I hope you have some time today, because I have some great interviews with, and commentary on, some great CEOs.
However, I’m going to start at the opposite end of the spectrum. As you well know, there are plenty of CEOs that aren’t great or even mediocre, but are just plain lousy. Here is Forbes list of the 10 Biggest CEO Screw-ups Of 2010.
Enough of that, now on to the positive
First up is one of my favorite CEOs, GE’s Jeff Immelt, who took the hard road in taking the company back to its roots building real products based on creativity and innovation—as opposed to the financial engineering that drove the company under his predecessor, Jack Welch—and building people for the long term.
It’s a bottom-up approach that shuns hierarchy, and places most of the responsibility for continuous improvement on the teams. … Mr. Immelt also sees himself as the champion of what he calls “large-scale entrepreneurship” at G.E. By that, he means identifying long-term market shifts — “what’s next,” he says — and then marshaling the company’s research, manufacturing and marketing resources to capitalize on the opportunity.
Next is Kathy Savitt, C.E.O. of Lockerz, a social network and e-commerce site, who sees cynicism as the start of corporate cancer.
“Another cell of cynicism is when you feel a company is not actually living out its core values.”
Sometimes CEOs step out of the top role with the explanation that they want to focus on a more strategic role, but how many of them say publicly that they aren’t very good? Barry Diller did just that when he stepped down at IAC.
“I told them the company wasn’t being managed correctly,” Diller, 68, said. “I never thought I was a very good manager. I mean I am decent, but I want to go back to what I am good at, which is looking for opportunities to grow the business.”
People make the world go round. Love ’em or hate ’em they are the only thing that truly keeps boredom at bay. However, we’re not all fascinated by the same ones. Personally, I require more substance to fuel my interest than is usually offered by most of the glitterati and sports figures that many people follow; here are a few that I’ve enjoyed recently.
I always find salaries and those who receive them interesting and this synopsis of a Wall Street Journal article and the article itself (links in the synopsis) fill the bill. I especially chuckled when I saw that Steve Jobs would have made more holding his underwater options than he did with the restricted stock that replaced them; he also wouldn’t have gotten into a backdating bind.
Of all the articles written about Tony Hayward, my favorite was Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s guide to Hayward’s leadership skills. To wit: “deny and minimize problems; emphasize your own power and importance;make the story all about you; never apologize, and don’t even pretend to learn from your mistakes; and hang onto your job even when it’s clear you should go.”Although many executives practice one or more of these traits, the list seems a better fit for 99.9% of politicians past, present and, probably, future.
Next is an absorbing article about Alex Bogusky, the whiz of Madison Avenue—or he was. The guy responsible for Burger King’s success and Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” campaign quit. Not uncommon, but Bogusky not only left the industry and turned his considerable talents to making a kind of peaceful war on it.
Finally, the story of socialite Judith Peabody—a truly remarkable woman. Remarkable not just for the money she raised, but for her courage in the face of a disease that terrified a nation—AIDS. 30 years ago when even much of the medical profession refused to touch an AIDS patient, Judith Peabody spent hours visiting patients offering hugs and encouragement.
Let us start with a question. Do you read Schumpeter in The Economist? Most of the time I really like what he says, but every now and then I disagree.
A good example of this is The cult of the faceless boss; I don’t agree that a CEO has to be flamboyant, maniacal, egotisticical and overbearing to be brilliant.
I’m thinking of titling my new management tome: “How I Learned My Five Most Effective Management Habits in Kindergarten, While Winning Friends and Influencing People by Using a Twelve Step Program, and All Inspired by Sun Tzu and Genghis Khan.”
Speaking of overbearing and egotistical what do you think of this CEO? One can only hope that he’s been canned—better yet, he should become a patient in his own facility.
Finally, Peter Schutz, former CEO of Porsche, sums up the two necessities for success, “People buy other people and corporate culture,” something that made Zappos what it is, but that many executives forget.
Leadership Turn is ending; its last day is December 29. I’ve enjoyed writing it and our interaction since August 16, 2007; LT may end, but I’ll keep going at my other blog.
Your favorite features will continue, along with my take on corporate culture, motivation and my quirky, somewhat jaundiced, view of leadership. Please join me at MAPping Company Success or subscribe via RSS or EMAIL.
Saturday we looked at some incongruous actions and compensation of various CEOs and it reminded me of something I read a year or so ago, so I went looking and found it. Amazing!
I realize that housing is a touchy subject these days, but over the last few decade as houses got bigger and bigger I found it weirder and weirder.
There’s no way to ever convince me that any family or person, really needs a seven thousand-plus square foot house in order to live comfortably—let alone 10,000 and up.
The item I remembered article was an UpFront blurb in Business Week that I found hilarious.
The research was done by Finance professors David Yermack of New York University and Crocker Liu of Arizona State University and their conclusions casts housing excess in a new light.
The bigger or pricier the house…the greater the risk of lackluster shares.
If [the CEO] buys a big mansion, sell the stock. Many of these guys have been super performers, but at some point that stops, and they reap the benefits.
Seems reasonable to me.
Remember the old saying? Something about boys and the price of their toys.
Seems like the toys’ values are going up, while the boys’ values (and value) are decreasing. (Note: As used here, “boys” is genderless.)
I doubt that the current housing market has changed that particular mindset.
So the next time you go to invest, be sure to plug in the size of the CEOs home when evaluating a company and, thinking about it, the same probably applies to the entire C suite.
Grab a cup of coffee (or a beer it the sun is over the yardarm) because I have 4 superb items for you today.
