CEO Series

nink · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:24 am

CEO Series

#1 - Can You Pass a C.E.O. Test? (HBS to Bain to CCMP Capital)
p577020-ceo-series#p577020

#2 - Retail Career: NYU to Chicago GSB to CEO of Urban Outfitters
p577020-ceo-series#p577020

#3 - Anne Mulcahy: The Keeper of That Tapping Pen
p579058-ceo-series#p579058

#3 - Maureen Beal: Family Vision
p579058-ceo-series#p579058

#4 - BCG: 7 Common Reasons CEOs Fail
ceo-series-76864.html#p580687

#5 - Jim Owens - Caterpillar CEO
ceo-series-76864.html#p581492

#6 - John Donahoe - eBay CEO
ceo-series-76864.html#p583133

nink · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:29 am

CEO Series # 1: Can You Pass a C.E.O. Test?

Corner Office, a new Sunday Business feature, offers highlights from conversations about leadership and management. This interview with Greg Brenneman, chairman of CCMP Capital, was conducted, condensed and edited by Adam Bryant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/busin ... f=business

CEO Series # 2: Taking the Retail Reins

Career looked back from NYU undergrad to Chicago GSB to Bloomingdale's to Urban Outfitters.

GLEN SENK
C.E.O, Urban Outfitters, Philadelphia
AGE 52

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/jobs/15bosses.html

refurb · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 12:05 pm

Good read.

RF

jb32 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 12:41 pm

That guy really understands business and specifically leadership. I'm impressed.

isa · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 12:51 pm

interesting read!

Rubashov1 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 5:30 pm

Good interview. Thanks for posting it.

Odd that he grew up a Mennonite.

riverripper · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 6:12 pm

Nothign about the school but I have a complete hatred for Urban Outfitters. They totally steal designs from boutique designers...I have a friend who has a rather popular high end t-shirt company and they wanted to carry his stuff...they sought him out to try to get a deal but gave him insanely low margins claiming volume would make up for it. He wanted to stay exclusive instead of become a mass product and wanted higher prices since he had contracts with other shops and would be unfair to undercut. Basically he would make the same selling 1/4 of the stuff but at his normal prices but they said no...a few months later go into an Urban Outfitters and there were several designs almost the exact shirts they wanted to buy from him including total rip off of trademarked images.

I haven't talked to him in a while but he was in the process of suing them, and he is just one of many people they have done this too. I have heard the same thing from other friends who work as designers...Urban Outfitters is like a horrible hipster version hot topic.

DK · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 7:10 pm

I think Quizno's is in the gutter, and Brenemann stepped down as CEO last Fall to focus full time on CCMP.

Regardless, his turnaround of Continental Airlines was legendary (and it was really what propelled Texas Pacific Group to the next level), as was the sale of PwC Consulting to IBM. He's definitely someone you would write a case study about.

Maybe a bit cliche, but I really loved this quote:

But I remember something that Mitt Romney told me at Bain. He said: “Greg, in any interaction, you either gain share or lose share. So treat every interaction as kind of a precious moment in time.” And I’ve always remembered that, because I think it’s really true. So what I’ve tried to do is have more conversations where I’m gaining share than losing share, to try to add value to everything.

jb32 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 7:29 pm

DK wrote:

I think Quizno's is in the gutter, and Brenemann stepped down as CEO last Fall to focus full time on CCMP.

I believe CCMP Capital, originally owned by JP Morgan Partners was an investor in Quizno's as was Gary's own company TurnWorks. Gary stepped down as CEO in Aug. 2008 to become both Chairman of Quizno's and Chairman of CCMP.

nink · **Posted:** Sat Mar 21, 2009 2:38 pm

CEO Series #3 - Anne Mulcahy: The Keeper of That Tapping Pen

This interview with Anne Mulcahy, chairwoman and chief executive of the Xerox Corporation, was conducted, condensed and edited by Adam Bryant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/busin ... ss&emc=rss

CEO Series #4 - Maureen Beal: Family Vision
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/busin ... ss&emc=rss

prashok · **Posted:** Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:52 pm

riverripper wrote:

Nothign about the school but I have a complete hatred for Urban Outfitters. They totally steal designs from boutique designers...I have a friend who has a rather popular high end t-shirt company and they wanted to carry his stuff...they sought him out to try to get a deal but gave him insanely low margins claiming volume would make up for it. He wanted to stay exclusive instead of become a mass product and wanted higher prices since he had contracts with other shops and would be unfair to undercut. Basically he would make the same selling 1/4 of the stuff but at his normal prices but they said no...a few months later go into an Urban Outfitters and there were several designs almost the exact shirts they wanted to buy from him including total rip off of trademarked images.

I haven't talked to him in a while but he was in the process of suing them, and he is just one of many people they have done this too. I have heard the same thing from other friends who work as designers...Urban Outfitters is like a horrible hipster version hot topic.

Yeah, I remember reading about a few other stories like that of your friend's, at this website:

http://www.urbancounterfeiters.com/

nink · **Posted:** Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:56 pm

7 Reasons CEOs Fail

Is executive retention a problem one might ask? From our own experiences in search, we felt it was. Educators and consultants alike have taken a more objective and statistically relevant approach to outlining the problem. A 2001 study of executive failure done by Executive Search Information Exchange pegged the average failure rate for recruited executives in their first year at between 40% and 50%. More recently Michael Watkins,a recognized thought leader in executive leadership and author of The First 90 Days, has revealed from his research that a staggering 58% of new executives hired from the outside fail in their new position within 18 months.

http://blog.bostonsearchgroup.com/7-reasons-ceos-fail/

nink · **Posted:** Sun Mar 29, 2009 8:54 am

Caterpillar, the World Tour

JIM OWENS

Chief executive, Caterpillar, Peoria, Ill.

AGE 63

HOMETOWN Elizabeth City, N.C.

HEROES Nelson Mandela and Milton Friedman

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/jobs/ ... l?ref=jobs

nink · **Posted:** Sat Apr 04, 2009 3:41 pm

There’s No Need to Bat .900

This interview of John Donahoe, president and chief executive of eBay.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/busin ... ss&emc=rss

Quote:

Interestingly, when I became C.E.O. of Bain, I used to get a performance review where my assessment committee would interview 40 partners in half-hour interviews, and I’d get a performance review that was 20 pages thick. Everything I could possibly do better was included in that.

In many ways it was liberating, because I realized feedback’s a gift and I wasn’t afraid of the feedback. I’d look at it — and a third of it, I said: “You know, that’s exactly right. This is going to be a long-term area I’m going to have to get better and better at, and I want to make progress next year, and it will still be an issue that year.”

It’s kind of a lifelong journey. About a third of it was: “Oh, wow, I didn’t realize I was doing that and need to stop doing it, or someone wanted me to be doing something else that I agreed with.” And then a third of it, I said: “You know what? Thanks for the feedback. I’m going to ignore it. I’m going to keep doing what I want to do.”

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