You didn’t have to do anything amazing in the last month or two to be our Leadership Leader for January. You just needed to demonstrate clear, personal leadership… and Muhtar Kent has been demonstrating it for years. He’s about to turn over the CEO reins of Coca-Cola, and we thought it appropriate to use him as reinforcement to what you leaders have been beat over the head with for years.
Disclaimer: my wife really likes Coke.
Kent, who was with Coke from 1978 to 1999 and returned in 2005 to take the helm in 2008, gets what being a leader is all about. And he understands that leadership development isn’t about unhappy participants sitting in a training room checking their iPhones. And it’s not about this unnamed group of sleepy yahoos, either.
Kent has described leadership development as a combination of “head knowledge and heart knowledge,” and the company’s development program is the kind that works – a group of high potentials who learn how to be a part of a leadership team, taken out of their comfort zone, exposed to pieces of the enterprise they didn’t know existed, and given company-related challenges to address during a six-week program. A contiguous six-week program.
Say what?? Six non-stop weeks away from work, away from most emails and calls. Not a half-day here and there over the course of a couple of years, but 30+ days without being at the office.
How is that even possible? It’s a simple matter of priorities, and leader development seems to be quite the priority at Coca-Cola with Muhtar Kent.
Coca-Cola‘s moved up 30+ places on the Fortune 500 since Kent became CEO (a place it hasn’t seen since 1997), and Coca-Cola currently sits at #15 on Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies list. Not surprisingly, Kent believes that the leadership culture gives the company a sustainable, long-term advantage.
Having started in the company driving around Turkey selling Coke, Kent says that “leadership is all about creating value in whatever you do—and whatever role you are in—and leaving something better than you found it.” No magic sauce, no fancy programs, just people-oriented leadership.
“Ultimately, leaders are judged by what they leave behind.” – Muhtar Kent, CEO, Coca-Cola Company
Congrats, Muhtar, you’ve left behind a culture that appreciates the critical contribution that leadership makes to a company’s success. We salute you as this month’s Triangle Performance Leadership Leader.
Leadership Milquetoast
Steve Ells, Founder and CEO, Chipotle
Chipotle… Foodie’s version of Tex-Mex, or petulant adolescent?
A refresher for those living under or near a rock: A highly publicized E.coli outbreak sent Chipotle’s results in a tailspin around October 2015, followed by a norovirus problem in December of that same year. In total, six illness outbreaks. Since then, the stock has dropped nearly 50 percent.
Chipotle HAS done some good things to rebound: implementing cutting-edge food safety protocols, increasing third-party audits, and — supposedly — pushing hiring levels to ensure good customer service during these labor-intensive changes.
What they haven’t done, is simply step up and say “we screwed up, we’re sorry, and we’ll do better.” Chipotle’s founder and CEO Steve Ells has apologized, a couple of times (though only grudgingly for the norovirus fiasco), but what hasn’t occurred is accepting full accountability for making some serious mistakes. It’s not enough to say “I’m sorry.” Accountability means you also say “we made mistakes.” Real mistakes, and we’re trying to get better.
The problem is how companies—executives—deal with mistakes, not the mistakes per se. And in this, Ells has screwed up royally. Since the E-coli debacle, here’s what he has blamed for Chipotle’s crappy financial performance:
Ells tried to saddle Monty Moran, Co-CEO for a time, for “not keeping it simple.”
Here’s the real deal: Chipotle and Ells (sound like the show Rizzoli and Isles) have done many of the things necessary to fix their food safety problems. But they need to fix their customer problem, and that’s not just about food safety. If Ells could get that through his burrito beans, he’d be better off. Without accepting full, unqualified accountability, it’s a missed opportunity.
Until then, he—and Chipotle—are our Leadership Milquetoast.
Layoffs are almost always attributable to poor leadership. In fact, they are so ubiquitous that merely laying off employees — no matter how tragic — hardly rises to the occasion of being awarded our leadership laggard.
However, in this case Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren managed to dodge his way into dubious honors.
