Chief Executive (U.S.) articles from February 2001

Chief Executive (U.S.) archives from February 2001

CEOs in the Mist.(chief executive officers)(Brief Article)(Column)
February 1, 2001... It always amuses me to read people's claims about chief executives. Assertions about them as a class, such as whether they are mostly self-made entrepreneurs or privileged Skull and Bones Yalies, always seem based on incomplete or sketchy data....

Letters.(qualities of board members)(Column)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Wanted: A Few Good Directors To the Editor: Robert Lear contributes a most illuminating prescription for the newly selected CEO of a multi-billion dollar enterprise seeking to form the perfect board, "Devising the Perfect Board," (CE:...

The Drive for DIGITAL.(digital cable service)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... BASED ON the consolidation of cable system operators and the increasing availability of new services, such as digital basic, video-on-demand, and interactive TV, the Yankee Group predicts that the number of U.S. households subscribing to...

Good Tidings FOR ALL.(electronic retailers, holiday season ratings)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... BRICK-AND-MORTAR retailers had a jolly holiday season, according to Nielsen/ NetRatings. Overall, established offline brands dominated 11 of the top 15 holiday etailers. Nielsen/NetRatings' Top 15 Holiday Season Etailers ...

Get Ready TO RUMBLE.(personal computers, household buying patterns)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... WHEN IT COMES to choosing which PC brand households will buy, there's definitely a battle of the sexes. That's according to a Harris Interactive poll, which found that men make more of the final decisions than women. The male head of the...

Futurist's FANCY.(employment forecast)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... TO MARK THE YEAR 2001, the World Future Society has published a report that identifies the 50 major trends responsible for reshaping our lives as we know them today. Following are some of the highlights. * With the pace of technology...

Decidedly MOBILE.(mobile telephones)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... THE U.S. IS GOING MOBILE in a big way. Dataquest, a unit of GartnerGroup, finds that 51 percent of all U.S. households have at Least one mobile phone and 40 percent of U.S. adults use their phones on a regular basis. The Gen X and Baby...

The New E-READER?(electronic book publishing)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... EBOOKS ARE LIKELY to be an e-failure. Forrester Research forecasts slow growth for both eBooks and eBook reader devices, while it anticipates strong sales for custom-printed trade books and digitized textbooks. In fact, digital delivery of...

Flavor of the Month?(chief executive officers)(Brief Article)(Column)
February 1, 2001... The current rash of quick-turn CEO replacements, with the former CEO being brought in for a replay, creates some interesting connotations. The good news is that corporate governance is beginning to operate effectively. Boards these days...

J'accuse -- It's Always the Others' Fault.(Daimler/Chrysler merger)(Brief Article)(Column)
February 1, 2001... The much-heralded 1998 merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler has turned into a head-on collision between German and American business cultures, with the company's shareholders bearing the brunt of the impact. When Daimler Benz merged with...

Manager In Chief.(George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... President George W. Bush suffers no shortage of advice going into the presidency. Democrats advise forgetting what he campaigned on--broad-based tax relief, social security, and Medicare reform--and governing like a Democrat. Conservatives say...

Born to Run...Companies.(Paula Jagemann)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Expect the unexpected from Paula Jagemann. While she now speaks with the soft twang of the Maryland hills where she's lived most of her adult life, Jagemann is a subject of Queen Elizabeth II and carries a British passport--a tribute to her...

The Stuff of Dreams.(Chris Kirk and LeapSource)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The first thing Chris Kirk did after she left an 18-year tenure at Arthur Andersen was to get a tattoo on her foot--the figure of a Native American symbol known as "Dream Catcher." That artifact, traditionally hung on a bedpost, is said to...

WATCH RAY GILMARTIN'S Second ACT.(Merck and Company Inc., CEO)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... The threat from generic drugs, fast-changing technology, the fight for scale at all costs, and managing inflated expectations promise to turn the world pharmaceutical industry into an even fiercer battleground. Will Merck CEO Ray Gilmartin meet...

THE VALUE OF Human Capital.(human resource management)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... People are the key to success in the new economy, say respondents to a Chief Executive/ Accenture survey--but only a minority of companies have made significant changes to their recruiting and retention strategies. It's no secret that...

Anatomy of A CEO.(chief executive officer research)
February 1, 2001... The uphill trek traveled by top CEOs says much about what it takes to make it to the top today--and how that may change in the future. CE's sixth annual Route to the Top looks at exactly who's running the Fortune 700 and how they got there. ...

Paradox AT THE TOP.(chief executive officer employment turnover)
February 1, 2001... Its harder than ever to find--and keep--a good CEO. So why are so many being shown the door? Ironically, while there's a general, highly publicized shortage of talent among managers at the highest corporate levels, many CEOs barely have...

Business GOES NATIVE.
February 1, 2001... Thriving in a global economy calls for multinational muscle, yet homogenization breeds contempt. Here's how international CEOs cope with culture conflict. Jacques Nasser, the Lebanese-Australian president and CEO of Ford Motor Co., is this...

