First of all, we would like to thank our Guests of Honour and speakers for this day: Mr. Serra (Georg Fischer Ltd.), Mr. Wulf (Alcatel - Lucent Deutschland AG) and Mr. Reisner (Axel Spring Schweiz).

 

 

2012 main topic: Strength

(Please scroll down for the video)

 

CEOs find strength in:

a) the execution of strategy (in contrast to speaking about strategy)

b) visiting customers personally in different regions/countries

c) empowering employees (let them decide and execute) 

d) getting enough sleep, going home early (at times)

e) being decisive, making tough decisions, demonstrating leadership

f) serving a bigger purpose (than shareholder-value)

 

CEOs lose energy when:

a) they are being misunderstood (for example by journalists)

b) their messages find not enough recognition (they seek love)

c) they are unclear about or unaware of their contribution to society

 

Media seek moments of weakness in a company or CEO because

a) they always love a good story (inlcuding drama, fraud, winners, losers, money)

b) they predict business success or failure using small observations

 

So the media can be a killer for a CEO's strength.

 

 

But, a high-quality and free press is an important prerequisite for business success in a country. We need quality journalism as a filter and testbed for strategic messages. Companies appreciate the filtering and quality-checking work of the editors and acknowledge their dependency on these channels to convey their messages to the public.

 

If a CEO loses energy, i.e. does not like what the media writes about her/him, it is not necessarily the media's fault. If, for example, there is not enough press coverage - maybe the company news is not worth reporting about. Maybe the contribution to society is unclear. If the media highlights an incident as wrong, maybe it is actually wrong. At least it is important feedback. If individual journalists made the decision that they don't like you, it must be accepted.