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

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

Framing the U.S. debate.(EDITOR'S NOTE)(Editorial)
January 1, 2006... This could be the year that the issue of U.S. competitiveness finally arrives as a mainstay of conversations across the land. So we're pleased that this issue of Chief Executive will help frame the debate. Our cover story, written by...

Darts & roses.(CEO WATCH)
January 1, 2006... DART... * ALTRIA. People died from smoking and now you're going into the lung cancer business? Gives new meaning to the word "cynicism." ROSE... * BILL GATES. It's easy to make fun of the nerdy monopollist, but his foundation's...

Are the Russians coming?(ENERGY)(Interview)
January 1, 2006... BY ANY MEASURE, Russia's Gazprom is huge. With 30.4 trillion cubic meters of natural gas in reserves, it is the world's biggest gas company, accounting for 25 percent of world supplies. It is Russia's largest company with revenues of $35.2...

California ranked worst for business.(SURVEY)
January 1, 2006... CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR Arnold Schwarzenegger had a motorcycle accident recently. But he should see the even bigger train wreck that's headed his way: Readers of Chief Executive have for the second straight year named his state as the worst in the...

Can Chrysler show Detroit the way? The smallest of the Big Three has done the most to transform itself.(THE BIG THREE)
January 1, 2006... Striding into DaimlerChrysler's assembly plant in Saltillo, Mexico, recently, Chrysler Group President Tom LaSorda broke away from a gaggle of executives and the carefully rehearsed tour they had planned for him. "He blew by all the executives...

Can GM fight back? Wagoner says it can with some help--not a bailout--from Washington.(THE BIG THREE)(Interview)
January 1, 2006... General Motors chief executive Rick Wagoner, who has announced plans to cut 30,000 jobs and close nine factories by 2008, says the Bush Administration is making a mistake by targeting China's currency, not Japan's. Here are highlights of an...

GM has a better chance than Ford: Bill Ford isn't making the right moves.(THE BIG THREE: ANALYSIS)
January 1, 2006... Although Ford and General Motors still produce more than one-third of the vehicles sold in the U.S., some industrial obituary writers have declared them unsalvageable. Joseph Phillippi, a veteran automotive analyst, suggests that GM may have...

The fight over CRM: on-demand services are providing a renaissance for a once-struggling technology.(SOFTWARE)(Company Profile)
January 1, 2006... Software giant Oracle has never been one to shy away from acquisition. In 2005 alone, the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company gobbled no less than nine competitors. When Oracle President Charles Phillips was asked at a press briefing whether...

Fighting the glass ceiling: why Asian Americans don't have more positions at the top.(GLOBAL STRATEGIES)
January 1, 2006... The Old Navy presidency almost sailed right by Jenny Ming. About two years before she took the helm of the now 900-store division of the Gap in 1999, then-CEO Millard "Mickey" Drexler asked Ming if she was interested in heading the fast-growing...

Debating American competitiveness: the U.S. can keep an edge if it takes the right steps.(CEO LEADERSHIP SUMMIT)
January 1, 2006... With apologies to Charles Dickens, is it the best of times, with the United States poised for continued strong economic performance, or is it the worst of times, with the U.S. on the brink of being upstaged by China and India? ...

Mysteries of innovation: there are right ways--and wrong ways.(CEO LEADERSHIP SUMMIT)
January 1, 2006... Remember just five years ago, when everyone believed innovation was best defined as a big new blowout that set an industry on its head? Some successes notwithstanding, the outcome has been disturbingly flat. "All too often, we get into...

Taming health care costs: companies must rethink their policies.(CEO LEADERSHIP SUMMIT)
January 1, 2006... The message is beginning to sink in: To tame rising health care costs, the model of how corporations manage the issue is going to have to change. More companies are going to self-insure and screen the health of new hires. More companies are...

Developing global talent: managing worldwide companies hinges on people, culture.(CEO LEADERSHIP SUMMIT)
January 1, 2006... It's one of those "can't live with it, can't live without it" propositions: Globalization has created unparalleled opportunities for low-cost manufacturing and opened up new markets, but managing the global corporation worries even the most...

CEOs under fire: how can they respond?(CEO LEADERSHIP SUMMIT)
January 1, 2006... It's hardly a secret that chief executive officers of publicly traded companies have been under fire for years from nearly every direction. Some of them, such as the leaders of Enron and WorldCom, clearly deserved the heat. But other corporate...

Supply chain enigmas: they're longer--but they also have to be faster.(CEO LEADERSHIP SUMMIT)
January 1, 2006... Ah, the good old days--25 years ago when uniform-maker Cintas bought fabric from a North Carolina mill, made the uniforms in Kentucky and distributed them to customers. In later years, the Carolina fabric was shipped to Mexico or the Caribbean...

Fixing public schools: it is increasingly a concern for CEOs.(CEO LEADERSHIP SUMMIT)
January 1, 2006... Does business have a responsibility to help improve K-12 public education? Does simple self-interest demand it? If so, what should the CEO's role be? Those questions framed the discussion at a roundtable on education. The poor performance...

Following the money: if access to public markets is tricky, private funds are huge.(CEO LEADERSHIP SUMMIT)
January 1, 2006... In a concise, state-of-the-capital-markets declaration, Robert Greifeld, president and chief executive of The Nasdaq Stock Market, declared that access to money may be too healthy. "We're awash in capital and liquidity today, and maybe there's...

A theater in the home: high-end technology is about to get even better.(EXECUTIVE LIFE)
January 1, 2006... Reclining in the techno-womb of a high-end home theater with remote control in hand, it's hard to imagine how things could get any more cutting-edge. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With tens of thousands of DVDs and a wide array of HDTV...

Advertising for the young and snarky: it's not the marketing, stupid.(FLIP SIDE)
January 1, 2006... Complaining about fatuous advertising is a time-honored American tradition, comparable to groaning about the government, moaning about the weather and whining about the refs. Young people seem particularly exercised; my college-age children...

Good policy vs. political lunacy.(EDITORIAL)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... THIS YEAR, our annual survey of Best and Worst States (page 12) highlights the fact that many political leaders are disconnected from the real world of business. Ours is a fairly easy thesis to understand: Business will grow and locate in areas...

Eliot Spitzer's moment of truth.(FINALWORD)
January 1, 2006... IT'S 2006 and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has a problem. He has filed charges against Richard Grasso for accepting too much compensation from the New York Stock Exchange and against Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg for allegedly...