4 ms·
The CEO in the story had no clue what he was doing. But he was facing the same problem everyone has when the outcome of your actions takes time to manifest. Muc
by hasoleju 3y ago
The CEO in the story had no clue what he was doing. But he was facing the same problem everyone has when the outcome of your actions takes time to manifest. Much too often society expects that results change immediately after a change in leadership. But the small changes a leader can make take time to ripple trough the organization and manifest in results. Often people are not patient enough to wait for this.
A real life example for that is Paul O'Neill CEO of Alcoa from 1987-1999. His main change was putting worker safety in Alcoas plants to first priority. The business outcome of this action manifested years later.
During the first 6 years of his CEO career the stock only doubled. In the 6 years after that the stock prize rose to almost 10x of the prize where he became CEO.
Disclaimer: I'm not sure if this big effect also was related to the Dotcom double.
- ilc 3y agoIt is an old joke, it has been told about Presidents, and various other figures. Thinking long term is not something that is rewarded next quarter, in general. This is a large part of why I've worked over half my career for non-public companies. I want my management making the best choices for the product and the company. Not what Wall St. will like. If the invisible hand worked... yes they would be the same. Reality says they aren't.
- takinola 3y agoSo what's the practical solution to this issue? If you focus on the long-term but have no short-term impact, you will not be there to see things play out (As Milton Keynes famously said "In the long term, we're all dead"). My guess is you need to figure out some small wins along the way that make people feel good and stop them from panicking and tossing you (and all your long-term plans) overboard.