Fast Track to the Top: Peter Handal of Dale Carnegie & Associates

About the company: Dale Carnegie & Associates is the oldest training company in the world. Its operations are based on Dale Carnegie’s famous best seller, How to Win Friends and Influence People. The company maintains 200 offices, both franchised and company-owned, in 70 countries.

1888: Dale Carnegie is born in Missouri.

1912: After moving to New York to pursue both sales and acting, Carnegie ends up teaching communications classes at the YMCA. His lesson plans become the foundation for the now-famous Dale Carnegie Course. 

1936: Dale Carnegie publishes How to Win Friends and Influence People. To date, more than 30 million copies have been sold worldwide.

1954: Dale Carnegie & Associates is incorporated.

1955: Dale Carnegie dies.

2000: Peter Handal, a former board member, is named president, chairman, and CEO of Dale Carnegie & Associates.

Biggest initial challenge: “When I first started, the challenge was how to build on the culture we had without changing it, without destroying it. You needed to maintain the good things – the fact people were committed to what we did, that they were honorable and ethical and extremely hardworking – and at the same time build on them.”

Company expansion: “We’ve been international for many years, but since I’ve been with the company we’ve expanded into places like India, Romania, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, China. I do a fair amount of traveling. I’m not one of those people who think you can look at a computer screen and really know what’s going on out there.”

Sales philosophy: “To me, sales is what makes the world go ’round. I love closing the deal.”

First strategic plan: “When I was 5 years old, I almost died a couple of times from asthma. It was a really very serious thing back in those days. I remember being at the doctor’s office – I even remember his name, Dr. Rosenblum, and he had a beard, a goatee and a little moustache. He kind of looked like pictures of  Sigmund Freud. He was about to do the examination and he was trying to relax me, so he said, ‘Peter, what do you want to be when you grow up?’ I said to him instantly, ‘I want to be happy.’ That was my first strategic plan.”

In the classroom: In addition to the original sales training courses, Dale Carnegie & Associates also offers courses in leadership for managers, presentations workshops, and corporate solutions. Seven million people have graduated from Dale Carnegie training courses. Currently, more than 2,700 professional instructors lead Dale Carnegie training courses in more than 75 countries.

Basic Dale Carnegie principle: “Smile.”