I am.
Interviewer: Alright, congratulations.
Guest: Thank you.
Interviewer: When did that start for you, where did you find that?
Guest: You know it started with … I was the receiving [19:06] of a continuous improvement project, one of my employers.
Interviewer: Okay.
Guest: And I saw how it just transformed my own process, like I say I had black belts come in and doing my process, doing all the work and I remember to this day, they say Henry we’re going to take you downstairs to the room where we’ve been doing all this work and I walk down and I saw a wall full of sticky notes and I’m like, what’s that. And they say, that’s your process. And looked at this wall and I’m like, [19:39], and basically what they do is told me to turn around to the other wall and show me the improvements that were made. It was almost like night and day. So that was really my test, my real big taste of continuous improvement. And so what I did was say, you know what now I want to be on the other side, and so I had the opportunity at McDonalds to lead the global continuous improvement area and I wanted to now deliver those things to our employees, so that’s kind of where I got into touch of continuous improvement.
Interviewer: So in that improvement you turned into a process guy, turned into a continuous improvement guy. As far as kind of getting the education and going through the stuff to get the green belt, black belt, the whole thing. How did your thinking change? In other words, now that you’re on this side of it, do you still think X and now you think Y? Take us through that mindset change.
Guest: You know I think the mindset change was I saw the value in it.
Interviewer: Okay.
Guest: And as you’ve been a process person, you constantly be in daily but different process, you’ve seen them, and when you have that mindset, the [20:46] things as you see somebody walk to the copier 20 times a day you’re like, can you just print it all at once. It could be something as simple as that. So I think everything that you talk to anybody or you see, I mean I found myself walking down the house and just stopping and saying, hey what’re doing, and then we get into a conversation and I've come back with 4 or 5 different process improvement ideas. So I think you kind of just … it becomes your DNA. And anything that you see or conversations, you’re always thinking about continuous improvement.
Interviewer: I've spoken with a number of black belts and it started to seep into me, I've no proper training whatsoever, but I am now going around and if I see someone do something like twice or if they are in the same area, they go to one place then another place, they could have done it in a shorter loop, I’m starting to notice these things.
Guest: It has ingrained, it has worked now, so it’s as simple as that, you’ve been talking to folks and now you won’t have any training, but you are [22:01] seeing different things, why are you doing it their way, why won’t you do it this way. So it can start at any level, I think having the training just gives you the different types of tools you can use to make it a lot easier to get to those conclusions around continuous improvements. So I think everybody does it. I even think about it at home. I mean it just doesn’t stop at work, I’m at home talking to my kids about – don’t do it that way, let’s make it much easier, let’s just this blow, so its … how amazing, how it translates to your home life.
Interviewer: In all seriousness, would you suggest kind of six sigma training and getting a black belt to everyone no matter what they do.
Guest: I think no matter what you do, you always have improvement. So it doesn’t matter if you’re in a finance sector or banking sector, it doesn’t matter. Everything needs to improve, there’s items in your process that have improvement opportunities. So I encourage anyone to get a black belt rainbow, I mean there’s so many [23:06] so it depends on how far you want to go up the chain.
Interviewer: How are we going to solve the bulls and the bears now? To return to our initial conversation, these are issues …
Guest: You know what, we don’t need to go in there, think I was going on.
Interviewer: I think so, they need to continue [23:22]
Guest: [23:23] I think we might have to make some changes.
Interviewer: Seriously. I think you could be the general manager of both teams and do at least as well as they are doing now.
Guest: You know my love of sports, I have been around with my son, with AAU Basketball, I just love being around sports, so I would love to take that challenge.
Interviewer: Right and you’re son’s playing ball?
Guest: Yeah, he plays high school ball as well as club ball.
Interviewer: Okay, what position?
Guest: Point out.
Interviewer: Okay, so he’s the General.
Guest: I tell him every time, you’re the General, everybody follows your lead.
Interviewer: Yeah, does he know that yet or not?
Guest: He does, I think he’s going into that leadership role of doing that, taking the lead role, telling folks where they need to be, because it all works because of the point guard and so he’s grasping that elusive role.
