Success is actually a formula. Intelligence multiplied by hard work multiplied by luck and multiplied by relationships. I go back to 1984. That was the time I just graduated from graduate school and joined the World Bank in Washington, D.C. I have always been fascinated by geography and different cultures and the international world. So this gave me a great perspective because I was interacting with all these colleagues every day, which then I took as I changed careers and I joined the asset management world to convert or to help the journey of parochial asset managers that were very U.S.-centric to make them more global.
The long-term strategy determines a company's survival. If you see the Fortune 500 or the Dow 30, so many companies today are perishing because the life cycles are much shorter. You really have to look out five, 10 years. But at the same time, while you're thinking strategic, you have to be tactical in the short term. So as a leader, you have to have this kind of bifocal vision, thinking long term but being tactical in the short term. And having individuals that can help you navigate through that environment is key.
When I was running sales at Franklin Templeton, I was very passionate about how data can, whether it's AI and predictive leads, can change productivity. We started a data lab in Hyderabad, India, and individuals there were providing data feeds to the sales team here in the United States. And using that, the sales team actually set up schedules of whom to meet for how long and what products to offer. And very quickly, we realized that we saw a bump in the top line by about 15 to 20 percent. The proof of the pudding was in the eating. Once we saw that data actually helped salespeople increase sales, we then married a data expert with a salesperson and had a team of two. And that really took off. And today, that's pretty much quite common in the industry.
One thing that in a global organization you have control on is your relationships. And that's very, very important. I think people are forgetting about that. Spending that extra time, whether having a cup of coffee or lunch or spending time picking up the phone or a Zoom call with colleagues across the globe. Because when opportunities do arise, you are otherwise going to be forgotten. So you need to build those relationships across the firm, across the globe. And it takes time.