About Us

Tom Woodard, Partner

Places lived: United Kingdom (London), United States (New Jersey, North Carolina, Dallas, Boston, Connecticut)

Education: Harvard Business School, MBA (Baker Scholar); Southern Methodist, MS in engineering; Duke, BS in engineering

Experience: Clearview Advisors, McKinsey & Company (28 years; director, senior partner), Texas Instruments

Focus: Leadership and the training that leads to becoming an effective leader

Intellectual influences: Engineering as a way of thinking and seeing the world

Turning points: Deciding to leave Texas Instruments and attend Harvard Business School; joining McKinsey

What does it take to be a successful manager? What does it take to step back and be reflective about effective leadership? Certainly more than experience. In the case of Tom Woodard, it took a degree in engineering, work in an operating environment, an MBA, and a long career at McKinsey.

“I’m not sure I really knew what I was doing when I decided to study engineering at Duke. I was just 17,” Tom reflects. “I knew I was good at science and math. Engineering probably requires 30% more effort than most other undergraduate studies. The labs in the afternoon – you need to be a little crazy to stick with it. But it is a discipline that teaches you how to think about problems, both analyses and syntheses. It was invaluable training and it shaped me.”

After graduating from Duke, Tom worked for three years at Texas Instruments (TI). “Then I decided I wanted to be a manager. Business school seemed like a good idea. It would get me out of the slide rule group. So I took a leave to go to Harvard. I really enjoyed it and graduated with top honors as a Baker Scholar. Then I found out TI wasn’t really interested in me coming back!”

So Tom joined McKinsey, figuring he would stay two or three years. “I thought it would be good post-graduate training, then get back to the real world. It was never my intention to be in a non-operating job for long. So why didn’t I leave? I discovered that consultants can have real influence on a company – certainly more than a mid-level executive, even one with an engineering degree.”

Tom has “studied” leadership all his life. First, by being a leader. Even while he was consulting some of McKinsey’s largest clients, he frequently took on managerial roles. He was McKinsey’s CIO for three years. He headed two of McKinsey’s industry practices (telecommunications and electronics). He ran an office. Second, by observing leadership being practiced by his clients, the CEOs of large companies. And third, by teaching it. He led training programs for new partners at McKinsey for several years.

“How can you tell if someone has been an effective leader?” Tom asks. “In the real world there are tremendous limitations on the power of individual leaders. They can throw a lot of money and people at a problem and struggle as often as they succeed.” Even at McKinsey, Tom notes, well-regarded consultants frequently failed when asked to assume operating or managerial roles.

Real progress, he believes, requires not only intelligence and effort, but the perception of mutual interest among the partners. “The importance of perceived – and real – mutual interest has been reinforced by my experiences at Tapestry. Value gets created when there is collaboration across constituencies that have what seem to be antithetical goals. The trick is not to out-spend or out-think your competitors or opponents, but to find a broad goal that everyone can embrace as critical to their interests and success. Trust, friendship, and courage are just as important as intelligence and insight.”

Tom adds that in business school you learn that corporate strategy is about competitive advantage and win-lose. “But Tapestry is about collaborative strategy and win-win. That is the new lesson of leadership we are determined to prove.”

Tom remains an avid Duke fan. “I was an athlete throughout high school. When I got to Duke I barely made the freshman basketball team: the 15th man on a 14-man squad. I got into about six of 20 games in the last five minutes, but I loved it. It was still great to work hard at something you love, even though there wasn’t much glory.”