After announcing its third quarter earnings, HP CEO Meg Whitman spoke with CNBC’s Jim Cramer about the company’s leadership changes to aimed at driving its turnaround. Feeling she might not have fully gotten her message across Whitman went on LinkedIn to elaborate. It’s a communications gambit more CEOs are likely to use when a lot is at stake.
Since he announced his intention to step down as CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer has triggered a world wide betting game as to who will succeed him. Microsoft’s board has appointed a special committee to help decide if the next chief executive will be an insider like Julie Larson-Green, or the prodigal Stephen Elop of Nokia. (Ladbrokes, the London betting agents give Elop a 5 to 1 advantage.) But the central issue of concern is what the company needs to do to transform since it lost its dominate position in computing. Microsoft once ruled the tech world. Now it’s one player among many. Will the new CEO have his or her options foreclosed?
Why do many incompetent men become leaders? Asks Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, an international authority in personality profiling and psychometric testing, in a recent Harvard Business Review. The truth of the matter is that pretty much anywhere in the world men tend to think that they that are much smarter than women. Yet, he argues, arrogance and overconfidence are inversely related to leadership talent.
Data analytics is growing in acceptance and importance. Ninety-six percent of senior executives say analytics will become more important to their organizations in the next three years. But at the same time many managers are in doubt about “big data” and what they can do to realize value from it. A recent Deloitte survey revealed that while it’s progressing as a decision-making resource, analytics remains in its early days with many companies concerned that they don’t have the internal skills to leverage it.
Why do otherwise strong companies stop growing? Is it a sales or product issue? Does a key market dematerialize? Here are some proven ways to jump over hurdles for growing firms.
Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rogers let it all hang out in the Op-Ed pages of The Wall Street Journal. He compared his San Jose, CA company’s investment totaling $797 million to create chip-making plants between 1983 and 2003 leading to the creation of 4,003 jobs — roughly an investment of $198,000 per job– and contrasts this with $500,000 to $4 million per job created by the Obama administration in the course of its stimulus program.
Some small-businesses are thinking of splitting their firms or taking other steps to avoid the associated costs and regulatory burdens of the Affordable Care Act. Most owners have other less-radical options for maneuvering around the law’s provisions such as transforming their workforce to part-timers, reducing their workers’ hours or even lay off staff in order to remain below the thresholds established under the act. Under the law, firms with 50 or more full-time-equivalent employees will have to provide “minimum essential” and “affordable” coverage, or pay a penalty for each employee in excess of 30 full-time employees.
Picture the archetypal CEO. If you’re typical, you imagine a man or a woman in his or her 50s. Firm handshake. No nonsense. Good teeth. Majored in finance in college and went on to get an MBA from an Ivy League business school. Left-brain thinkers, he or she knows his or her way around a spreadsheet and a boardroom. It is time to update the picture in your head, because the future belongs to the storydoers.
We know most CEOs are struggling with healthcare costs. A recent Bank of America survey found that most CFOs continue to list healthcare costs as their major concern. This is despite the seemingly ubiquitous wellness programs that are supposed to reduce these costs by 26%, but in reality have delivered trivial savings at best, according to the recent RAND report. There are remedies at hand.
According to commentator Brad Stone, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos isn’t trying to kill the media business, but he may be trying to re-invent it and by doing so may be trying to race ahead of firms like Apple and Google.
Chief Executive Group exists to improve the performance of U.S. CEOs, senior executives and public-company directors, helping you grow your companies, build your communities and strengthen society. Learn more at chiefexecutivegroup.com.
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1:00 - 5:00 pm
Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process
Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:
Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns. They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning. Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process. This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented. If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form. The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations.
Limited space available.
10:30 - 5:00 pm
General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
Sponsored by UBS
General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.
The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.
