Hard Skills CEO vs Soft Skills CEO

“When the going gets tough...”

A study published by the University of Chicago GSB suggests that tougher is better when it comes to making it as a CEO. A survey of more than 300 US private equity firm CEOs shows that speedy, aggressive, persistent CEO candidates are more likely to be hired than their good-at-listening, open-to-criticism, team-playing counterparts.This is bad, says the Chartered Management Institute. Its Quality of Working Life report, which surveyed 1,511 managers, found the most common British management styles are bureaucratic (40 per cent), reactive (37 per cent) and authoritarian (30 per cent). This tendency towards "overbearing and controlling" team leaders, says the CMI, is stifling British workplaces, resulting in higher levels of absence and lower levels of productivity.

Weighing up ... Hard Skills CEO . Soft Skills CEO - what's your thoughts !

Steven Kaplan new study suggests that hard-nosed personal virtues such as persistence and efficiency count for more than "softer" strengths like teamwork or flexibility.

"We found that 'hard' skills, which are all about getting things done, were paramount," says lead author Steven Kaplan, a professor of finance and entrepreneurship. "Soft skills centering on teamwork weren't as pivotal. That was a bit of a surprise to us."

Five CEO traits that correlate most closely with business success at buyout companies -- and five that score lowest, according to University of Chicago researchers.

Traits that matter...
• Persistence
• Attention to detail
• Efficiency
• Analytical skills
• Setting high standards

...and not so much
• Strong oral communication
• Teamwork
• Flexibility/adaptability
• Enthusiasm
• Listening skills

Mark Gallogly, a co-founder of Centerbridge Partners, a New York private-equity firm, says the academics' findings match many of his beliefs about what's important in a CEO. He puts a premium on bosses who can hire well, excel at efficiency and execution, and can be aggressive but respectful. By contrast, public-company CEOs may need more soft skills to manage relations with wide shareholder bases and other diverse constituencies.

Both Prof. Kaplan and ghSmart executives caution against dismissing the low-scoring traits entirely. On enthusiasm, for example, the study found that ultra-enthusiastic managers didn't fare meaningfully better than ones who were just moderately enthusiastic. But some level of enthusiasm is bound to be of value, says Randall Street, a ghSmart principal -- and most finalists in a CEO search will exhibit enthusiasm. The same would apply to other soft traits, such as listening skills or treating people with respect.

Source: Times Online, ghSmartInc. WSJ

Read More......

Summary only...

The New CIO Leader

“Definitive work that sets the standards in the industry ”

Marianne Broadbent and Ellen Kitzis: The CIO Leader outlines the path the CIO must take to become that leader - and to deliver on the promise of IT to yield real, measurable, and bankable results. Its a really interesting read, another great book from Gartner setting the agenda that takes you through the demand and supply side of the CIO what to expect when facing challenges and growth, it the must have book for CIO and CEOs.

Extract from the introduction The Crossroads

“Two paths diverged in a wood… and I took the one less traveled.” —Robert Frost

Chief information officers today stand at a crossroads. The role of each CIO is inevitably changing, because of two perspectives on information technology (IT). On the one hand, there is the lingering disaffection with IT from the Internet bust, the technology capital spending overhang, the popular press’s assertion that IT is now irrelevant in discussions of competitive advantage, and the hysteria about IT jobs moving overseas. On the other hand, IT is gaining renewed interest for several reasons.

The global economy seems to be finally escaping the doldrums, and business executives are desperate for innovation. Additionally, the regulatory environment has put far more emphasis on the timeliness, completeness, and accuracy of corporate information. Finally, technology is playing a foundational, if not a central, role in virtually every product and service

Standing still is not an option—every CIO will follow one of two paths based on these perspectives. The path influenced by the view that IT is irrelevant to competitive advantage leads to a role that might be called chief technology mechanic, a role ultimately no more prestigious than that of factory floor manager. The other path, influenced by the view that IT is at the heart of every significant business process and is crucial to innovation and enterprise success, leads to a role we call the new CIO leader. The new CIO leader bears all the prestige, respect, and responsibility of other senior executive positions (in fact the position will be a not infrequent steppingstone to COO and CEO positions).

