Category: Leadership

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Shame? When the Business Icon Stumbles

It may have missed your radar, but two North American business icons waved the financial white flag in the last three weeks.

Harry & David filed for bankruptcy, and the storied Los Angeles Dodgers baseball franchise was taken over by Major League baseball. The organizations are deeply in debt, and the path forward is tricky for both.

What happened?

In the case of Harry & David, that Medford, Oregon-based purveyor of fine fruits and friendly customer service, a large portion of the blame is being cast toward H & D’s owner, private equity firm Wasserstein & Co.… Read the rest

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When Conflict Conflicts

Standard question mark

We’re living in an interesting time; information that appears material or conflicting by the optics test for companies goes unmentioned.

At one hand we have the purchase by a senior Berkshire Hathaway exec of stock of a company that was subsequently bought by the firm (see this WSJ piece ) or the flap regarding whether Apple was legally required to provide information on CEO Steve Jobs health (see this article from the NY Times on the release of material information).… Read the rest

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Tips for Execs: A Drive By is Not a Check-In

I’m having lunch and a close-out conversation with an exec coaching client in Silicon Valley today. She has made obtained great results with small changes; her boss thinks she’s doing great and frankly so do I.

And she’s got a lesson or two that you can use.

One of the things she’s done is slowed down and let her direct reports (and a colleague or two) lead part of the conversation.… Read the rest

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The Corporate Reorganization: If You Shuffle the Boxes Will the Results Change?

McKesson Corporation, where I worked as a senior exec for over a decade, had a habit of the yearly reorganization – usually in March right before the start of the fiscal year on April 1. Reporting relationships changed, some people got shifted, some people got whacked, and business continued along.

Rarely did things in terms of the running the business significantly change.… Read the rest

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News You Can Use: Best CEOs Recruited from Inside?

Results announced yesterday of 20-year study by Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business in conjunction with AT Kearney found that companies that exclusively promote CEOs from within the ranks – as opposed to hiring outsiders – routinely outperform companies that hire CEOs from outside the firm.

The finding, I’d suggest, should hardly be any surprise. Organizational leaders have four or five hurdles to clear to be effective in organizations; effectiveness with colleagues, direct reports, and bosses (CEOs, investors, boards of directors), sector proficiency, managing change and organizational culture.… Read the rest

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What Do You Do When There’s Tension at the Top?

There are three well-known West Coast asset management firms (financial services speak for mutual funds, venture capital, private equity, hedge funds, or fund of funds firms) – none of them clients – where the firm’s leadership team members barely tolerate each other.

They talk when they must. Otherwise they minimize their working relationships as much as possible.

The firms make money. … Read the rest