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Do CEOs Correct Their Business Strategy?

This may seem to be an oxymoron. After all, aren’t CEO supposed to lead?
Don’t they make changes to their business strategy when they see things
are not going the way they were supposed to? But, of course, this idealistic
view often does not hold. We have only to look at the rapid rate at which
companies change their CEOs to know that the change results from their
frequent failure to adjust their business strategies.

Same Companies, Same Market, Different Leaders

What if we could identify several companies, all in the same market, with
leaders having different business personalities? Would that help us address
the issue of the importance of the business personality of the leader in
analyzing the different outcomes of these companies? While there would still
be countless factors, it may well shed some light on the issue. So let’s look
at an example using this type of approach.

The Impact of Business Personality on Management Techniques

In themselves the management techniques we have set out above appear
unremarkable, even banal. They are the stuff of any management textbook.
They will be dealt with in MBA, executive education and leadership courses.
In theory every senior executive, let alone a CEO is totally aware of them all,
and knows when to use them. Why dredge up old knowledge here that is well-known
to everyone?

Deconstructing The CEO’s Hidden Mission

Every executive can be defined by eight fundamental behavioral drivers,
each of which can be linked directly to a specific type of business outcome.
Together these define his business personality. These characterize any management
decision that he makes and form the starting point for our analysis of business
personality. As you will see later in the book, the business personality shows
us the leadership type of any CEO, executive or manager.