CEO: How Will it Stop Being a Dirty Word?

LOS ANGELES (May-2-2009)

The global financial crisis has taken its toll on the CEOs of many Wall Street and large companies. The CEOs of Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Merrill Lynch and many other storied companies have had to resign, been ousted or driven their companies into insolvency. For better or worse, Americans have come to associate the position of CEO with greed and incompetence. Is it fair, and when will it stop being a dirty word?

That was the topic up for discussion at the recent Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. Rafael Pastor, Chairman of the Board and CEO of executive performance company Vistage International, moderated the panel dialogue with distinguished panelists executive coach and author Marshall Goldsmith, business visionary Dr. Oren Harari, and creative leadership speaker Sir Ken Robinson.

What do current CEOs need to do to regain credibility and salvage their reputations? That was the question Pastor posed to the panel.

“CEOs need to adapt their policies for something bigger and deeper than simply market capitalization and earnings-per-share,” said Harari. “There needs to be a departure from generic corporate mission statements and a resurgence of genuine commitment to a higher cause.”

Goldsmith added, “CEOs can no longer accept 300 or 400 times higher pay than their front-line employees. Also, they must seek out confidential feedback, publicly apologize for any bad behavior and insist on accountability checks for themselves and other company leaders.”

Pastor also posed the question: How can CEOs change their behavior after years of the “status quo” being acceptable?

“For a lot of people, the word ‘corporation’ is the problem, as the general public associates it with greed,” said Robinson. “CEOs need to change not only their own actions, but also the ideals of their corporations. They need to hold themselves and their companies to a higher standard.”

Pastor closed the panel by asking Robinson to address education for current and future CEOs.

“There’s a high correlation between higher education and economic productivity,” said Robinson, “yet currently in America there’s a 30 percent high-school dropout rate… We need to better address these issues and develop moral, educated leaders from all walks of life. That diversity will aid future generations of CEOs not only in improving productivity, but also in innovation.”

To watch the video of the panel presentation on the 2009 Milken Global Conference website, click the link below:
“CEO: How Will It Stop Being a Dirty Word?” hosted at the 2009 Milken Global Conference.
Please note that the video begins 1 minute 15 seconds into the presentation.

The Vistage model brings groups of CEOs from non-competing industries together monthly to hear expert resource speakers and process key business and personal issues through peer-to-peer discussions.

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