英文摘要 Executive Summaries NOVEMBER 2016
Features
Leadership
The Best-Performing CEOs in the World
This is a challenging time to be a CEO.Around the world, economic growth is slow, political uncertainty underminesattempts to develop long-term plans, and shareholder activists have becomepowerful critics of business leaders. These forces help explain why the C-suitesometimes appears to have a revolving door.
Is it any wonder so many CEOs focus on theshort term?
Against this backdrop, it’s heartening tosee some top executives implement long-term strategies and establish lastingtrack records. HBR’s ranking of the world’s 100 best CEOs is intended tohighlight these individuals. It’s based on performance on both financial andESG measures over leaders’ entire time in office—which comes to 17 years, onaverage, for the CEOs on the 2016 list.
This group has delivered impressive results,producing an overall financial return of 2,091%, on average. But as the varietyof the people on the list shows, there is no single path to success. Considerthe three men at the top of the ranking: Lars Rebien Sørensen studied forestrybefore he joined Novo Nordisk more than 30 years ago and climbed throughvarious operational roles to become CEO. Martin Sorrell earned an MBA and spenta decade in the ad industry before buying a stake in a shell company andbuilding WPP—now the world’s largest marketing-services firm—through a seriesof acquisitions. Pablo Isla studied law and worked in Spain’s treasury ministrybefore taking the helm of the fast-fashion retailer Inditex.
In this issue we feature an interview HBReditor Adi Ignatius did with the three leaders in late summer, in which theyexplore what it takes to fight short-termism and lead with a long view intoday’s turbulent environment.
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How I Did It
Leadership
SAP’s CEO on Being the American Head of a German Multinational
Bill McDermott
The author’s first overseas businessassignment came when he was 29 and a sales manager at Xerox, running a team inNew York City. The company sent him to Puerto Rico to turn around its failingbusiness there. Because he didn’t know the culture or the market, he arrivedwithout an agenda and just listened to people for two weeks. He learned a fewimportant phrases in Spanish so that he could relate to his new team. Hisexperience there helped him later in his career, when he had to manage peopleacross a variety of cultures.
In 2002 SAP hired McDermott to head itsNorth American business, which was struggling. He viewed the company’s beliefthat it could simply transfer its strategies for the German market to the U.S.market as part of the problem. “Leading in any country is all about reading theroom, respecting the culture, and understanding the nuances of how peopleperceive information,” he writes. “You have to care about what the cultureneeds instead of just focusing on your agenda and how to get it done.”
In one illustration of that, although heand his wife have kept the family home in Philadelphia, he moved into a housein Heidelberg to demonstrate to his employees that being a part of the Germanculture is important to him.
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Managing Yourself
Beating Burnout Monique Valcour
Stress is a fact of professional life, butextreme and unrelenting pressures can lead to the debilitating state we callburnout.
Three symptoms characterize burnout:exhaustion; cynicism, or distancing oneself from work; and inefficacy, orfeelings of incompetence and lack of achievement. Research has linked burnoutto many health problems, including hypertension, sleep disturbances,depression, and substance abuse. Moreover, it can ruin relationships andjeopardize career prospects.
Resolving burnout often requires changes atthe job, team, or organizational level. But you can also take steps towardrecovery and prevention on your own: Prioritize your health, shift yourperspective to determine which aspects of your situation are fixed and whichcan be changed, reduce exposure to the most stressful activities andrelationships, and seek out helpful interpersonal connections.
It’s important to ward off burnout on yourteam as well: Insist on time for rest and renewal, set realistic work limits,boost your team’s sense of control, provide meaningful recognition, and askpeople what help or training they need to succeed.
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