Center for Creative Leadership

APRIL 24, 2019

I recently spoke with the CEO of a medium-sized manufacturing company about his new CFO who was poised to attend our flagship program for senior executives, Leadership at the Peak. She was respected by colleagues and employees, and over time had become the right-hand assistant to the CFO. No one turned a head. I’m concerned.”.

Charisma 65

Charisma CFO CEO Execution 65

Great Leadership By Dan

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

CEO ownership and strong commitment at the top. If the CEO owns the process and believes in the strategic importance, good things will happen. While it's important for the CEO to own the process, even the best CEOs will need assistance. This is where it all starts and ends. A dedicated, competent, trusted support team.

Process 227

Process Execution CFO CEO 227

Women on Business

NOVEMBER 28, 2012

Staying on-task during the holiday season is a challenge across the professional universe and no one is immune, whether you’re a CEO, CFO or president, account exec, receptionist or intern, work at home or commute. They’re all enjoyable distractions, but I’ll be the first to admit, the juggle takes a toll on the job.

PR 248

PR CFO Energy Project 248

Lead Change Blog

JANUARY 23, 2015

Usually the CEO and the CFO have the biggest impact on organization-wide changes, but it is not always so; in some cases the hierarchy doesn’t reflect the amount of influence, so it’s advisable to check everything carefully. Where should you start? First of all, you need to discover who your true stakeholders are.

Project 150

Project Succession Stakeholder Analysis Influence 150

N2Growth Blog

AUGUST 22, 2010

Trust me when I tell you that being out of touch is never a good position to find yourself in as the CEO. My advice to CEOs, regardless of whether you’re running a start-up or a Fortune 500 company, is to go see things for yourself. They will believe what they want to believe regardless of what they hear or what they observe.

Blog 417

Blog Gordon CEO Consultative 417

Marshall Goldsmith

JUNE 16, 2013

We apply these behavioral criteria to almost any successful person, whether it’s our CEO or our plumbing contractor. Who would you rather have as a CFO? When he was vying for the CEO job, the attributes holding him back were strictly behavioral: his brashness, his blunt language, his unwillingness to suffer fools.

Chemicals 133

Chemicals Welch CFO CEO 133

Lead Change Blog

MAY 1, 2017

In this post, Chris gives pointers regarding how you, as a leader, can ensure you’re paying close enough attention to the quality of your team or company’s work culture. Everyone knows the roles and responsibilities for a CEO, CFO and CTO but change the wording and a different picture emerges.

Leadership Development 264

Leadership Development Development Leadership CTO 264

Great Leadership By Dan

MAY 7, 2020

The firm might have relied on their rolodex to place a CFO in New York City, but this doesn’t mean they can do the same and find you a candidate in Chicago. These recruiters will say things like “it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality” or “we know everyone in this space, so it won’t take us long to source these profiles.”

Execution 213

Execution Chief Financial Officer Industry Strategy 213

Lead on Purpose

FEBRUARY 22, 2014

The leading candidate is the scheming CFO played by Frederic March, a passionless, colorless bean counter groping for power, but with no vision beyond increasing dividend payouts to stockholders. Emotion Is Integral to Quality Leadership. Andrew Cravenho is the CEO of CBAC Funding, an innovative invoice finance company.

Charisma 222

Charisma Leadership CFO Learning-by-Doing 222

Tanveer Naseer

NOVEMBER 28, 2017

According to Autumn Manning, CEO of YouEarnedIt, an employee engagement firm. “So Lars Sudmann, former CFO of Procter & Gamble Belgium, TEDx presenter, leadership and board advisor, and executive coach, believes that companies should provide consistent feedback to all of their employees.

Charan 257

Charan Attrition Morale Survey 257

Harvard Business Review

JULY 25, 2016

Commentators and researchers have focused on the crucial role of the CEO in leading effective corporate action to promote high performance, high integrity , and sound risk management. This critical alliance needs and deserves much greater analysis and application.

CFO 8

CFO Chief Financial Officer Compliance Due Diligence 8

Marshall Goldsmith

AUGUST 15, 2011

For example, you don't want the CEO and CFO coming to you and saying, "You never justify why we're spending so much money, so we're cutting your budget." Think of how you can explain your activities and results using terms that resonate with them. Align yourself with the rest of your executive team. Thank you, Susanne. Life is good.

