How to Run a Company: Lessons from Top Leaders of the CEO Academy (Hardcover)

by Dennis C. Carey (Author), Marie-Caroline Von Weichs (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This is an intermittently engaging hodge-podge of war stories by current and former CEOs and associated advisers and observers. A few of the essays, like former DuPont CEO John Kroll's account of cutting environmental waste along with 40,000 jobs, delve into actual managerial issues. Most, though, deal with the political role of the CEO. Ex-Northwest Airlines CEO John Dasburg tells of selling his board on a new strategy and then liquidating holdovers (75 percent of upper and middle managers) from the old regime. Merck CEO Raymond Gilmartin adopted a less ruthless approach of holding endless rounds of discussions with managers and promoting from within. Shareholder rights activist Nell Minnow urges boards of directors to keep a close eye on the CEO, while Ed Breen, new CEO of scandal-rocked Tyco had to fire his entire board. Ex-Office Depot chief David Fuentes reminds readers not to alienate the powers that be in his story of how the Federal Trade Commission blocked a proposed merger with Staples (he shifts blame to the "angry and hostile posture of our attorneys"). Goldman Sachs vice chairman Robert Hurst warns CEOs, unconvincingly, that pressuring analysts for favorable stock recommendations won't work anymore. Former DaimlerChrysler PR executive Christoph Walther admonishes CEOs to "never answer a hypothetical question," while Economist editor Matthew Bishop, with seeming self-interest, advises them not to stint on schmoozing with reporters. The lessons here are too contradictory and ad hoc to add up to a coherent primer, but new CEOs (and the larger audience of wannabes) will find some interesting food for thought.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
LESSONS FOR EVERYONE IN BUSINESS FROM AN ALL-STAR TEAM

Every six months Dennis C. Carey and Marie-Caroline von Weichs run the CEO Academy, an immersion course for newly appointed CEOs of the world’s leading companies—what Business Week called a “boot camp” for the next class of top executives. Those attending get a priceless range of unvarnished advice and invaluable lessons from an all-star team of veteran CEOs about how to get the results they were hired to achieve.

What participants pay $10,000 to hear is now contained in this book, the insights and secrets of some of the most influential business leaders of our time. Here is advice from high-caliber businesspeople such as Larry Bossidy, the recently retired CEO of Honeywell International; Ray Gilmartin, the CEO of Merck; John Smale, the former chairman of General Motors and retired chairman and CEO of Procter & Gamble; and John Dasburg, who has run Northwest Airlines, Burger King, and now DHL Airways.

Successful CEOs aren’t the only attraction. How to Run a Company also presents America’s leading business observers and watchdogs: Nell Minow, the shareholder rights activist; Ira Millstein, the legendary attorney and power broker; Matthew Bishop, business editor of The Economist; and Joseph Badaracco, Harvard Business School’s top professor of ethics.

The combined team offers original and revealing observations on how business leaders at the top of the corporate world tackle pressing challenges, such as:

• How an industrial goliath like DuPont dramatically shifted its business focus
• How The Home Depot changed from fast-growing, free-wheeling adolescence to the management discipline that will help it mature and continue to expand
• What Michael Armstrong, who oversaw the transformation of Hughes Electronics and AT&T, advises to companies whose core business begins to disappear
• How the CEO of Tyco moved quickly during his first 100 days to build a new senior management team and began to restore trust in a company battered by scandal and bad publicity
• The role of the board of directors and how corporate governance should be reformed
• What strategies Jack Welch’s investor relations team at GE used to constantly probe who was buying the stock, who wasn’t, and why

How to Run a Company is not just for CEOs, but anyone interested in the critical make-or-break factors in today’s ever-challenging business environment. As the demands and expectations in business become ever greater and the competition tougher, here in one volume is the accumulated wisdom and experience of people who have been in the trenches during a remarkable time. How to Run a Company is the success manual for the twenty-first century.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; 1st edition (October 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140004927X
• ISBN-13: 978-1400049271
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,095,917 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lessons Learned in the Corporate Trenches, February 20, 2004

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Carey and Von Weichs have assembled an impressive selection of essays whose authors discuss various business subjects. Most of them are (or were) CEOs of major corporations and associated with Spencer Stuart's CEO Academy. As Carey and Von Weichs explain, "we suggested to each of the contributors that they address their topic as if it were the advice they wished they had received when they first started their job." I cannot recall a prior period in the history of American business when the position of CEO was more challenging than it is today. Consider this statistic: Between 1999 and 2001, 57% of the largest companies in the United States removed their CEOs. Daily it seems, we learn of other CEOs who has been forced to resign or are under tremendous pressure to improve their performance. Meanwhile, still other CEOs are indicted for various crimes.

