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

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

The teachings of Fred Smith.(Editor's Note)(CEO of the Year)(Editorial)
June 1, 2004... We're very pleased that Fred Smith, who pursued an idea and transformed it into a $25-billion-a-year company called FedEx, is our 2004 CEO of the Year. He joins a group of extraordinary leaders. (See list, page 8.) Just as I learned from...

The health care burden.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... I commend you for your in-depth coverage of health care ("Health Care Meltdown," Cover Story, May). Our nation is terribly uninformed about the industry and what's to blame for its soaring costs. CEOs need to become more involved, at many...

More outsourcing woes.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... I sympathize with Gunther Karger, whose May letter ("Outsourcing Backlash") described his frustration in dealing with Dell's customer-service line. I was given a Palm PDA for Christmas by my son, who is intent on dragging me into the 21st...

Real succession planning.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... Congratulations on your April supplement, CEO Insights ("Succession Management: Filling the Leadership Pipeline"). A superb article on an always timely subject, it reminded me of several experiences, including one in which my yearlong (and...

Broaden executive searches.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... Regarding the March letter from Mason Carpenter about the international experience CEOs need to get to the top ("Global Value"): I'm an executive recruiter with an international (Dutch) background, and my clients come from all industries....

Darts & roses.(CEO Watch)(THE GOOGLE HYPEMEISTERS)
June 1, 2004... DART... * THE GOOGLE HYPEMEISTERS. Shades of deja vu--all over again. IPO yields $20 billion in market value overnight. Boom. Front-page puff pieces. Boom. But in reality the company faces major challenges. Google that. ROSE... ...

Innovation: bye-bye beluga?(CEO Watch)(caviar in short supply)
June 1, 2004... ATTENTION CAVIAR LOVERS: The beluga sturgeon has been officially deemed a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The April ruling stopped short of a ban, but an international body may severely restrict or outright ban trade...

Darts & roses.(CEO Watch)(Brief Article)(Column)
June 1, 2004... ROSE... * JURGEN SCHREMPP of DaimlerChrysler for dropping Mitsubishi. This was a disaster from the get-go. Better to walk away than to pursue false dreams of instant global reach. DART... * SERGE WEINBERG,...

CEO Confidence Index: optimism soars to new levels.(CEO Watch)
June 1, 2004... THE MOOD IS BRIGHTENING. Our latest CEO Confidence Index shows that confidence has reached its highest level since we launched the Index in October 2002. Based on responses from 288 readers, the Index climbed 14.5 points, to 172.8. It was the...

Outsourcing human resources: why you won't lose your soul.(Chief Concern)
June 1, 2004... Arecent article in this magazine warned that companies that outsource human resources functions might take so much out of their core, they could "risk losing heart and soul." The evidence, however, shows that just the opposite is true. ...

Have corporate reforms gone too far? The hidden costs of tighter controls.(Thought Leader)(Column)
June 1, 2004... Every chief executive officer, chief financial officer, general counsel and director of a public company has been inundated with legal memos explaining the new rules of corporate governance promulgated under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002,...

The private equity invasion of Japan: Ripplewood and others are shaking up a traditionally closed market.(Finance)
June 1, 2004... Politicians, bankers and even ice cream-licking punksters on the streets of trendy Shibuya were quietly outraged this past winter when Ripplewood Holdings made a breezy $2.3 billion through the initial public offering of Shinsei Bank. That was...

The quiet giant speaks: Warren Staley, CEO of Cargill, shares his insights on the privileges of privacy.(Management)(Interview)
June 1, 2004... As most CEOs of public companies scramble to reduce exposure to market volatility, terrorism and shareholder suits, America's largest private company boldly heads into markets others fear to tread. Who else could invest in Russia as its economy...

Leader of the pack: for revolutionizing how business absolutely, positively gets done, Fred Smith of FedEx is the 2004 CEO of the year.(CEO of the Year)(Cover Story)
June 1, 2004... Fred Smith likes to quote Pogo the Possum, who once said in a cartoon strip, "If you want to be a great leader, find a big parade and run in front of it." There's no question that Smith, chairman, president and chief executive officer of...

The art of disciplined leadership: Smith is determined to keep FedEx growing.(Q & A)(Interview)
June 1, 2004... What does it take to be a leader who creates a company and then rides it to become a $25-billion-a-year business? Not many people have all those skill sets. The most important thing is continual learning and education and the discipline to...

