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| Volume 7, Issue 7 |
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In This Issue:
 The making of a U.S. CEO
Ditching diversification
Less [CEO severence] is more
The lure of the vines
 The CEO's holiday gift guide
Making the tough call
 Growing CEOs from the inside
 The new road warrior
Analysis of paralysis
 Boost your presentation performance
Beating the holiday season sales blues
Training exclusive: First comprehensive corporate video library
Data auditing: How to protect your most valuable asset online
Millennials: Alterior lifeform or fellow prioritizer?
 Bosses to be thankful for
Judgment: How winning leaders make great calls
What executives want now
The economy's $2 trillion worry
 What makes a superperforming CEO?
How to keep your employees happy
Billionaire wives club gets new member
America's undervalued real estate markets
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The making of a U.S. CEO
What can business executives learn from political candidates?
The U.S. presidential race is entering high season, and leading candidates are jockeying for position. Since leadership is the driving quality that Americans seek in their commander-in-chief, their national CEO, we can discern leadership lessons
from what these candidates do well, and sometimes more tellingly, from what they don’t do so well. Let’s review our candidates and infer general principles that business executives might apply in their own careers, particularly as they seek
promotion to senior management, where leadership is properly the defining characteristic and often the deciding one.
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Ditching diversification
Charles E. Bunch, CEO of PPG Industries
Since taking the CEO seat at Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries in 2005, Charles (Chuck) E. Bunch has been leading a charge to transform the coatings, glass and chemical company into a more focused and more global entity. CE talked with Bunch
about his ambitious acquisition and divestiture program for the $10.2 billion company—and the strategy behind the dramatic change...
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Less [CEO severence] is more
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When it comes to CEO severance more companies are rethinking first principles.
There are few subjects as toxic as CEO severance, especially when it comes to so-called “pay for failure” as when a CEO is politely shown the door when performance has been lackluster. Every so often another outrage du jour inflames
critics who fulminate about CEO compensation that is said to be out of control. The most celebrated cases were Michael Ovitz’ disastrous 14 month tenure as CEO of Disney where he walked away with a total payout of $140 million. When Hank McKinnell
was forced out at Pfizer after five years and a continuous slide in the share price he walked away with $180 million. Then there is everyone’s favorite, Bob Nardelli’s departure from Home Depot after six years. His severance payment came to an
eye-popping $210 million. Carly Fiorina who was pushed out after five years received only $42 million. Yahoo’s Terry Semel actually departed without any severance but he earned $400 million during his three years with the company. Some these payments
were the lump sums of total pensions, long-term compensation and stock or restricted stock awards accumulated over the length of the CEO’s tenure. And some, properly understood were actually part of the hiring costs incurred in attracting top talent.
Everyone forgets that Nardelli, for example, was hired in 2000 at the very top of the pay-for-talent market where the GE options he had coming had to be compensated for. It’s worth noting that many tech companies do not make severance arrangements
at all. Cisco, Google, Intel, and Microsoft do not have exit packages for their senior executives. Many critics of CEO pay like it that way. However, this is not the norm. According to research by Equilar, a compensation research firm, the median
potential CEO severance for companies in the Fortune 200 is about...
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The lure of the vines
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Why CEOs make the move from executive suite to wine cellar.
Many CEOs dream of jettisoning the constant pressure of their day jobs for the pleasure of running a business that indulges a personal passion. Owning or running a winery gives many top executives the opportunity to live that fantasy. It’s an
industry that embodies social cache, glamour and lifestyle. And how many jobs justify the constant sampling of delicious wines as homework? So perhaps it’s no surprise that a number of top executives, celebrities and business titans have built
or purchased wineries. Well-known examples include the Firestone family, the movie producer/director Francis Ford Coppola, Tom Jordan of Jordan Oil and Gas, and Joe Phelps, the former Colorado construction magnate, all of whom proudly feature their
family names on their wine labels. Other CEOs “retire” to run wineries, as did Lewis E. Platt, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, who joined Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates, one of Napa Valley’s biggest wineries. Because vineyard management, grape harvesting,
winemaking, distribution and marketing can keep a winery executive in harness 24 hours a day, there are only a handful of CEOs who can run a winery in addition to their regular day jobs. T.J. Rodgers, founder, president and CEO of 6,500-employee
Cypress Semiconductor, is perhaps the best example...
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Slide Show: The CEO's holiday gift guide
Keeping track of so many items around the office can drive you crazy. This multi-tag homing device will guide you to the exact location of any tagged object within minutes, whether it's an annual report or the CEO's cat...
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Making the tough call
Great leaders recognize when their values are on the line.
