Chief Executive (U.S.) articles from August 2004

Chief Executive (U.S.) archives from August 2004

On the problem of size.(Editor's Note)
August 1, 2004... Wal-Mart and Microsoft are both tripping over problems associated with being big. In Wal-Mart's case, opponents have attacked on many fronts--the chain's treatment of immigrants and women, its economic impact on communities, and even its power...

The global economic game.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... Nation-states will always be obligated to have a stake in the quality and quantity of their economies ("Who's Winning the Game?" Editor's Note, July). Nothing "Neanderthal" about that. But you raise a good point about how it has become almost...

Save the CIO.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... The trend of chief information officers increasingly reporting to chief financial officers ("The CIO's Rise and Fall," C-Suite Confidential, July) has far more to do with today's CFO assuming broader responsibilities than with any diminution of...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
August 1, 2004... An article in June about CEOs asking their chief information officers to report to their chief financial officers incorrectly identified the president of an Orlando, Fla.-based technology consulting firm and the firm's name. He is Bill...

Fred Smith honored as CEO of the Year.(Award Dinner)
August 1, 2004... Fred Smith had, tucked in his pocket, a carefully crafted speech to deliver on the night he accepted Chief Executive's CEO of the Year award. But when he arrived at the podium, he chose to discard it. "We'll have to reschedule for another time...

Yogurt culture goes global.(Consumer Products)
August 1, 2004... WHAT CAN the sophisticated French leaders of a dairy products giant learn from a natural-foods nut from New Hampshire? Apparently plenty--if the organic foods guru is Gary Hirshberg, chief executive of Stonyfield Farm. The Paris-based...

DuPont loses round in Teflon case.(Clobal)
August 1, 2004... DUPONT HAS BEEN DEALT a setback in the controversy surrounding a chemical it uses to manufacture Teflon. The Environmental Protection Agency said in a complaint filed in July that it would take action against the company for failing to disclose...

Darts & roses.(CEO Watch)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... ROSE... * JOHN MACK, ousted as co-CEO of Credit Suisse First Boston. Thus endeth a glorious career. But the knife in the back has gotta hurt. Those Swiss boys just didn't have a sense of adventure. Maybe their lederhosen were too tight....

Confidence ebbing, CEOs support Bush, but...(CEO Confidence Index)
August 1, 2004... AS CEOs CONFRONT the prospects of terror, spiraling health care costs, high oil prices, softness in consumer spending and job growth and the presidential election, it's perhaps no surprise that their confidence dipped in August. After reaching...

The art (and science) of delivery: why more CEOs are becoming supply-chain experts.(Chief Concern)(Chief Executive Officers)
August 1, 2004... It's been 21 years since consultants at Booz Allen Hamilton coined the term "supply-chain management." And it's taken most of those two decades for many C-level executives to really care. Can you blame CEOs for thinking that supply chains...

A crisis in the politics of health care: it's a myth that the private sector can act alone.(Chief Concern)
August 1, 2004... The threat of catastrophe in our nation's health care system looms large if we continue to ignore the problems posed by the nearly 44 million uninsured Americans or the roughly 70 million baby boomers who will place unprecedented demands on the...

How to anticipate wrenching change: CEOs can avoid being blindsided if they heed key signals.(Thought Leader)
August 1, 2004... How long can you wait to change your company's strategic direction? How long before it's too late? These haunting questions have more relevancy today than ever before. Fortunately, they now have glimmers of an answer. Industry tsunamis, or...

Can Schwab rescue Schwab? with the ouster of David Pottruck, Charles Schwab is once again in the hands of its founder.(Succession)
August 1, 2004... In the beginning, Charles R. Schwab created the discount brokerage. And it was good. Schwab, the man, stood for the empowerment of the individual investor. He swore eternal hostility against every swindle, every conflict and every unjust...

