Chief Executive (U.S.) articles from December 2006

Chief Executive (U.S.) archives from December 2006

Are you ready for 2007?(EDITOR'S NOTE)
December 1, 2006... As we look at next year and beyond, business leaders will be facing a new horizon. Between a lame duck Republican executive and a newly energized Democrat controlled legislature, politically it seems likely that the middle ground will be...

Aviation reform redux.(FEEDBACK)
December 1, 2006... Here we go again, with more claims of an impending crisis in the U.S. air traffic control system to support proposals for privatization and user fees for general aviation ("Solving Airspace Gridlock," July/August 2006). After 40 years of...

Private point.(FEEDBACK)
December 1, 2006... I read with interest both Robert Poole's article and the AOPA ad in the latest issue (October/November 2006). I'm amazed that Phil Boyer, president of AOPA, would suggest to any CEO that a high-tech business such as air traffic control can best...

Steering innovation: can George Nolan, CEO of Siemens USA, continue to drive double-digit growth?(MANAGEMENT)(Interview)
December 1, 2006... Siemens Medical Solutions of Siemens AG with headquarters in Malvern, Pa., and Erlangen, Germany, is one of the largest suppliers to the health care industry in the world. The company is known for bringing together innovative medical...

Thorns & roses.(CEO WATCH)
December 1, 2006... THORN... To SANJAY KUMAR, the former CEO of CA Inc., who admitted to artificially boosting revenue figures by more than $2 billion in 1999 and 2000 to bump his own performance-based bonus to $5.6 million. Adding injury upon injury, Kumar...

Thorns & roses.(CEO WATCH)
December 1, 2006... ROSE... To MILTON FRIEDMAN, the Nobel Prize winner and most influential economic mind of the 20th century, who died at the age of 94 last month. Friedman was the first economist to truly note the massive power of the U.S. Federal...

Confidence continues to climb.(CEO CONFIDENCE INDEX)(Survey)
December 1, 2006... RALLYING with strong stock market performance, Chief Executive's CEO Confidence Index rose for the second consecutive month, according to 223 top executives surveyed. The index rose by 2.4 points to 159.2. Polling was conducted during the...

The numbers.(CEO WATCH)
December 1, 2006... What are your top 3 issues for your business in 2007? [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Attracting and Developing Talented People 99.1% Top Line Revenue Growth 86.9% Health Care 48.4% Note:...

Become an activist CEO: unlock value by building a culture of innovation.(THOUGHT LEADER)
December 1, 2006... IBM's 2006 global survey of 765 CEOs provided insight into the vital role of innovation in driving success. These CEOs noted that internally, the greatest roadblock to executing a successful innovation strategy is an "unsupportive culture and...

Running the rapids: how do you manage risk amid constant change?(THOUGHT LEADER)
December 1, 2006... In a punishing and unforgiving world for CEO performance, long-term planning is a luxury. Not long ago, CEOs could operate like commanders of great ships on ocean journeys. They could plan far ahead, chart a course and delegate execution to...

Are you built to last? Your survival as a CEO may depend upon it.(THOUGHT LEADER)
December 1, 2006... With an average CEO tenure of 48 months, the chances that you will survive a two-decade run--as Jack Welch did at GE--are slim. To find out what makes leaders last, I teamed up with Stanford's Jerry Porras, co-author of Success Built to Last,...

Globalization and its discontents: how can CEOs of multinational companies skirt globalization hurdles? Follow these four policies.(UNCOMMON WISDOM)
December 1, 2006... President George W. Bush's grand vision is of a Western-style "democracy world," where all countries have a similar system of selecting their leaders in a majority-rule, one-person-one-vote, free election. Chinese President Hu Jintao's grand...

Agenda 2007: their voices span industries and the United States; their ideas cover the hot topics facing all corporate leaders today. CEOs from a wide range of industries, including home improvement, media, financial services and supply logistics shared their viewpoints and perspectives with Chief Executive as they look to 2007 and beyond.
December 1, 2006... Risky Business Gregory C. Case, president and CEO Aon, Chicago, III. "The emergence of today's reasonably affordable terrorism risk insurance capacity is directly attributable to the passage of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA)...

A New Year's resolution for CEOs: no special deals; Seeking special immunities and sweetheart deals from the regulators is a mug's game where everybody loses.(AGENDA 2007)
December 1, 2006... The usual role of lawyers is to advise management about the legal risks and advantages of proposed business plans. It is not their job to make the tough business judgments about basic business strategy. The balance, however, turns when the...

Five tough issues for CEOs and boards: these critical concerns aren't going away. Deal with them now and other challenges will fall into place.(AGENDA 2007)
December 1, 2006... For a brief moment, U.S. corporations seemed to have weathered the storm. Then came the options backdating scandals, the boardroom train wreck at Hewlett-Packard and the continuing tide of CEO firings. Now it's tough to make predictions about...

Driving diversity in the boardroom: do where males fill nearly all your board seats? Here's how to bring diverse perspectives to your board--without compromising your standards.(AGENDA 2007)
December 1, 2006... Angelique X. Irvin knows the importance of boardroom diversity firsthand--what it's like to be the sole woman on a board. "Women bring complementary skills to a board, such as the ability to view how a business works as a set of interdependent...

The capital market crackup: to shoot yourself in the foot is bad enough for U.S. capital markets; so why are we reloading and firing again?(AGENDA 2007)
December 1, 2006... At the turn of the 20th century, most American companies were incorporated in the state of New Jersey. Today, of course, public companies are typically chartered in Delaware. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] How did New Jersey lose the valuable...

Best companies for leaders: GE eclipses P & G for the top spot in 2006.(LEADERSHIP)
December 1, 2006... Growth requires more than a good strategy these days. Everyone has a decent strategy, but how many have leaders at all levels of the organization who have the understanding, drive and skills to execute it in ways others cannot? When Peter...

Where Value Hides: how do you identify and turbocharge your company's strategic market strengths?(STRATEGY)
December 1, 2006... Faced with profitable growth as a primary goal, most executives are aware that value may be hiding somewhere on the competitive landscape just waiting to be discovered and appropriated, but the challenge is identifying where that value exists....

The truth behind the backdating brouhaha: the risks are many--but then so are your options. Here's how to size up the issue.(EXECUTIVE LIFE)
December 1, 2006... Approximately 100 companies have come under fire for the backdating of stock option grants. The resulting investigations, in turn, have led to the resignation of 30 officers--many of them CEOs, CFOs and general counsels. Notable casualties...

No more Mr. Nice Guy: Trump is king when jokers run wild.(FLIP SIDE)
December 1, 2006... The time has come to say a few words about the perils of group think. A short while back, a fake documentary entitled Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan was released on these shores. The film...

Business is the best NGO.(EDITORIALS)
December 1, 2006... THE RECENT PASSING of Nobel economist Milton Friedman reminds us of a great insight he had about the "schizophrenic" tendencies of business leaders. "When it comes to their own businesses, [CEOs] look a long time ahead, thinking of what the...

Let's stop obsessing over CEO pay.(EDITORIALS)
December 1, 2006... FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES critics have tried to control large public company CEO pay through regulation, legislation and direct pressure. Nothing seems to have worked. Now that a new Democrat-controlled Congress is feeling it must flex its...