CIO Leaders - Top 10 Priorities

1. Laying the Foundation: Leadership

Leadership and management are different but complementary. Management is about execution. Leadership is about change, specifically influencing others to change. Leading through influence is critical for New CIO Leaders. They must lead their business colleagues by influencing their view of IT but without a formal base of authority or power. CIOs can't TELL their business colleagues what to do, but they can influence the decisions they make.

2. Understand the Fundamentals of Your Environment

CIO leadership falls into two categories — demand side and supply side leadership. The demand side is where you lead your business colleagues, helping to determine why, where and how IT will be used to meet business goals. The first aspect of demand side leadership is developing an intimate knowledge of the fundamentals of your environment — how your business operates, its past, current and expected future performance, its goals and strategies, its industry and competitors, etc. Without understanding your environment you can't lead effectively.

3. Create Your Vision

Leadership is about influencing change. To influence change you must have a vision for what change is necessary, what the future looks like. Your vision as CIO has to be grounded in an intimate knowledge of the persistent business needs of your organization. Only then will your vision for achieving business goals be useful and compelling to your business colleague

4. Shape and inform expectations for an IT enabled enterprise

There will always be more IT work to be done than resources allow. Therefore it is critically important to work with your business colleagues to develop appropriate expectations for the use of IT in your organization. To do so, you must achieve consensus on business needs, strategies, and endeavors and the guiding principles or IT maxims that will inform the inevitable trade-offs. Your business colleagues need to be intimately involved in this process so that they know, understand and approve of the guiding framework for decision making on the use of IT in your organization.

5. Create clear and appropriate IT governance

IT Governance is the secret weapon of successful New CIO Leaders. Good governance enables you to effectively weave together business and IT strategies and to consistently build credibility and trust. To do so, your governance styles and mechanisms must be matched to your environment and the expectations of your business colleagues. Your business colleagues must understand how specific decisions are made so that they trust the process and ultimately can be confident in the outcomes.

6. Weave Business and IT strategies together

An IT Strategy contains the key decisions about specific technology implementations over a defined period of time in areas like infrastructure, applications, and architecture. New CIO Leaders take a portfolio approach with their IT strategy, actively managing the strategy to assure balance and the achievement of business goals.

7. Busines a New IS Organisation

CIO leadership falls into two categories -- demand side and supply side leadership. New CIO Leaders not only lead on the demand side, with their business colleagues, but also on the supply side, leading the IS organization to meet the organization's goals and expectations. To meet these business-focused expectations, New CIO Leaders need an appropriately organized and focused IS organization. The New CIO Leader's IS organization must be leaner and more focused on business results by appropriately using strategic sourcing of IT services, by adopting process based working, and by using all the financial resources available to it.

8. Develop a High-Performing IS Team

For New CIO Leaders to succeed they need not only a new IS organization but a team that is appropriately skilled and committed to achieving business results. Just like you, your IS team needs new and different competencies to succeed. These new competencies are much more focused on strategic thinking and relationship building than on technical skills.

9. Manage Enterprise and IT Risk

New CIO Leaders are needed because IT is embedded in every critical business process in today's organizations. However, there is also significant risk associated with this state of affairs IT risks affect the whole enterprise. New CIO Leaders must proactively step up to manage the new enterprise risks related to IT and new regulatory environments.

10. Communicate Your Performance

Leadership depends on credibility and credibility is built on results. New CIO Leaders ensure that results are widely known and understood by communicating IS performance at every opportunity. They develop "dashboards" that allow business colleagues to see and understand the value received from IT in business terms.

Read More......

Summary only...

Great Leaders overcome Blindspots

“Leaders who are so successful can sometimes become too complacent and fail to see changes around them.”