Great leaders are celebrated for their judgment. But what is good judgment and how do the best leaders sustain it? It's not a matter of intellect or of the ability to make the right decision in an instant, but of character. Character provides the
moral compass--it tells you what you must do. Then there's courage. It produces results, ensuring that you follow through on the decision you've made. No matter what processes you follow, no matter how hard you try, without character and
courage, no one can clear the high bar that is judgment. You may luck into making some good decisions and sometimes obtain good results, but without character and courage, you will falter on the most difficult and most important questions. Jim
Hackett, the CEO of Steelcase (NYSE:SCS), the office furniture company, has spent much of his career thinking about what it means to be a leader who operates based on a clear set of values. He began to develop this way of thinking, he says, after a
meeting with the hotelier Bill Marriott. The men met at a pivotal moment in Hackett's business career. He was 39 and had become president of Steelcase only six months earlier. Marriott, meanwhile, was then in his seventies and had been running
the Marriott (NYSE:MAR) hotel empire for decades. Despite the gap in their ages, the two men had some things in common and they hit it off. "I was young, trying to change an old family business and he was old, trying to change an old family
business," Hackett recalls. Much of their conversation focused on...
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The new road warrior
If you're like me, you're on the road a lot. From February to September this year, I put 13,000 miles on my car driving around Silicon Valley, plus I'm regularly on a plane headed
to conferences. Of course, I need to stay in touch with people back home and get work done even when I'm running around.
In the past year, a series of new services for road warriors have hit the market, and they go way beyond email and calendaring. It's now much more possible to live away from your computer and stay fully connected. You do need a smartphone--such as an iPhone, Nokia N95,
or a newer BlackBerry--to use most of these apps, but if you're hard core, you've probably already got one. Spend a few minutes at home outfitting your phone, and you're all set. Oh, yeah: All the services are free, unless otherwise noted...
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Analysis of paralysis
"Keep it simple, stupid." That's the advice every executive has received on how to share strategy with employees. The subtext is often, "Keep it simple, because your people are stupid."
But you don't need to embrace simplicity just so your people can comprehend your message. The point of simplicity is more fundamental: Simplicity allows people to act. Researchers Eldar Shafir and Donald Redelmeier helped prove this point in an article in The Journal of
the American Medical Association. They gave doctors the medical history of a 67-year-old man who'd been suffering chronic hip pain from osteoarthritis. He'd been given drugs to treat his pain, but they had been ineffective, so there was only one viable option:
hip-replacement surgery, which would involve a long and painful recovery. Then a final check with the pharmacy uncovered one medication that hadn't been tried. Would the doctors like to give the drug a shot? Forty-seven percent of doctors chose to try the medication in
a final attempt to keep the patient from going under the knife. Another group of doctors saw the same facts, except they were told that the pharmacy had discovered two medications that hadn't been tried. If you were the patient with the bum hip, you'd be thrilled--two
nonsurgical options are better than one. But when the doctors were presented with two nonsurgical options, only 28% chose to try either one. What happened here is...
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Boost your presentation performance
We've all heard the statistic that people fear public speaking more than death. It may be an urban myth—but death? Wow, that’s some powerful fear.
Look, if you're in business and you work in any department where you need to communicate with others—inside or outside your organization— then, guess what? You've got to make presentations. But there is some good news. Often this fear is
actually presentation performance anxiety—which isn't life threatening. Rather than live in fear of your next presentation, you need some ways you can build confidence in your presentation skills. Increasing your presentation performance will reduce
your fear and accelerate your career. So how can you improve your presentation performance? I use the term "presentation performance," because, just like sports, there are certain techniques, tactics and strategies you can master. Are some people
better presenters than others? Of course! But you can become a better presenter over time as well. Interestingly, it's not the act of presenting that causes all of the angst; it's the doubt in your presentation itself—your message—that often causes the
pain. Ever notice that some of the strongest actors and actresses become absolute boors and goofballs when they're accepting an award or sitting on a talk show couch? It's because they no longer have a script, a solid story to tell. Here's seven tips
that will help you significantly boost your presentation performance...
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Beating the holiday season sales blues
The holidays are slow" simply isn't a valid excuse anymore.
In companies all across the US, the holidays are a time for parties, company grab bags and most importantly vacation. Yet, for sales professionals the holiday season offers only two undisputable truths: same targets and less time. There is, however,
a light at the end of the tunnel. The good news for sales professionals is that the show must go on. Even during the holiday season, large and small companies across all industries still require products and services to maximize their ROI. This ray
of hope means that a sales professional must focus on a few basic elements in the sales process to ensure all of their sales targets are met—even exceeded—well ahead of schedule.
