James Keyes

While it may be out of your brain and in someone else's inbox, every time you send a team member an email late at night, you're stealing minutes from their family. And I want you just to think about, you can write the email, just don't send it. Save it as a draft and send it tomorrow.

While it may be out of your brain and in someone else's inbox, every time you send a team member an email late at night, you're stealing minutes from their family. And I want you just to think about, you can write the email, just don't send it. Save it as a draft and send it tomorrow.

There are so many ways as a leader, we can help prevent this wasted money and time when we start focusing on how we can eliminate being a distraction.

There are so many ways as a leader, we can help prevent this wasted money and time when we start focusing on how we can eliminate being a distraction.

People forget that 7-Eleven was bankrupt back in 1991, shortly after I joined the company. And I thought, man, what a bad career decision. I went from a major oil company to 7-Eleven thinking that it was going to be a great career trajectory. And I find them now bankrupt. This is one of those things that change equals opportunity.

People forget that 7-Eleven was bankrupt back in 1991, shortly after I joined the company. And I thought, man, what a bad career decision. I went from a major oil company to 7-Eleven thinking that it was going to be a great career trajectory. And I find them now bankrupt. This is one of those things that change equals opportunity.

The company had 10 years of same-store sales declines, was really on a difficult trajectory. It was growing still, but it was having trouble keeping up with competitors, and it ultimately had to file for bankruptcy. But... that gave it the opportunity to reinvent itself.

The company had 10 years of same-store sales declines, was really on a difficult trajectory. It was growing still, but it was having trouble keeping up with competitors, and it ultimately had to file for bankruptcy. But... that gave it the opportunity to reinvent itself.

We were able to look at the success of our licensed operations around the world, places like Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, bring those learnings back to the United States. So we were able to reinvent the company and come out of bankruptcy as a successful entity. For me personally, It ended up being a great opportunity because I thought I was going to lose my job like everybody else.

We were able to look at the success of our licensed operations around the world, places like Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, bring those learnings back to the United States. So we were able to reinvent the company and come out of bankruptcy as a successful entity. For me personally, It ended up being a great opportunity because I thought I was going to lose my job like everybody else.

But we came out of bankruptcy and I ended up with a promotion and was put in charge of strategic planning for the new enterprise, led to then a career trajectory that gave me an opportunity ultimately to be CEO of 7-Eleven. So we took adversity, crisis, and then turned it into the next 10 years, 15 years of significant success, which when we sold the company in the year 2005,

But we came out of bankruptcy and I ended up with a promotion and was put in charge of strategic planning for the new enterprise, led to then a career trajectory that gave me an opportunity ultimately to be CEO of 7-Eleven. So we took adversity, crisis, and then turned it into the next 10 years, 15 years of significant success, which when we sold the company in the year 2005,

Gave me the opportunity then to take on the challenge of Blockbuster. So I went into Blockbuster, eyes wide open. I knew it was going to be a challenge. Didn't know the kind of challenge we would face. Yeah. Because no one thinks about Blockbuster and 7-Eleven as the same thing, except they're two iconic brands, right?

Gave me the opportunity then to take on the challenge of Blockbuster. So I went into Blockbuster, eyes wide open. I knew it was going to be a challenge. Didn't know the kind of challenge we would face. Yeah. Because no one thinks about Blockbuster and 7-Eleven as the same thing, except they're two iconic brands, right?

If you think about the nature of Blockbuster's business, it wasn't renting DVDs. That wasn't their business. Their business was convenient access to media entertainment. It's a convenience business, not unlike 7-Eleven. They made the pivot from VHS tapes, which is where the industry started, to DVDs. DVDs were more convenient access to media entertainment. So they made that pivot successfully.

If you think about the nature of Blockbuster's business, it wasn't renting DVDs. That wasn't their business. Their business was convenient access to media entertainment. It's a convenience business, not unlike 7-Eleven. They made the pivot from VHS tapes, which is where the industry started, to DVDs. DVDs were more convenient access to media entertainment. So they made that pivot successfully.

The digital transition was coming. Clearly, it was coming. I wanted to take the company there. My very first act as CEO was to buy a streaming video company called Blockbuster On Demand. So we had a massive competitive advantage versus Netflix because Netflix had DVDs by mail, very little else. They had streaming, but they had very old movies.

The digital transition was coming. Clearly, it was coming. I wanted to take the company there. My very first act as CEO was to buy a streaming video company called Blockbuster On Demand. So we had a massive competitive advantage versus Netflix because Netflix had DVDs by mail, very little else. They had streaming, but they had very old movies.

MovieLink had new releases, which was 80% of the blockbuster business. So we had a much better offering, arguably, a streaming platform, DVDs by mail, stores, in case you didn't want the one you got by mail, you could exchange it. We had kiosks. So we had something called total access, which is any way you want your media entertainment, we have it for you.

MovieLink had new releases, which was 80% of the blockbuster business. So we had a much better offering, arguably, a streaming platform, DVDs by mail, stores, in case you didn't want the one you got by mail, you could exchange it. We had kiosks. So we had something called total access, which is any way you want your media entertainment, we have it for you.