It’s one thing to say that our business model needs tweaking. Or that our direction may need to shift based on demographics, spending patterns, buyer preferences, yada yada yada. It’s another thing altogether, Mr. Lundgren, to say ”I’m sorry, there’s nothing I could do about it.” And that’s exactly what he did.
Seems Mr. Lundgren would have us believe that all of retail suffered this most recent holiday season, and that Macy’s was simply one of many impacted by this terrible economic event.
Oops. It just ain’t so.
You see, retail sales are up by almost 4% in 2016 over 2015. And in fact, several retailers did quite well, posting respectable increases in sales during 2016 and the most recent holiday season.
Online sales continue to increase, this year by another 12%. Newsflash: this is not new. Brick-and-mortar stores have had plenty of notice that they must shift their model to address this changing buyer. Just because you failed to do so, doesn’t mean you get to blame your failure on the economy as a whole.
So, while layoffs are certainly nothing new, and retail has always been a cyclical, precarious environment, the fact remains that nationwide sales increased, many stores succeeded (think Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc.), and Macy’s continued decline is a tragedy of their own making.
Look, I’m no saint. I’ve had to lay off people, sometimes a lot of people, and that represents failure on my part and the part of my fellow leaders. Again, as I mentioned earlier, layoffs are generally the direct result of poor or misguided leadership. That’s bad enough, but a travesty occurs when that same leadership decides to dance a jig around exactly who or what is responsible for that decline in sales.
And to Terry Lundgren, regarding his “not my fault” stance, I say liar, liar pants on fire.
And bestow upon him this month’s Leadership Laggard.
You know, sometimes we look for specific events or publicized actions to identify a really special leader. We’ve even been guilty of that here in our Leaders & Laggards section. And that’s shortsighted.
How about, instead of the single, flashy, attention-getting PR piece, we showcase someone who has simply exemplified successful leadership over time. What a concept…!
Katia is a rock star. Not much in the way of prior experience, she co-founded Birchbox in 2010, completely disrupting the women’s cosmetics space; today, after celebrating their 6-year anniversary, the venture boasts revenue of around $200 million. It’s hard to say that’s anything but a rip-roaring success, even given some recent challenges. And when you read about her, you can’t help but like her. This 33-year old just seems to do the right thing, because it’s the right thing.
“Criticism is a learning moment and in many cases it is what you need to push you toward exponential growth in the moments when you need that. I would be lying if I didn’t say it’s hard to hear sometimes. It can be painful when you are working so hard and giving everything to your work, to ever let people down. But I have had to toughen up a lot over the years. I know, intellectually, that criticism is a form of caring for someone because it does give you that push.”
“I try to avoid providing answers, and encourage my team to do that instead.”
“I’m here to provide a reminder for why we’re here and what we’re doing, but I’m not here to always provide the answer.”
“You need to give your team the room they need to breathe.”
So, nothing singularly flashy this month; just an entrepreneurial leader who’s getting it done, and doing so with style and aplomb. Her 250 employees (including a brick-and-mortar store in SoHo) and well over a million subscribers would likely agree. Her proud moments are things that make us smile…
“My proudest moments are not the big wins, but the smaller things – like sitting in a meeting and seeing how smart and thoughtful my team is. We’ve evolved into something bigger than just me.”
Plus, she’s a native Texan and likes 1970 Ford Broncos. What’s not to like?
Thanks, Katia Beauchamp, for being this month’s Leadership Leader.
Leadership Milquetoast
Daimler AG (Ever wonder what the AG means? Aktiengesellschaft.)
Daimler AG almost got it right when they removed a senior executive from their Daimler Greater China late last month.
One could argue that they took fairly swift action against Rainer Gärtner, ex-President and CEO of Daimler Trucks and Busses (China) Ltd (DTBC), a mere 48-hours after he allegedly slandered not just a Chinese driver, but thewhole country – and pepper-sprayed the crowd – in a parking spot version of road rage.
