The Bold Moves of Ginni Rometty

There are many intelligent people out there, what separate leaders and shakers is they are willing to take the risks and execute plans which they believe will make their company better.  This has been the trait that defines Ginni Rometty.  It helped her become the CEO of IBM in January 2012. What cannot escape notice is that she is also the first female head of this venerable institution. As the former CEO and current chairman Samuel J. Palmasino noted it had nothing to with her being a woman.

Ms. Rometty pushed for the purchase of behemoth consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2002 which cost $3.5 billion. There were widespread concerns that the two companies did not culturally fit. The more independent style of PricewaterhouseCoopers was so different from the more regimented approach of IBM. The fear was that the consultants would eventually go away in droves and just leave the shell of a company.

Ms. Rometty proved these fears wrong by working closely with the consultants and having them come on board. This was a defining moment in her career. Yet this was not her only achievement.  For over a decade she has been at the helm of the giant services business of IBM and has been an influence in its development.  This business has played an integral role in IBM’s offering services and solutions and not only products in terms of hardware and software.

Prior to her position as CEO, Ms. Rometty headed IBM Sales, Marketing and Strategy.  As the overall sales leader she was responsible for the more than 170 international markets that IBM operates in. In 2010 performance was in excess of $99 billion.  She created IBM’s Growth Markets organization that is expected to provide around 30% of the company’s revenue by 2015.

Ms. Rometty graduated with a B.S. degree in computer science and electrical engineering from Northwestern University with high honors.  She has been in Fortune magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” list for the past 7 years.

Those who have great ideas and are willing to take the risk often wind up on top.

The Son Also Rises

There are many advantages of having your own father as a co-founder of a large company. If you join you can have the fast-track way to reaching the top post. This big advantage is also a major disadvantage as people view that you’ve reached the top more on connections than actual performance. There is also the inevitable comparison with the father if he is as good.

The only way to counter this is to prove your detractors wrong by performing well on the job. This is what Brian L. Roberts seems to have done. There have been news about his large compensations but there’s hardly any mention that his not fit for the job.

Roberts is the chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation which was co-founded by his father Ralph. This is one of the major cable companies in the U.S. that also provides entertainment, communications and product services. Under Roberts stewardship Comcast became a Fortune 100 company. Comcast is the county’s largest video provider, largest internet provider, and fourth largest phone company.

Comcast majority owns and manages NBCUniversal, which has broadcast networks, local television stations, theme parks, and a major motion picture company. The company is also the majority owner of Comcast-Spectator that in turn has major holdings in the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team and the Wells Fargo Center.

Roberts is a member of the Business Roundtable, a CEO only group in Washington, D.C. and serves on the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. He has a B.S. from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania. Like his father he’s making his own major mark in the world of business.

Corporate And Civic Man Gregory Q. Brown

We do not hear of Gregory Q. Brown’s past as someone who quit school, had to support his family, and somehow making it big. This was a guy who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics from Rutgers University (the State University of New Jersey). He does not hold an MBA degree, but given the fact that his alma mater awarded him an honorary doctorate in humane letters speaks volumes of his accomplishments.

Brown for 5 years held a number of sales and marketing positions with AT&T in Michigan. Then he joined Ameritech in 1987 where his corporate career began its steady climb. Brown held a number of general management positions, among them as President of two Ameritech Information Systems Divisions for 4 years. He then served as President of Ameritech New Media, Inc. from 1996 to 1999. In this capacity Brown was in charge of the company’s Consumer Cable TV Operations, Programming and Content Relationships. He also served as President of Ameritech Custom Business Services.

Brown then joined another company, Riversoft PLC which later became Micromuse, Inc. At this company he served as Chairman and CEO from February 1999 to January 2003. Then Brown made another career move.

In January of 2003 he became the CEO and President of Commercial Solutions at Government Solutions and Industrial Solutions of Motorola Solutions, Inc. until January 2005. From January 2005 to March, 2006 Brown served as President of Government & Enterprise Mobility Solutions (GEMS). Brown then served as President of Motorola Networks & Enterprises from March, 2006 to March, 2007.

Beginning March, 2007 Brown was the president and COO of Motorola, Inc. He was elected to the board of directors in 2007 and became CEO in January, 2008. Five years after joining the company he became the CEO.

