The Shifting Goalpost

I was looking for a book that looks at the life of top executives in corporate and wanted to avoid business biographies. Luckily, I came across the “The Secrets of CEOs: 150 Global Chief Executives Lift The Lid On Business, Life And Leadership by Steve Tappin and Andrew Cave” which claims to have interviewed 150 CEOs and present the result of their research. Impressively, it has a foreword by Sir Richard Branson.

The book is divided in three parts - the first explains the current problems or challenges faced by CEOs (not exhaustive and a Chapter dedicated to each problem), the second categorises CEOs in five groups (a Chapter dedicated to each category) and provides a profile of one CEO falling in each of these group. This is the inspirational part and can help you in understanding what category you fall in as a leader. The third is supposed to be a compilation of CEOs’ secrets and guidance. But is actually a lot of management/leadership gyaan peppered with CEOs’ quotes.

I think one of the best part would have been “The Fellowship” section in Chapter 12, but that is very brief and just touches on an idea and this is an area where the CEOs’ might not have actually shared their secrets. Chapter 13 “Preparing to Lead” and Chapter 14 “Heeding the CEO Health Warning” provides career guidance and counselling - now the question is do aspiring CEOs really require this or not - I mean actual worthy candidates will find their way anyway.

One profile has definitely made a lasting impression - Terry Leahy - Tesco CEO since 1997 - who started as casual worker at the age of 23 becoming a director at the age of 30 and CEO at the age of 40.

Ben Verwaayen - BT CEO from 2001 to 2008 was the other inspiring personality in the book. And one of the striking quotes from Verwaayen was - “The biggest disease at companies is that it is more important to please your boss than to please yourself. It is very hard to get rid of because it is in people’s DNA. People want to please their boss so if he wants nonsense, they will serve it hot or cold or however he wants it.”

Overall, a book which does not require your 100% attention but can be added to the reading list for slightly more than a quick glance through.

Interestingly, both US CTO and CIO appointed in Obama’s administration are of Indian origin - Vivek Kundra and Aneesh Chopra. And there is a debate going on in the tech circle whether these appointments are right or not - not just debate - it is mudslinging now. Today this has reached new levels with John C. Dvorak asking whether Vivek is a phony. On the other hand, Tim O’Reilly had showered glowing praise - Why Aneesh Chopra is a Great Choice for Federal CTO and continues to support both the appointments.

Also, I don’t understand how the Indian media miss out on all this masala. Generally they go over the top about the achievements or infamy of Indians (or people of Indian origin) abroad.

The reason might be the attitude of so called entrepreneurs - blaming the bigger organisations i.e. blaming others for their failures. Please read this rant Why Wipro, Infosys and TCS are “Axis of Evil” for Indian startups!.

As a comics fan - maybe not as much as those who attend the Comic-Con, I was very interested in the two unconventional super-hero movies, Hancock and Unbreakable. Both the movies are very different but both portray super-heroes facing problems similar to ordinary human beings. The very conventional Peter Parker/Spider-man faces human problems but he faces those as Peter Parker not as Spider-man. Hancock faces a drinking problem. And David Dunn (Unbreakable) doesn’t even know that he has extraordinary powers (the whole movie is based on how he is made aware of that). Both have relationship issues.
Shyamalan’s every movie is compared with The Sixth Sense and then criticised how it fails to reach that level. I think that is very unfair. But compared to Signs and The Village, Unbreakable might be (or have been as I am watching it after 9 years of its release ) more likeable to The Sixth Sense fans. It has a very similar beginning and tries to have a similar shocking ending. But if you are a comics fan and a Shyamalan fan, Unbreakable is a fantastic treat.