Daimler apologized for Gärtner’s behavior the day after it happened but couldn’t withstand the onslaught of negative Chinese social media attacks, and removed him from his position the day after.
“We deeply regret the outcome of the personal dispute. The words and actions involved in this dispute as reported in the media do not represent at all the views of the company.”
And after a very short “investigation,” Daimler released this statement the next day:
“The nature of the dispute and in particular the manner in which it was conducted, irrespective of any comments alleged to have been made, is adjudged to be not only of concern to the public but viewed by us as detrimental to the standing of our company, unbecoming of a manager of our brand and prejudicial to our good name.”
Nice apology written by the PC public affairs bunch, but I don’t buy it. That’s called damage control, not leadership.
Okay, so they recognized that one of their senior executives was about to be persona non grata and hastily repatriated him, but they did it under withering fire.
And if a CEO of one of your major operating units thinks he’s entitled to act like an ass, maybe you need to change your vetting process. You see, you don’t choose to lead by example; you can only choose whether it will be a good example or a bad one. Gärtner chose poorly.
Regardless of what they say, a CEO’s behavior does reflect an organization’s culture, and that’s a leadership issue. Gärtner’s behavior, while boorish, had nothing to do with running DTBC. But leadership is less about what you’re doing than how you’re being. Gärter was being a jerk – don’t pretend he didn’t know what he was doing – and that reflects a senior leadership entitlement mentality in Daimler’s culture.
I also couldn’t help but notice that the media maelstrom ended with the announcement that Gartner had been “removed.” In fact, it’s as if Rainer Gärtner ceased to exist after Nov 22nd.
If Daimler was serious about demonstrating that Gärtner’s behavior was unacceptable, the company would have taken a different tack than out of sight out of mind for a CEO that pissed off a country that buys 22% of Daimler’s vehicles.
Bottom line for me: Gärtner acted like a jackass; he probably wouldn’t have gotten away with it in Texas. Daimler had an opportunity to show what their company really stood for and how they expected their senior leadership to reflect that culture. They blew it.Gärtner’s behavior probably deserved a Leadership Laggard award, but I thought it was better to reward Daimler’s namby-pamby response with this month’s award for a classic missed opportunity. Congratulations, Daimler, you’re December’s Leadership Milquetoast.
Leadership Laggard
Steve Huffman, Reddit CEO
Every now and then, some clown discovers himself atop an organization, and everyone wonders “why?” Hilarity (or calamity) ensues, usually ending with someone scratching their heads and asking, “what was he thinking??”
The poster child for that this month Is Reddit’s Steve Huffman.
(Caution: in one of the following paragraphs, I say “Donald Trump.” You’ve been warned.)
For troglodytes, Luddites and those over 50 (I’m certain I fit at least two of those), Reddit is essentially the offspring when an online newspaper mates with a bulletin board; content is both curated and sometimes created. People upvote or downvote your content, making it more or less visible to others. Sort of like a Facebook without the duck-lip selfies and cat videos.
Huffman was an original founder and creator, and the name “Reddit” is a play on words from “read it.” Anyway, it’s a fairly big deal with over 500 million visitors each month, and in the top 25 of website traffic in the world. Users fiercely advocate for the open nature and diverse community. Sort of a free speech test bed. The former CEO, Ellen Pao, was literally voted off the island for banning a few communities for fostering off-site harassment. Censorship is pretty much unheard of on Reddit.
Until now.
Huffman, apparently not a fan of Donald Trump, found himself the target of personal attacks from one of the more extreme Reddit communities, so instead of blocking or even deleting the community, he quickly made a stand… by taking the low road. He modified the contents of many public user comments on Reddit that he disliked. He literally went into the program and changed insulting comments made towards him and made it appear as if the insult were directed at the moderators of the “The Donald” Reddit community.
Needless to say, that didn’t end well. And to make things worse, Stevie wandered through several excuses: first, he said it was frustration with communities that try his patience. Next, he was “just joking” with those people, unsure why they “took it wrong.” Yeah, I call bullshit on that one. Finally, he said “well, that sort of thing shouldn’t be allowed on Reddit anyway.” Could be true (I don’t know, didn’t read them), but that only makes the case for deleting, not falsifying the content to favor yourself.
