I think it is nice to see CEOs and companies have a sense of humor. Part of building a CEO reputation is knowing how to leave a legacy, the last part of CEO tenure.

So if you have a few moments, take a look at Microsofts’ founder and chairman Bill Gates’ last day video (he is off to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation full-time). It is on YouTube and it will make you laugh. Nothing wrong with that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEWMC4usElM

I was reading through the many reasons that Fortune gives for why it chooses its 100 Best Places to Work For in its recent issue (February 4, 2008). In addition to the company ranking, number of employees, job growth, job number of applicants, average annual pay, and 2008 revenues, Fortune has a box for “what makes this company so great?” They do this every year. The reasons cited include a litany of reasons such as best credit union, generous time off,  best 401k, best cafeteria, best child care site, rent breaks, on site health clubs, autism benefits, and so on. Then I came to company #70 — Mattel.* The toy manufacturer was cited for how its CEO handled the recent toy recall crisis. Fortune said ”…with CEO Bob Eckhert getting kudos for quick and responsible actions in recalling defective toys from China.” I thought that Fortune deserved a pat on the back for awarding a company as high an honor as Best Place to Work because of its CEO’s actions during crisis. Worth sharing with you. I always like when CEOs are recognized for rightdoing over wrongdoing.

* Full Disclosue: My company worked for Mattel during the recent toy crisis. I did not however.

Country reputation is fast-becoming an even more important issue over the past several years, as our research found.  A fascinating article in the Financial Times turned me on to a spat between India’s Taj Hotels and British run Orient-Express Hotels. [Indian Hotels owns the Taj Hotels and is part of the Tata Group of Companies. They have increased their holdings in Orient-Express Hotels recently which might be igniting the sparks. Taj Hotels are interested in developing a closer relationship with Orient-Express in terms of marketing and purchasing, according to the International Herald Tribune.] 

As the story goes, the CEO of Orient-Express Hotels penned a tart letter to Taj Hotels saying that any business development or overture from the Indian luxury firm would taint their reputation as a world-class brand. Consequently, CEO of Orient-Express Paul White replied in a letter distributed to the media and posted on his company’s Web site: “…any association of our luxury brand and properties with your brands and properties would result in a reduction of the value of our brands and our business.” Those are clearly fighting words.  As you can imagine, this public quarrel next pulled the Indian government into the rumble. Commerce Minister Nath is quoted as calleding Orient-Express CEO’s comments “a mind-set of the past.” He also added: “Indian companies will continue to play a role in the ongoing global economic integration. Those with a fossilized frame of mind risk being marginalized.”  

The entire inter-country reputational brawl brings up a trend that has no stopping. Many of the third world and/or emerging countries have built substantial businesses and are set to expand beyond their borders and buy premium brands. These countries are cash rich. We see that happening now with the infusion of Middle Eastern funds into American financial services firms right now. We also saw more evidence in 2006 when a UAE state-owned DP World tried to win contracts managing six major U.S. ports.  

I expect that country reputation battles will only grow over the next five years and the ability to grow ugly. Country reputation is yet another dimension in reputation management that will need managing well.  

Weber Shandwick just released some new research on the executive conference business. The Global Strategic Media Group at Weber Shandwick audited the CEOs and top executives of the world’s 50 most admired companies to see where they were speaking and how the conference world had changed over the past three years.

The “Five-Star Conference” study found that executive participation in top-tier, or Five-Star, events is soaring. Since 2005, there has been an extraordinary five-fold (525 percent*) increase among elite C-level executives at five star speaking forums. For elite CEOs during the same time period, there has been an increase of 35 percent in participation at these distinguished events. Strikingly, the rising importance of these events as a vital communications tool is underscored by a 50 percent rise in the number of top-tier global conferences from 2005 to 2007.

The research also identifies the top events for CEOs (#1 WEF) and C-suite executives (Fortune Innovation/iMeme).

I am pleased to see the CEO/executive conference business heating up again. A few years ago, many of the business publications abandoned this service offering due to the expense and difficulty proving the return on investment. In my humble opinion, it’s a great way to push CEOs to think outside the box and find something important to say. It requires putting one’s thinking cap on and on that subject, I am in favor.

*Small sample size

Have been meaning to mention that I attended a luncheon a few weeks ago where Bill Holstein spoke about the relationship between CEOs and the media. Bill is an award-winning editor and journalist who regularly writes about CEOs and board members. You have probably seen his name mentioned in The New York Times, Fortune, BusinessWeek and so on. Bill just wrote a book for Harvard Business School Press titled Manage the Media (Don’t Let the Media Manage You). It is part of a new series of HBS books called Memo to the CEO. These books provide leaders with advice on a wide variety of topics pertinent to top executives.  The premise of the book is that CEOs are not managing the media well and instead are having their reputations shellacked. Bill’s advice is to manage the relationships with the media for the long-term, not just when you need it. He advises proactively working with shareholder groups, using social media, architecting messages and never underestimating the importance of communications. Instead of living in a “gotcha” media environment, take control or your reputation will suffer.

Bill had a few unconventional ideas. He suggested that all CEOs in training spend one year training in the communications department to learn how to articulate their messages better and understand the media. His hope of course would be that rising stars would see joining the corporate communications department as an opportunity and not as punishment or a career detour. Not sure this will happen soon. His second suggestion had to do with his belief that many reporters do not really understand what CEOs do. He suggested an Adopt A Reporter program where CEOs educate reporters on the overwhelming complexity of the corner office. I thought that these ideas did a good job of challenging the status quo. 

