Leading Time In Critical Times

Laura Lang may seem like a fish out of water.  She was appointed Time, Inc. CEO this year but is not by profession a journalist. She has been a seasoned executive in the field of advertising.  Yet the top people at Time Warner the parent company of Time, Inc. believe she is the right person for the job.

Lang was previously the CEO of Digitas which provided companies with electronic services like online ad targeting and digital ad campaigns that run on social media sites. She helped transform Digitas to its present state from a company that was once into traditional junk-mail marketing.

Lang has a lot of work ahead of her. The previous head of Time, Inc. lasted only 6 months before getting fired.  The aggressive approach used to try to improve the company did not sit well with many of the long time executives.

Lang on the other hand is known as not having a big ego. She has demonstrated during changes in her previous company that she is willing to work with anyone to get the job done. She is also known to fire people who do not live up to expectations.

Time Inc.  publishes Time, People, InStyle and Sports Illustrated among others and its overall revenue has declined by around 30 percent in the last five years. Lang is expected to make the company more profitable again with her expertise in digital media an area where advertisers are now using to reach customers.  She is the first female CEO of the company.

Kevin W. Sharer: Reaching His Goals

Kevin Sharer always wanted to lead. Following his father’s footsteps he entered the U.S. Naval Academy and earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering, and a master’s degree. Like his father we wanted to be a naval pilot but poor eyesight prevented him from reaching that goal.

He joined the submarine service as a lieutenant and left the navy in 1978 as a lieutenant commander in a nuclear submarine. He wanted to rise quickly and realized it would take some time before he would be heading the submarine service.  He worked AT&T from 1978 to 1982 while obtaining an MBA from the University of Pittsburg in 1982.

Wanting to improve his career Sharer joined McKinsey & Company as a consultant from 1982 to 1984. He was then recruited by General Electric (GE) in 1984 as an executive.  Later on he was offered to head the GE jet engine division. He left the company because he felt the position was not high profile enough.

In his quest to lead his own company Sharer joined MCI in 1989 as an executive vice president in marketing. He once again left this company because he felt he would never get the top position of CEO given the internal politics in the company.

He moved to Amgen in 1992 as president and COO because he felt it gave him a good chance to becoming the company CEO.  Amgen was a biotech company. This was not a field Sharer was an expert in. To his credit he took a crash course in biotechnology to learn more about it.

His lack of technical background left some in doubt about his qualification to lead the company. His predecessor thought that the company had enough scientists and what it needed was a leader who had business experience since the company was getting more commercialized.

While Amgen was the largest biotech company in the world it was at best a mid-size firm. In 2000 Sharer finally reached his personal goal, he was appointed CEO. Sharer is not just a man with a goal to reach the top post but he is also a competent leader. His company goal is to make Amgen not just the top biotech pharmaceutical firm but also one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world.  Under his leadership he is turning this goal into a reality. Sharer also became chairman in 2001.

Avon’s New Boss: Sherilyn S. McCoy

Avon has had some strings of bad luck lately. After having a great run for a good number of years the company has experienced declining sales.  It also faces embarrassing charges of bribery allegations in China and perhaps other parts of the world.  Another company has also been trying to buy it.
Sheri McCoy has been appointed as Avon’s CEO and will definitely have a lot of things to work on. She isn’t exactly a greenhorn. Sheri was a vice chairman at Johnson & Johnson.

Johnson & Johnson is a $65 billion a year healthcare company while Avon is an $11 billion dollar a year beauty company. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind about Sheri’s ability to run this size of a company.  While at Johnson & Johnson she handled a business unit which was into beauty products. 

Sheri also knows how to work under tremendous pressure managing to turnaround the pharmaceutical business of Johnson & Johnson.  She has also done acquisition of an enterprise that would later help improve the company’s bottom line.

Despite her experience including having a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Princeton and an MBA from Rutgers, some are concerned that she has not handled a company with a direct sales force like Avon.  There are 6.4 million of them worldwide.  Others point out though that Johnson & Johnson also has a sales force but knocks on doctor’s doors and not house-to-house.  Some view this concern as overblown.

This executive who is known to be caring yet can be tough does have one advantage; she is a woman and in this business where women are the main customer it just may spell the difference.

Gregg W. Steinhafel: Overcoming Challenges

Becoming the CEO of a company is a big enough challenge in itself. You are now responsible for guiding the company to future growth and prosperity.  It is even more challenging when your predecessor had made huge accomplishments that basically made the company the success that it has become.

This was the situation facing Gregg Steinhafel when he became the CEO of Target the multi-billion discount retail giant which operates in 49 states and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His predecessor was largely responsible for growing the company to its prominent position in the retail market.  Yet Steinhafel immediately faced huge challenges when he was promoted to the position in May 2008.

The U.S. economy was faltering and sales were dropping. The company was known for its “Expect More, Pay Less” slogan. They had been putting more emphasis on the “Expect More” part of the message. Target is identified with having taken the consumer out of shopping boredom by offering designer products and a bit of upscale atmosphere as compared to the lowest price approach of Wal-Mart. It was able to differentiate itself even though it was a discount retailer offering low prices.