He restored the comments to their original form, but made it clear he didn’t feel he really did anything wrong, merely that he should’ve found another way to do it, with his “I abused my power to give the bullies a hard time.” Classic #sorrynotsorry.
I’ve got a better idea—why not figure out how to be a CEO, and take it from there.
But then, we’d have to find another Leadership Laggard for December.
I travel quite a bit; I know many of you do as well. In fact, I was on the road for 10 of the last 14 days. Four flights, two rental cars, multiple Uber rides and four different hotels.
And one bus ride (don’t ask).
The relevant number for this story is the four different hotels, comprising nine sleeping nights.
At the end of each day while traveling, I would return to my hotel room and enjoy a freshly cleaned room with a made bed, new towels, and refreshed self-serve coffee. It was like magic; I leave, work, return, and abracadabra my room is made like new. How did that happen?
I’ll tell you how. A housekeeper, part of the hotel staff, came into my room and did her job. And in doing so, she helped me be refreshed and ready for a new day. In other words, she helps me make money.
The national average wage for hotel housekeeper is about $9.30 an hour. Less than $20 grand a year. And for that money she does chores that your mother made clear she wouldn’t do… remember the “Do I look like a housekeeper to you?” or, “I am not your maid…”?
Matt Schuyler, chief human resources officer at Hilton Worldwide, knows the value of those housekeepers. Breaking tradition with other major hospitality companies in the US, Schuyler led the effort to include hourly hotel staff, including housekeepers and cooks, in the parental leave benefit offered by Hilton Worldwide.
And before you dismiss this as a hollow gesture, given these hourly employees’ typical wages, realize they account for approximately 75% of the company’s US workforce—nearly 125,000 additional employees. Now I’m no math genius, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express on my last trip (not really, but I couldn’t resist). This is a significant cost, yet Schuyler and the Hilton leadership team feel the investment is the right thing to do, both for the company and the employees.
“When our Team Members feel great about where they work, it is reflected in the exceptional experience that they provide to our guests,” –Matt Schuyler, CHRO Hilton Worldwide
This is another example of Hilton Worldwide’s culture. In 2015 they announced a GED assistance program to help staff earn their high school equivalency. More significantly, the company introduced a ten-day advance scheduling initiative for hourly team members, unheard of in the hospitality world.
Great job, Matt. We salute your commitment, and congratulate you on being November’s Leadership Leader.
Leadership Milquetoast
Samsung has a problem. Maybe more than one.
The problem that brought them this award is their Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. Seems it’s been spontaneously combusting recently. Strangely enough, phone owners take exception to their device blowing up while in their back pocket.
Really, Captain Obvious?? That’s your media alert after setting countless Miss Me jeans and Jeggings ablaze??
Hell, your exploding devices are included now in flight attendant’s monotone preflight monologue, as they stress that your Galaxy is banned from flight. Something about the whole exploding-not-conducive-with-manned-flight. I wasn’t listening closely because I don’t own one.
Seriously, dude… I believe real change—not simply improvement—may actually be in order here.
Kwon said in a statement that “Samsung employees should look back and ask whether they had been complacent in their work.” He further added “Let us use this crisis as a chance to make another leap by re-examining and thoroughly improving how we work, how we think about innovation and our perspective of our customers.”
So, in all fairness, Kwon’s statement about employees’ introspection does not rise to the level of Wells Fargo’s Stumpy insisting it was all lower-level employees fault, or Volkswagen’s Winterkorn’s attempt to blame a small group of middle managers. But still, Kwon avoided his own culpability in the debacle. And the buck—or in this case the Korean Won—stops with Kwon.
Yes, the Won stops with Kwon.
He should have clearly and unhesitatingly claimed accountability for the crappy phones. That’s what leaders do. Instead, he said “… Employees should look back and ask…” while stating “we have a long history of overcoming crises.”