Aside from his stellar corporate career Brown’s civic and community involvement is just as impressive. Among his participations include being appointed by President Obama to the President’s Management Advisory Board. Brown is a member of the Technology CEO council, and the World Business Chicago board. He was also appointed as one of Rutgers University’s Board of Governors.

Brown has been an outstanding achiever in the corporate and civic world.

Suzzanne Uhland’s Experience as Lawyer and Public Speaker

A Partner with O'Melveny & Myers, LLP, Suzzanne Uhland splits her time between the international law firm’s Newport Beach and San Francisco offices. She focuses on bankruptcy and financing matters, representing a diverse range of public, private, and institutional clients. Areas of transactional expertise encompass the health care, technology, real estate, and retail spheres.

Ms. Uhland has held responsibilities as Chair of the Restructuring Practice and Policy Committee for several years. She recently took an additional role as O'Melveny & Myers National Advisory Board member. Experienced as a public speaker, Ms. Uhland participated in a March, 2012, Women in Law Empowerment Forum panel in Palo Alto, California, speaking on the subject “Enlisting Men as Champions and Clients.”

Suzzanne Uhland attended Stanford as an undergraduate and graduate student, studying Linguistics. She earned her Juris Doctor at Yale University, notably serving as Co-Editor in Chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation. Prior to joining her current practice,  she completed a clerkship under Hon. Mariana R. Pfaelzer of the U.S. District Court, Central District of California.

Ms. Uhland was distinguished in 2010 through selection to Profiles In Diversity Journal's “Women Worth Watching” list. As a guiding philosophy, she believes in the importance of taking time to understand other parties’ perspectives before acting or reacting. Having learned valuable professional lessons from mentors, Suzzanne Uhland is herself now a mentor to legal team members and junior lawyers. In all of her endeavors, she strives to achieve successful results through teamwork and communication. 

Marathon Man Clarence P. Cazalot, Jr.

Not all who make it to the top of large corporations come armed with an MBA or undergraduate business degree. Clarence P. Cazalot, Jr. was more of a scientist. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1951, he graduated from the Louisiana State University with a degree in BS Geology in 1972. He then worked for the oil company Texaco as a geophysicist.

Cazalot rose through the ranks at Texaco. In 1981 he became a regional manager of exploration. In 1987 he was appointed general manager of Texaco’s frontier exploration department.  Cazalot was promoted as a corporate vice president in 1992.

He kept rising through the ranks assuming more responsibilities and was named president of production operations after a reorganization in 1999. Due to his reputation USX Corporation took him in as president of Marathon Oil Company one of the four independent operating units of the steel company.  He also became vice chairman of USX and joined the board of directors.

Marathon Oil Company split from USX becoming an independent company in 2002. Cazalot became the president and CEO of Marathon Oil Corporation.  He is credited of bringing the oil company to new heights.  Cazalot was able to increase production and lower costs. In his first year he increasee net income by around 400 percent. Cazalot was also willing to cut jobs to lower costs.

In 2011 he was given the additional post of chairman of the Board.  Cazalot is a board member of a number of noted organizations.  For his career achievement his alma mater, Louisiana State University awarded him with an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters in 2007.

Living To Expectations: Philippe Dauman

When you’re a bright kid there are expectations placed on your shoulders.  Others are reminded constantly of what is expected of them by parents or friends others are simply left alone. Whatever is the case if you do score very high on tests such as the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), then many see you as having a very bright future.

Philippe Dauman scored 1600 on his SAT test which he took at age 13. It was then the highest possible score.  He did not disappoint. The son of a photographer, he was born on January 3, 1954 and grew up in New York City.  Dauman went to the best schools getting his undergraduate degree at Yale University and a law degree at Columbia University of Law in 1978.

He then worked for law firm Shearman & Sterling and was assigned in Paris for two years before returning to New York.  Dauman then worked under the law firm’s corporate group. It was while working there that he came into a professional association which would take his career to the media and entertainment world.

