Recommended Reading - Kings of the Jungle, Barron's

Barron’s recently put out its annual list of the 30 most respected CEOs worldwide. This year’s list saw a number of changes from the previous year both in terms of additions and deletions. Many of the names that left the list saw their career fortunes take a turn for the worse, e.g., Sir Fred Goodwin of The Royal Bank of Scotland and Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric. The list is fun reading.

Recommended Reading - Seeing Peripherally

Dr. Leslie Gaines Ross who writes the reputationxchange.com blog for Weber Shandwick wrote a short piece September 27 in her blog which she referred to a Wall Street Journal article that quoted Intel's CEO, Paul Otellini discussing the merits of a good CEO.  According to Otellini,

“A CEO’s main job, because you have access to all of the information, is to see the need to change before anyone else does.”

Dr. Ross took Otellini's quote further and stated a,

CEO’s primary job is to also see the early warning signs on the horizon.  Another way to say this is that a CEO’s first and second job is to use his or her peripheral vision in addition to strategic vision.

All obvious observations but highly pertinent especially now.  As the overall reputation of corporate CEOs continues to take major hits, particularly those in the financial service industries, investors need to redouble their efforts to monitor key management changes and strategic changes at public companies they are invested in might be considering for possible investment.  Take a look at Dr. Gaines story and overall blog.