Interviewer: Modeled after Stef Courier I’m imagining, I would imagine.
Guest: Yeah, he’s probably you know I don’t know about Stef Courier, I think he’s more Chris Paul fan.
Interviewer: Okay, alright Chris Paul just got traded right?
Guest: He did.
Interviewer: So where is he now?
Guest: Houston.
Interviewer: Alright.
Guest: So it’s going to be interesting to see how that works
Interviewer: I feel like everybody in MBA has to go through Houston now.
Guest: You know what, it seems like whoever goes to Houston seems to have tremendous valued added to their career.
Interviewer: That’s it.
Guest: So …
Interviewer: Jeremy Lyn right?
Guest: Yeah a lot of people come through Houston and now are some of the elite players in the league so …
Interviewer: James Harden, he used to be #3, now he’s #1.
Guest: He’s #1. We’ll what happens now with Chris down there.
Interviewer: That’s a lot of guards right, we need a couple of big guys down.
Guest: But I think what you said earlier about the point guard is the general and I think Chris Paul does a great job controlling the team and controlling the tempo, I think that’s what they need and that’s why I think they went after Chris Paul.
Interviewer: Because Harden is a [25:12] guard.
Guest: He’s ___ guard, he’s a shooter.
Interviewer: Does he know that though, that’s the question.
Guest: I think their coaches educates them on that.
Interviewer: That’s Anthony down there now.
Guest: He’s there Anthony …
Interviewer: He didn’t do well in New York, that wasn’t a fun ride for us.
Guest: I think it’s all about the situation and the players. I think he’s a player coach and I think he’s found his niche down at Houston.
Interviewer: You know who also didn’t do well by the way Chicago Bulls 90s fan. Phil Jackson didn’t do so well in New York either, my God!
Guest: You know what, sometimes you need to stay in your lane and I think his line is coaching.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Guest: But I get it, I mean you get there, you’re inspired to do different things and he felt that he could be [25:56] office and what I was saying he wasn’t scared of the challenge. It’s a good chance and took a risk.
Interviewer: He tried to innovate himself.
Guest: He did.
Interviewer: And I think what we need to add to innovate yourself within reason.
Guest: Within reason, yeah you can go too far, but you have to have a purpose at the end of the day. What I tell folks, you have when you look at your career, always have something out in the far what you’re trying to get to. Now you might take laterals, you might take zigzags, but whatever zigzags that you take, make sure you’re still focusing on what you’re trying to achieve. And some people, that’s hard to grasp because, I don’t want to take a ladder, I don’t want to take a zigzag. But think about the learning opportunity that you’re going to get from that to get you to your goal.
Interviewer: And you essentially say, that Steven [26:45] start with the end in mind type of thing.
Guest: Correct.
Interviewer: Now, your end in mind could not have been automation, right?
Guest: No.
Interviewer: What has been your kind of guiding light, what has been your end in mind as you’ve gone on?
Guest: You know, I think I've always had that knack of automation, the …
Interviewer: Mindset.
Guest: Yes.
Interviewer: Whether there’s technology or not, continuous improvement, continuous improvement.
Guest: Continuous improvement, continuous improvement, I think that been the heart in the backbone, I think now I've just added the automation to it, not to take away anything from the processes, I focus more on how to take it and approve the process by automation and my end goal would be, I laugh at this, I tell folks I want to be on the cover of CIO with my arms crossed and a lot of robots behind me. So …
Interviewer: We got to make that happen.
Guest: You know I’m trying, I’m trying to be on the cover. I just see the value in this, I think there’s so much potential with this and it’s growing. I look at it from a strategic vision side of it and my [27:56] goals to be able to strategically write a full-fledged RPA program and I’m on my way. You know we have started small but I think I have definitely I know I have the support from leadership at McDonalds to make that happen, so …
Interviewer: I’m with you, we’re going to keep checking in with you on the way. I got three final questions for you, I’ll tell what they are, and ask you in a moment.
Guest: Okay.
Interviewer: What has most surprised you at work? What has most surprised in life and then on the soundtrack of your life? One track one song that’s got to be on there, which I can’t wait for. Along the way, what most surprised you at work?