Surviving DOT-COM BLUES.
February 1, 2001... Dot-com CEOs and Boards are starting the tough work of company building--and narrowing the gap between old and new economy management styles. The Year 2000 was the official end of dot-com mania and return to normalcy. It started on April...

Finding A NEW CEO.
February 1, 2001... What's the first thing you do after taking the helm at a struggling firm? Find a new you. Adapted from CEO Sucession In April 1994, six weeks into his tenure as CEO of SmithKline Beecham, Jan Leschly was already planning for his...

It Pays to FAIL?(severance pay)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Severance pay is on the rise. But the CEOs who get it--and the companies that bestow it--are under the gun. The $47.1 million given in severence to Stephen C. Hilbert, the former CEO of Conseco, is exhibit A in the case of stratospheric...

BUBBLE RAP.(dot-com industry)
February 1, 2001... Lessons from the big pop Despite the recent shakeout, analysts and gurus believe the Internet industry will rise again--definitely leaner, and maybe meaner, too. YOU MUST ADMIT THAT THE FIRST WAVE of e-business had a great run....

CEODNA.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Do you have what it takes to run a dot-com? MANY WOULD HAVE IT THAT THE INTERNET hatched a new species of CEO -- faster, feistier, street-smarter. If so, what has happened to the creature since the Nasdaq slide? Are dotCEOs on Wall Street's...

Letting Go.(David Ellington, Harris Fricker, David Jefferds, Robert LoCascio,)(Interview)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... It's hard to let your baby go. IF YOU'VE FOUNDED A COMPANY AND MAYBE you're also the CEO -- and you've got both emotional and financial capital involved -- why, when and how should you move on? Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times'...

Scalability: Are you fast enough?(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Whether you're General Motors or a pure Internet company, the Internet allows you to do everything more efficiently, including creating a scalable, remote work force. We hold two patents on scalable human systems. A remote work force gives...

Shifting Internet Geo-Centers: Will you lose your balance?(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The geo-centers of the Internet are shifting in two directions. First is west to east. Every media company except Disney is on the N, R, 4, 5 or 6 subway lines, and that's where the Internet will play out. The other shift is to...

Marketing Update.(Internet users)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Do you own your own customer? WHEN IT COMES TO MARKETING, there's a crucial difference between the Internet and other media: the customer. "Internet users have 100 percent control. They can go to an unlimited number of places, they...

Internet Everywhere.(forecasting the technology industry)(Brief Article)(Panel Discussion)
February 1, 2001... Innovators contemplate "the next small thing." MIT Media Lab guru Alexander (Sandy) Pentland makes a pretty good living by imagining things. The Lab he runs brings no products to market. Rather, he and his fellow brains dream up ideas about...

The Wireless Web: Do you get it?(wireless communications)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... We have a complicated, confusing wireless industry in this country. We have multiple technologies, multiple handsets, multiple rate plans. But you can't afford to ignore it. In three to four years, we'll have about 500 million wireless users...

E-commerce Software's Next Wave: Can you ride it?(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The e-commerce prize so far has gone to software vendors that best cobbled together various technologies to enable consumer transactions. But if you want to do business in the seamless online environment of e-commerce, you are doomed by...

Agenda For the FUTURE.(forecasting the future roles of the chief executive officer)(Panel Discussion)
February 1, 2001... In a world of constant, fast, and large-scale change, how can CEOs be effective leaders? At our 3rd annual gathering at JFK's "Winter White House," CE assembled leading business, education, and political thinkers and asked them to come up with...

Cut Down to Size.(Review)
February 1, 2001... After reading Greenspan: The Man Behind Money, you're likely to have a more jaundiced view of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's current mythical stature. As author Justin Martin (per full disclosure: Martin is a CE contributor) points...

Robert Beauchamp.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Robert Beauchamp, 41, was named president, chief executive, and board member of Houston, TX-based BMC Software, an independent software vendor with revenues in excess of $1.7 billion. Beauchamp, the company's senior VP of product management and...

Joseph Galli.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Joseph Galli, 42, was named president and chief executive of Freeport, IL-based Newell Rubbermaid, a consumer products company with nearly $7 billion in revenues. Galli, who was previously CEO of VerticalNet and COO of Amazon.com, succeeds...

Harvey Golub.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Harvey Golub, 61, was named chairman of Blue Bell, PA-based Airclic, a provider of technology and infrastructure for portable Web devices. Until April 2001, Golub remains chairman of American Express, the position he took after retiring as CEO....

Thomas Huffsmith.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Thomas Huffsmith, 45, was named president of Regent International Hotels, a division of privately owned Minneapolis, MN-based Carlson Hotels Worldwide. Huffsmith, most recently the senior VP of development and investments for Bass Hotels &...

Howard Phanstiel.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Howard Phanstiel, 52, was named president and chief executive of Santa Ana, CA-based PacifiCare Health Systems, an $11 billion managed health care company. Prior to joining PacifiCare, Phanstiel was chairman and chief executive of ARV Assisted...