So… Samsung employees should ask whether they had been complacent (a bad thing), but we have a history of overcoming (a good thing). What a truly botched opportunity to engage employees—all employees—in a discussion around quality, complacency, and customer success.
Can’t wait to see how he handles the exploding washing machines.
Botched Opportunity is a tell-tale sign of a Leadership Milquetoast.
Tag, Kwon, you’re it.
Leadership Laggard
Marla Malcolm Beck is the CEO of Bluemercury, some sort of luxury products retailer. As a business maven, her McKinsey background and Harvard MBA paid off big; last year she sold Bluemercury to Macy’s for $210 million in cash.
As a CEO, however, responsible for leadership and talent management (including hiring), she kinda sucks.
No, that’s not a typo, I said seven minutes. And in that microscopic amount of time, she says she asks (and, we presume, listens to the answers to) three questions: one for skill, one for will and one for fit. In just seven minutes.
Now, I’m all for efficiency, but if you’re not particularly good at something you do fast, perhaps—just perhaps—you should slow it down a little. And evidence shows that Beck and company are not good at hiring and retaining employees.
A cursory review at glassdoor.com gives Beck an abysmal 2.7 out of five stars from current and former Bluemercury employees. Further, Beck has a 40% favorability rating—less than some polls give both presidential candidates—and just 31% of would recommend Bluemercury to a friend for employment.
Some representative comment headlines include:
“Terrible company culture”
“Biggest mistake I ever made”
“Marla has no idea what’s going on underneath her”
“The turnover is insane!”
Sure, there are some positive reviews as well, but frankly they were a bit suspect. Even so, they were eclipsed by the negative. Do these sound like her seven-minute interviews are effective:
“Get a clue. Hire managers and district managers that know what they’re doing. I’ve never seen such incompetent people in my life.”
“Worst job I’ve ever had. It’s not a good place to work, please don’t do it.”
“The turnover was ridiculous. This company cares nothing about their employees.”
“Terrible culture at headquarters. People at the top hate each other and it shows. No maternity leave for a company run by a mom.”
It’s not a contest, Marla. Maybe you need to back off that gas pedal a bit and extend the interview time by a few minutes. Maybe then (and it’s a big MAYBE), Bluemercury hiring and retention can be an asset.
In the movie American President, Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) said to Sydney Ellen Wade, “Perhaps I didn’t properly explain the fundamentals of the slowdown plan.” That was in a discussion about sex, not interviewing, but it’s a damned good line and it fits here: Marla, you need a “slowdown plan.”
Without that plan, you’re this month’s Leadership Laggard.
I was an Arnie fan. A soldier in Arnie’s Army and damned proud of it. When I grew up, you affiliated with a particular golfer; Jack Nicklaus if you were textbook methodical (Mack, in my H.S. golf team), Gary Player if you leaned toward the flamboyant; Lee Trevino if you were a hustler; and Arnold Palmer if you swung hard, took risks and left everything on the course when you played. You led. Hard.
I was in the Arnie camp. “You swing out of your shoes,” they often told me. I didn’t care. Hell, even today I have trouble laying up for par 5’s. The rewards, when I actually connected, were worth it. And besides… Arnie did it. I only started golfing because of Arnold Palmer. The King.
My first set of clubs was an old, worn set of Tru-Matics by Arnold Palmer. 1-9 iron (yes, a 1-iron). Three woods (real persimmon—remember, I’m old), and a beat up full-size cart bag that I had to lug around. I started playing golf when I was 12, didn’t ride in a cart until I was 16, so that big, honkin’ bag was a chore.
Humble and plain-spoken, I met him once in 1994 as a guest of a friend at Latrobe, Arnie’s course in Pennsylvania. He was playing in the group ahead of us, but took all the time in the world to speak, shake hands, and cut a joke or two. He seemed a giant, even then.
