The Chief Executive Officer : All Issues

More than ever, CEOs are under intense scrutiny not only to be transparent, but also entirely visible in their efforts to project a sense of humanity that eclipses bottom-line ambitions.

Passion for doing good work isn’t confined to balance sheets and quarterly reviews: it’s also about being in tune and on the ground, with what customers and employees are asking for. In this issue, we get to the heart of what a CEO’s obligation is to the organisation and the world beyond.

We also explore the motivation and mutual benefits of corporate philanthropy with a renowned roster of participants.

But what happens when things go wrong – catastrophically wrong – for an organisation? How do you win back the hearts and minds of customers? BP immediately comes to mind. We explore the repeated genuflecting by Toyota president Akio Toyoda following a tragic accident, a series of recalls and the company’s improved strength once he was able to stand tall again.

As companies emerge tentatively from a grinding recession, many have used the past few years to focus on fully optimising their supply chains to maximise efficiency, cutting out unwieldy costs and unnecessary complexities. This edition of CEO features some fascinating insight into running a truly global supply chain, as we hear from the c-level executives of Pirelli Tyre, Daimler, Whirlpool and Unilever on the subject.

A sound management of cash in the supply chain has been critical to the survival of many companies and now, as the economy pushes into a recovery, they must learn to accommodate growth without allowing costs to run out of control. These are all things that firms can account for, but natural disaster is so arbitrary it can be almost impossible to factor in when running on tight margins.

In this issue we salute five leading CEOs and company founders who have retained a passion for what they do, possess a desire to take risks and have an innate ability to engage with their consumers while simultaneously evolving the business sector in which they operate. And, in some cases, they are also active in improving the world around them.

We also learn lessons in people skills from the CEOs of Grant Thornton International and Monte Dei Paschi di Siena, and find out what makes Shelly Lazarus tick as one of the most successful women in business. In addition, we also talk CSR with the CEOs of Puma and Edelman and find out why Starwood Group’s chief executive is confident about the future of his business despite a tough operating climate.

In preparation for a challenging 2010, many CEOs got their strategy right in 2009. We focus on the ten CEOs who have made most of the right calls already. They are by no means the only examples either; many large companies have bucked trends in a faltering economy and raised expectations with strong performances. Do you agree with our selection? Let us know what you think!

Elsewhere, we hear from Western Union’s president and CEO Christina Gold on why philanthropy is a major part of her company’s business values, whatever the economic climate. State Farm’s Ed Rust discusses the importance of executive education and lifelong learning in business and MasterCard’s CEO Bob Selander tells us why, without the right people, an organisation can never deliver what its customers are expecting in a dynamic and competitive environment.

The era of readily-available credit and unbridled expansion is over and leaders are being forced to refocus, reforecast and reform. For Carol Bartz ,CEO of Yahoo! Inc, it is vital that CEOs do not get bogged down in the day-to day operations of running an organisation and lose sight of the bigger strategic picture.

When I met with Bartz she was typically bullish about the task ahead and why focus is all important: ‘After a downturn there will be an upturn. Once you’ve been through a few of these you have the experience and confidence to know that burying your head in the sand is the last thing you should do.’

We also hear from celebrated business advisor Ram Charan as well as Clive Punter, CEO of CBS Outdoor International; and Peter Morrison, chief executive of architects giant RMJM. It is certainly not all doom and gloom, but there is no doubting that the next year will not be for the faint hearted. Just don’t forget the strategy.

As implications of the economic downturn push CEO performance further into the spotlight, our special feature on executive remuneration addresses why stratospheric severance pay plus poor performance just isn’t adding up any more. Performance related packages, like those recently given to American Express CEO Ken Chenault, increasingly reflect the changing economic times.

It seems no CEO, however successful their history, escapes the performance measurement spotlight. Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, reported its first annual profit five years ago and has maintained a strong footing in the black ever since. Yet concerns still emerge from Wall Street over CEO Jeff Bezos’ ability to raise his company’s profit margin. Our focus on Amazon and Bezos is part of a special focus on technology pioneers, including exclusive interviews with Vincent Sollitto of Syntax Brillian, Elon Musk, Founder, PayPal and Martin Varsavsky, CEO, Fon.