1. Be proactive.
Have you ever waited until the last second to do your Christmas shopping? You feel desperate, helpless and end up "settling" for something you are not happy with. The same can be said for chasing your target on December 15. But the best thing about
the holiday season is that it never comes as a surprise. Every year, right around the end of November, we begin hearing those cheery voicemail messages from prospects enlightening us...
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Training exclusive: First comprehensive corporate video library
Corporate University Xchange gave Training's editors the inside story today on a new and unique corporate resource: CorpU TV
Corporate University Xchange (CorpU) launched CorpU TV, a Website featuring mini-documentaries and an archive of video interviews with corporations and training researchers. The site debuts with an inside look at JetBlue's business and talent strategy. In this first "episode" of a bi-monthly mini-documentary series CorpU calls "The People Factor," JetBlue Chief Learning Officer Mike Barger discusses how the company's employees and customer-driven culture boost its success.
[In addition to "The People Factor," CorpU TV features a searchable database of video interviews with learning executives at global companies and organizations, including Caterpillar, U.S. Army, Ritz Carlton, Staples and Credit Suisse]...
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Data auditing: How to protect your most valuable asset online
Do you know what your most valuable asset online is? It's your intellectual property, also known as your data.
Proprietary data loss, theft and inadvertent exposure on the Web are real and unavoidable dangers going hand-in-hand with modern business operations. Among many other culprits, information can be lost or compromised due to human error,
corruption, digital attack and fraud. But routine, real-time data audits provide a proactive defense strategy companies can use to protect their data. Whether customer, product, personnel or financial information, every organization depends on
it. Here are the top five ways data audits will protect your company:...
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Millennials: Alterior lifeform or fellow prioritizer?
A second look at the career priorities of the incoming working generation .
What do you think of when you hear the term "Millennial?" Probably words such as "young," "flighty," and even "career-unfocused" come to mind. But have Baby Boomers and Gen Xers been too quick to misjudge and dismiss the incoming workforce's
mindset? A new study from global staffing and consulting service company Robert Half International and Yahoo! HotJobs says that may be the case—and the generational gap might not be as wide as first thought....
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Bosses to be thankful for
With Thanks-giving just ahead, what better time to reflect on our managers and the things they get right?
It seems that everywhere you look, there's a new piece of workplace advice offered to help us deal with difficult, cranky, or micro-managing bosses. Sure, there are some less-than-sensational managers out there. But what about the good ones—the
bosses to be thankful for? Before we rush off to the bar to share boss-from-hell horror stories with our friends, let's take a moment to reflect on the unsung, tremendous managers that each of us has run across at least once or twice in our
careers. Sometimes, we don't recognize a boss' strengths until we've moved on. Three months into a new assignment with a thundering, or mealymouthed, or intellectually absent boss, it hits us with the force of a lightning bolt: We didn't have it all
that bad before. All of a sudden, we appreciate...
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Judgment: How winning leaders make great calls
Excellent decisions don't often happen by accident. In this excerpt, the authors highlight the elements—and the masters—of effective action.
When Jim McNerney became CEO of Boeing (BA ) in 2005, the company was in crisis. He was Boeing's third chief executive in three years. Two years earlier, Phil Condit had been forced to resign the job as a result of various ethical violations alleged
to have taken place under his watch. Next, a widely respected former Boeing president, Harry Stonecipher, had been called back to the CEO post by the corporation's board, only to be edged out himself after revelations of a liaison
with a female Boeing executive. The improper behavior that surrounded Condit's ouster, purportedly including the acquisition of thousands of pages of proprietary documents from rival Lockheed Martin (LMT ) that were used to help Boeing win
contract work from the government, had prompted a Justice Dept. investigation. Boeing's senior ranks were demoralized, and employees throughout the organization were frustrated and embarrassed. McNerney had watched events unfold from his seat on
the company's board of directors. He was acutely aware that the crisis would represent a watershed in his leadership and afford him a chance to reenergize the corporation. In response, he agreed to...
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What executives want now
Today's sought-after leaders are asking for more work/life balance and want, among other things, to protect themselves against real estate losses.
The business of executive headhunting is growing increasingly complicated. The issues that motivate today's top management talent to pursue new career opportunities have themselves grown more complex, in large part because of leaders'
desire for more work/life balance and/or the need to protect their assets. Many headhunters say search assignments used to be considerably easier to orchestrate when more management-level career climbers were willing to commit—with little or no
hesitation—to do whatever it might take to succeed in a new job if it promised big career opportunity. But executive recruiters now see a significant shift in how
talented business managers qualify and assess new career opportunities. Indeed, there is now a myriad of personal issues that they and client hiring organizations need to explore as they court so-called A players...
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The economy's $2 trillion worry
The subprime spread continues: A Goldman Sachs report says the overall impact of mortgage losses on economic activity could be huge.