Yes, Arnie was a helluva golfer. The best ever, as far as I’m concerned. He won the U.S. Amateur, 92 events on multiple tours, and seven major tournaments, including four at the Master’s, two at the British Open (Brits like to call it The Open), and once at the U.S. Open. He won a tournament every year for 17 consecutive years. No question, the man owned the links. But I consider Arnie the best, and a real Leader, because he was so much bigger than just a golfer.
The man (and his wife, Winnie) lent their name and provided funding, leadership and support to the Arnold Palmer Medical Center, the largest facility dedicated to children and women in the United States. The Center is comprised of the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies and the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.
He provided financial and public support to so many more organizations. The list is long. He put his money, name and time where it needed to be, and simply did what he could. Because it was the right thing. And he did so with humility, dignity, respect and extraordinary generosity.
When recently asked in an interview to advise current golf stars, he said, “Generosity and work. Always be generous and appreciate what you have.” When asked in that same interview to name his proudest moments, he didn’t speak of the tournaments won, or the medals received by Presidents Bush and Obama. He said simply “I think of the charities and the results that I’ve seen, that’s very gratifying.”
He was an icon, a legend, and a Leader. A real one. He was, and will remain, The King.
This month’s Leadership Leader. Arnie, you will be missed.
September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016
Leadership Milquetoast
What exactly is Eddie Lampert, Chairman and CEO of Sears Holding Corp, trying to do to Sears and Kmart? Did he learn nothing at Yale about Montgomery Wards? He must have missed that case study.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein
In brief, Lampert brought (or bought) Kmart out of bankruptcy in 2003 through his hedge fund, ESL Investments.
Within two years, he bought Sears and combined the two companies to create
Sears Holding Corporation (SHC) and became the company’s first Chairman.
As Chairman and CEO of SHC’s majority stockholder, ESL Investments, Lampert oversaw the closure of thousands of stores and year-after-year stock repurchases to dry up billions of dollars (like $7.5B) in cash… all without making significant capital investments in surviving Sears and Kmart stores (which nobody likes going to anymore). Winner: Lampert as the majority stockholder.
What’s wrong with that, since Lambert, a former Goldman-Sachs whiz kid – which means he knows exactly how to wring every investment dollar out of a company – believes that retail isn’t about selling, it’s about being profitable.
The Sears and Kmart team has seen falling sales revenue every year since 2006, and its stock has lost nearly 90% of its value in the same period (~60% in the past 12 months alone). But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t profitable, right?
Right, because since Lampert took over as CEO in 2013, he’s spun off Land’s End and set up a real estate investment trust to take over SHC’s real properties, offsetting operating losses with proceeds from the spinoffs. Did I mention he’s the Chairman of the REIT, too?
ESL is making money, Seritage (the REIT) is making money (remember, REIT’s pay no corporate taxes), and the shareholders are getting dividends. Looks like Lampert wins all the way around, unless you consider him a failure at leading the 160,000+ demoralized employees anxious about their futures. And unless this precarious house of cards implodes, which seems increasingly likely.
Now Sears is talking about spinning off the Kenmore, Craftsman and Diehard lines… though since we can get all of that stuff on the internet, I’m not sure of the point. His recent purchase of $700M of Sears debt and $300M loan ensures he’ll get paid back before the bankruptcy judge gives the stockholders squat.
Hey Eddie – your company needs a leader, not a liquidator. It’s difficult to see a path forward with $5.5B in debt and operating losses nearing $2B annually. I wasn’t a math major in school, but I do own a calculator.
Weak leadership (or an intentional Gordon Gekko impersonation) may have doomed another company that survived two world wars and the Great Depression. Maybe a better question is: “How long will the Board sit idly by and watch Lampert drain the last bit of money and hope out of the company?”
We’re going to give Fast Eddie — and the Board of SHC — a chance to reverse course as this month’s Leadership Milquetoast, but when the billionaire investment banker pushes the company to bankruptcy, you can count on an ‘I told you so’ with that month’s Laggard award.
Leadership Laggard
Culture starts at the top. So does accountability.
Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO John Stumpf’s protestations that the two million (2,099,713 to be specific) fraudulent bank and credit card accounts created over the last five years were the work of individual rogue employees – some 5,300 of them – are laughable.
And if Stumpf thinks anyone believed his “If I Could Turn Back Time” apology in front of Congress, he’s delusional. It’s exactly the kind of “apology that isn’t” that normally wins a Milquetoast award, but that’s not good enough this month.
After all, the dots aren’t hard to connect: years of lawsuits and investigations point to systematic fraud against Wells Fargo customers, encouraged (and expected) by management at the local and regional levels. Only a fool or the very naïve would believe that senior leadership wasn’t aware.
Stumpf says, “There was no incentive to do bad things.” I’m calling bullshit…
The numbers are staggering. TWO MILLION fraudulent accounts. That means nearly four hundred accounts apiece for the 5,300 rogue employees. Either their management was incompetently unaware of their activities or they were complicit. I believe it closely approaches criminal behavior.
If an employee knowingly breaks the rules, you have a behavior problem. If thousands of employees are knowingly breaking the rules, you have a leadership problem. Imagine that in your company, your division fires three employees for wrong doing every single day for five straight years. Seem excessive? Maybe gets someone’s attention?
At Wells Fargo, the head of community banking should have noticed. Stumpf used to be the Community Banking EVP, so he’s familiar with how that works. That’s why he praised the outgoing EVP for her selfless dedication (she’s the “standard-bearer of our culture”) and sent her into retirement with a $125 million bonus. Added to the other senior leadership bonuses, that ought to just about cover the $185 million settlement with the government.
The “standard-bearer of our culture?” A failed leadership culture, to be sure.
The CEO, COO, CFO and Community Banking EVP have a combined 100 years at Wells Fargo. Maybe it’s time for a little chlorine in that gene pool.
A CEO blaming the employees for his bank’s unethical behavior is an insult to his customers and the institution. And it’s a leadership failure that earned John Stumpf Triangle’s Leadership Laggard for Sep 2016.
Since Marillyn Hewson became CEO in 2013, Lockheed Martin’s market cap has more than doubled. I’ll say that again: Hewson has led a doubling of market capitalization for Lockheed Martin in less than three years.
For the mathematically challenged, that means a market cap growth of nearly $40 billion. That’s 40 billion dollars. Paraphrasing a Chairman I used to work for, “A billion here, a billion there… pretty soon you’re talking about real money!”
Lest you think hers was a simple, unchallenging, “just-don’t screw-it-up” sort of effort, realize she took over after the originally anointed heir apparent, Christopher Kubasik, was asked to resign after the board discovered he had a personal relationship with a subordinate.
Oopsie.
(Don’t lose sleep about Kubasik; $3.5M in severance and L-3 Communications saw no problem making him President & COO)
Nope, Marillyn Hewson is the real deal. She dumped commercial services (sucking wind) and bought up profitable competitor Sikorsky for a cool $9 billion.
Last year, she was named 4th in the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and 20th in the Most Powerful Women in the World. She’s a heavy hitter in her own right, to be sure.
In an interview with CNN, Hewson said that “… while she prefers to be known more for her leadership skills, she does realize it’s important to be a role model for women.” Good approach on both counts.
Finally, and this is my favorite, since it reminds us that really effective leadership, though rare, just ain’t all that difficult… during that same CNN interview, she said that, “…as CEO, she derives a lot of energy from walking the facilities and engaging with employees and their families.” WHAAAT? How can that be?? I thought CEOs were supposed to remain staunchly enshrined in their ivory towers.Apparently, Hewson didn’t get that memo. Adding to that, knowing that 25% of Lockheed Martin’s employees are women, 22% are in leadership roles, and women make up a third of the board of directors, it’s obvious to see how Marillyn Hewson is our Leadership Leader for August.
Leadership Milquetoast
Given Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg’s highly vocal and visible progressive corporate initiatives, it saddens us to see that, apparently, those progressive initiatives do not include employee diversity.
