Chief Executive (U.S.) articles from March 2008

Chief Executive (U.S.) archives from March 2008

Innovation as contact sport.(Editorial)
March 1, 2008... In a study conducted by McKinsey on Leadership and Innovation (www.mckinseyquarterly.com), researchers found a sizeable gap between the aspirations of business leaders to innovate and their ability to execute. Some 70 percent of the top 722...

Would a CEO make a good president?(FEEDBACK)
March 1, 2008... In an online column Chief Executive asked why CEOs are largely underrepresented from the ranks of political leaders, particularly those seeking the presidency (Mitt Romney notwithstanding). I agree that most CEOs would not make very good...

It's about customers.(FEEDBACK)
March 1, 2008... I could not agree more with Bob Donnelly's column on CRM (CE Online, October/November 2007). I have been fortunate enough to have had three wonderful firsthand experiences with customers laying out their problems. Two were ignored by the...

Mining momentum.(CEO CHRONICLES)
March 1, 2008... Meet Steve Harman, Shell Oil's go-to man when a division needs to fuel growth. Harman grew up in Durham, a small mining village in the U.K. Raised in a coal-mining family, he left school and entered the pits at age 16. Two years later, Harman...

Trial by fire.(CEO CHRONICLES)
March 1, 2008... Who better to clean up an accounting mess than a new CEO with a background in finance? That must have been the thinking when Sacramento, Calif.-based Unify recruited Todd Wille in mid-2000. More than a CPA with considerable CFO experience under...

The power of green.(CEO CHRONICLES)(Company overview)
March 1, 2008... Green Mountain Energy was more than ahead of the curve--it was almost ahead of its time. Founded over a decade ago, when ecofriend-liness was still widely associated with tree-hugging, the Vermont-based company had a tough slog initially...

Bubble trouble.(CEO CHRONICLES)
March 1, 2008... Stroll through any supermarket beverage aisle today and you'll probably see at least a dozen brands of water. In fact, a good portion of space devoted predominately to various soft drinks a decade ago is now occupied by a variety of regional...

U.S. corporate tax rate is second highest in OECD ranking, 2000-2006.(INbox)
March 1, 2008... Only Japan taxes corporate income at a higher rate than the U.S. Germany had higher tax rates than the U.S. in 2000 but now has a lower rate (38.9 percent). Ireland has a 12.5 percent corporate rate, nearly the lowest in the world, and yet...

INfact.(CEO CHRONICLES)
March 1, 2008... Information begins with facts, which can be assembled to identify trends. Put it all together to derive knowledge. Presenting Chief Executive's INfact. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1. The increase in the frequency of Fortune 100 CEO...

Global, mobile and growing.(CEO WATCH)(Interview)(Company overview)
March 1, 2008... After a series of mergers and acquisitions, U.K.-based Vodafone Group Plc now boasts revenues of $61.2 billion, operations in 25 countries and 60,000 employees whose mix of nationalities reflect its global business. The world's largest mobile...

Thorns & roses.(CEO WATCH)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... ROSE... According to reports, New York governor ELIOT SPITZER, former Torque-mada of Wall Street when he was that state's AG, finally recognizes that the overlapping mandates of the present rules-based U.S. regulatory system is injurious...

Confidence plummets after modest recovery.(CEO CONFIDENCE INDEX)(Survey)
March 1, 2008... THE ECONOMY MAY NOT BE TURNING AROUND any time soon, according to 261 top executives surveyed. The CEO Confidence Index fell sharply in February after a modest recovery in December and January. The overall index, which tracks the general...

The numbers.(CEO WATCH)
March 1, 2008... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Yes No Do you think the recent rate cuts by the Federal Reserve were 80% 20% a wise policy decision? Will they help the economy? ...

Our health care apocalypse: consistency, complexity and chronic illness are the three riders.(CHIEF CONCERN)
March 1, 2008... The political dialogue and the media coverage focused on "reforming the U.S. health care system" misses the central point--the U.S. has no health care "system" to reform. What we have is a patchwork quilt of different responses to different...

Permanence & politics: is uncertainty in leadership good or bad?(UNCOMMON WISDOM)
March 1, 2008... It struck me when I was writing two articles at the same time, both on politics, largely late at night. One was for an American publication on the new generation of Chinese leadership, appointed last October at the 17th National Congress of the...

What will biotech bring? The biotech revolution brings breakthroughs in cures, food and energy production.(TECHNOLOGY)
March 1, 2008... Humanity has experienced a number of production revolutions--agriculture, industrial/steam, industrial/electricity, information and now the biotechnology production revolution. Biotechnology uses living organisms and their component molecules...

The innovation playbook: how do you generate growth in a mature market with tough aggressive competitors and an outside activist breathing down your neck convinced he can do better.(Interview)(Company overview)
March 1, 2008... Usually when shareholder activists call on a CEO demanding a slate of new board directors, its time to circle the wagons, but Bill Johnson, 58, is nothing if not a survivor who took the takeover titan at his word that he was more interested in...

Are your employees truly engaged? Having the right strategy is good. Aligning your workforce with it is better.(TALENT MANAGEMENT)(Company overview)
March 1, 2008... Few industries are more cutthroat than retailing. Competitors are subject to rapidly changing trends, and the whims of a fickle public can make a store that's hot one year passe the next. Witness the recent demise of CompUSA, only a few years...

Leading your business to maximum results: three questions every executive needs to answer--and the tools for getting the answers.(VALUATION)
March 1, 2008... In Part 1 of this two-part feature (CE, January/February), we showed how to answer the first two of three key questions that must be addressed in order to maximize results: 1. What are we being scored on? 2. What should we do to maximize our...

Perfect vision, better dialogues: correcting "blind spots" can boost decision-making effectiveness.(STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT)
March 1, 2008... Constructive, efficient debate among executives has never been more necessary. Globalization and the emergence of a multi-polar world is introducing new competition and requiring companies to operate in completely different ways. Merger and...

Building a better innovation model: how can leaders instill a culture that both fosters inventive ideas and cultivates the people and processes that create them?(ROUNDTABLE)(Company overview)
March 1, 2008... Forget focus groups. Sure, identifying a customer need is a great first step in the innovation process. But most customers haven't a clue as to what, exactly, it is that they need. In fact, they may not even recognize that they're not...

Roadster roundup: these four roadsters deliver style and substance.(EXECUTIVE LIFE)
March 1, 2008... roadsters are the quintessential driving machines. Two doors and two seats, a powerful engine, taut suspension and a movable roof are all you really need if you want to focus on the thrill of being behind the wheel. But if you're reserving a...

Squashed: let's stamp out incoherent sports metaphors.(FLIP SIDE)
March 1, 2008... Irate shareholders, meddlesome hedge fund managers, know-it-all private equity guys and even the man in the street often act as if being a chief executive officer is a day at the beach, a stroll in the park, a picnic. This is a misperception,...

Why do some politicians still not get it?(EDITORIAL)
March 1, 2008... THE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO FORCE THEIR IDEAS on you are generally the people with the ideas most divorced from common sense. The populist zeitgeist throughout the Presidential primaries couldn't be clearer: business is the skunk at the garden...

Watermelon politics.(Editorial)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... NOW WE KNOW. IT'S ALL CAPITALISM'S FAULT. In a new book The Climate Change and the Failure of Democracy, two enviro-activist authors go well beyond the usual end-of-days predictions of eco-doom. The only way to reverse global warming and...