A company's strength comes from the love and respect that it has for the creative people who work for it and with it. I admire the designers that I work with at this company. I love their work. I love some of them personally. And I'm incredibly impressed by their artistic skills. I find that my abilities are irrelevant compared with theirs. I am less gifted, so I treat them with great respect. I feel so privileged to work with Frank Gehry or Zaha Hadid, or any of the other people who design for Vitra. I am happy that these extremely gifted people take pleasure in partnering with us to complete important new projects.
The industrial leader -- the entrepreneur -- is both a social and a cultural leader. A lot of business owners say things like, "We're all one big, happy family." That's ridiculous. We're not a family, we're a company. But as a company, we do have a common project that we give part of our lives to and for which we are compensated in one way or another. We live in a state of interdependence. A good leader helps give cultural meaning to work and creates a place where people can be themselves and grow.
Jill Rosenfeld (jrosenfeld@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer. Learn more about Vitra on the Web (www.vitra.com).
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