The CEO and the Monk: One Company's Journey to Profit and Purpose [Hardcover]

Robert B. Catell (Author), Kenny Moore (Author), Glenn Rifkin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471450111 | ISBN-13: 978-0471450115 | Publication Date: January 16, 2004 | Edition: 1

In a business era in which executives are taken away in handcuffs and corporate malfeasance and scandal dominates the business headlines, there is tremendous value in the stories of ethical companies and spiritual business leaders. The CEO and the Monk is one such compelling story, the story of KeySpan, the nation?s fifth largest energy giant and a profitable, Fortune 500 company, and the two KeySpan executives?one a former monk?whose unique working relationship is based on something as simple and powerful as "doing the right thing." This isn?t yet another prescriptive business guide written by breathless consultants. It is a story about a real business and how two unusual and dedicated humanists can keep their eyes on profits and ethics at the same time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The sublime union of temporal and spiritual power in the business world is celebrated in this earnest corporate hagiography. The titular monk is ex-Catholic clergyman Moore, a "thoughtful, provocative, gentle and good-natured" man with "the interpersonal skills of a priest, the serenity of a monk, the unbiased attitude of a business neophyte and a stark absence of a personal agenda." Signing on to the human resources department of gas utility Brooklyn Union, Moore becomes a confessor to troubled colleagues and a spiritual advisor to CEO Catell. As the energy market deregulates and Brooklyn Union metastasizes into energy conglomerate KeySpan through a series of traumatic mergers and acquisitions, Moore helps the company "hold on to its soul" through a regimen of high-concept human resources initiatives in which employees meditate, create murals, do improv comedy and vent their feelings, initiatives that are also supplemented by random acts of senseless beauty, like sending anonymous floral bouquets to unsung workers. Nominally the company ombudsman, Moore displays a combination of sacramental and community-building roles that makes him more like an archbishop; he likens one of his HR functions to a Catholic Mass, another to the Last Supper, and even presides, decked out in priestly vestments, over a "funeral" for Brooklyn Union. Employees roll their eyes at first, but Moore is stoutly supported by Catell, a "messianic CEO" whose "salvific task" Moore compares to that of Moses himself. In the book’s trinitarian chapter structure, business journalist Rifkin (Radical Marketing) offers third-person narrative sections praising the character and good works of the two KeySpan executives, followed by first-person sections in which Moore and Catell praise each other (and themselves.) The result is a fairly well-written devotional tract that will inspire far more than it enlightens.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

& showing executives how to instill a philosophy that balances bottom-line demands with a sense of caring. -- The Deal, 15th March 2004

"Entertaining and human story of making a business work by keeping an eye on the intangibles of the human experience." -- HR.Com Book of the Year 2003, Runner-Up, January, 2004

"If you're interested in CEO thinking, human resources issues, and corporate culture, ''The CEO and the Monk" is worth reading." -- Boston Globe, March 7, 2004

"It's an odd partnership that makes for an offbeat but intriguing story." -- Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge, March 8,2004

“… showing executives how to instill a philosophy that balances bottom-line demands with a sense of caring.” (The Deal, 15^th March 2004)

"It's an odd partnership that makes for an offbeat but intriguing story." (Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge, March 8,2004)

"Entertaining and human story of making a business work by keeping an eye on the intangibles of the human experience." (HR.Com Book of the Year 2003, Runner-Up, January, 2004)

"If you're interested in CEO thinking, human resources issues, and corporate culture, ''The CEO and the Monk" is worth reading." (Boston Globe, March 7, 2004)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (January 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471450111
• ISBN-13: 978-0471450115
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #743,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice Guys (and companies) can finish first, March 16, 2004

By 

Hank Boerner (Manhasset, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The CEO and the Monk: One Company's Journey to Profit and Purpose (Hardcover)

Finally, good news from inside the Corporate World! As the media focus our attention on corporate wrongdoing, the show trials of the rich and powerful, stratospheric salaries of greedy CEOs, and the "unaccountability" of managers and Wall Streeters comes a heartwarming and inspiration story of a Fortune 500 company with a soul.

