Know Your Values and Be Prepared: An Interview with Paul H. O'Neill

• Author: James L. Perry
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12640
• Published date: 01 January 2017
• Date: 01 January 2017

Know Your Values and Be Prepared: An Interview with Paul H. O’Neill 131

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 1, pp. 131–134. © 2016 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12640.

James L. Perry is Distinguished

Professor Emeritus in the School of

Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana

University, Bloomington, and Distinguished

Visiting Professor at The University of

Hong Kong. He is editor in chief of

Public

Administration Review

.

E-mail: perry@indiana.edu

P aul H. O ’ Neill served as the 72nd U.S. secretary

of the treasury from January 2001 to December

2002 during President George W. Bush ’ s first

term. Immediately prior to becoming secretary of the

treasury, O ’ Neill was chairman and chief executive

officer (CEO) of Alcoa and chairman of the RAND

Corporation.

O ’ Neill ’ s public service career began in 1961 as a

computer systems analyst with the U.S. Department

of Veterans Affairs (VA). Prior to that, he received

a bachelor ’ s degree in economics from California

State University, Fresno, and studied economics at

Claremont Graduate University. In 1966, he left

the VA to pursue a master of public administration

degree at Indiana University Bloomington, where

he graduated in 1967. He joined the U.S. Bureau of

the Budget, which later became the U.S. Office of

Management and Budget (OMB), in 1967, and was

deputy director of the OMB from 1974 to 1977.

O ’ Neill became vice president of International Paper

in New York City in 1977, following President Gerald

Ford ’ s 1976 election loss. He was vice president until

1985 and president from 1985 to 1987. O ’ Neill was

chairman and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Alcoa from

1987 to 1999 and retired as chairman at the end of

2000. During O ’ Neill ’ s tenure, Alcoa ’ s market value

increased from $3 billion in 1986 to $27.53 billion

in 2000.

In December 1997, O ’ Neill was cofounder of the

Pittsburgh Regional Health

Initiative. O ’ Neill subsequently

became a leader locally and

nationally in issues of health

care quality and patient safety.

O ’ Neill currently resides in

Pittsburgh. He met with PA R

Editor in Chief James L. Perry

for this interview on May 6,

2016.

Perry: Mr. O ’ Neill, thanks for agreeing to the interview

today. We appreciate your taking the time. You have

been successful at the pinnacles of organizations across

the government, business, and health sectors. What

were the constants across your successes in the diverse

organizations and community initiatives that you

have led?

O ’ Neill: I would say two things. First, on the personal

level, the Boy Scout idea of being prepared is really

a good idea. For individuals, I found it really is

enormously important and helpful to be prepared

about your subject, which means being an endless

student and taking on new information all of the time.

As an organizational leader, there is something

else that you need to do. You need to articulate

and practice values that engage everyone in the

organization and release all of the energy of the people

in the organization in a positive way. I think if you

engage and enable people, and encourage people to

make a contribution, the same organization without

that structure will be just adequate or a dismal failure.

With that framework, you will be able to accomplish

things most people would say can ’ t be done.

Perry: Some scholars and executives have argued that

there are significant differences in leading organizations

across the sectors. Do you agree?

O ’ Neill: I don ’ t really think that ’ s right. I think

obviously the sectors are different, so what you are

doing in a private company

or in the public sector, in the

federal government, or in a

nonprofit organization, the

subjects and information are

different, but I don ’ t think

leadership is different. I think

real leadership is about a value

structure. I think that ’ s a

constant. No matter what kind

of organization you ’ re in, the value structure ought

W. Henry Lambright , Editor

James L. Perry

Indiana University, Bloomington

The University of Hong Kong, China

Know Your Values and Be Prepared:

An Interview with Paul H. O ’ Neill

Administrative

Prof‌i le

No matter what kind of organi-

zation you ’ re in, the value struc-

ture ought to be present; the

conditions and practices ought

to be the same no matter what

sector it is.