Holds Lessons for Directors
Plan for calamity.
That's what McDonald's Corp. directors did in what could become a textbook case on solid succession planning.
Hours after the sudden heart attack death of McDonald's 60-year-old chairman and chief executive, Jim Cantalupo, directors announced that Charlie Bell, the 43-year-old president and chief operating officer, would succeed him. The swift decision gave immediate reassurance to employees, franchisees and investors that the fast-food giant has a knowledgeable leader in place who can provide continuity and carry out the company's strategies. It may also shift any spotlight away from McDonald's high-cholesterol, fat-rich foods and prove a savvy public-relations move.
Most companies have only an interim succession plan for dealing with the sudden death of top executives. In what is sometimes referred to as the "bus crash envelope," directors typically name a longtime director, retired CEO or a rising star who can step in on an interim basis if a CEO dies suddenly, giving them time to choose a permanent successor. But temporary leaders may stall a company's ability to move forward or recover from the cultural shock of a former chief's death.
Jack Welch, the retired chairman and CEO of General Electric Co. who spent several years choosing his own successor, believes there is "no one perfect formula" for succession planning when tragedy strikes. "If there's someone capable who can take over permanently, it's best to name that person quickly," he says. "But boards who haven't groomed someone for the job yet shouldn't make a call for the sake of making a call," he adds.
His own board at GE, he believes, "would have moved ahead in an hour" to name a new CEO if some emergency had made him unable to lead. Certainly within his latter years as CEO, "we had a handful of terrific people ready to take over and the board would have made the call," he says. "At least twice a year at board meetings, we'd spend a great deal of time on the 'hit by the bus' scenario,'" he adds.
Janet Clarke, a director at Cox Communications Inc., Express Jet and E-Fund Corp., agrees that boards need to have several ideas on the back burner when it comes to succession planning. "If a company has split the job of chairman and CEO and one of these people dies suddenly, the other should be able to take over for a while," she says. "Usually, when you have a leader who hasn't been in the job long and isn't old, you don't have just one successor in mind because you want to keep your options open," she adds. "Maybe a year from now you'll think differently. But McDonald's board was at a stage in planning where they could pop a new leader into place."
Governance specialists say that McDonald's quick naming of a permanent new CEO is the exception rather than the rule. "The speed with which they've moved is exactly what you would expect to happen, but few companies are as prepared as McDonald's appears to have been for this calamity," says Jay Lorsch, a Harvard business-school professor.
Adds Jeffrey Sonnefeld, an associate dean at Yale University School of Management: "The worst-case scenario planning of most companies is only a Band-Aid transitional solution, not a strategic solution. McDonald's directors, by immediately naming a battle-tested insider, showed the wisdom of having a succession plan in place."
Typically, companies that name an interim head after the death of a CEO spend at least several months searching for a permanent successor. That was the case at Dana Corp., the big auto parts supplier, after chairman and CEO Joseph Magliochetti died suddenly of complications from pancreatitis in September 2003 when he was 61. Directors named former Owens Corning Chairman Glen H. Hiner acting chairman and Bill Carroll, head of the company's automotive-systems unit, acting president.
Dana spent several turbulent months wrapping up its rebuff of a hostile takeover bid by rival ArvinMeritor Inc. This March, Dana's board finally named a new president and CEO, Michael J. Burns, who was a former General Motors Corp. executive. Mr. Hiner remains chairman. "The board wanted time to do a complete inside and outside search to find a new leader," a spokesman said.
At Coca-Cola Co., legendary Chairman and CEO Roberto C. Goizueta died of lung cancer less than two months after he was diagnosed and his illness publicly announced. Upon his death, directors quickly named the company's president and chief operating officer, M. Douglas Ivester, to succeed Mr. Goizueta, but his tenure was short lived. Just three years into the job, Mr. Ivester was asked to step down because of his poor handling of a number of crises. Coke directors currently are looking for a successor for current chairman and CEO Douglas Daft.
McDonald's isn't the first company to lose its CEO in an abrupt, tragic manner. In January 1991, 61-year-old Colman M. Mockler, Gillette Co.'s chairman and CEO, died of a heart attack in his office.