During crisis time however this strategy was becoming a liability since people were now more focused on low prices. This was especially true to the fortyish moms that had been Target’s main customers.  Given overwhelming data Steinhafel made the crucial decision to change the message emphasizing low prices without ending up looking like a Wal-Mart copycat.

After some time and much hard work the company looks to have pulled it off with sales picking up. Target made new forays in the fresh food segment which has helped to increase overall sales.  Steinhafel was able to execute all this even while a major stockholder who was disgruntled when stock prices were going down was threatening a boardroom shakeup in 2009.  Steinhafel who was appointed board chairman in January 2009 managed to weather the storm and stockholders voted in favor of the current directors.

Target also had a misstep when a civic initiative it supported ended up being as support for an anti-gay politician which dismayed the gay community. Steinhafel managed to repair the company’s relationship with the gay community.

Steinhafel was able to overcome major challenges proving his true worth as a leader.                

A Marine On Top

Before becoming a top corporate man Robert J. Stevens was actually in the United States Marine Corps. The tough environment must have certainly helped him in the jungle of the business world.  Stevens is now the Chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin.

There is a military connection with Lockheed Martin since it is a global security and aerospace corporation based in Bethesda, Maryland.  The company is involved in research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advance technology systems, products and services.  It’s been involved with Space Shuttle program, mission to Mars, and C 130 Hercules aircraft, just to name a few of its undertakings. The company has around 120,000 employees around the world with sales of $46.5 billion in 2011 and an order backlog of $80.7 billion.

Among Stevens’ accomplishments during his rise to the company top position was his restructuring of the then Lockheed Martin Energy and Environment Sector where he was president and CEO. Stevens was also president of Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management and steered a successful turnaround of the business.

Stevens graduated summa cum laude from Slippery Rock University. He is a Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from that institution. He holds a master’s degree in engineering and management from the Polytechnic University of New York. Stevens also earned a master’s degree in business from Columbia University.

David Cordani: Practicing What He Preaches

You can say David Cordani certainly has the credentials to lead a company.  He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M in 1988 and followed this up with an MBA degree from the University of Hartford in 1994. Cordani is a CPA and a Chartered Financial Consultant.

He worked for Coopers & Lybrand before joining CIGNA where he is now the top gun. Cordani joined CIGNA in 1991 and held a number of key positions in his rise through the corporate ranks.  He was the Geographic Market Leader for Southeast Region of CIGNA HealthCare from December 1999 to August 2000. Cordani was Vice President for Corporate Accounting and Planning of CIGNA Corporation from August 2000 to April 2002. His most notable rise was as President of CIGNA HealthCare in July 2005.

Cordani became COO in June 2008 then became President and CEO of CIGNA Corporation in December 2009. He is not coming in simply to head the company on a proven path.  He is leading a transition of CIGNA from a traditional health insurance company into a trend setting global health service company.

Cordani believes that health improvement is the only way to guarantee the security and well-being of the company’s customers.  The company has the Annual CIGNA Health Awareness Tour to create awareness and educate employees, customers, and communities all over the U.S. about health and healthy lifestyles. Cordani actively participates in this tour every year. He also promotes this globally.

For Cordani when he participates it is not merely lip service. Outside of office he is also an avid triathlete. This is a sport where one really has to a certain level of good physical fitness in order to participate.  His charitable and community service activities include involvement with the American Cancer Society, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and March of Dimes.

Cordani heads a company with a very long history. It was created in 1982 with the merger of Insurance Company of North America (established in 1792) and Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (incorporated in 1865). CIGNA has sales of $22 billion in 2011 and has 31,000 employees around the world.  

Hank's Fine Furniture’s Quality Focused Entrepreneurial Vision

Hank's Fine Furniture’s expansion to 14 stores over the past three decades reflects the entrepreneurial vision of Hank Browne. Establishing the business with a single Arkansas location in 1975, Mr. Browne has since expanded the company to include showrooms in five states, including Missouri, Florida, and Alabama. Hank's Fine Furniture is now firmly established as one of America’s Top 100 Independent Furniture Retailers, leveraging bulk sales and multiple major distribution centers into unbeatable retail savings.

The growth of Hank's Fine Furniture into new markets has completed an entrepreneurial cycle in founder Hank Browne’s professional career. After graduating from college, Mr. Browne gained early experience selling Whirlpool appliances to W.A. Chance in the Texarkana region. Several years later, Texarkana was one of the initial markets Mr. Browne expanded Hank's Fine Furniture into. The firm has maintained a retail presence in the area for more than 25 years.

The Texarkana showroom’s 2011 grand re-opening reflected the addition of 12,000 square feet of dedicated showroom space. With the revamped name “Hank’s & More Fine Furniture,” the expansion brought new galleries featuring collections by manufacturers such as Hooker, Henredon, and Bernhardt. The Texarkana re-opening notably marked the fifth location in the past four years that has expanded to allow the display of premium gallery collections. In addition, these showrooms feature a significantly expanded selection of home accessories.

Hank's Fine Furniture has also expanded in corporate sales sphere over the past decade, offering individualized design assistance on projects requiring the furnishing of multiple condo, apartment, and town home units. With pipeline expansion plans being conceptualized and implemented, the entrepreneurial spirit that drove Hank's initial growth is still alive and well.