Recommended Reading - Leading in Turbulent Times, Pearson Books

Kevin Kelly, the CEO of executive search firm Heidrick and Struggles, and Gary Hayes, a partner in Hayes Brunswick & Partners, have written a propitious book, Leading in Turbulent Times published by Pearson. The authors interviewed many top leaders who have managed to survive and often thrive during these difficult times. According to a piece by Alicia Whitaker in the Huffington Post,

Kelly and Hayes found patterns among those who were being successful, across industries and geographies, with implications for anyone working to turn things around in this recession. Three things stood out for them: passion rules and carries the day, hard times call for a mastery of soft skills, especially communication, to motivate and engage people and keeping a long term vision in place and well communicated is the best way to keep focused and positive in spite of necessary firefighting.

The authors have presented highly organized perspective on the skills and techniques top executive need to survive today.

Recommended reading - Optimistic activists, The Deal.com

Ron Orol of the Deal.com wrote a clever piece today entitled Optimistic activists.  The article focuses on how certain activist investors have been approaching today’s difficult market.  In the story, Orol focused on the importance of management and how they plan to deal with it.  Below is a brief snippet of the story,

Companies with weak management are attracting activists seeking to change boards and executives, focusing on profit and loss statements rather than cash on the balance sheets that can be handed to investors. Bulldog Investors’ Phillip Goldstein expects that trend to continue in the coming months, as CEOs are no longer able to hide behind improving share prices. “One group has so far escaped unscathed — boards of directors, the very people responsible for these financial problems,” says Goldstein. “There is too much collegiality on boards, not enough skepticism.”

 Anyone interested in management and how it might be impacted by activist investors should check the piece out.