For more information about Chief Executive’s 2012 40 Best Companies for Leaders:
40 Best Companies for Leaders: How Top Companies Excel in Leadership Development
40 Best Companies for Leaders 2012
Private companies operate in a much different business environment than public companies. Nevertheless, private companies that commit to leadership development deserve to be recognized in their own right. They may not be as large, but with fewer external distractions, many are actually more focused on developing their people—if on a reduced scale and with fewer resources. Here are 10 that stand out among this year’s respondents.
Company | CEO | |
---|---|---|
1 |
Business Publications |
Connie Wimer |
2 |
JFE Shoji Service |
Mikio Fukushima |
3 |
Westfield Insurance |
Robert Joyce |
4 |
American Infrastructure |
A. Ross Meyers |
5 |
Eagle Manufacturing |
Joe Eddy |
6 |
Golder Associates |
Brian Conlin |
7 |
IT Authorities |
Jason Caras |
8 |
Genesis HealthCare |
George Hager |
9 |
Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation Ltd. |
Jianwei Zhang, President and Chief Country Representative Bombardier China |
10 |
Harwood International |
Gabriel Barbier-Mueller |
It has frequently been suggested that executives who hone their skills at the helm of private companies have much more flexibility than those at publicly owned companies. Public company CEOs are constrained by their need to balance multiple objectives in a complex corporate ecosystem that includes Wall Street analysts, shareholders, their public culture and brand and other stakeholders. They need to be the face of the company, dealing with analysts interacting constantly with the media.
These added obligations can distract from a CEO’s focus on internal operations. Public company CEOs must also cope with the comparisons shareholders can make with returns garnered by hedge funds (fair or not) and with regulatory compliance issues. These trends can force public company executives to be more short-term focused on quarterly earnings targets and more risk-averse.
At private companies, executives are often less encumbered and make decisions autonomously. Management teams can focus on understanding the “science” of running their specific business and be more like business “technologists.” It is likely that these CEOs, who do well with the bottom line, will be left alone.
The impact on CEO priorities may be significant:
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