Chief Executive (U.S.) articles from October 2002

Chief Executive (U.S.) archives from October 2002

Tough questions, profitable answers. (Editor's Note).(Editorial)
October 1, 2002... Prosperity, we're told, is just around the corner. We just don't know which corner, or how long it will take to get there. Our current recovery (if it is a recovery) is ugly, slow and fitful--in short, a first-class opportunity to teach...

Feedback.(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2002... Snapshots of Sameness I looked, with amusement, at your subhead for the June roundtable titled, "Capturing the Innovation Premium." It read, "Ingenuity is the key to creating customer and shareholder value. But to succeed, you have to be...

Directors give no time to no-name charities. (Governance).
October 1, 2002... The first time Steve Greenberg, president and director of Net2Phone, a $150 million Internet phone service provider in Newark, N.J., visited the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora in Israel 20 years ago, he did what all tourists do: He strolled...

Death in the family, daughter takes over. (Arrivals).
October 1, 2002... JULIE SMOLYANSKY SUCCEEDED her father as CEO of Lifeway Foods, the Morton Grove, III.-based maker of milk-based kefir drinks, in June after Michael Smolyansky, the company's founder, died of a heart attack at age 55. The unexpected...

CEO pay and the fairway factor. (Compensation).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... It's no secret that for many top executives, golf and business are inextricably linked. A four-hour stroll through manicured fairways provides a great opportunity to network or talk deals. Now, a study suggests that golf can offer corporate...

Roots of Financial Restatements. (CEO Watch).
October 1, 2002... Roots of Financial Restatements The number of companies forced to restate their earnings rose 233 percent between 1997 and 2001. Of the approximately 990 restatements filed over the past five years, most were in the manufacturing...

The new "offshore" accounts. (Vested Interests).(self-settle trusts)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Looking to put your money where it can't be touched by creditors? Somewhere really iron-clad like an offshore account? You needn't book a flight to Bermuda, but you do need to be fraud-free (a fairly challenging standard these days, it seems)....

The watchdog has fleas, workers say. (Survey Says!).(Walker Information Inc. runs government opinion poll)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... AS CONGRESS STEPS in to clean up corporate America, one might recall that back in December, the month Enron declared bankruptcy, citizens didn't give government high marks for its ethics, either. In a national survey of 2,795 American...

Marks and sparks' express check-out. (Departures).(Luc Vandevelde replaced by Roger Holmes)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... LUC VANDEVELDE, 51, chairman and CEO of Marks & Spencer, the venerable London-based retailer, recently relinquished his CEO title after a little more than two years on the job. He was succeeded by Roger Holmes, 42, the former managing director...

Healthy dissidents are good for multinationals. (Capitol Ideas).
October 1, 2002... The Bush White House insists that it deals with the world in a pragmatic, America-first manner that differs dramatically from Bill Clinton's over-reliance on international organizations that didn't have Washington's values at heart. The Clinton...

Paying more than lip service to diversity. (Chief Concern).(Abbott Laboratories; recruiting minority and women executives)
October 1, 2002... The diversity of our global marketplace has exploded in recent years, and along with it, the composition of the United States population. Today, ethnic groups represent approximately 30 percent of the total U.S. populace, which is roughly 281...

Rivalry across the rhine. (Market Horizons).(France outperforms Germany; economics and labor)
October 1, 2002... For decades, French presidential candidates made an enticing promise to their voters: During their term, "la grande nation" would finally manage to outperform neighboring Germany both in economic and financial terms. The great dream has...

Bermuda triangle. (Competing Interests).(tax shelters)
October 1, 2002... After years of winking at the practice, Congress is suddenly up in arms about companies moving their headquarters to Bermuda to avoid taxes. In the House and Senate, legislators have introduced laws that would forbid CEOs from booking...

Help wanted: superhero; most companies drop the baton when it comes to CEO succession. Here's what a few do right. (Succession).
October 1, 2002... Imagine creating the perfect CEO. You'd mix the charisma of Herb Kelleher with innovation a la Andy Grove. Add a dash of Michael Dell's salesmanship to Jack Welch's ability to deliver on Wall Street's expectations. Throw in Meg Whitman's...

The man who will lead Exxon Mobil: can one of America's most controversial CEOs be cloned? Some shareholders hope so; activists pray not. (Succession).(Lee Raymond)(Interview)
October 1, 2002... It's been more than a year since the board of Exxon Mobil asked its chief executive, Lee Raymond, now 64, to extend his contract. Saying that executives in training were not yet ready, the 13-member board asked Raymond, among corporate...

The best & worst boards of 2002: let there be light; good governance? Gurus are searching for answers, but they are sure those companies that go beyond the letter of the law will be the first to win back investors. (Governance).
October 1, 2002... Try asking corporate governance experts to name a best board these days and you'll find these formerly loquacious gurus have clammed up. "Not a chance," responds Elizabeth Saunders, chairman and co-founder of investor relations firm Ashton...

Japan rises again: Japan's reluctance to resort to Western streamlining is being tested by China's growth, global competitors and activist investors. (Regional Report/Asia).
October 1, 2002... Something is stirring in boardrooms in the Land of the Rising Sun. It's called risutora, or restructuring. Japanese CEOs are making changes. None are as radical as those routinely implemented by their American counterparts, but cumulatively...

Middleman becomes master: Wal-Mart watch out--giant Hong Kong trader Li & Fung boasts an information system to beat. (Regional Report/Asia).
October 1, 2002... The Holy Grail of the late 1990s was that the Internet would allow companies to buy all their parts and components online through giant electronic marketplaces. This would create a "frictionless" economy in which all greedy, inefficient...

CEO as Chief customer officer: to capture the loyalty premium, you must know everything about your customers--but that doesn't necessarily mean crowning them kings. (Roundtable).
October 1, 2002... Learn more about your customers, fine-tune products and services to meet their needs and leverage technology to continuously refine a mutually beneficial relationship - what's not to like? Unfortunately, though, customer-relationship...

Lords of the links: these days, conspicuous consumption is out--except among CEOs who build their own golf courses. (Executive Privilege).
October 1, 2002... Years later, Wayne Huizenga still remembers the conversation. He and his wife, Marti, were flying home to Florida on their private jet after sailing the Mediterranean on a friend's 175-foot Feadship yacht when she turned to him and suggested...

The strangest of bedfellows. (Flip Side).(Celebrities and politicians work together to raise the economic status of developing countries.)
October 1, 2002... One of the oddest sights in recent years was the diplomatic mission to Africa that paired the buttoned-downed Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill with rock star Bono of U2. From O'Neill's point of view, the mission was a fact-finding exercise to...

Leading indicators: the development of executive leadership; in a survey of Chief Executive readers, the Center for Creative Leadership provides a window into what CEOs are doing to enhance leadership in turbulent times. (CEO Survey: Advertisement).
October 1, 2002... Today, there's no shortage of challenges for CEOs. Rapidly changing technologies and markets. An increasingly sophisticated workforce. A shifting economy. Terrorism. Corporate scandals. It's a world where sound leadership has become...