Go To Harvard Business School Professor, former Medtronic CEO
Published on September 17, 2018
Bill Takes Aim at Directors, Corporate Governance Companies in the United States and their directors are fixated on one thing, according to Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.): maximizing shareholder returns to the detriment of other stakeholders in the company. To address this, Warren recently introduced a bill that would require directors to consider all major stakeholders, not just…
Published on September 12, 2018
Following Your True North through Real-World Challenges My New eBook – Published September 12, 2018 Lead True, my new eBook, is now available for FREE download. To get your copy, follow the link at the end of this article. I decided to make it free so more leaders like you will read it. My only…
Published on September 4, 2018
For any leader at any level in any organization, clarity of purpose is a critical ingredient of success. In other words, you must know where you’re headed and why you’re headed there. A compass provides the ideal metaphor. Just as a compass points toward a magnetic field, your personal “true north” directs your path and…
Published on August 29, 2018
After a flurry of activity with bankers, investors and the Tesla board, Elon Musk announced last Friday that he had changed his mind and Tesla would continue to be a public company. Musk should stop worrying about beating the short sellers and focus entirely on rebuilding Tesla’s depleted leadership ranks. Tesla board needs to be…
Published on August 17, 2018
Senator Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday proposed The Accountable Capitalism Act – new federal legislation requiring corporations to consider the interests of employees and other stakeholders as well as shareholders. Warren’s legislation is based on the belief that CEOs have abandoned all stakeholders other than shareholders. In principle, Warren’s ideas sound good, but they are based…
Published on July 23, 2018
Relatively free trade has enabled consumers to purchase myriad products at much lower prices. This has given American consumers a much higher standard of living in a time of limited wage growth. There is a reasonable probability that the combination of inflation and higher interest rates resulting from a trade war will throw the U.S….
Published on July 18, 2018
By Brittain Ladd This article was originally posted on Forbes.com on 7/17/18. Elon Musk is quickly garnering a reputation for being more petulant and irritating than inspirational and worthy of praise. Stung by criticism that his mini-submarine designed to rescue the team of boys trapped in a cave in Thailand wouldn’t work, Musk sent out a Tweet…
Published on June 6, 2018
Kellie Ell Former Yum Brands CEO David Novak says Schultz has managed to balance “his need for profit with his social agenda.” Novak says Schultz, a businessman, has a “different story,” than someone like former President Obama, a community worker. In a CNBC interview, Schultz declines to speak in detail about his future, saying, “Let’s…
Published on May 25, 2018
Denise Morrison’s sudden retirement as CEO of Campbell Soup highlighted the struggles that all consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are having in today’s rapidly changing markets. Except one: Unilever. Since Paul Polman assumed the helm as CEO in January 2009, Unilever has risen above the pack with a long-term vision and consistently strong performance. In many ways, Unilever…
Published on April 30, 2018
Ford’s new CEO, Jim Hackett, announced a bold strategic move for America’s most enduring automaker: abandoning the car business. Bowing to short-term shareholder pressures that felled predecessor Mark Fields, Hackett is undoing 115 years of Ford’s automobile legacy. A 3 percent jump in Ford’s stock price validated Hackett’s decision, but that adrenaline shot could be…