"Two recent developments have fundamentally changed the rules of the game for chief executives. The first is a series of high-profile cases of corporate malfeasance that came to public attention beginning in the fall of 2001...The other development that has significantly changed the lives of CEOs is the noisy crash of the stock market and the accompanying bursting of the tech and telecom bubble." The best of recently published business books address an especially important question. For Carey and Von Weichs: "Where can an executive turn when seeking training and advice on how to lead and manage a company?" Answers vary, of course. What Carey and Von Weichs attempt to do in this book is to create access -- for as many executives as possible -- to what has been "an immense and untapped body of knowledge" which resides among seasoned and retired CEOs "who have been working in the trenches for many years."

Carey and Von Weichs organize their material within four Parts: Management and Leadership in the Midst of Change; Governance: The Board of Directors and Its CEO; Operational Excellence and the Pursuit of Strategy; and finally, The CEO and the Outside World. Here are four brief excerpts from various essays:

"A new CEO from outside the company also has to make it clear that some things will not change -- including basic values and ethical standards. When I came to Merck, I felt it was especially important to make it clear that I was totally in line with the values and traditions of the company. This was a matter of personal principle for me -- and something that was recognized by the board while they were recruiting and hiring me. I didn't want to impose new traditions or abandon old ones simply because I was coming in from the outside." Raymond V. Gilmartin, chairman and CEO of Merck & Co.

"Even when leading from strength, a CEO undergoing fundamental change must prepare for the long haul. The legendary film producer once quipped, `Give me a couple of years, and I'll make that actress an overnight success.' Similarly, a CEO has to realize that real transformation takes real time to accomplish. The biggest reason that corporate transformation is so difficult is that while it is easy to get agreement on what the problem is, the solution is seldom so obvious. People persist in trying to keep part of the old strategy alive, even if that gets in the way of implementing the new one." C. Michael Armstrong, chairman of Comcast Corporation and former chairman and CEO of AT&T and Hughes Electronics

"Anyone who is a graduate of GE's management training can be fairly accused of being consumed with the pursuit of data. But as I quickly learned, data are even more important in the retail game, given the speed with which you need to make decisions to respond to customer preferences or competitive challenges. Solid measurement systems were also needed to understand our workplace, our market, and the communities we served. To deal with this data in a smart way and make the information part of our short- and long-term thinking, we introduced the SOAR system -- a strategic, operating, and resource planning process -- which lets my senior team think about our strategy in a more organized way." Robert L. Nardelli, chairman, president, and CEO of The Home Depot

"I strongly believe that one of the key elements of success in investor relations [or relations with capital sources such as financial institutions] is to treat as customers the investors and analysts [or loan officers] with whom you are communicating. IR's job is to service the people who have influence over the company's share price [or working capital], just as the sales and marketing divisions service the people who have influence over the company's revenue." Mark W. Begor, president and CEO of GE Consumer Finance-Americas and former head of Investor Communications at General Electric

Many of those who should read this book are owners/CEOs of small, family-owned companies. Begor's comments mat not seem directly relevant to them but, in fact, they are. Over the years, I have worked closely with hundreds of such companies and until I strongly recommended it, only a few CEOs maintained direct and frequent contact (except on an as-needed basis) with her or his company's banker, attorney, accountant, insurance agent, etc. Why not invite them to serve on an advisory board which meets quarterly for breakfast or lunch? Why not see the advisory board as a focus group and/or unofficial board of directors to whom a quarterly "state of the company" briefing is presented? If you are an owner/CEO of such a company, re-read Begor's essay while thinking about members of the advisory board as the collective equivalent of investors and analysts. Formulate and then implement your IR initiatives accordingly.

To repeat, Carey and Von Weichs asked each of the contributors to address their topic "as if it were the advice they wished they had received when they first started their job." For whom will this advice be of greatest value? In my opinion, anyone now involved in business or preparing to do so. Few ever become a CEO but thinking like a CEO substantially improves the chances of becoming an effective senior-level executive. As this book clearly indicates, there is much to be learned from seasoned and retired CEOs "who have been working in the trenches for many years."