Advice 107

Advice Execution Marketing Prahalad 107

Marshall Goldsmith

NOVEMBER 22, 2010

Many of the CEOs we talk with these days express concern about the lack of bench strength in their companies. We sometimes find companies adding excessively complex assessment criteria to the succession planning process in an effort to improve the quality of the assessment. Jim is the former CLO of three major companies.

Planning 118

Planning Efficiency Succession Tips 118

Persuasive Powerhouse

JULY 7, 2010

Some thoughts about what you can do to make relationship-building at work a priority: Make building and sustaining high-quality relationships a priority: What will it take to put “building relationships” at the top of your “to-do” list? The CFO owns a couple.

Greenleaf 200

Greenleaf Maslow Goal Goleman 200

Harvard Business Review

JULY 21, 2016

And we have figured out why: analytics forces changes on the C-suite that the CEO has to anticipate and manage, but many don’t. The CEO has to work on four things: Actively manage C-suite dynamics. The CEO has to work on four things: Actively manage C-suite dynamics. CEOs must anticipate this reaction.

CEO 8

CEO Competitive Advantage ROI CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 9, 2014

Half are C-Suite level executives, meaning that they serve as CEO, CFO, COO or the board of directors at a company. These executives attribute participation in athletics to qualities like a commitment to bringing projects to completion and greater abilities in motivating others. Gender Hiring Leadership development'

Sports 16

Sports COO CFO Participative 16

Harvard Business Review

MAY 3, 2017

That the CHRO role, although at first it may look career limiting, can have more impact than any other position reporting to the CEO? We interviewed search professionals, CEOs, and CHROs with nontraditional backgrounds to find out what happens when business leaders outside of HR move into the role. That’s precisely what we found.

Quinn 12

Quinn Execution CFO Forrester 12

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 7, 2017

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and prominent board members, with the cooperation and support of the head of HR, have initiated an investigation. When HR becomes solely a talent race, boards and CEOs can miss the less obvious but equally vital value of managing both new hires and leaders who are facing increasing demands. In one word: No.

Compliance 10

Compliance Hedge Human Capital Finance 10

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 8, 2014

CEOs and organization leaders who read only his column (or worse, only the title) and split HR as he suggests, will make a serious mistake that will destroy value for their shareholders and constituents. Instead, lets retool HR, and accept the challenge to increase leader sophistication, and the quality of HR and talent decisions.

Charan 14

Charan Finance Human Resources Supply Chain 14

Harvard Business Review

JULY 21, 2016

This model of a small, BU-leader-staffed team was the model for many decades, although some companies named a COO to act as an intermediary between the CEO and the BU leaders. The idea was to centralize decisions related to their functions, coordinate cross-business activities, and provide CEOs with decision-making support.

Execution 8

Execution Team Committee COO 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 19, 2015

Swansea City gets a player of much higher quality than they could hire, and Tottenham Hotspur gets Caroll having the first team action so critical to his development. Peter Voser, the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell from July 2009, retired in May 2013. The main driver for me was to be CFO of a quoted company. I wanted that experience.

CFO 8

CFO Leadership Development Telecommunications Cost 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 11, 2018

health care costs too much, the quality is uneven, and too many people can’t get the care they need. In that brutal environment, a handful of private Indian hospitals, led by compassionate doctors, have found innovative ways to drive down health care costs to unimaginable levels while maintaining high quality.

Health Care 8

Health Care Insurance Cost Price 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

CEOs are on the hunt to understand who has done what, and who has succeeded. This should be the dominant theme of discussions at the highest organizational levels in place of things like product quality and sales. CEOs cannot manage their silos via hub-and-spoke and expect digital expertise to be properly incorporated in key decisions.

Short-term 8

Short-term How To Venture Capitalist CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 4, 2017

And the most-successful managers must change similarly as they assume additional or different responsibilities through their careers, moving from head of sales to COO or from CFO to CEO.

