Who’s the Next Microsoft CEO?
Over more than 35 years, Microsoft has had 2 CEOs – Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. With Steve Ballmer’s retirement announcement, Microsoft is preparing for CEO number 3. The whole world is watching to see who that will be. As it stands, it appears it will be someone from the outside. Tony Bates, CEO of […]
How to Think About CEO Succession Planning
By Bob Weissman Former Chairman & CEO of Dun & Bradstreet The overriding mandate for every Board of Directors is simply this: Act so as to ensure the continuing success of the institution. And, as we consider the components of a Board’s responsibility for achieving this end, the job of building a robust management succession […]
The Hidden Dark Side of Politics in the Workplace
There are many people with successful track records when it comes to playing the game of politics in the office. They manipulate people as though moving pieces on a chessboard. They are masterminds when it’s time to take credit for work others have done. They know exactly what to say to make others look bad. […]
Why You Should Stop Fixing Things
Whether you try to fix a person, family, corporation or country, your attempts will most likely be in vain. The approach to fix something is fundamentally flawed. That approach operates on the premise that something is wrong. And once it’s fixed, everything will be better. One of the biggest challenges to fixing a person or […]
Do You Know Which Situation Calls for Which Leadership Style?
By Bob Weissman Former Chairman & CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Back in the dark ages of my business school education, most of the time in class was spent on learning the theories and practices of business; marketing, financial analysis, logistics, etc. Very little was offered in the way of providing insight into the mysteries […]
4 Most Important Jobs of a CEO
When we entered the 21st century, few expected so much change after a decade. We are beleaguered with technology advances that take us to new heights each day, erratic economic cycles and global competition. In addition, companies have grown to enormous mega corporations, larger than ever in history. And in the times of knowledge workers, […]
Has Your Organization Adopted The Weissman Principle?
By Bob Weissman Former Chairman & CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Few people will recognize the name Laurence J. Peter, but almost everyone has heard of his now famous Peter Principle. He became widely famous in 1968, on the publication of The Peter Principle, in which he states: “In a hierarchy every employee tends to […]
How Do We End the Gender Gap?
Every day you can find a new article or interview questioning whether a man or a woman makes a better leader. At the end of the article, all that is left is one more dagger for a person to throw at the opposite sex. The discussion of who is better is a definite way to […]
What Is a Customer Worth?
By Bob Weissman Former Chairman & CEO of Dun & Bradstreet I was only out of business school for a few months when I learned a fundamental lesson: How to think about the value of a customer. I had joined a consumer products company that sold liquid household cleaner, and they had just come up […]
The Top 2 Reasons People Are Not Successful
On the surface, there seems to be many reasons people fail. In fact, several books can be written on the subject. However, when you distill those reasons, you are, in reality, left with two. I say with confidence that most people innately know this. Yet, they spend many hours figuring out ways to disguise this […]