He handled the account of a client named Sumner Redstone. This led to an advisory role during the hostile takeover of Viacom by Redstone in 1987.  Dauman has since been known as having a personal closeness or even trust with Redstone.  After the takeover he got a board of director seat at Viacom.  He became senior vice president and general counsel six years later. On September 2006 Dauman reached the top position as President and CEO of Viacom.  Among other positions he was also a director at CBS Corporation (also Redstone owned) until September 2006.

Viacom is no ordinary mass media outlet. It reaches a very large audience through its many companies. It is global in scope with media networks like BET, MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon.  One of its companies is film giant Paramount Pictures.  Through Nickelodeon and other activities it has a strong focus on children’s TV programs.

Dauman and Viacom started the Get Schooled education initiative in 2009 with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Its aim is to raise awareness of America’s public school crisis. Dauman is a member or board of director of a number of prestigious organizations like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

This is a man who is living to expectations.

Jeffrey Bewkes: Making Tough Decisions

As a young man Jeffrey Bewkes always wanted to be in the media industry. His first taste of it was as a production assistant during a summer break from studying at Yale in 1973. After graduation he became a researcher at NBC News for one year then headed to Stanford Business School to get an MBA.

Bewkes then joined the financial world working for Citibank. He still hadn’t lost his interest in media he left Citibank for cable channel HBO in 1979. HBO was seven years old then and the property of Time, Inc. the magazine publisher.

Rising through the ranks he finally got to head HBO in 1995 and took the division to new heights. Under Bewkes popular programs like Sex and the City were produced. From 1995 to 2002 when Bewkes headed the division profits trebled to around $1 billion a year.

In 2000 the Time Warner and AOL merger, the largest in history, was announced. In hindsight it is now considered one of the worst mergers to have taken place. The expected synergy wasn’t there.

The deal cost the job of Gerald Levin the then CEO of Time Warner, who was replaced by Richard Parsons . Bewkes was given the job as President and COO from January 2006 to December 2007. He was elected CEO in January 2008 and appointed chairman of the board in January 2009.

He changed the course of the company’s buying spree habit and spun off AOL in November 2009 which netted the company zero. Earlier in February 2009 Time Warner Cable was spun off netting the company $9.25 billion.

Time Warner Inc. still has many challenges ahead with issues on cable television and the internet and where all this is headed. You can be sure Bewkes will make the tough decisions.

David M. Cote: Wandering Youth Becomes Outstanding Executive

Some people have to find their way around before they finally hit their stride. David M. Cote was a young man who wandered off a bit before finally buckling down and getting things done. He was born in 1952. It took him longer than average to finish college, not because he was flunking but he was doing other things.

Money intended for college he used to buy a car and became a manual laborer. Then he decided to finally go to college at the University of New Hampshire so he could get ahead with life. This took a bit longer, six years in fact since he held a full time night job at GE jet-manufacturing plant. He also bought a boat with a friend and tried the life of a lobster fisherman.

After finally earning his degree in business administration, Cote got managerial jobs in the consumer-electronics, jet engines, and plastic divisions at GE. By 1996 he was appointed president and CEO of the $6 billion Appliances division. He pioneered at GE what they called the “smart bomb” technique. Instead of implementing a continent wide approach in Asia, Cote formed teams to study the individual cultures and needs of each country then offered the suited appliances.

After not getting the top position at GE, Cote went to work for TRW as president and COO in 1999. In early 2001 Cote became CEO and was appointed chairman in late 2001. He led the establishment of a new subsidiary at TRW then took another change of job.
This job would be his biggest challenge. In early 2002 he became president, CEO, and member of the board of directors at Honeywell. In middle of 2002 the title of chairman of the board was added. The company he would lead had mounting debt, low sales, asbestos lawsuits, low morale and falling stock prices.

He turned things around at Honeywell. It is today a $37 billion technology and manufacturing company with almost 140,000 employees and more than 50 percent of its revenues outside of the U.S. He has received many awards for his leadership performance and was given an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from his alma mater. The man who wandered off a bit has made significant impact in not just one but all three companies he worked for.

What He Could Have Done

Sanjay K. Jha had a very challenging job offered to him on August 4, 2008. He would be the new CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices.  Motorola Mobile made a comeback with its Droid phones using Google’s Android operating systems.  Then it was announced on the first week of January 2011 that Motorola would be split into two companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions.  Jha became the Chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility (MMI).