Guest: With work, I guess it’s all about this automation, how quickly we adapt to it. When you bring new things to corporation, it goes through a process and I think this process is pretty fast and when like that and in our credit to it, just kind of walk into the PLC showing them real life example.
Interviewer: And you see the eyes widen [28:59] path.
Guest: [29:00] and I think that was the surprising thing, how quickly and where am I right now with, hey scaly, I want you to scale across the globe, I have you target, so from that it just moved very fast, which I’m thankful for because it puts me in a position where I want to be in, I love this space, so I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Interviewer: Arms folded, right on the cover, robots behind you, I’m with you. What’s most surprised you in your life?
Guest: You know I think I’ll have to go, when I say life I think just adapting to change, I mean it comes from all spectrums of that life, I mean having kids, how it changed your life about what you have to do, I enjoy every moment of it. Does it get tough? Yeah it does, because you want to be … I tell my kids I’m their #1 fan, and I want to be at everything and I think just seeing their faces, seeing them grow, man I love every bit of it and that’s to keep me motivated, I keep a picture on my phone. Every time things get tough, those are my motivators and so that surprised me, I think just when my wife told me – we’re having a child. Oh life changes.
Interviewer: Okay, here we go.
Guest: But you know it was meant for the best. I couldn’t ask for anything, for a better partner to be with, helping molding our kids to who they are today. So that’s …
Interviewer: Speaking of the General, we’re talking about the general at home right?
Guest: The General, I think I got a couple of Generals. I have a lot of women in my life so … between my daughter, my mom and my wife …
Interviewer: You know how to follow rules, so to say?
Guest: I know how to follow rules, between daughter and wife at home, awesome, but you know what they keep me in check, I love them for it so …
Interviewer: That’s it. On the soundtrack of your life, one track one sound, that’s got to be on there.
Guest: Oh, soundtrack. Man, I have to think about that. You know what, I must say this, there’s a track that … I think his name is DJ something, All I do is Win.
Interviewer: All I do is Win, Win, Win, Win, Win?
Guest: Win, Win, Win. I kind of keep that as a motto; I kind of keep that in the front foot. Anything that I do is all about how do we win, but not win at a cost either, it’s all about how do we be strategic about winning and getting things across, so kind of keep that in my mind.
Interviewer: And you don’t need it in a boastful way.
Guest: No I don’t, not at all.
Interviewer: We’re not going to lose right?
Guest: Correct, and that comes with maybe we have to step back, maybe instead of taking two steps we take one. It’s all about the strategic approach to how your track is, so we want to win and I think that’s … I would say from our company perspective we want to be #1 and we’re going to keep looking at how we win.
Interviewer: It’s like Michael, it comes back to Michael right?
Guest: Comes back to Michael.
Interviewer: I end it just really quickly. People ask me when I say Dominique Wilkins, you should have seen Dominique Wilkins and if you didn’t see late 80s basketball, you don’t know who Dominic Wilkins is. So the way I explain it is, Dominique Wilkins is like Michael Jordon without all the winning.
Guest: You know Dominique, yeah told it right. You don’t know Dominique, I mean Dominique had a great career; he was one of the dominating dunkers I think of all time.
Interviewer: Yeah, you don’t want to go up against him.
Guest: He couldn’t get any rings, but they put a good effort to get him but I think people get, they forget about players like that, and there’s been a lot of successful players, they have come through, they just couldn’t get over hump to win the ring. But Michael’s done it, he’s got six rings.
Interviewer: For you by the way he did it.
Guest: That’s right, for Chicago. His statue is out there.
Interviewer: Henry, I appreciate it.
Guest: No problem at all, I appreciate the time, I enjoyed every bit of it.
Interviewer: We’ll keep checking on with it.
Guest: We’ll keep checking in.
Interviewer: And there you have Henry Lyles. Just try and keep up with the times, make sure to innovate myself with technology. Just that philosophy has got to be followed by every single person, so I’m off to do that. Thank you to Henry for his time. Thank you to you for yours. Stay tuned.
