In Praise of the Memorable CEO
Once I took a reporter to dinner with an exec from a satellite-based long distance operator. They were mainly renowned for signal delay, echo and a knack for losing $100M/year. Asked how the company was doing, our slightly lubricated leader wise-cracked, “Aw heck, we’re goin’ belly up!”
One of those unforgettable quotes. Fortunately, the journalist was semi-comatose, too, so no story surfaced the next day. Months later when the executive’s prediction came true, his PR belly flop was long forgotten.
I still have a soft spot for that salty old senior veep. Him and a former CEO of mine who opined, before the Washington press corps, that a large competitor’s transgressions took a page from Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia. Call it a love affair with walking close to the edge: I can’t help admiring CEOs who let it all hang out, even if they give me a coronary in the process. Better to die quickly than suffocate in the pablum of official corporate-speak.
Am I recommending that CEOs act or speak irresponsibly? Hardly. But when we find ourselves welcoming the occasional wild outburst from a corporate leader it may be a sign of how consistently dull the rest are.
Surely journalists are just as weary of the goo that passes for much executive communications. How often do we hear leaders proclaim they’re “pleased” with a new multi-billion dollar deal? (If they donned mourning garb at such times, that would be news.) Aren’t we all fed up with corporate moguls exhorting clients to “transform their business” with some new software product? If any real transformations were taking place, people — and some companies — would be rising from the dead left & right.
I don’t fault CEOs. They don’t have the time to sit around and create sound bites. I blame writers who are too timid to test the limits of what they might do. If they’re that fond of mush, they should work where it’s appreciated. Dishing out slurpees at 7-11 comes to mind.
Not long ago the local broadband industry found itself up against a regulatory official intent on looking the other way while a large incumbent provider trod all over the pro-competitive rules of the Telecom Act. With invaluable input from our client, we wrote a CEO opinion piece comparing the official, who happened to be Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, to the Emperor Nero. The Washington Post printed it. Friends inside the Commission reported that the noble Roman wanted to burn small competitors at the stake when the story hit his desk. At first I wondered if we’d gone too far. But that day proved to be the turning point in a campaign that forced a powerful scofflaw monopoly to play by the rules. There were many “heroes” during that project. The one who stands out, to me, is XO’s CEO Carl Grivner, who always spoke his mind — and didn’t hesitate to put his signature on the Washington Post piece.
The federal official has a new job. I have no idea where. Few remember the name of this man people once feared and kowtowed to.
Writers take heed. The man or woman in the corner office wants to be bold when the occasion merits. You can help in a keystroke or two.
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