Then on May 22, 2012 just a little over a year later it was announced that Google would take over MMI.  In line with this Jha stepped down as CEO of MMI. Thus we would never know what new direction Jha would have brought MMI. The bet on using the Android operating system certainly made it an attractive target for Google.

Even before joining MMI Jha had been an overachiever. Holding a PhD and an engineering degree, he was employed in two other companies before joining Qualcomm in 1994 and Motorola in 2008. While at Qualcomm he held many senior posts and holding multiple positions.  In 2002 he led the formation of Qualcomm Technologies & Ventures while heading both the technology investment portfolio and the new technology group.  He was the COO of Qualcomm before joining Motorola.

With a $66 million cash and stock option Golden Parachute upon the sale to Google, it certainly gives Jha plenty of time to think what he will do next.

Inalink: Working to Ensure the Success of Professional Associations Across America

Professional associations face a host of challenges tied to creating and maintaining membership loyalty. Recent shifts in the economy have resulted in continual downsizing across a wide array of industries, transitions that often leave employees disconnected from their companies and peers. In the current economic climate, organizations that want to remain relevant must face the fact that member participation means everything. People who decide to join an association initially do so for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they want to expand their network of contacts, access educational resources for career development, or simply enjoy the benefits that come along with being a part of a community of like-minded individuals. Unfortunately, the driving factors that lead members to seek out new affiliations often fail to sustain active engagement over the long-term.  

Building confidence and trust between members and associations since 1992, Inalink delivers tailor-made solutions specifically crafted to facilitate trust, loyalty, and increased enrollment in industry events. Reaching out to members on behalf of associations through direct calling, Inalink has developed a time-tested, results-oriented model firmly rooted in person-to-person conversation. First and foremost, the communication experts at Inalink serve as intermediaries between an association and its constituents.

Although Inalink employs a phone-based platform to accomplish its goals, the firm purposefully avoids any telemarketing-style tactics in its outreach approach. To this end, the company firmly believes that members should be treated as intelligent and informed individuals, not as another number on a call sheet. Personal connections hold incredible value at Inalink. Scripted sales pitches do not.

Offering a sophisticated suite of program-specific tools to assist organizations with operational and expansion endeavors, Inalink listens to members and evaluates their comments with care, distilling all relevant concerns into detailed, easily decipherable reports. With a multiplicity of applications, this information can be used to guide an association’s business practice strategically and affordably. To learn more about collaborating with Inalink, go to http://www.pitchengine.com/inalink/inalink

 

Alan Mulally: An Outsider Showing The Way

Sometimes it takes an outsider’s view and outlook to initiate change within a company. This is what Alan Mulally has done for Ford Motors. The company was losing its position as the number two car maker in America and losing billions.

Mulally was not exactly new to manufacturing as he came from Boeing the maker of airplanes. While making a car has its challenges more so with making an airplane. If a car’s engine stops its wheels are at least on the ground. If an airplane’s engines stops it may be thousands of feet in the air.  So he brought in a lot of experience about quality and teamwork. He also knew how to run a large organization.

Mulally graduated with B.S. and M.S. degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the University of Kansas in 1969 and a Masters degree in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1982.

After graduating in 1969 he began working for Boeing. He was involved in various projects including leading the cockpit design team on the 757/767 projects. It was the first all-digital flight deck in a commercial aircraft.

He made his way up the ladder reaching various senior management positions.  Mulally’s last position was as president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airlines. On two occasions he was thought to become the new CEO of Boeing but was by-passed.  His full leadership talent was meant for somewhere else.

That somewhere else was at Ford Motors who hired him in 2006. What he inherited was a company going downhill like the rest of the Big Three in Detroit. His predecessors had taken steps to borrow $23.6 billion in 2006 which he finally consummated.  This gave Ford the necessary cash flow to help weather the 2008 car industry crisis that saw General Motors and Chrysler go into bankruptcy and receive government dole out.

Among the notable changes he made were to make top executives drive Volkswagens and Hondas instead of then Ford’s money losing Range Rovers and Jaguars which were eventually sold off. He also focused on making small fuel economy cars.

When he started in 2006 Ford was headed for a $12.5 billion loss. Four years later it reported a $6.6 billion profit.  The outsider was showing the way.