As implications of the economic downturn push CEO performance further into the spotlight, our special feature on executive remuneration addresses why stratospheric severance pay plus poor performance just isn’t adding up any more. Performance related packages, like those recently given to American Express CEO Ken Chenault, increasingly reflect the changing economic times.

It seems no CEO, however successful their history, escapes the performance measurement spotlight. Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, reported its first annual profit five years ago and has maintained a strong footing in the black ever since. Yet concerns still emerge from Wall Street over CEO Jeff Bezos’ ability to raise his company’s profit margin. Our focus on Amazon and Bezos is part of a special focus on technology pioneers, including exclusive interviews with Vincent Sollitto of Syntax Brillian, Elon Musk, Founder, PayPal and Martin Varsavsky, CEO, Fon.

The nations of China and India loom large in this edition. In our exclusive annual top 50 ranking of up-and-coming CEOs under the age of 45, China’s willingness to promote talent before experience has seen it dominate the list for the second year in a row.

Crossing the Orient to India, our focus reveals rapid growth, fantastic business opportunity and, regrettably, lingering poverty. Featuring exclusives from Karan Bilimoria, CEO and founder of Cobra Beer, Naresh Goyal, Chairman of Jet Airways, Kamal Nath, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry and Naina Lal Kidwai, Group General Manager and Country Head of HSBC, we chart the country’s recent successes and look to its brightening future.

Elsewhere, we have a special focus on the challenges companies face in tackling climate change. We also learn how Dr Steven Levitt has dealt with the enormous success of his bestselling book ‘Freakonomics' (it certainly hasn’t gone to his head).

Our cover story charts the fall from grace of those one-time darlings of FTSE and AIM – European online gambling companies. Featuring exclusive comment from the CEOs at the front line of this astonishing turnaround in fortunes we address how these companies have coped since being divested of their lucrative US operations and how they have since restructured their business models.

Elsewhere we have a special focus on the challenges that Ian Robertson, chairman and CEO, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd, faces in the super luxury car market since the VW buy-out. We also learn how the steadying hands of CEO Mike Fabiaschi helped to guide networking and security provider Enterasys through some extremely choppy waters following a $386m venture capital buyout.

Staying in the IT sector, we profile how Rod Favaron, president and CEO, Lombardi, has championed the adoption of BPM tools by market-leading companies and helped shape one of the most significant IT trends of recent years.

Can young CEOs really deliver shareholder value? A new study of the top 50 young performers conducted by Cass Business School, London, shows that they can. Across all the markets considered, we managed to track down the ages of around 1,500 CEOs listed on the major world stock indices. The survey reveals a number of surprises in terms of geographical and industry comparison.

Elsewhere in the publication we have a special focus on the successes and challenges of implementing group-wide Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Citizenship from both Ian Hudson, President of EMEA, DuPont and E. Neville Isdell, Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company.

Featuring insight and expertise from Kaye Foster-Cheek, Vice President, Human Resources at Johnson & Johnson on CEO succession planning and Berndt Baumgartl, the new President and CEO of Siemens Communications Inc. and Alastair Hughes, Jones Lang LaSalle’s CEO for Europe on their vision going forward.

James Smith, Chairman, Shell UK Ltd argues why diversity and inclusiveness must act as an essential source of competitive advantage for any company. We also return to the familiar topic of interim management and elsewhere, feature exclusive extracts from the 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers 9th Annual Global CEO Survey as well as an insightful assessment of South Africa’s chances of becoming the 21st century’s outsourcing location of choice.

Charles Bellringer, Senior Associate, Alix Partners discusses US Chapter 11-style consensual restructuring in bankruptcy cases and how the Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) now occupies the centre stage. Elsewhere, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin offers a persuasive theory of the different types of leadership a CEO must deploy in order to be successful.

Plus, Michael F. Corbett, Executive Director of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals traces the meteoric rise of the outsourcing phenomenon and asks where we go from here.