First up is McKinsey’s Economic Survey one year after the official meltdown. You may have to register (it’s free), but it’s worth it.
Next is a must read article from Paul Krugman, a New York Times columnist and professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University in which he explains, as Bruce Nussbaum says, “how economists, especially the math-based, market-manic Chicago-school economists, have hurt the US and much of the rest of the world.” The title is How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? and it’s a must read.
Third is an interview with Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs. Blankfein talks abut management and how Goldman survived the financial crisis—this is not your typical imperial Wall Street CEO. You have a choice between a video of the interview or the transcript.
Executive compensation is in the limelight these days—not that it’s ever out. People have always been fascinated by the lavish paychecks of high profile players, whether business leaders or Hollywood icons.
The list of executives paid for non-performance in 2006 pales in comparison to CEO pay in 2008.
We’re all taught the value of hard work, exceeding goals, giving our all, but some have found a better way—a loving Board.
Non-performance bonus money isn’t new; in 2007 Coke had a $2.9 billion noncash charge in the fourth quarter, so they cut 3500 workers and their execs missed their performance bonus targets, but the Board stepped in, giving “…millions of dollars in “discretionary cash awards.”
And no matter how good a leader is, does any performance warrant an average of $144,573 a day for 13 years?
The explanation (excuse?) for these giant pay packages is the same one that kids have been using for generations—peer pressure.
Boards claim they can’t hire the best (AKA biggest name; best negotiator) without these outsize pay packages, but there are hundreds of skilled executives that could be had for less and who would probably do more.
For all the public outcry against outrageous pay there is none against the directors who don’t just approve it, but spend their effort outbidding the other Board.
When are they going to show some real leadership instead of whining and complaining about government interference?
And when will the washed and unwashed start putting the blame where it really belongs?
Little girls are made of “sugar and spice and everything nice;” little boys are made of “snakes and snails, and puppy dog tails;” and many (not all) “leaders” are made of ego and greed and the skill to mislead.
Today, a compilation study tell more about women’s efforts to achieve executive roles and three CEOs talk about why, how and what they did to outperform the competition.
Ladies first, so let’s start with the women. The ‘glass ceiling’ has been blamed for women’s inability to reach top executive levels, but a new study out of Harvard says that it’s more than that. Instead of one major barrier to hurdle, it’s a series of obstacles along the career path.
But women do make it. Women such as Dany Levy, founder of DailyCandy.com, who talks about managing, founding and running a company and the value of the “criticism sandwich — praise, constructive criticism, praise.”
Next A.G. Lafley, the storied CEO of a storied company—Procter & Gamble—talks about what a CEO does, no matter the business cycle.
Finally, meet Todd Wille, CEO of Unify Corp and the man the American Business Association named the best turnaround executive in 2008. Turnaround in 2008? Now, that’s saying something!
You may not be a CEO, you can learn from from them and tweak the information to work for you.
First is an article written by Neeraj Bhargava, who co-founded India’s WNS Global Services and ended up CEO. It’s interesting because the focus his learning curve in an overheated market, how he hired an exceptional team and got out of their way.
Next is an interview with James J. Schiro, CEO of Zurich Financial Services (they didn’t crash and burn) focusing on what he’s learned, how he manages, how he uses social media and building the company’s culture.
CEOs jobs are safer than they’ve been in a long time. That’s right, their boards and investors are sticking with the devil they know and giving them time to succeed, instead of turning them like flapjacks.
My final offering is for all you road warriors (warrior wannabes) or just people who like to work away from the office. If you have an iPhone or Blackberry you can do all your Office applications on it. (Better you than me:)
Oh goody. Another CEO study. I haven’t seen the study, but David Brooks (NY Times) gives an overview (whatever you do, don’t miss the comments), while Dan McCarthy (Great Leadership laments the fascination with such studies.
I pretty much ignore them, except for their amusement value—sort of like all the food studies that tell us which food that was recommended last year will kill us this year.
Speaking of which, I wish someone would do a study like that on CEOs.
A ranking of CEOs who were lauded for x amount of time before they crashed and burned for the same traits that were their supposed strengths.
And a corollary ranking of all the pundits, gurus and executive coaches who did the lauding and how many have come forward to apologize for mistaking hubris for competence.
CEOs have the spotlight today—about them, from them and for them.
CEOs have never liked anything that comes between them and the compensation they believe they deserve—not independent directors, governance gurus, sensibility and certainly not TARP. Business Week offers an interesting overview of TARP’s effect on CEO engagement, but it’s the readers’ comments that make the story unique.
What exactly does a CEO contribute to the organization? In an excellent article from A.G. Lafley, Procter & Gamble’s CEO, talks about the most important things to focus on, wherever you are in the business cycle.
Now learn interesting lessons from a Bollywood dance class and a parent who asks “Can our leaders dance?”.
By now, everybody has heard of Susan Boyle; in this article from Harvard Business Publishing Peter Bregman discusses how to find the ‘Susan Boyles’, i.e., hidden talent, in your organization.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
I hope you have some time today, because I have some great interviews with, and commentary on, some great CEOs.
Let us start with a question. Do you read 
First up is 
Little girls are made of “sugar and spice and everything nice;” little boys are made of “snakes and snails, and puppy dog tails;” and many (not all) “leaders” are made of ego and greed and the skill to mislead.
I pretty much ignore them, except for their amusement value—sort of like all the food studies that tell us which food that was recommended last year will kill us this year.
CEOs have never liked anything that comes between them and the compensation they believe they deserve—not independent directors, governance gurus, sensibility and certainly not TARP. Business Week offers an interesting overview of 
