Bureaucratic lull in the Wolfowitz storm
Observer April 29th, 2007
I never followed the World Bank that closely, though I did tune in periodically during the tenure of James Woolfensohn. He had been a respected name connected to a celebration I’d been tasked with of Ciba’s World Environment Award in Washington, already in the early 1990s.
More recently, you’d have been living under a stone to miss the so called Wolfowitz-Riza story, which seems for now to be in a bit of a lull, while an Ad Hoc Committee of the Board, inspects, examines, and hopefully, decides something meaningful at some point. Mr Wolfowitz is in a holding pattern and should have resigned with conscience and good grace several days ago. To parody Donkey (a stubborn animal) in Shrek 2 ‘is he gone yet?’
His leadership is untenable, and not just for reasons of personal life conflicting his professional capacity. The story appears full of cronyism, conflicts of interest, and lack of judgement, let alone a demoralizing leadership style which bank employees seem to be publicly boycotting. It’s hard to see how he can survive in role, less so be effective. The affair is tawdry, and the bank and its mission, the employees at the front line and the people in poverty, deserve better.
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Sharing the limelight
Observer April 15th, 2007
.. a priceless vignette in the new thumper on and for Andy Grove, named as such, by Richard Tedlow. It speaks to Grove’s resentment at not getting credit for his increasingly pivotal role in Intel’s early days. The public face remained co-founder Bob Noyce even while his day to day involvement decreased. This ‘got on Grove’s nerves’. The fix? His wife Eva calls Noyce to express as such, and lo and behold, things change. As often, behind every great man, a great woman (and it may be trending to the vice versa these days too). Or maybe the Groves together are just a crack team.
There’s no question of Grove’s managerial excellence, mastery, and natural leadership characteristics. But between the lines of this book, while Grove comes across as a force of nature, one cannot be convinced he was always a positive force for those working closely with him day in day out. For sure he stretched people to perform beyond themselves, and many became multimillionaires. But was Intel a good place for the soul? Was the culture an asset or a liability? What gets forgiven in the way of behavior when performance is strong? And what the forgone contribution of associates inhibited by fear?
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Was Rodin’s Thinker Overthinking?
Observer March 20th, 2007
….Newish to my radar, the verb of ‘overthinking‘. …Is this a new malaise or just a rework of the old paralysis by analysis? By now self-awareness and reflection are promoted as desirable leadership traits, but not to the point of the ‘just can’t make a decision’ variety. Which brings me to question: Are self-reflection and action orientation, by and large, mutually exclusive? Come to think of it (no pun intended) it’s a long time since I heard of any senior corporate leader described as a bit ‘cerebral’, or of anyone referred to as “..the thinking man’s…” anything in fact. I was probably out of consulting too long. In that business, claiming the high ground in terms of intellectual capital or thought leadership is a key business driver for most firms in one guise or another.
While onto thinking, if you’re in Zuerich anytime soon, take in the Rodin exhibition at the Kunsthaus if you can, including his iconic, if often satirised, The Thinker. It’s on until 13th May. I saw this at the Royal Academy in London last year and it’s a fantastic exhibition, not least for his life story, including breakthrough originality, prolific output, and the ups and downs he traversed before his eventual success.
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Compelling
Observer March 4th, 2007
.. Giants of Enterprise, by Richard S Tedlow. Rare so compelling a business book. But this is less a business book, more a swathe of industrial history. He takes Carnegie, Ford, Eastman, Watson (IBM), Revson (Revlon), Walton (Wal-Mart) and Noyce (Intel) and charts the life story of each from formative beginnings to outstanding business success. Interesting and sometime disturbing commentary here on behavior, power, and isolation. Who for dinner? Probably Noyce, though Eastman would have been intriguing too.
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Conglomerates
Observer February 21st, 2007
The past days saw senior executives at Siemens defending, among other things, the company’s conglomerate character. The debate is an old chestnut, and the value realization pleas seem ever stronger when companies come under pressure of one form or another.
But if stock analysts prefer a pure play, what about employees? How does being a conglomerate impact your employer brand? In general, one would think, not so well. Internal debates around coherence, fit, hoped for synergies, and the risk of being sold on may well inhibit contribution, to an extent. Unless perhaps for enterprise-wide possibilities to pursue a career across multiple discrete businesses and geographies. The exception, as so often, GE. Conglomerate or not, its leadership development brand at least compares favorably with that of the very best business schools. No other company appears close in terms of the granular work of developing leaders at every level. And fit for purpose in multiple sectors, within and beyond GE. This proposition in and of itself must do much for its employer brand overall.
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Reputation-reality gaps
Observer February 1st, 2007
…interesting piece on reputational risk in this month’s Harvard Business Review, on how divergence of perception and reality, in and of itself, comprises a risk to reputation. When the walk and the talk don’t match up, we know intuitively that it won’t wash long term. To quote (alas, I don’t know who to attribute) “..you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”.
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Catalytic converters
Observer January 29th, 2007
Is there finally some growing and real momentum towards greater care for the environment? I may be blue-eyed on this, but there appears to be a higher volume, and from higher levels. At least in the developed world. When The Economist notes that “Even big business is getting on board…” this may be where the crucial drive will come from. The topic was also important at Davos, and again in the newly published UN report on climate change. Let’s hope that the wake up calls have finally been heeded.
Almost twenty years ago I was pitching stories to the business media on catalytic converters. The company Johnson Matthey, the metal platinum. I don’t know what the state of the art technology for cleaner cars is by now, but there is likely greater interest than there was back then.
What I do know is that when the Toyota Prius gets just a little less clunky lines wise, I’ll be driving one.
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