Chief Executive (U.S.) articles from March 2003

Chief Executive (U.S.) archives from March 2003

Beware of global backlash. (Editor's Note).
March 1, 2003... For probably 20 years, chief executives have been able to count on a steady pace of globalization. Companies could assume that the barriers against the movement of people, goods, services and money across national borders would keep eroding....

Feedback.(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2003... Anti-Bush Bias David E. Sanger's commentary in the November issue, "CEOs to Bush: Keep Your Eye on the Ball," is a perfect example of a political attack masquerading as thoughtful, business-related analysis. It includes the standard...

Security contract smorgasbord. (View from the Hill).(Homeland Security procurement budget)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Five billion dollars is up for grabs. That's roughly the procurement budget of the department of Homeland Security, branded with the Bush stamp of approval in late November. For would-be government contractors, the new department is messy...

The Paradox of success payments. (Arrivals).(compensating executives that bring companies out of bankruptcy)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... THIS SEASON'S NEW CROP of turnaround CEOs will tell you that bringing a company out of bankruptcy is an accomplishment that richly deserves reward. Conventionally, such rewards have taken the form of often-lavish "success payments," on top of...

Cash is king for salon consolidator. (Strategies of the Fittest).(Paul Finkelstein of Regis)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... Paul Finkelstein, CEO of Regis, is a self-made haircut king who does much of the acquisition-mad salon company's financing himself--in cash. His grand plan for the Minneapolis company is to have it cut 5 percent of the world's hair. "Make...

Club Med seeks a new cure. (Departure).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... IN HIS 1949 NOVEL The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles peered into the sun of his adopted Moroccan homeland and asked, "What's the difference between a tourist and a traveler?" That same question undid fellow Moroccan Philippe Bourguignon, 54,...

As states go bust, Casinos win big. (Economy).(governments look to gaming revenues to pad budget)
March 1, 2003... Bad as the economy is, it has its fans. In the gaming business, downturns reveal their upside in the wink of a Florida racehorse's eye or in the lamps of a casino riverboat steaming up the Mississippi River at twilight. Gaming executives see...

Worker optimism proves resilient. (Survey Says).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2003... GENERALLY SPEAKING, nearly half of your employees are unimpressed by you. But you must be doing something right, because in the shaky first years of the millennium, in defiance of all reasonable expectation, workers' opinions of their bosses...

Carly, we hardly know you -- still. (Book Review).(Perfect Enough: Carly Fiorina and the Reinvention of Hewlett-Packard)(Backfire: Carly Fiorina's High-Stakes Battle for the Soul of Hewlett-Packard)(Book Review)
March 1, 2003... Armies of executives, analysts and journalists have watched Carly Fiorina for years. The CEO of Hewlett-Packard worked for AT&T for 17 years, playing a major role in the spin-off of Lucent in 1996. While at AT&T, she was known as a "change...

Consulting grows, but trust still an issue. (By the Numbers).(accounting firms still reeling from scandals)(related article: Coming Clean)(Industry Overview)
March 1, 2003... The major public accounting firms would probably rather write off the year 2002. Big Five firms were at the center of the Enron, WorldCom and Tyco scandals, among others. The result? Tarnished reputations, federal accounting reforms and, in the...

The anti-stimulus. (Competing Interests).(no federal help for state deficits)
March 1, 2003... If your organization were forbidden from running a loss in any given fiscal year and revenues came in below budget, you'd face stark choices: cut jobs or investments, or raise prices. The former actions may inhibit future growth, while the...

The state of uncertainty. (Capitol Ideas).(economy and war)
March 1, 2003... Karl Rove, the White House political adviser who seems to take special joy every time some television talking-head calls him the secret brains of the Bush administration, keeps a classic photograph of Abraham Lincoln on his office wall. Perhaps...

Ford's debt trap. (Market Horizons).(high yielding bonds)
March 1, 2003... Bonds that pay as much as six percentage points more than U.S. Treasuries are generally not considered the most solid investments. Such was the case with the junk bonds of 1980s fame, as with the current debt offerings of emerging markets in...

White-collar climb: today's CEOs may be younger, better-schooled and more well-rounded. but succeeding in the top job still takes real experience. (2003 Route to the Top).(related article: CEOs Are Getting Younger Each Year)
March 1, 2003... 'A complex, complicated job has gotten more complex and more complicated." That's Ed Liddy's opinion of how the role of the CEO has changed, but the words of the chairman and chief executive of All-State Insurance could easily be echoed by any...

Delivering in tough times: under CEO Mike Eskew, UPS, the venerable package deliverer, goes global and high tech. (2003 Route to the Top).(United Parcel Service)(Company Profile)
March 1, 2003... If he hadn't gone to work for UPS, Mike Eskew thinks he would have liked to be an architect. His 30-year career has kept him too busy to design houses, but he has created something much bigger: the transformation of an ordinary package delivery...

Memo to a new CEO: veteran Larry Bossidy explains what it takes to succeed in today's changing climate. (2003 Route to the Top).
March 1, 2003... Congratulations on your new job! I know you're excited about the opportunity to exercise your leadership at the highest level. And I'm sure you're a little nervous about settling into what's turned out to be the hottest seat in the ballpark....

Hidden power: the reports of Japan's economic death are widely exaggerated. the country possesses huge wealth and technological savvy. American CEOs ignore the opportunity at their peril. (Regional Report: Japan).
March 1, 2003... For a decade, American newspapers have kept up a steady drumbeat of articles deploring the lack of economic growth in Japan, the decline of the Nikkei stock average to two-decade lows and other signs of economic disarray. Most ominously, the...

Counterpoint: Japan's woes far from over.(economic recovery)(Interview)
March 1, 2003... Not many economists can drop references to the French Revolution or World War II when describing Japan's economic woes. But Kenneth Courtis, managing director and vice chairman, Goldman Sachs Asia, does this easily as he pontificates on how the...

Privacy, please: sagging stock price and shareholder scrutiny getting you down? Maybe it's time to opt out of the public sphere. (Management).(taking companies private)(related article: Keeping the Books Open)
March 1, 2003... In the summer of 2001, Deltek Systems CEO Ken deLaski was flummoxed. Just five years after the proud day his software firm raised $17.4 million in a Nasdaq IPO, it found itself at the bottom of a freefall. Deltek's share price had plunged to $4...

Schwab makes his move: the inside story on how Charles Schwab and his board finally agreed it was time for the fatigued founder to step aside. (Profile).(related article: Pottruck's Clim to CEO)
March 1, 2003... Charles Schwab has had a lot to be proud of for many years. But for all his accomplishments, Schwab seemed unable to transcend the limitation that has snared almost every company led by its founder: an inability to let go of the reins. ...

Flying on the edge: for instant perspective, Jerry Curtis of Nationwide Recovery Systems goes to the extremes. (CEO Extreme).(extreme adventures)(related article: Do You Have What It Takes?)
March 1, 2003... The force of gravity wrenched his stomach. It pressed his spine, neck and head against the seat, making him feel like a wrestler on the losing end of a pin. Still, Jerry Curtis felt exhilarated; in fact, he'd paid some $7,000 for this thrill of...

The Mike and Rudy show heads for Japan. (Flip Side).(Mike Milken, Rudy Giuliani)(Column)
March 1, 2003... Afascinating article in a recent issue of Barron's reports that a group of executives who run a small investment-management company in Tokyo has informally approached Michael Milken about helping them set up a Japanese junk-bond market. By way...