Eric Yaverbaum - Leadership Secrets of the Worlds Most Successful CEOs: 100 Top Executives Reveal the Management Strategies That Made Their Companies Great

Eric Yaverbaum.

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Vice President and Publisher: Cynthia A. Zigmund Acquisitions Editor: Jonathan Malysiak Senior Project Editor: Trey Thoelcke Interior Design: Lucy Jenkins Cover Design: Scott Rattray, Rattray Design Typesetting: Elizabeth Pitts

2004 by Eric Yaverbaum

Published by Dearborn Trade Publishing A Kaplan Professional Company

All rights reserved. The text of this publication, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

04 05 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Yaverbaum, Eric.
Leadership secrets of the worlds most successful CEOs / Eric Yaverbaum.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7931-8061-9 1. Leadership. 2. Executive ability. 3. Chief executive officers. 4. Industrial management. I. Title.
HD57.7.Y38 2004 658.4' 092dc22

2003022995

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Dedication

To Suri, Cole, and Jace All we ever need is in our own backyard.

I consider my life, primarily, to be a continuing education course, and I am looking forward to learning more before the day is over.

Ted Turner, quoted in Rochester Review, Winter 2002-2003, .

Acknowledgments

First and foremost I have to thank the best writer to walk the planetthe only writer I would ever collaborate on books with, and a man I have come to have the greatest of personal and professional respect forBob Bly.

I cannot thank Maryann Palumbo enough for introducing me to my super agent, Bob Diforio, who found a great home for this book, and my editor Trey Thoelcke for making the manuscript much better than it was when it first crossed his desk. Major thanks to Jonathan Malysiak for his advice and wisdom in bringing the book to Dearborn.

I want to thank the Young Presidents Organization, which I have been a very active member of, for the great inspiration its members have given to me over the last decade and the main reason I have become so fascinated with the topic of leadership.

I remain deeply appreciative to key members of my public relations agency, Jericho Communications, who are always so supportive while I add the responsibility of author to my already complicated day. No doubt it makes the day a little harder for them. Thanks to my long-time partner Jonathan Sawyer and parts of my wonderful staff and associates, including Ian Madover, Kathy Bell, Tara McNally, Greg Mowery, Felicitas Pardo, Kevin DeSantis, Alison DeSena, Cindy Gittelsohn, Julie Lin, Michelle Mandara, Vanessa Losada, Susan McGill, Alyson Herman, Diane Shillingford, Ian McRae, Dominic Park, Karine Ng, Novel Sholars, Daniel Teboul, Jessica Schaifer, Zahya Hantz, Jessica Greenberg, Ana DaSilva, Sharifa Mills, Chris Roberts, Aline Khatchadourian, and Aki Hakuta. A particularly big thank you to Michelle Frankfort for her work on the IKEA chapter. A very, very special thank you to Ursula Cuevas, who spent an awful lot of time keeping all of this organized for me.

Thanks to all the executives who took time out of their enormously busy schedules to be interviewed for this book. Thanks also to the public relations professionals and communications managers who made these interviews happen on time.

Thanks to my in-laws, Bernie and Noreen Nisker, for all their help on the homefront while I was busy writing. And as always to my mother and father Harry and Gayle who support any and everything I do.