Just the other day I came across an article in Business Week written by by Henry S. Givray "When CEOs Aren't Leaders" Givray writes that the terms "CEO" and "leader" have mistakenly become synonymous. Stating, nothing could be further from the truth. He goes onto described how CEOs are measured by quantitative results, and Leaders are shaped and defined by character. His distinction between the CEO who is expected to boost sales, improve profit margins, and make money for shareholders. Whereas the Leaders role is to inspire and enable others to do excellent work and realize their potential. As a result, they build successful, enduring organizations.

After reading "When CEOs Aren't Leaders" it made me think about Benjamin Gilad in "Business Blindspots" -- Denial, failure, or refusal to see reality are the biggest problems companies face. And how these problems wrecked IBM, Digital, General Motors, Sears, Hoffman-La Roche, Schwinn, American Express, Tandy, Citibank, Xerox, Kodak, etc.

Jack Welch, General Electric's CEO, once defined management as the task of "staring reality straight in the eye" and then having the courage to act. This is much easier said than done. There are two basic problems with this definition. First, management must be close enough to reality to stare it in the eye. Second, it must not only stare but also see what is in front of its face. This is a tall order. The reason why No.1 top management, through no fault of its own, is never close enough to the market. No.2 some top executives can't see competitive reality staring at them because of 'blindspots'

Many top managers face change only when it hits them in the head, then its too late. $64 billion answer is the people who are in touch with their people at ground level are facing reality, even when they stare straight at it. Nobody expects a CEO to be able to do everything. But you have to be able to recognize your blind spots and delegate someone else to manage. There is an old saying, "A good company has many leaders, a great company has but 3"

Read More......

Summary only...

Sub-prime mortgage meltdown hits Citigroup

“Citigroup names Robert Rubin as chairman after Charles Prince exits”

Citigroup has appointed Robert Rubin, the former Treasury Secretary, to be its chairman and Sir Win Bischoff, the group’s European head, to act as interim chief executive, as it emerged that the world’s largest bank would need to take up to $11 billion (£5.3 billion) of further writedowns relating to America’s sub-prime mortgage meltdown. The appointments came after the position of Charles “Chuck” Prince, Citigroup’s chairman and chief executive, became untenable in the wake of huge mortgage-related writedowns in the third quarter and expectations of billions of dollars more to come.
Mr Prince, whose resignation was characterised as a retirement, said: “It is my judgment that, given the size of the recent losses in our mortgage-backed securities business, the only honourable course for me to take as chief executive officer is to step down.”

The sheer scale of the additional losses from sub-prime-related investments, which Citigroup last night estimated at between $8 billion and $11 billion, will send shockwaves across the banking industry

Full Article

Read More......

Summary only...

Who will be the next CEO of Merrill Lynch

“Contenders in the running for Stan O’Neal job at Merrill's”

Gregory Fleming

The co-president of Merrill Lynch is well liked in the group and was a key architect of its takeover of BlackRock. He made his name at Merrill doing financial deals, such as the $14.5 billion merger between Wachovia and First Union. However, he does not have the operational experience of running a large investment bank

Laurence Fink

The king of Wall Street’s chief executive shortlist, Mr Fink has previously been viewed as a key contender for the top jobs at Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. Mr Fink runs the BlackRock investment firm, which is 49 per cent-owned by Merrill Lynch. It has extensive interests in mortgage-backed bonds, the main source of the group’s woes and in which it has lost a number of senior executives

John Thain

The chief executive of Euronext NYSE would appear to be the top external candidate for the job. He is a well-regarded chief executive with experience running a big company on Wall Street. He is also a former president of Goldman Sachs, one of the most formidable operations in the financial world

Bob McCann

As head of Merrill’s brokerage unit, Mr McCann has not been tainted by the bond fiasco and retains his credibility. He is well liked within the firm, although he does not have Mr Fink’s deep knowledge of the bond market

Source: Times

Read More......

Summary only...