Chief Executive of the Year 1998.

"I accept this award truly humbly tonight because one of the advantages of having a big family and a long marriage is that your shortcomings are constantly identified, discussed, and kept fresh on your mind," said AlliedSignal's Larry Bossidy, in accepting the 1998 Chief Executive of the Year award at a gala dinner co-hosted by the New York Stock Exchange at its lower Manhattan headquarters in September. On hand to celebrate with their father were all nine of Bossidy's children, as well as 300 well-wishers, mostly CEOs and their spouses. All had gathered to pay tribute to Bossidy at CE's 13th annual black-tie event.

A selection committee of CEOs, including 1997 Chief Executive of the Year, Intel's Andy Grove, chose Bossidy from a group of finalists chosen by CE readers, who praised the CEO for not only transforming a stodgy underachieving corporation into a world-class generator of shareholder value, but preparing it for success in the next century.

"He engineered a seven-fold improvement on stock price, corresponding improvement in valuation, substantial increase in sales while reducing head count and contributing to productivity," said Andy Grove, chairman of Intel and 1997 Chief Executive of the Year, in presenting Bossidy with the award. "Larry Bossidy embraced one of the most magical and most underperformed, albeit most talked about factors of management, which is managing change. And while other people reduce head count, Larry did it in such a way that in the process, the company became one of the most favored companies as a workplace in America."

At CE's traditional pre-dinner award ceremony in the NYSE's Board Room, a bronzed bust or "lifemask" of Grove - created by Santa Fe artist Willa Shalit, who has molded similar masks for Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush, was presented to Grove.

IN BOSSIDY'S WORDS

I feel very privileged to be included with those who have preceded me in receiving this award. It's a distinguished group of very special people, some of whom I've been fortunate to be close with and learn from over a period of decades. Being added to such a group is a highlight of the award.

But while the world applauds the achievements of yesterday - as you so graciously do tonight - they really only care about what you're going to do tomorrow, and that's the way it should be. The spectacular advantage that institutions have over individuals is that while we individuals can skirmish against the passing of time, with the treadmill and Viagra - or, as a last resort, clean living - companies can not only arrest the aging process, but utterly reverse it with endless injections of new thinking.

After more than 40 years in business, I've learned that the ultimate cliche is true. People are your most important asset. Through the effort of a lot of people over a long period, AlliedSignal is a younger company today than the one I joined seven years ago.

It's not enough to stimulate and excite an organization, you must allow people to share in the success of the enterprise in more than just a token way. It's a source of profound satisfaction to me that we have 34 factory fore-workers and others who have at least a million dollars in their sayings plan and 250 more with half a million dollars. A four-fold appreciation of the stock will do that and the stock doesn't appreciate that way without the freely given transformational performance of the people who make up the company; such as the 70,000 of them at AlliedSignal on whose behalf I accept this award tonight.

IN GROVE'S WORDS

In choosing this year's chief executive of the year, we discussed the merits of a spectacular group of CEOs in terms of results achieved. Although they all performed miracles in terms of numbers, a lot of the candidates had a favorable wave to ride, which they surfed extremely well.

Larry Bossidy had no such wave. He took a company that was the result of a variety of not particularly rational acquisitions, which was overstaffed and underproducing, with a languishing stock price, and fixed every one of those elements. He engineered a seven-fold improvement on stock price, corresponding improvement in valuation, substantial increase in sales while reducing head count anti contributing to productivity.

In the process, he shed some companies and acquired others and with each shedding and acquisition, the company became a more rational, strategically describable entity. How? One thing he did was realize that he's one man - albeit a hardworking and energetic one - so he decided to focus his efforts. In his own words, "I don't participate in price decisions or factor scheduling. I'm in no position to do that. You have to pick the things you can influence and get out of the way for the rest."

Jack Welch described Larry Bossidy in three words: excited, exciting, and excitable. Those are wonderful ways to describe what's outstanding in management. And there's another quality I've seen atributed to Larry that is an important virtue in management and would be such an important virtue in virtually all walks of life where you lead people. It can be summed up in one word, and that word is "impatience."