Zuckerberg, CEO (and world’s 6th richest man), and Maxine Williams, Facebook’s Global Director of Diversity (hired in 2013) have given real diversity lip-service at best, quite reminiscent of the stereotype of energy industry’s good ol’ boy’s club.
Though Facebook has grown the Asian percentage by a couple of points since 2012, both Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino (as EEO categories) remain substantially the same (2% and 4% respectively), although Facebook’s headcount has grown almost 350% during that same time.350%!
Female employment is up a single percentage point during that same time.
In 2014, Maxine Williams wrote “So at Facebook we’re serious about building a workplace that reflects a broad range of experience, thought, geography, age, background, gender, sexual orientation, language, culture and many other characteristics.”
2014: “We have more work to do — a lot more. But the good news is that we’ve begun to make progress.”
2015: “While we have achieved positive movement over the last year, it’s clear to all of us that we still aren’t where we want to be. There’s more work to do.”
2016: “We still have a long way to go, but as we continue to strive for greater change, we are encouraged by positive hiring trends.”
“…we’ve begun to make progress.”
“…we have achieved positive movement…”
“…encouraged by positive trends.”
Blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda… rhetoric in place of actionable results. This isn’t new, of course.
At this writing, Facebook has 1,472 open positions. If history holds true, less than 450 of those hires will be females of any race, less than 90 will be Black/Hispanic (male or female), and over 575 will be white males. The underrepresentation continues… Williams and Facebook won’t release recent hiring data, meaning it’s likely not in the social media giant’s favor.
Williams, taking a page from the handbook of many a good ol’ boy company, deflected accountability by blaming the public education system and “the talent pipeline,” a euphemism for “We just didn’t have enough to choose from; if we did, we’d hire more females and underrepresented minorities.”
“It has become clear that at the most fundamental level, appropriate representation in technology or any other industry will depend upon more people having the opportunity to gain necessary skills through the public education system.”
–Maxine Williams, facebook’s Global Director of Diversity
Not sure how this is any different than any other company on the planet complaining, whining, moaning about how their inability to hire diversity candidates just “isn’t their fault.” If Facebook can’t do it, maybe it’s simply impossible…? Yeah, no.
A copout. Don’t say “nobody can do it.” Intel can. And did.Facebook has the resources to do better, and can/should be an example of a Leader in diversity hiring and employment. Instead, since they pretty much look just like everyone else, we’ll call it a blown opportunity and award them August’s Leadership Milquetoast.
Leadership Laggard
Volkswagen Leadership, past and present. Again.
I know it seems like we’re piling on, given their two-time placements on our Laggard list (here and here). but recent state lawsuits have brought new revelations to light. For instance, now we have allegations that Volkswagen specifically knew that the company’s “clean diesel” engines could not meet pollution standards in normal driving without compromises to performance or fuel economy.
The suits publicly identified for the first time many of these employees (so much for unnamed “engineers”) and accused them of “unlawful conduct.”
The suits said at least eight employees in VW’s engineering department deleted or removed incriminating data in August 2015 after a senior attorney advised them of an impending order not to destroy documents. Whaaat?? How can that be??
VW ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn and ex-marketing dude Christian Klingler allegedly knew in early 2014 of the illegal devices and “did nothing to prevent both Audi and Volkswagen from repeatedly deceiving regulators.” Son of a gun… whouldathunkit??
Bloomberg reports that emails presented by the New York attorney general at a press conference seem to confirm earlier reports that the board members and senior management already had in-depth knowledge about the company’s emissions cheating practices.
A 2013 email from Frank Tuch, VW’s head of quality management, told Winterkorn, “A thorough explanation… cannot be given to authorities”.
In August 2014, Oliver Schmidt, ex-head of VW’s environmental and engineering office told a US spokesman: “[Audi’s] V6 has exactly the same issue, but… they have not been caught.”
Yes, I can see how “getting caught” would be a bad thing. Maybe, then, you should have considered “not doing it??”
This one is too easy… Volkswagen is again our Leadership Laggard, a threepeat in August.
