Good-bye.

This is my last Speaking Out column for Chief Executive magazine. The time has finally came for me to pack it in.

It all began in 1978 when I wrote an article for Issue #7 of this new magazine for CEOs. The article was titled, "How to Retire Without Quitting Work" and I told of my transition from being a CEO to a Columbia Business School professor. Shortly thereafter, the new managing editor of Chief Executive, J. P. Donlon, asked me to start writing the "Speaking Out" column. My first effort appeared in the Winter 1979 issue and I called it, "What the Outside Director Expects from the CEO."

I have now written 162 columns, 28 book reviews and co-authored nine Best/Worst Boards articles. I have helped select all 16 of the Chief Executives of the Year and have sat in on gosh knows how many editorial meetings with the bright, young people who have turned out the magazine for the past 23 years. I have met with and talked to more than 1,000 CEOs.

It has been a vaunting experience. I have been able to draw from my time as a CEO and as an outside director of 20 companies as well as from my experience teaching corporate governance and leadership courses at Columbia Business School.

One of my conclusions in the last few years is that the job of being CEO of a major corporation is becoming too complicated to do well. Oh, once in a while some special person like Jack Welch comes along and stars at GE, but he is an exception.

Twenty-five years ago, the typical CEO came up through the company ranks. He knew his products, markets, and technology. He was familiar with his suppliers, customers, and competitors. He usually had been president and COO, had worked with the corporate staff and served on the board. He knew how to make a profit.

Today, things have gone global and employees, customers, and competitors are all over the world. The pace of technology, information flow, and communication is reaching the speed of light. Every day, new kinds of financing, marketing, and investor relations crop up. The CEO has to reshape his strategy continually. This is too much for many CEOs to handle, as many boards are finding. And the star players are demanding, and getting, astonishing pay packages.

Fortunately, most American CEOs adapt quickly. Through the years, they have learned how to cope with corporate raiders; how to empower employees; how to develop incentives; how to adapt to the computer; and how to master new techniques of communication.

Most important, they are learning how to work with their boards, which are getting better and stronger all the time. Instead of being rubber stamp insiders and personal friends of the CEO, independent and talented directors can be of enormous help to CEOs. As corporate governance Improves, so will American corporate management.

These are my conclusions. Many CEOs and directors do not agree with these viewpoints, but each year more of them do. There have been many newcomers-dot-commers, if you will--who have resisted most of the corporate governance trappings, but they did not find a better system. There will always be academicians and government regulators who wish to impose rules and procedures on free enterprise systems, and they must be held back.

Yet there is a great deal of difference in the way successful companies should be managed. Small, family owned and private companies need to be structured in a different way than huge, multi-product, multi-market, high-tech behemoths.

I have enjoyed bearing witness to the fascinating experiments of CEOs at both small and large companies-especially those who have found new ways of doing things. I have enjoyed seeing hard-working people learn how to do their jobs better and who have made their companies better as a result.

It has been a wonderful ride these past 23 years at Chief Executive. I have benefited greatly from being with all of you.

Good-bye!

Formerly CEO of F. & M. Schaefer (1972- 1977), Robert W. Lear is chairman of CE's advisory board. He taught at Columbia Business School, where he was executive-in-residence until June 1999. He has been a director of many companies and is on the advisory boards of five small firms. He is a partner of Lear, Yavitz and Associates, corporate governance consultants.