William "Gary" Reed.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... William "Gary" Reed, 61, was named acting chairman and acting chief executive of Seattle, WA-based Safeco, a $6.9 billion provider of insurance and related financial products. The company plans to announce the selection of new CEO during the...

Rolf Schmidt-Holtz.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, 52, was named president and chief executive of Hamburg/New York, NY-based BMG Entertainment, a division of Bertelsmann AG, which is a diversified media and entertainment company with DM 32.4 billion in annual revenues....

For the Love of the Game.(John Row - Republican Governor)(Brief Article)(Interview)
February 1, 2001... Republican Governor John Row-land has a very simple view of what the game of golf is all about. "For me, it's spending time with friends, having a lot of laughs, and maybe even smoking a cigar," says the 43-year-old Waterbury, CT native, who is...

A Rosie Forecast.(Rosie O' Donnell's personality and the economy)(Brief Article)(Column)
February 1, 2001... Shortly after the dismally unentertaining musical Seussical opened on Broadway last winter, the ubiquitous talk show host and would-be actress Rosie O'Donnell announced that she would be temporarily taking over the lead role in the play. The...

Accenture.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2001... 01.01.01 Dear Chief Executive Reader, On January 1, 2001 the firm you have known for many years as Andersen Consulting became Accenture. We carry with us to Accenture the same commitment to quality service and value our clients expect....

Performance: The Key to Success.(interview with Joe W. Forehand, CEO, Accenture)(Interview)
February 1, 2001... Q: There is a tremendous focus today on human performance -- on driving personal and organizational change in ways that enable employees to work faster, smarter and more efficiently. Why is there such an emphasis on performance right now? ...

How CEOs Get Results.(human resource management)
February 1, 2001... New HR management tools can help company leaders balance talent demands with business needs Most experienced CEOs have seen command-and-control management come and go. They've been through downsizing and rightsizing. Now they're seeing...

A CULTURE OF LOYALTY.(Ciena Corp.'s employee retention strategy)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Finding, hiring, motivating and retaining employees is a challenge far CEOs -- especially in the high-tech arena. Nonetheless, Pat Nettles, CEO of Ciena Corp., a manufacturer of intelligent optical switching equipment for telecommunications...

TARGETING THE "A-PLAYERS".(Lincoln Financial Group's hiring techniques)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... With consolidated assets of more than $103 billion and annual consolidated revenues of $6.8 billion, Lincoln Financial Group -- the marketing name for the Philadelphia-based Lincoln National Corporation and its affiliates -- has no room for...

Pathways to Performance.(employee portals and software solutions)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... Employee portals and software solutions are making HR your new strategic partner "Everyone talking about the labor shortage as though it's the most important human capital problem of the day," says Jac Fitz-enz of the Saratoga Institute....

A FOCUS ON FLEXIBILITY.(Con Edison Communications' human resources strategy)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... It's not often that a new company backed by $16 billion in assets gets to behave with the nimbleness of an entrepreneurial start-up. But a nimble operating style -- particularly where employee needs are concerned -- is what Peter Rust counted...

HOW TO BUILD A WINNING WORK FORCE.(MIM Corp. )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... When Rich Friedman became CEO of MIM Corp. in 1998, he walked into a situation begging for a decisive turnaround. The business focus was too narrow, customers were not sufficiently valued, and the work culture was in a shambles. In less than...

A New Kind of Lesson Plan.(Web-based employee training)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... Online options are revving up employee training programs and measuring bottom-line impact When Donald arrived at Pathmark a few years ago, the Carteret, N.J., supermarket chain was saddled with debt from a 1987 leveraged buyout, which led...

CREATING A CULTURE FOR LEARNING.(at Autodesk Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... "Autodesk had no management philosophy," says Bartz, who joined the company in 1992. "We had done what is normal for a fast-growing high-tech company -- just promote people." To succeed in the future, she believed, the company's managers would...

A COMMITMENT FROM THE TOP.(employee training)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... Today, technology is revolutionizing the way corporations keep employees up to speed on the latest skills and knowledge. But learning should be far more than a technological exercise, says Jim Donald, CEO of Pathmark Stores, the $4.8 billion...

Scaling New Heights.(creating a working environment that fosters innovation)
February 1, 2001... Today, CEOs must create a culture of innovation that raises performance throughout the organization Faster, better, cheaper -- it's the mantra of the New Economy, but it depends heavily on a single crucial ingredient: human performance....

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED.(PNC Financial Services Group )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... About five years ago, the PNC Financial Services Group was embarking on its transformation from a regional commercial bank to a national diversified financial services organization. As it evolved from a structure of centrally managed geographic...

"LISTENING WITH A PURPOSE".(setting the tone for corporate culture that encourages innovation)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... When you ask Ronald M. DeFeo what human performance means to his company, he doesn't mince words. "Integrating the human element and making it work to be consistent with our culture ore critical," he says. "It's a tremendous challenge because...