Category: Management

Andrew Hill Memo to would-be Indian CEOs: get an MBA, start young

January 18, 2012 10:47 am by Andrew Hill

The route to success in corporate India starts early, and it usually goes via business school. That’s one message from new research into the performance of Indian chief executives, from the same stable that brought us what claimed to be the first ranking of the world’s CEOs over their entire tenure.

Insead professors Bala Vissa, Morten Hansen, Herminia Ibarra and Urs Peyer have now produced a compelling ranking of top Indian CEOs, published on Wednesday by Business Today, based on shareholder performance since they took office. It is topped by Naveen Jindal of steel company Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL).

Continue reading: “Memo to would-be Indian CEOs: get an MBA, start young”

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Posted in Business, India, Management |

Andrew Hill ‘Margin Call’ speaks to managers everywhere

January 12, 2012 10:54 am by Andrew Hill

Jeremy Irons as the bank boss in 'Margin Call'

To those who think all bankers are villains – or heroes, for that matter – let me commend Margin Call, the excellent and balanced film about a Lehman-like bank’s implosion, released last autumn in the US and out this week in the UK.

When the movie first came out, the FT invited two real-life bankers to the screening. One of them said:

I don’t think any banker will want to go, because they lived this, and traders will just point up the stuff that wasn’t right.

It was a film “made for outsiders who want to be smart about the inside”, he added.

But, speaking as an outsider, I think it’s much better than that.

Continue reading: “‘Margin Call’ speaks to managers everywhere”

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Posted in Banks, Management |
From FT.com January 11, 2012

Eastman Kodak’s last big investor meeting ended with its executives trying to finish while a shareholder shouted at them: “You guys have no credibility. Zero.” Since then, things have got worse

Posted in Business, Management, Technology, US |
From FT.com January 9, 2012

When Kazuo Inamori was appointed to lead the restructuring of Japan Airlines (JAL) two years ago, analysts worried about his lack of experience in aviation. Never mind that he was about to turn 78, had founded two of Japan’s best-known companies – Kyocera, in electronics components, and KDDI, in telecoms – and was, for good measure, an ordained Buddhist priest. Studying Buddhist teachings, he told the Wall Street Journal four months into his new role, “improves the quality of my heart and mind and enriches myself as a human being. This enhanced spirit is useful when it comes to revitalising JAL”.

Posted in Business, Management |
From FT.com January 2, 2012

Hurrah for uncertainty! Three cheers for trepidation! As the world tiptoes gingerly into 2012, let’s celebrate the fallibility of forecasting and the perils of prediction.

Posted in Business, Finance, Management |
From FT.com December 19, 2011

The corner office has gone open plan, the company jet is passé, and stock options are so last century. What do you give the manager who has everything? Here’s my catalogue of must-have presents to help executives shape strategy into 2012.

Posted in Management |

Andrew Hill Lloyds needs less of the same from Horta-Osório

December 14, 2011 4:24 pm by Andrew Hill

Speculation about António Horta-Osório’s condition will not end now that Lloyds Banking Group has announced the “full recovery” of its ailing chief executive and heralded his return to the job on January 9. Sir Win Bischoff, chairman, told journalists on Wednesday that the cause of the CEO’s sudden enforced departure in November was physical – overwork, sleep deprivation and exhaustion – but “certainly not stress”. Each director has met the chief executive separately and judged him fit to return, as have independent medical experts.

Asked how Mr Horta-Osório seemed to him now, Sir Win replied: “Very well, very well, very well. Bushy tailed. Terrific. Big smile.”

In other words, just as he seemed – to me, to other commentators, and probably to Sir Win - when he was appointed last year. For directors, and shareholders – which include UK taxpayers through holding company UKFI – the important thing is to ensure that Mr Horta-Osório does not suffer any relapse. Sir Win said on Wednesday he was confident his CEO was fit, but if it turned out he wasn’t, he intimated that his own job as chairman would be on the line.

Continue reading: “Lloyds needs less of the same from Horta-Osório”

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Posted in Banks, Management |

Andrew Hill The perils of putting the CEO in the chair

December 13, 2011 11:27 am by Andrew Hill

Old habits die hard in US corporate governance: Pfizer has just announced it will hand chief executive Ian Read the chairmanship. That re-creates the dual chair-CEO role and goes against the slow US trend towards splitting the two top board jobs.

According to Spencer Stuart, the headhunter, 41 per cent of top US companies now separate the roles (though the chairmanship is too often held by the ex-CEO), compared with 26 per cent in 2001. So, as governance expert Lucy Marcus tweeted on Tuesday, Pfizer’s decision is an “astonishing step backward“.

Continue reading: “The perils of putting the CEO in the chair”

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Posted in Business, Management, Pharmaceuticals, US |
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About John and Andrew

John Gapper is an associate editor and the chief business commentator of the FT. He has worked for the FT since 1987, covering labour relations, banking and the media. He is co-author, with Nicholas Denton, of All That Glitters, an account of the collapse of Barings in 1995.

Andrew Hill is an associate editor and the management editor of the FT. He is a former City editor, financial editor, comment and analysis editor, New York bureau chief, foreign news editor and correspondent in Brussels and Milan.

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