The one sentence that took Carnival's CEO from poverty to running a $48 billion company Words have the power to transform your life. Just ask Arnold Donald, CEO of the world's largest leisure travel company, Carnival Corporation. In junior high, Donald was recognized as an academically gifted student so his parents enrolled him at St. Augustine, an all-male, all-black Catholic high school in New Orleans. Everyday, three times a day, the school blasted this message through its PA system: "Gentlemen prepare yourselves. You're going to run the world." These nine words had a profound impact on a young Donald, who grew up in New Orleans' poverty-stricken, crime-ridden 9th Ward and attended high school during the civil rights movement. At age 16, Donald decided that he was going to be a general manager at a Fortune 50 science-based global company and he began creating a career plan. "I mapped it my junior year in high school and I kept mapping throughout college," the 63-year-old CEO tells CNBC Make It. His first step was determining which college degrees would help him achieve his goal. "I said well, 'I'm going to have to have an MBA, a business degree,'" recalls Donald. But not just any business school would do. Donald wanted to gain acceptance into the top MBA program, which meant that he needed the best credentials in order to stand out from the competition. So he pivoted and focused on selecting the right undergraduate courses. Since he wanted to work at a science-based company, Donald chose to major in engineering at Washington University. Still, that wasn't enough. "[I knew that] if I got two undergraduate degrees then that would differentiate me from other people applying to business school," he says. Donald figured that other applicants would take a similar STEM path, so he pursed an economics degree at Carleton College in Minnesota. "I had to do a bunch more credits and everything but it made me different," says Donald. "My goal was to always differentiate and at the same time be prepared." With two degrees, Donald knew that when an opportunity arose he'd be well-prepared to take advantage of it. "It's all about maximizing profitability," the CEO explains. His plan worked. He received admission to the University Of Chicago Booth School of Business (voted the No. 1 business school in the country in 2018). While attending Booth, Donald revisiting his career outline after reaching out to "a gazillion" CEOs to find out how they got their positions. "The takeaway I got was, make sure every job you have prepares you to excel in the next job," recalls Donald. The CEOs also advised the business student to focus on job content and responsibility, instead of title and money. "So I mapped it out," he says. "I had a whole career plan and then I executed it." Donald's decision to abide by his high school mantra of preparation served him well upon graduating from Booth. He received 20 job offers and accepted a position at Monsanto, the Missouri-based agricultural biotech company, where he quickly moved up in rank. At the age of 32, Donald was named general manager at Monsanto and achieved the goal he had set half a lifetime ago. After spending roughly two decades with the organization, Donald purchased Monsanto's Equal sugar substitute with a group of investors. Together, they created a new company called Merisant, with headquarters in Chicago. Donald led as CEO for three years before stepping down and remained as chairman for two more years before retiring at age 51. In 2013, Carnival Corporation called him out of retirement. At the time, the Miami-based company was facing two public relations nightmares: In 2012, one of their ships had capsized off the coast of Italy, killing 32 people. Then in 2013, a ship suffered a power outage, which affected its sanitation system and left 4,200 passengers dealing with raw sewage and fecal matter. Even though the economy was booming, Carnival's profits were stagnant and shareholders were getting agitated. In July 2013, Donald took over the company and almost five years later, the travel brand has experienced a remarkable turnaround. For two consecutive years, the cruise line has boasted it's highest profits in the company's 45-year history and has nearly doubled its stock price from $34.85 in 2013 to $66.91 at the end of the first quarter of 2018, according to Carnival. Donald's performance as CEO hasn't gone unnoticed either. In fact, CNBC's "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer called him "the man who may be the best turnaround artist of our time." However, Donald says that his rise to the top of Carnival's $48 billion empire was simply a matter of internalizing St. Augustine's call nearly 50 years ago. "If you prepare and [have] no excuses, you can pretty much do whatever you want," he says.
About 100,000 or so plus ancillary industries that support services to the ports and hire people. If you are going to measure by just jobs their economic impact in Florida alone is about $7 billion or so...
It was my impression most of the people working on the ships are from all over the world, and not the US. We just supply the paying customers. Carnival is incorporated out of Panama I believe. I don’t think any of the cruise-lines pay a lot of taxes here. Lot’s of loopholes.
IF Trump doesn't bail them out Biden will if he is the next President. And Pelosi will make a deal where 2,000 abortions will have to occur during every cruise. That is how the Dems work.
No, not directly on the cruisehips. I am talking about the employees at the offices in the U.S. of the 3 main cruise ship companies as well as the port personnel that service the ships in the port offices. Plus the business of the cruise ships provides employment U.S. based for security, maintenance, local companies that provide food and drink supplies, transportation not to mention travel agents and those that provide other services to the ships and associated labor. For Florida which probably has the most cruise ship ports (Miami, Tampa, Port Canaveral, Ft. Lauderdale), the U.S> jobs created could be 200,000 - 300,000 when all services and supply is taken into account as well as the several billions added to local economy. And this is mainly Florida, not counting California, NY/NJ and Washington or Texas and Louisiana and Maryland.
Understand they have a big footprint on local economies, I just have a hard time bailing out any company that shelters itself offshore to avoid taxing/employer regulations then wants the government to bail them out. Im sure there’s some concessions, some way to ensure they’re still around after this is behind us. Just leaves a bad taste.
I think there is a way to structure out so that the cruise ship gets a benefit the truly benefits the local economy they support. Unfortunately this was rushed through in a few days with GOP and Dem Senators who understand nothing about business so they would not be able to do what needed to be done. I proposed a structured payment to the cruise ship companies based on business representation in the U.S. related to the employees AND a separate fund for U.S. companies which establish that 50% or more of their revenues come from supporting the cruising industry. Simple test. Then, when the cruiseships start working again, every ticket gets a $25 tax added on and those revenues go to pay back the funds supplied. Within a year or two, the cruise ship business will pay back what they received and then some. $25 on a $600 or $1,200 ticket is nothing and will not affect the business. Cruise ships will make that back elsewhere and Federal government gets revenues that it does not get on cruise ship corporate taxes. There may already be state tourist taxes but this is for federal funds. Done like that it should work great but Schumer and Mitchell never asked me for my input so....I might have to write an op ed haha
Debate is over. Carnival is raising it's own $6 billion now by issuing debt and selling stock. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/31/cru...-6-billion-in-stock-and-debt-shares-jump.html
Trump has already said he plans to help them. Trump seeks help for cruise industry hit by coronavirus President Donald Trump on Monday said he has plans to help the cruise and airline industries that have been “hard hit” by an outbreak of the coronavirus, as his administration sent mixed signals over whether Americans should proceed with holiday cruise plans. “We’re working with them very, very strongly,” Trump told reporters, referring to airline and cruise line executives who have met with White House officials in recent days. He also said that the administration is talking to the hotel industry. “Some places actually will do well, and some places probably won’t do well at all,” the president said. Vice President Mike Pence said the administration would roll out details on Tuesday, and said it had requested major reforms to the cruise line industry.