Agility 15

Agility Balanced Scorecard COO CFO 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 30, 2012

A few years ago, the chief operating officer launched a customer quality initiative to improve six core processes and assigned executives to "own" each process. The CEO recently drove a cultural change program, and did so earnestly. But the CEO and his deputies heard things they didn't want to hear, so they pulled the plug.

Company 8

Company COO CFO Insurance 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 31, 2017

This makes it difficult to justify investment in change management with the rigor that a data-driven CEO or CFO might expect. Improving the tools the artisans use may make for better outcomes, but it won’t enable demonstrable cause and effect.

Marketing 8

Marketing Root Cause Analysis Management Supply Chain 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 2, 2016

By incorporating design thinking and design principles into their planning process, the hospital’s executives, supported by external designers, have turned the hospital into a showplace that has won a number of safety, quality, and design awards — including a nomination for the prestigious Dutch Design Award. Insight Center.

Health Care 8

Health Care Airlines CFO Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 7, 2012

In 1992 the company was in cost-cutting mode, and, as former CFO Orry Fiume told me, it was consequently offering an early retirement package designed to reduce headcount. Edwards Deming , the guru of total quality management, called this "driving out fear.". Because they believe that nobody can guarantee employment.

Attrition 15

Attrition CFO Deming Outsourcing 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 14, 2013

We talked to 24 current and former not-white-male CEOs , who spoke candidly about what they faced as they built their careers and how they developed inclusive organizations. Leadership Qualities. And we''ve got advice about how to sell your ideas to women , in a world where there are growing numbers of women with P&L power.

P&L 11

P&L CFO Self-aware Globalization 11

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 30, 2018

Both of those leaders are now CEOs — one of a $10 billion retail chain and another of a specialty eyewear company. If you want to be a chief financial officer (CFO), identify five CFOs who you admire or who are well regarded in your industry. The directness of those statements may surprise you.

Career 8

Career Chief Financial Officer Supply Chain Chief Information Officer 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 7, 2012

In 1992 the company was in cost-cutting mode, and, as former CFO Orry Fiume told me, it was consequently offering an early retirement package designed to reduce headcount. Edwards Deming , the guru of total quality management, called this "driving out fear.". Because they believe that nobody can guarantee employment.

Attrition 12

Attrition CFO Deming Outsourcing 12

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Last week CNN, along with a host of other sources, argued that perhaps CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the venerable prodigy who built Facebook from the ground up, isn't up to the task of managing a large public company. This week the CFO came under scrutiny from no less than Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times. What's the result?

CFO 8

CFO Quality Efficiency Download 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Typically for an internal consulting group, we had to grow gradually as we demonstrated the quality of our work. the CEO’s or CFO’s), but rather serve the needs of our internal project sponsors (usually at the CXO, EVP, and SVP level). This also forces us to deliver great quality on every project.

Consultative 8

Consultative Team How To McKinsey 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 7, 2011

For example, several companies embarked on Six Sigma programs after their CEO heard about GE's success with the approach, and many other companies have adopted Lean because of Toyota's success. People who have earned these belts drive projects with clear financial targets set at the top organization, with progress monitored by the CFO.

Six Sigma 15

Six Sigma BPM Process Hammer 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

The CEO and CFO were marching through their 112-slide presentation. Minority viewpoints have been proven to aid the quality of decision making in juries, by teams, and for the purpose of innovation. It was said of Abbot Agatho that for three years he carried a stone in his mouth until he learned to be silent.

Merton 15

Merton Groupthink CFO Cost 15

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 22, 2013

Last year Dina, a CEO I’d been working with, felt that leaders on her team were playing it too safe. After a few tepid responses, Walter, the CFO, threw out a grenade headline: Company tries desperately to hang on to aging cash cows and antiquated ways of doing business in the flawed hope that they can maintain the status quo forever.

COO 8

COO Short-term CFO Pharmaceuticals 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 24, 2016

I worked with a CEO who used this approach. For example, when your CFO tells you that you must reduce headcount immediately, but you disagree, you help her make her case by saying something like, “I was disagreeing with you because I thought you were saying we’re facing two quarters of lower earnings.

Influence 8

Influence Six Sigma Open-book Learning-by-Doing 8