Was reading Portfolio.com and they have their top 10 list of smartest CEO moves for 2007. Could not help but mention their #9 CEO listing. The founder of Rockmount Ranch Wear is 106 and has been CEO for 61 years. And still goes to work every day. What a blessed event. He must have the longest tenure for any CEO. Talk about an enduring reputation. Since we study CEO turnover and we know that one departs just about every five days….he definitely wins the trophy.

I went to their web site and thought this cool mention about Jack Weil, founder, was worth sharing.

ROCKMOUNT is a 3 generation business started by Jack A. Weil, president, who works daily at age 99 100 101 102, 103 104 105 now 106! A true pioneer, he introduced the first western shirts with snaps and also made the first commercially produced bolo ties. Many of his innovations are standards in the industry. Western fashion is worn all over the world.

We just released our new findings on Global 500 CEO Departures. Just as it was released this week, I see the news that Motorola’s CEO Ed Zander stepped down. As I have noted many times, being CEO today is a treacherous job. The shelf life is short and reputations quickly tarnished. Here are some of the key findings.

• Over 10 percent of the world’s largest companies lost their CEOs in the first three quarters of 2007. This departure rate amounts to a CEO departure among the world’s largest-revenue producing companies nearly every 5 days.

Global CEO Turnover by Region: First Three Quarters 2006 vs. 2007
	2006		2007
Region	Total (#)	Percent (%)	Total (#)	Percent (%)
North America	16	8.7%	12	6.7%
Europe	17	9.3%	24	12.6%
Asia Pacific	19	15.5%	20	16.4%
Latin America	0	0%	1	10.0%
Total	52	10.4%	57	11.4%

2007 saw more chief executives exit during the first quarter than the following two quarters (26 vs. 15 vs. 16, respectively) and when compared to the first quarter of 2006 (26 vs. 16, respectively).   

Overall, 28 percent of chief executives who left office in the first three quarters of 2007 exited involuntarily. European CEOs were more likely to be pressured to leave their jobs than their regional counterparts.  While only two European CEOs were forced out of office by the end of the third quarter in 2006, nine European CEOs exited involuntarily during the same time period in 2007 – a 350 percent increase.  

Ousted Global CEOs By Region: First Three Quarters 2006 vs. 2007
	2006		2007
	Total (#)	Percent (%)	Total (#)	Percent (%)
North America	3	18.8%	3	25.0%
Europe	2	11.8%	9	37.5%
Asia Pacific	8	42.1%	4	20.0%
Latin America	0	0%	0	0%
Total	13	25.0%	16	28.0%

For the first three quarters of 2006 and 2007, insider executives continued to outnumber outsider executives when new CEOs were selected to lead the world’s largest companies.  Interestingly, 2007 had an even greater proportion of insider CEO successions than seen in 2006 (70 vs. 64 percent, respectively).

Returned back home from my trip overseas in time for Thanksgiving. It is always reassuring to witness how the topic of reputation is so relevant no matter what part of the world you are in. Of course, did some reading on the plane back and found some good quotes and items of interest to share.

This one from Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony, in BusinessWeek about what he plans to do after his gig at Sony ends. Stringer says: ”God, sink giggling into the sea, I think. I have no interest in being a CEO again if I survive this intact, which in itself will be something of a miracle.”  Stringer is right about making it to the end of his tenure. CEO lifespans are getting shorter and turnover higher. We at Weber Shandwick will be releasing an update on our CEO Departures study next week and CEOs of the world’s largest companies are departing approximately every 5 days.  Good news for Stringer however. I think that since he has made it thus far, he might see it to the end which on average is 4-5 years.

Stanford University, McKinsey and LSE’s Center for Economic Performance ranked 12 countries on their management practices. Overall, US companies are the best managed followed by Germany, Japan and Sweden. Not bad for being recognized as having a good country reputation for well-managed corporations. The worst managed country awards go to India and Greece. The UK is in the middle of the continuum with its neighbors’ France and Italy.

On other management variables, best people management (performance and merit-based) goes to the US, UK and India. The best operational management kudos (continuous improvement and shopfloor operations) go to Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Sweden. Family run companies have the worst reputations for management (apparently this brought down UK scores since they are in abundance there). Interestingly too is that nearly 9 out of 10 managers report that their companies are better managed than average. The researchers politely conclude that managers need to get a better handle on their firm’s true management abilities. They are too optimistic!

Happy thanksgiving wherever you are!

Found a memorable quote that appeared in The New York Times at the same time I read the article on the next generation of CEOs (posted yesterday). The article was about how lessons from Shakespeare can prove invaluable for leaders today. There’s even a nice quote from JPMorgan Chase’s CEO Jamie Dimon about the insights provided by Mr. Shakespeare.

A few years ago, I attended a Wharton Leadership Forum in Philadelphia and Ken Adelman re-enacted scenes from Shakespeare. He and his wife regularly teach Shakespearean lessons to executives through their smartly named company Movers and Shakespeares. I was so impressed that I never forgot how impressed I was with King Lear’s insights into power and duplicity.

The article also had a quote from a Shakespearean actor that resonated with me. “CEOs are the modern kings and queens of the global world,” said Kevin Coleman. The continuing interest in CEOs remains steadfast for just this reason. CEOs are the world’s royalty. He said it better.