by Jonathan Gifford | Nov 22, 2009 | Business & Leadership
One of the most disturbing things about getting older is that it creeps up on you. Things that seem fresh in the memory turn out to have happened decades earlier. John Harvey-Jones is a case in point for me. I remember his BBC TV series, Troubleshooter, very clearly....
by Jonathan Gifford | Nov 14, 2009 | Business & Leadership
In his book, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance, Louis V Gerstner, Jr. says a rather moving and also very insightful thing about the psychology of being a Chief Executive Officer. Gerstner’s book includes his farewell letter to all staff, confirming his retirement. In it,...
by Jonathan Gifford | Nov 11, 2009 | Business & Leadership
I can’t help it, but I find a lot to dislike about Jack Welch, chairman and CEO of USA giant, General Electric, from 1981 until 2001. I think it’s Jack’s overt obsession with ‘winning’. No doubt American readers are already thinking: ‘and that’s why you Brits...
by Jonathan Gifford | Nov 9, 2009 | Business & Leadership
David Packard, who founded the American electronics giant Hewlett-Packard in the nineteen-thirties with his Stanford University pal Bill Hewlett, working out of a garage in Palo Alto California, reminds me of James Stewart. You may have found yourself slumped in front...
by Jonathan Gifford | Nov 9, 2009 | Business & Leadership
When Carly Fiorina was employed as the CEO of Hewlett Packard in July 1999, her brief was clearly to bring about change. She soon decided that she and her top team were not merely ‘change agents’; what was needed were ‘change warriors’. So far, so macho. We must...
