MICHAL LEV-RAM: You took on the CEO role at DuPont in 2008, I think. So you were immediately thrown into a crisis there. And you've got this great quote I heard you say a while back. "I just got my dream job at the worst possible moment." Can you talk a little bit about what principles you learned in leading through previous crises and how that applies today? ELLEN KULLMAN: It was interesting because everybody was scared. Nobody knew what was going to happen, or when the recovery would start, or how it would impact different industries. And so the first thing that I've learned in a number of recessions and different areas of crisis that I've dealt with is that you need to focus on what you can control. There's a lot of time wasted worrying and discussing things that you cannot impact. And so it's really important to get the team to focus on, OK, what can we do? What levers do we have? What's important for us to accomplish? And get aligned around that and keep driving. I think the second thing is that people just want it to return to normal. And it's not going to. The normal is going to be different. So you've got to create your own trajectory. You have to really understand the impact of the crisis on the company, on the environment, on your marketplace, and what plans have to change. What do you have to do differently to be successful coming out of it? The third is communicate, communicate, communicate. Because people are scared. People don't know what the future's going to bring. And it's reassuring to them to see what our plan is to understand the actions that we're taking. And the last one is about the values of the company and how to hold them close during this time. That gives people a sense of confidence that that is not going to change, that we're still going to be-- hold our core values, treat our people with respect. Whatever your core values are, you're going to hold them dear and constant during the period. And it's those four things that I've learned over the years that really served me well during the global financial crisis and are serving me well today. 

"You need to focus on what you can control," says Ellen Kullman.


Carbon CEO on how to lead through crisis 

"Focus on what you can control," says Ellen Kullman.

Carbon CEO on how to lead through crisis

"You need to focus on what you can control," says Ellen Kullman.