In October 1996, he became chairman and CEO of Bay Networks Inc., a troubled manufacturer of high-tech equipment that was competing against giants such as Cisco Systems and 3Com. When he moved to Bay, House gave himself 60 days to diagnose its problems. Then he began to act. But the new CEO didn't liquidate divisions or slash head count. He taught courses.
Culture is what people fall back on when there are no instructions.
It gives you rules for when there are no rules, and it provides a common language for moving forward. So he created four courses to teach the practices that he'd honed during his two decades at Intel. These classes helped people set priorities, allocate resources, and get things done. House taught the courses to Bay's 120 highest-ranking executives. Every 30 days, he taught a new course to four classes, each with 30 students.