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

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

On the virtues of travel.(Editor's Note)(travel to foreign operations)(Editorial)
May 1, 2004... Leaders of many big companies already spend a fair amount of time in world capitals. But too many CEOs prefer to stay close to home and allow a vice president to tell them what they need to know about global markets. That's a mistake, and...

What the economy needs.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... Although informative, the opinions of the CEOs interviewed about the domestic U.S. economy in your April cover story ("A Fragilc Recovery") focused on factors considered beyond their control. It would be interesting to learn what they are doing...

In defense of secretaries.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... As a former executive secretary, and current associate manager, at Procter & Gamble, I read your article "Slaves to the Clock" (Cover Story, March 2004) on our company's intranet home page. The story took a gratuitous jab at administrative...

Outsourcing backlash.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... I strongly agree with your March editorial about outsourcing ("Globalization and the New Luddites"). Backlash about outsourcing seriously undermines the credibility of CEOs and corporate boards in the eyes of the U.S. consumer. Recently, I...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
May 1, 2004... A story about Archer Daniels Midland in the March issue incorrectly referred to the size of the company's work force. ADM has 26,000 employees, not 6,000. Chief Executive regrets the error.

Darts & roses.(CEO Watch)
May 1, 2004... ROSE... * SCOTT MCNEALY AND STEVE BALMER for kissing and making up. Romance in the technology "space" is just what customers want. Could the rekindled affair have anything to do with this fellow below? DART... * MARIO MONTI. All...

Innovation: a cure for what ails you.(CEO Watch)(omega-3 fatty acids)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... WHEN JOE VON ROSENBERG led the road show for Omega Protein's initial public offering in 1998, he couldn't blame investors for scratching their heads--or even shaking them. Delivered with a straight face, von Rosenberg's pitch was that human...

Compensation: options out, restricted stock in.(CEO Watch)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... AMONG 47 U.S. PUBLIC COMPANIES that had the same CEOs in 2002 and 2003, 40 percent made significant changes to their compensation programs. The most common change: increasing the use of restricted stock, often as a replacement for options,...

Darts & roses.(CEO Watch)
May 1, 2004... DARTS... * PETER KANN, CEO of The Wall Street Journal, for taking a 58 percent pay hike in 2003 while demanding that the newspaper's union accept a contract with no raises. Funny, we don't recall seeing this reported in the Journal. ...

Technology: Comcast looks beyond Disney.(CEO Watch)
May 1, 2004... CONTRARY TO popular wisdom, Comcast's attempted merger with Disney isn't the chief concern of CEO Brian Roberts. The head of the nation's largest cable company faces a more crucial mission: fending off the challenge of satellite TV. ...

CEO confidence index: CEOs say "no" to government-run health care.(CEO Watch)
May 1, 2004... OVERALL, CEO Confidence increased slightly in April after two months of decline. But corporate leaders remain deeply concerned about rising health care costs, which they believe are hitting their bottom lines. What they don't want is deeper...

What to look for when hiring a CEO: the most critical skills are the ones you can't quantify.(Chief Concern)
May 1, 2004... As a three-time CEO and now director on a number of boards, I can attest that directors have learned a lot in recent years about hiring chief executives. For one thing, they're trying harder to promote from within, rather than hiring...

CEO: chief education officer; How to deal with an independent board.(Thought Leader)
May 1, 2004... Chief executives don't get to shape their companies' boards like they used to. Increasingly, they're dealing with larger numbers of independent directors, thanks to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and new stock exchange listing requirements, as well as...

Outsourcing IT headaches is no answer: often the problem that needs fixing is management.(Thought Leader)
May 1, 2004... Your CIO is proposing to outsource what he considers some IT "headaches," such as maintaining old legacy systems and answering help-desk calls. He points out that these are commodity-like functions that he doesn't have the time or the staffing...

Health care meltdown: as costs continue to spiral, here's what CEOs can do to stave off a crisis.
May 1, 2004... To stay competitive with low-wage, low-benefits Wal-Marts moving into Southern California, Safeway, and other supermarket chains earlier this year tried to persuade their unionized employees to start contributing toward their health care...

India's outsourcing boom: sure, the infrastructure is bad. But India's huge labor pool suggests the growth may last.
May 1, 2004... The bumpy roads leading to Bangalore's Electronics City are thronged with rickshaws, overcrowded buses, mopeds, noisy old trucks, ox-drawn carts of fruit and lumber--even the occasional cow ambling along, ignoring the blare of honking horns....

Germany's moment of truth: can the largest economy in Europe remain competitive?(Global)
May 1, 2004... Ulrich Schumacher was the man German trade unions loved to hate. As chief executive of the world's sixth-largest chip maker Infineon Technologies--and an avid Porsche racer--he pushed hard for performance-based pay on the shop floor. He also...

Little giants: you don't have to be big to be global. Some of the best players are smart and small.(Strategy)
May 1, 2004... After Medrad decided a few years ago to start exporting its medical diagnostic imaging products to Germany, the Indianola, Pa.-based company stumbled immediately. It had neglected to get German regulatory approval to sell a crucial injector for...

Opting out: the public markets look better, but there are still plenty of reasons for CEOs to take their companies private.
May 1, 2004... By 2002, more than half a century after it was founded, Lillian Vernon Corp. was definitely showing its age. The gifts and housewares cataloger had $260 million in revenues, but was losing money. Seeing this, last April Strauss Zelnick, the...

Driving diversity; CEOs get it: diverse work forces make for better companies. The question is, how do you get there?(Roundtable)
May 1, 2004... For years, CEOs have paid only lip service to diversity. In the 1980s, when the term began popping up in boardrooms of progressive companies, multicultural programs were viewed primarily as feel-good initiatives--important, but hardly...

African dream: experiencing the modern safari, as nature and luxury take their course.(Travel; Madikwe Game Reserve)
May 1, 2004... You never forget your first giraffe--at least I won't. Shortly after returning to our Land Rover after a walk in the bush, we heard the electric cry: "Giraffe!" Now, these animals are not exactly made for concealment; an average male is 17 feet...

Tennis, everyone? Here's hoping that golf finally loses its grip as the favorite sport of CEOs.(Essay)
May 1, 2004... Ever since the late 1970s, when more than 20 million Americans regularly played on local public courts or enjoyed social doubles at the club, tennis has been losing ground to golf. If not always in actual participation, certainly in terms of...

This story was written in Calcutta: even articles about outsourcing are being outsourced.(Flip Side)
May 1, 2004... The outsourcing of American jobs has quickly emerged as one of the major issues of the presidential campaign. These days, it's impossible to open a newspaper or turn on the news without being assaulted by a horde of self-aggrandizing...

The health care dilemma.(Editorial)
May 1, 2004... THE TIME HAS COME for CEOs to elevate health care to the top of your agendas. It's not just an issue for Human Resources or the Chief Financial Officer. What's ultimately at stake is the ability of companies to make money in view of exploding...

Playing peekaboo!(compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
May 1, 2004... IS EVERYONE HAVING FUN with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act? This is one of the last provisions of Sarbox to be phased in this year. As CEOs and CFOs are grappling with quarterly and annual filings to the Securities and Exchange...