Management & Leadership

Trump’s Flynn scandal has many corporate analogues

14 Feb 2017

Like messes that roiled firms from Wells Fargo to Valeant, the furor over the national security adviser's misleading statements over Russia point to a common problem: the management style of the CEO. The commander in chief has much to learn from real public-company bosses.

Curing myopic CEOs requires playing long game

8 Feb 2017

A new McKinsey study finds that companies that focus too much on quarterly results badly underperform rivals with more distant horizons. It's just correlation not causality, but the research is a compelling start. Persuading investors might in time convince Corporate America.

GSK CEO leaves successor with scope for encore

8 Feb 2017

Departing chief Andrew Witty's final results beat expectations. He steered the drug giant through scandal and patent losses, but did smart deals, and created value. His vision of a diversified group is still unfinished, though, leaving successor Emma Walmsley plenty to do.

Tiffany CEO exit takes ring off luxury finger

6 Feb 2017

Frederic Cumenal is out after less than two years, just after Ralph Lauren ditched its new boss. Having Tiffany's flagship store next to Trump Tower doesn't help. But both suffer from a long-term sales slump and a lack of new products and ideas. A fix requires more than a new CEO.

Big investors need more than money to force change

31 Jan 2017

A group of fund managers with $17 trln in assets is codifying its industry's practices and laying out what shareholders expect from companies they own. It's a welcome initiative. But there's a short cut to, say, force firms to ditch dual-class stocks: get the exchanges on side.

Viewsroom: Davos goes topsy-turvy

19 Jan 2017

Team Trump is AWOL at the World Economic Forum's annual alpine shindig while Theresa May's Brexit plan has people on edge. That left it to China's Xi Jinping to defend globalization. Elsewhere, U.S. bank earnings disappoint. And Snapchat considers making investor rights disappear.

Jain’s low-key Cantor role pins hopes on upside

3 Jan 2017

Ex-Deutsche Bank boss Anshu Jain is joining scrappy capital markets firm Cantor Fitzgerald. Though not the high-profile job he might have coveted, the German lender's travails during his stint in charge suggest why. Privately-held Cantor can grow outside the limelight.

Exec pay is crying out for a race to the bottom

3 Jan 2017

Battles against corporate excesses are worthy but come unstuck all too quickly. Bosses keep getting paid more than their predecessors. To save capitalism, some could tender their services more cheaply. The tradition of the $1 CEO serves as a template. Even better: work for free.

GE’s succession path lit by dueling deals

29 Dec 2016

The $275 bln industrial giant has a long list of executives capable of taking over when Jeff Immelt retires. In addition to engines and turbines, GE manufactures CEOs. The progress of two major M&A transactions will give the board a clearer view in 2017 on who should get the job.

Yahoo boss has squandered her second chance

19 Dec 2016

Marissa Mayer took on a challenge in 2012. Failure shouldn't have spelled career disaster. But an ineffective turnaround, wasted deals, indecision over Alibaba and now two massive hacks change that. Like Chuck Prince or Carly Fiorina, Mayer will probably not get another CEO gig.

Viewsroom: Can Big Oil’s man be diplomat-in-chief?

15 Dec 2016

Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state, is well versed in international dealmaking. But he's too close to Russia even for some Senate Republicans. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs shuffles the top ranks and Wells Fargo's regulatory hubris comes back to bite.

New Hertz CEO faces tough drive out of ditch

14 Dec 2016

Kathryn Marinello has a great résumé. The problem is that she's the $2 bln rental-car outfit's third boss in two years, and activist investor Carl Icahn looms in the back seat. Earnings just took a hit, leverage is high, and the sharing economy is undermining Hertz's model.

Goldman adds a splash of color to executive ranks

14 Dec 2016

Two bald white male vets will replace Gary Cohn, the bald white president who won't replace Lloyd Blankfein, the bald white chairman and CEO of the bank. So the appointment of Martin Chavez as CFO stands out in many ways – jokes aside, mainly for his entrepreneurial background.

New Linde CEO’s mark of success will be redundancy

7 Dec 2016

The German industrial gases group has named corporate veteran Aldo Belloni as its new chief executive. His main challenge is to secure a $65 bln merger with Praxair. New concessions by the U.S. rival and less sceptical Linde unions improve his chances of doing away with his job.

CEOs don’t deserve bonuses just for going shopping

1 Dec 2016

Activision's Bobby Kotick will receive an extra payout for doing a "transformative" deal. Investors have to benefit, but only for a limited time. Sensible M&A is part of what CEOs are already paid for. There's no need to reward them twice – or to encourage risky acquisitions.

Sherwood exit highlights wider Goldman transition

21 Nov 2016

The investment bank’s European co-head Michael Sherwood is retiring. A brush with bust retailer BHS, while maybe not the reason, could have hindered a possible step up to CEO. In any case, Europe and fixed income, his other area of expertise, face uncertain futures.