High stakes move: to fulfill its enormous pension fund obligations, General Motors turns to riskier investments.(Finance)
August 1, 2004... On the 16th floor of the General Motors Building in midtown Manhattan, W. Allen Reed is fixed on the number nine, as in 9 percent. That's the annual return he must make when investing GM's pension fund to meet the company's daunting...

Are you ready? Three years after 9/11, CEOs have made scant progress in keeping their companies safe.(Cover Story)
August 1, 2004... On Sunday, Aug. 1, the financial services industry was caught in terrorist crosshairs again. Nearly three years after thousands of money-center workers were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center, Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge...

Harnessing innovation: corporate VC arms fund smaller companies with big ideas.(Innovation)(venture capital)
August 1, 2004... Last September, Intel Capital, the venture arm of Intel, invested $2 million in a relatively unknown Japanese battery technology company named Pionics. While a tiny amount for the giant $30 billion chipmaker, the investment has proven to be...

Mighty Toyota's growing pains: the Japanese juggernaut must confront internal challenges.(Growth)
August 1, 2004... The latest numbers give credence to a growing chorus of predictions that Toyota will capture 15 percent of the global auto market by 2015, dethroning General Motors as the world's largest automaker. Toyota expanded global sales by 9.9 percent...

Taking flight: when and why you should buy a corporate jet.(Business Travel)(Mobren Biological)(related article: A New Option, Light Jets)
August 1, 2004... Mark Nylen, the CEO of Mobren Biological, a pharmaceutical ingredient supplier, picked up the phone at his office in Sioux City, lowa, one morning last spring and heard troubling news. There was a problem at a vendor's plant in Sandusky, Ohio,...

Battle over benefits: CEOs are trying many initiatives to lower their companies' health care costs. But will it be enough?(Health Care Solutions)
August 1, 2004... When Mark Gumz was named president of Olympus America, he decided to take a hard look at the company's spiraling health care costs. After discovering that the U.S. subsidiary of the Japanese camera company was spending far above the national...

Driving growth: cost cutting may get you out of trouble, but true "high-performance" companies must reposition for growth.(Achieving High Performance)
August 1, 2004... For decades, Birds Eye Foods had maintained a relentless focus on operational efficiency that kept costs way down and enabled the company to survive during lean years. But two years ago, CEO Dennis Mullen had to face an uncomfortable reality:...

The Ryder Cup moves Midwest: what the top pros of Europe and the U.S. will face as they go head-to-head at Michigan's Oakland Hills.(Golf)(related article: The Ultimate Client Perk)
August 1, 2004... When the Ryder Cup is held on American soil in September, for a change it won't be played at one of a handful of famous East Coast courses. Instead, the PGA of America will host the riveting biennial matches between the top professionals from...

The new breed of SUV: combining luxury style with rugged heft, on road and off.(Wheels)(Porsche Cayenne, Cadillac SRX, Infiniti FX45, Volkswagen Touareg)(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 1, 2004... Take four of the latest car-based, luxury SUVs and pretend they are horses in a dressage ring--the best of their breeds, commanding attention with their polish, stance, performance and, of course, their canter. With years of training under...

At their bark and call: does the rise in room service for pets herald another boom?(Flip Side)
August 1, 2004... Like most Americans, I am always on the lookout for signs that the economy is on a vigorous upswing. Recently, while staying at a mid-level Beverly Hills hotel, I stumbled upon an unusual economic indicator that caused my heart to soar. On the...

Political Kool-Aid.(Editorial)(Editorial)
August 1, 2004... DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE John Kerry recently published a list of 200 chief executive officers and other top corporate officials he says support him. His obvious implication was that the nation's CEOs as a whole believe he should be...

Keeping the faith.(Editorial)(Editorial)
August 1, 2004... WE'VE ARGUED IN THIS PAGE that it's time for chief executives to go on the offensive and start building their companies again. But it seems there's a case of late-summer jitters in the air. New terror alerts, soft consumer confidence and job...