Bold Exec

Made in the U.S.A.

 The greatest strength of the U.S. is the willingness, ability, and desire of millions of citizens to create something new and positive out of, well, thin air. Our recovery from this current economic dilemna will be faster than in other countries because of this. We get irritated that some of those who helped create the sub-prime mortgage mess are now making money profiting off the carnage; but their actions are helping the recovery. We get sad thinking about people who have lost their jobs, but many of those are starting new careers. Contrary to our esteemed ex-Senator Phil Gramm's comments on this being a country of whiners, these winners, those that individually will create economic growth, will bail us out.

Do CFO's Make Good CEO's?

Maybe! Sometimes! Depends! Real definitive answers!!! Without any hard data, I suspect that this promotion path, CFO to CEO, occurs more often than it should. I know a lot of great CFO's, and I know of severalgreat CEO's that came up the CFO path. That's not the issue; I'm not being discriminatory. The issue is whether CFO's as a category wind up being favored more for the top spot. Is that true? Why would that be?

Fast, like a bunny

In celebration of Easter weekend, we honor the bunny for his speed. Fast, like a bunny, is  equally appropriate for business decisions and action. Decision making is a skill; appropriately timed decision making is an art form. When is it too early--you really don't know enough to make an informed decision and you're just guessing or going on impulse. When is it too late--procrastination and bureaucratic pontification is usually a precursor for organizational failure. John Chambers, the long-time CEO of highly successful Cisco Systems, has often stated that his biggest mistakes occurred when he didn't act fast enough. The skill is recognizing when you have enough information or inputs or judgments or intuitions, and then speed into action.

BK Lite Part 2

GM, Chrysler, Citi, BofA, AIG--each faced three and only three clear choices; bankruptcy Chapter 7 (liquidation of assets--meaning shutting the company), bankruptcy Chapter 11 (reorganization--a laborious legal process in which all constituencies lose something on the prospect that the company can survive), or Government rescue. Most in the public and apparently many in government don't understand the difference between 7 and 11, believing that a company going into bankruptcy is kaput! As a result there was very little governmental will to have allowed an 11 bankruptcy. Instead, the third option, Government rescue, was applied without any regard--it seems--for the meaningful and useful provisions inherent in an 11 bankruptcy. Last week I explained why BK Lite would have been a breakthrough for the government/auto industry;this week the same for the government/financial industry.