Create 'CEO Capital' by leveraging your executive's good name."If you were going to leave a note on your desk for your successor, what would it say?" asks author Leslie Gaines-Ross. Good luck? Hallelujah Hallelujah (hăl'əl  `yə) or Alleluia (ăl–) [Heb.,=praise the Lord], joyful expression used in Hebrew worship; cf. Pss. ? Look out? Or perhaps what G. Richard Wagoner Jr., chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of General Motors, once said, "Everything is under a magnifying glass magnifying glass: see microscope. magnifying glass traditional detective equipment; from its use by Sherlock Holmes. [Br. Lit.: Payton, 473] See : Sleuthing ." It's this inclination for the spotlight to focus on a single person rather than on the organization that Leslie Gaines-Ross explores in "CEO Capital: A Guide to Building CEO Reputation and Company Success." "The media's heightened interest in CEOs' right- and wrong-doing reflected the mounting recognition of the importance of CEOs," writes Gaines-Ross, chief knowledge and research officer at Burson-Marsteller, a global communication consultancy. After in-depth research and interviews with Fortune 500 CEOs, communication professionals and senior executives to find out in what ways and for what reasons CEOs mattered, Gaines-Ross concluded that the well-being of a company and the reputation of its CEO are deeply and inextricably in·ex·tri·ca·ble adj. 1. a. So intricate or entangled as to make escape impossible: an inextricable maze; an inextricable web of deceit. b. intertwined. Her book provides guidance on how CEOs, and professionals in the business of CEO leadership (i.e., corporate communicators, public affairs Those public information, command information, and community relations activities directed toward both the external and internal publics with interest in the Department of Defense. Also called PA. See also command information; community relations; public information. and marketing officers, management consultants), can leverage and capitalize on Cap´i`tal`ize on` v. t. 1. To turn (an opportunity) to one's advantage; to take advantage of (a situation); to profit from; as, to capitalize on an opponent's mistakes s>. their (or their executive's) good name. Gaines-Ross has been researching company reputations for 25 years, but it wasn't until 1997, when she joined Burson-Marsteller, that the project took off, and she conducted what is hailed as "landmark CEO research." She also analyzed publicly available market research as well as the field research and writings of leadership experts, including Harvard Business School Harvard Business School, officially named the Harvard Business School: George F. Baker Foundation, and also known as HBS, is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. professor John Gabarro and former Columbia University Columbia University, mainly in New York City; founded 1754 as King's College by grant of King George II; first college in New York City, fifth oldest in the United States; one of the eight Ivy League institutions. professors Donald Hambrick and Gregory Fukutomi. In an interview she gave earlier this year, Gaines-Ross said it became evident that there are discernible, predictable stages through which each CEO passes during the course of holding office. From that insight, she built a five-stage CEO Capital Model for CEOs and their teams to follow. But she doesn't fully explain the model until the middle of the book. First, she describes what CEO capital is, where it comes from and why we should give our undivided UNDIVIDED. That which is held by the same title by two or more persons, whether their rights are equal, as to value or quantity, or unequal. 2. Tenants in common, joint-tenants, and partners, hold an undivided right in their respective properties, until attention to building it. The most interesting part of the book, and what readers will refer to time and again, is section two--the biggest chunk, at 165 pages. Here, Gaines-Ross explains how to apply the model, providing best practices for CEOs as they pass through the five stages of tenure--Countdown, First Hundred Days, First Year, Turning Point, and Revision and Reinvention. Whether a CEO has been on the job for one month, six months or 298 days, Gaines-Ross presents a clear timeline that a CEO must follow to secure his or her capital before it's too late. She illustrates her point by providing real-life stories of CEOs who didn't leverage their capital and subsequently watched as their stock prices fell and their leadership faded. The final section--"Implications for CEOs"--has only one chapter, "Over the Horizon: Future Trends and Suggestions." Here, Gaines-Ross solidifies her main points and issues brought up throughout the book. She provides helpful commentary and suggests that, as spectators, we should give CEOs more time and "not judge them solely on their most recent failure but by both their conquests and collapses." Sprinkled throughout the book are various quotes from CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, other books and pieces of research. (She should create a "Quote of the Day" calendar; it could end up being extremely lucrative.) One particularly inspiring quote comes from Robert "Bob" Lutz, former president of Chrysler Corp., now chairman of GM North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. : "But I say, by God, in nine cases out of ten, you show me a truly great company with a great culture that consistently outmaneuvers its competition and is agile and has a high level of morale and retention, and people coming out of universities want to work for that company, then I say: Look at the top guy." Tara Scott is a public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most and marketing communication consultant. |
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