The CEO and the Monk is the inside story of Keyspan's dramatic growth over the past decade, of its hands-on CEO, of the difficulties encountered as the "family" of a 100-year old, conservative utility absorbs the shocks of mergers and acquisitions and grows from $1 billion to $6 billion in revenues, tripling its workforce. All the while maintaining a clear focus on doing the right thing...and blowing the numbers out of the water while not losing its soul, as one financial analyst observed.

Bob Catell, Chairman of Keyspan, one of the nation's leading energy providers, is the CEO in the title. He's a career employee whose soft-spoken style and ready smile hide the tough inner man who created a whole new company amidst the chaos of de-regulation. Tough, smart, caring and candid about what it took to achieve his vision, he points out this was the opposite of the "asset-lite" and high-flying Enron of the 1990s. Same industry, similar starting point, different leaders...much different results.

Kenny Moore was a real monk who after 15 years left cloistered life in the monastery to rediscover himself and pursue a career in the corporate world. Despite the odds of succeeding in Corporate America - no MBA, no useful business experience, and a serious bout with life-threatening cancer and then a heart attack - Kenny signed on in HR and rose to be Corporate Ombudsman at Keyspan. He became the conscience of the company, but not without struggle and self-doubt. He took risks along the way - even brashly staging a mock funeral for key employees as the old Brooklyn Union "died" and the new Keyspan was a-borning.

About the book: This a fast, enjoyable read, with three authors' voices leading you through the pages, with informative and lively stories about corporate and personal success behind the scenes. These are told in the first person by the CEO, Bob Catell, and the Monk, Kenny Moore. There's an interesting narrative thread to guide the reader as well, presented by the third story-teller, the skilled business writer Glenn Rifkin, a former New York Times reporter. This is a warts-and-all tale and belongs on the reading list for senior managers - and those who plan to be CEO one day.

Hank Boerner
Management Consultant
Corporate Governance Advisor
Rowan & Blewitt
Mineola, NY

March 10, 2004

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Things don't need to be like Enron..., March 8, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The CEO and the Monk: One Company's Journey to Profit and Purpose (Hardcover)

... or the "jobless recovery", if more CEOs paid attention to employees like my friend Kenny Moore.

Okay, so I knew Kenny back in the seminary and should be biased. But my real bias went the other way. Who wants to read another corporate self-help book? Right now my TV is flooded with the trials and tribulations of Martha Stewart and Michael Eisner and how much the Donald spends to fire people for sport.

But I bought it and really liked it. How refreshing after all the corporate slime we have to endure. I've been through a big merger, and the culture clash and downsizing that followed. I once made the kind of remarks that described Kenny as "one opportunity to reduce headcount that won't negatively impact the business." What I never experienced was a CEO who really believed that people were his company's gretest asset. And backed it up by supporting visionaries like Kenny Moore.

The writer-CEO-monk dialog format works surprisingly well and overall it's a readable book. It doesn't try to be the final word on the events of 9-11, but shares how one segment of the NY scene handled it.

Congrats, Kenny, but you're still the only one I've ever heard describe that religious order in terms of "monks" and "monasteries".

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a very interesting view after all that has happened the last, February 8, 2004

By 

lenny gingold (manalapan, new jersey, u.s.a.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The CEO and the Monk: One Company's Journey to Profit and Purpose (Hardcover)

I thought that the book is very timely. After experiencing the effects of the last 3 years in the market. Here is a refreshing view from a major company that makes the enron story even more appalling. Of course this also holds true for every other company that was run like a private piggy bank. The ceo's side of the story was very interesting. Here is a man with a clean conscience.
The book was very well written and an easy read. The monk's view was great to read; that there is room in corporate america for truth.
I would give this book the highest rating as a business read.Everyone can read this and come away with a good feeling of what can be if you try to do the right thing in this marketplace.