CEO CAN make a difference. I agree with you that it is VERY difficult for one man to set the pace, & the culture of a company.
But Roth and Chambers both exhibit many qualities of good leadership which in turn fosters confidence among the troops.
It takes an exceptional man to set high standards and get his troops to follow. It takes even more for a single man to TURN AROUND a rotten corporation (so in that sense, McGinn shouldn't be overly criticized i suppose since he likely inherited lot of the problems he has today).
As far as micro-managing, you are right that one CEO cannot fix everything but you have to understand that the top mgmt sets the pace and create a culture where a rotten apple typically CANNOT survive due to peer pressure. In a well run company such as MSFT, INTC, DELL, etc. the bad seeds usually get weeded out by other employees -- very subtle process but one that is definitely there even in large companies.
We will see.........I am not sure that McGinn did anything really wrong but it is what he hasn't DONE that I am critical of. This is after all the Net age and there are huge changes going on which affects even large behemoths like LU. LU has so much resource, history, connections and my point is that McGuinn appears to be just in over his head. LU really should be TROUNCING NT, CSCO, ALA, etc. based on their resource. Instead they are getting trounced and losing good people left & right.
At some point, the top guy has to do the honourable thing and resign! |