Brains behind the brawn: in the complex world of privatized defense, three firms are giving the military its best weapon--technology.(The Business of War)
June 1, 2004... Among the many lessons government agencies learned after hijacked jetliners plowed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, a key one involved how computer systems are bought and installed. "All the technology the...

Military pinstripes: all hoopla aside, the Armed Forces are getting serious about learning from business.(The Business of War)
June 1, 2004... When Maj. Gen. Ross Thompson arrived at the Army's Tank-Auto-motive and Armaments Command in 2001, he didn't like what he found. The organization, responsible for procuring and maintaining most of the equipment that soldiers use on a daily...

Raising the pay bar: under intense pressure, boards are adopting creative measures to tie CEO pay to performance.(Compensation)
June 1, 2004... So long, rest and vest. Hello, pay for performance. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It may come as no surprise that board compensation committees have been under increasing pressure to forge better links between CEO compensation and company...

Cracking China: in a new book, Procter & Gamble tells how it brought consumerism to an untapped market.(Book Excerpt)(Excerpt)
June 1, 2004... In the late 1980s, Procter & Gamble launched one of the biggest, most consequential ventures the company had ever undertaken, trying to crack the consumer products market in China. The risks were substantial. The country still had a Communist...

Health care crisis: health care costs are soaring and employees don't want to pay, leaving CEOs with one very expensive problem.(Roundtable)
June 1, 2004... Mention "heath care" to the CEO of any large company and the prevailing reaction is an outpouring of frustration. And for good reason. Continuing a trend of double-digit increases, health insurance premiums rose an average of 14 percent last...

A work in progress: with costs skyrocketing, Hyatt focuses on improving employee wellness.(Roundtable)
June 1, 2004... At Hyatt Hotels, double-digit cost hikes for three years running prompted a health care revamp. "After bearing increases of 12, 16 and 17 percent, we finally concluded that the rising costs are not just going to go away," says Ed Rabin,...

Can the train wreck be avoided? Eastman Chemical CEO sees much handwringing, but few pilot programs.(Roundtable)(Interview)
June 1, 2004... Brian Ferguson, CEO of Eastman Chemical, sees lots of handwringing, but no real solutions to the health care train wreck looming on the horizon. Excerpts from a conversation: What effect do health care costs have on companies competing...

Reform roadmap: addressing costs is only half the solution.(Roundtable)
June 1, 2004... Often, companies facing skyrocketing health care costs address the issue through measures that nibble away at benefits, transfer some costs to employees or attempt to give employees greater personal exposure to the costs associated with their...

The Slickrock trail: so much for club sports. In Moab, Utah's mountain-biking mecca, CEOs come to 'shred.'.(Travel)
June 1, 2004... A little more than a mile into the Slickrock Trail in Moab, Utah--one of the most breathtaking mountain-biking rides in the world--my nerves began to fray. As I approached a mounded lip of the canyon, the stencil lettering between the white...

Blur speed: sleek and strong, BMW's 645Ci convertible draws much attention.(Wheels)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2004... Powering around, top down, along the central California coast in the new BMW 645Ci, I was struck by how much wide-eyed amazement this silver convertible generated wherever we drove. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] How cool was it, while doing...

A 'people's car'? With its luxury Phaeton, Volkswagen aims up market.(Wheels)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2004... It was after a round of golf at a swell private course. The caddies had cleaned off our clubs, we'd gotten out of our spikes and the parking attendants had pulled our cars around. My sleek silver sedan was parked behind a sleek silver...

High on the bull market: medicinal cannabis companies going public--what's next?(Flip Side)(Amigula Inc.)
June 1, 2004... Spoilsports, curmudgeons, Cassandras and journalists are always on the lookout for signs that the IPO market may once again be overheating. Chastened by the good old New Paradigm Era, when preposterous Internet start-ups massacred an entire...

Directors run amok at coke.(Editorial)
June 1, 2004... WE HAVE JUST WITNESSED the perfect example of an independent board of directors managing a CEO succession process. It wasn't pretty. In fact, it was a travesty. The Coca-Cola board includes some high-powered directors, most notably Warren...

Don't call kilts chicken.(Editorial)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... WHEN GILLETTE'S JIM KILTS cited "personal reasons" for rebuffing Coke's advances, The Wall Street Journal pounced, suggesting that Kilts was fibbing and that he was really just intimidated by the long road ahead at Coke. What? At Gillette,...