Just a few months ago, analysts believed the collapse of subprime mortgage securities and related investments would lead to losses of $50 billion to $100 billion, a large but manageable number. Now, a new report from Goldman Sachs (GS)
says losses from subprime exposure could be much larger than recently assumed, hitting as much as $400 billion. But that's not the extent of the financial carnage: Goldman said the full impact on the economy could be even more substantial, because
the losses could compel banks and other lenders to curtail lending by as much as $2 trillion. If banks trim their lending by that amount, consumers and businesses won't be able to borrow the money they need to maintain strong economic expansion. "This
is a large shock. It corresponds to 7% of the total debt owed by U.S. nonfinancial sectors," wrote Goldman Senior Economist Jan Hatzius, the author of the report. "The drag on economic activity could be substantial."
Doing the Math
How does a $400 billion loss in the credit markets translate into $2 trillion of economic damage? The answer is...
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What makes a superperforming CEO?
A new book ranks some of America's greatest chief executives. But there's one notable absentee.
So Jack Welch isn't considered a "super" CEO? Who's going to tell him? Maybe Dave Guerra, CEO of consulting firm Corpus Optima. In his new book, he lists "superperforming" U.S. chief executives of the 21st century, featuring a range of
individuals who personify leadership genius across big business, but no John Francis "Jack" Welch, the straight-from-the-gut boss who made General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ) the global colossus it is today. In the book, Superperformance: New
Profound Knowledge for Corporate Leaders, Guerra includes on his list billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the brains behind Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), William Gates III, and Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines (nyse: LUV -
news - people ), who's considered by some the greatest CEO ever. So what's with the apparently glaring omission? Guerra explained that Welch is definitely an anomaly and...
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How to keep your employees happy
Work is, well, work. But a few companies understand that in order to get the most out of their staffers--and keep them--they need to have fun. At least sometimes.
Take Nugget Markets, a 10-store northern California grocer. Turnover is 12% among its 900 full-time employees. That's relatively unheard of in the grocery industry, where average turnover is 8% higher. CEO Eric Stille attributes it to Nugget's
culture. Management shows employees they are valued with dance parties, field trips, unexpected financial giveaways and lots of free food. "We want our team to know how much they're appreciated," says Chris Carpenter, Nugget's COO. "That's the number
one thing we want them to understand." That's not a priority for many employers. But it should be...
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Billionaire wives club gets new member
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When Google co-founder Larry Page, whose stake in the Internet search leader is worth about $20 billion, marries Lucy Southworth Dec. 8, one of the world's most exclusive clubs will have a new member.
If a report published Tuesday in the San Francisco Chronicle is correct, Southworth will soon join the elite ranks of the wives of billionaires, married to men with their pick of world's most beautiful and glamorous women. Canada's richest man,
media baron David Thomson, got engaged to Kelly Rowan, star of the canceled Fox TV series The O.C. French billionaire François Pinault's son François-Henri, who heads the family's luxury group PPR, is engaged to movie star Salma Hayek, who is the
mother of his baby. Swiss tycoon Ernesto Bertarelli's wife, Kirsty, is a former Miss U.K. who is now collaborating with the co-sponsors of his America's Cup team to create a special line of clothing and a limited-edition jewelry collection. Just as
often brains as well as beauty are the attraction. Such is the case with Southworth...
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America's undervalued real estate markets
When a market goes through uncertain times, investor caution reigns. And whether you're talking about the housing market or the financial services sector, there's been so much bad news lately that it makes sense for buyers and investors to remain wary.
But the good news is that market slumps often result in good buys, and solid investments get tagged with bargain prices due to the volatile market. One place to look for these deals is the housing sector, where worries about a continuing dip in
home prices are keeping many buyers on the sidelines, and keeping a lid on prices. Looking across the country for undervalued markets, we came up with five picks for city markets or submarkets that are cheap based on what their particular market
fundamentals suggest. You're most likely to find undervalued real estate in cities where the real estate boom was driven by sustainable factors like job growth and economic expansion--like Charlotte, N.C. The city has quietly become one of
America's leading financial centers: Its banking sector, anchored by Bank of America (nyse: BAC - news - people ) and investment subsidiary Banc of America, has continued to expand even as Wall Street takes its lumps. Airlines are rapidly adding
traffic between Charlotte and New York--between Delta, US Airways, Continental and JetBlue (nasdaq: JBLU - news - people ), there are 26 daily non-stop flights in each direction. So there's big money in Charlotte. But based on price-per-square-foot numbers from Radar Logic, a New York-based real estate research firm, the city
boasts the third-cheapest real estate in the country, behind...
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