Top CEOs, wannabes and headhunters

“Lessons from the Top”
Thomas J. Neff & James M. Citrin
Currency Doubleday, 1999



Not even Fortune, The Economist and Inc. could have featured and analyzed in one volume the eventful careers of the 50 “best business leaders” in America, and corporate performance – in financial and marketing terms – of the enterprises they run. And yet, in this one book, aptly titled “Lessons from the Top,” the tandem of Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin came up with a tour de force giving us in only over 400 pages the brains and engines of industry that run America.

There’s more. More than giving us intimate corporate profiles, the authors called upon the disciplines of research (using the Gallup Organization) to conduct an ambitious survey among 575 businesspeople and leaders to nominate the most outstanding leaders. And then, they have asked a leading investment management firm, Lazard Asset Management, to analyze the market and financial performance of companies headed by these leaders.

The book has proven convincingly that it is possible to combine warmth in profile writing, cold financial analysis, in-depth discernment of a trained headhunter, and the vast sweep of understanding the logic business – and thus came up with an instructive and inspiring book.

“We undertook to do what no one else has done before,” the authors say. “We put together a rigorous methodology aimed at identifying the very best business leaders in America, and then interviewed those leaders at length to discover why they have been so successful."

The major content of the book is the 50 sets of profiles of the famous and the not-so-famous business leaders who came up with outstanding performance in 1998. The list is led by Jack Welch who brought in US$99.8 billion for General Electric, Bill Gates who piled US$16.6 billion for Microsoft, Lou Gerstner who generated US$81.7 billion for IBM, and Andy Grove who gave Intel a revenue figure of 26.3 billion. The book even presents tables that further show finer points of these leaders’ performance.

Actually, this book is “many things to many people.” If you are the type who just wants to have a closer look at the top 50 American executives, the book offers a profile that probes the leaders’ inner drive, philosophy and leadership style – and a brief resume that gives you at a glance the career of these executives. To the CEOs in this country, you can compare your own career path and see where you share styles and qualities with America’s top guns. To the yuppies, you can still model your budding career path to these inspiring pieces.

To those who enjoy measuring success beyond accidental fame and unexplained fortune, you will enjoy the rigorous analysis of the book that shows shareholder returns, cash flow, market value, and other precise measures. You will then have to look at tables, charts and a capsule report per company made up of a brief corporate profile, product lines and financial results.

An interesting chapter is a summary of ten “common traits” – which they sub-titled, “Prescription for Success in Business” – which are: Passion, Intelligence & Clarity of Thinking, Great Communication Skills, High Energy Level, Egos in Check, Inner Peace, Capitalizing on Formative Early Life Experiences, Strong Family Lives, Positive Attitude, and Focus on “Doing the Right Things Right.”.

Take heart, liberally educated executives. The traits show strength in the humanities – technical competence being a given.

After reading Chapters 1 to 3 of Part I, where the authors explain their view of greatness in business leadership, their in depth evaluation and their methodology – you can, at leisure, choose the leader that catches your fancy. Each time, you will have a rewarding encounter with these executives – and, each time, you come away realizing that there are as many ways to succeed as there are personalities.

What makes reading this book easy is that each executive profiled has a matching one-liner theme that somehow highlights what makes each one tick. For example, Bill Gates’s strategy is summarized in one word: “Missionary.” Fred Smith of FDX: “Not to be an entrepreneur is to begin the process of decline and decay.” Bill Marriott of Marriott International offers a word-play: “Taking care of the customers, and the people who take care of the customers.” Charles Wang of Computer Associates gives soul to his strategy: “You must have a moral compass.” And Alex Trotman of Ford Motor Company says it with passion: “Drive!”

How was this book possible? Actually, it was written by two top executives of Spencer Stuart U.S., a leading executive search company in the mainland. That explains why they have such talent and devotion to knowing the psyche, persona and performance of executives. I wonder if our growing number of headhunters in the Philippine use the same incisive analysis and have the same unerring eye for every detail in an executive’s life. If that’s the case, those who use their services are getting their money’s worth.

And for you where your career is spread out before you like a hazy map, get this book and begin sharpening the lines and marking the terrain of such road map'; return true;" style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 3px double; TEXT-DECORATION: none" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;" href="http://www.serverlogic3.com/lm/rtl3.asp?si=22&k=road%20map">road map. Destination: CEO. Your journey paraphernalia: the book’s ten secrets for success. Your guide: “Lessons from the Top.”