Just months before, Gillette had named Alfred M. Zeien president and chief operating officer but left undecided the question of who would succeed Mr. Mockler, even though he had planned to retire at the end of 1991. About a month after the executive's death, directors named Mr. Zeien chairman and CEO.
Joseph Clayton, president and CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. in New York, says he makes sure his board annually discusses at least two would-be successors to him. "In today's environment, you need more than one alternative," the 54-year-old executive explains. After all, "what if you are both on the same plane?"
Mr. Clayton experienced the trauma of succeeding a CEO who died suddenly. Frontier Corp. hired him as president and chief operating officer of the Rochester, N.Y., phone company in June 1997. At that time, his boss, Ronald L. Bittner, was believed to have recovered from recent surgery for a brain tumor. Mr. Bittner died 11 days after Frontier relinquished the CEO post to Mr. Clayton due to his deteriorating health.
Sometimes faulty succession planning can lead to the dissolution of a company. After Reginald F. Lewis, chairman and controlling shareholder of TLC Beatrice International Holdings Corp., died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 50 in 1993, the company was handed over initially to a three-person office of the chairman and then headed briefly by Mr. Lewis's half-brother, an attorney. Within a year, another family member, Mr. Lewis's widow, took over as chairman. Two years later, Loida Nicolas Lewis began selling off parts of the food company.
William W. George, a retired Medtronic Inc. chairman and CEO, says nonmanagement directors of the three boards on which he serves talk about CEO succession several times a year. He is a director at Target Corp., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Novartis AG. Directors discuss contingency plans for their leader's sudden death as well as his or her eventual retirement. They grill each other about the leading internal candidates and "how are they doing," Mr. George says.
Unfortunately, "there are far more [boards] who are not prepared than are prepared" for CEO succession of any kind, he says. "They should take the McDonald's example as the wake-up call," he adds.
处变不惊应有方 未雨绸缪实可鉴
在不幸事件发生前未雨绸缪。
这正是对麦当劳公司(McDonald's Corp.)董事会的评价。
日前，在公司掌门人突然辞世的情况下，他们迅速任命了早就选定的接班人，他们的举动将有可能成为管理学教科书中的典型案例。
就在60岁的麦当劳前董事长兼首席执行长吉姆?坎塔卢波(Jim Cantalupo)因突发心脏病而辞世几小时后，麦当劳董事会就宣布，由43岁的公司总裁兼首席营运长查理?贝尔(Charlie Bell)接替他的职位。
如此迅速的决定让广大员工、各特许经营店及众多投资者立刻放下心来，他们看到，这家快餐业巨头又有了一位经验丰富的领导人，他能保持公司政策的连贯性，继续实施公司的发展战略。这个决定或许还能转移公众对其高胆固醇、高脂肪食品的关注，它将是一次成功的公关运作。 对于公司首脑突发性死亡的问题，大多数公司往往只有一些临时性过渡计划。如果公司的掌门人突然去世，董事会通常会任命资历较长的董事、已经退休的前首席执行长或管理层中冉冉上升的明星作为临时接班人（有时人们会把这类计划称为"车祸应急方案"），与此同时，董事会得以有时间选择正式的接班人。但问题是，临时接班人有可能无力带领公司向前发展或从这位首脑的突然离世给企业文化带来的冲击中恢复过来。 已经退休的通用电气(General Electric Co.)前董事长兼首席执行长杰克?韦尔奇(Jack Welch)认为，对于悲剧真地发生时的接班人安排问题，并没有一个最完美的解决方案。他本人就曾为挑选自己的接班人花费了数年时间。
他说，如果有人有能力长期接管那个职位，最好是尽快任命他。但如果董事会事先并没有物色好人选，就不必急于赶鸭子上架。
他相信，在他任职期间，如果因为什么突发事件使他不能继续领导公司，那么公司董事会能在1个小时内任命一位新的首席执行长。他说，在他担任首席执行长时的后几年，公司有数位极出色的接班人人选，如果真的发生不测，董事会就会随即任命其中的一位。他每年至少要在两次董事会会议上花费大量时间讨论所谓"车祸应急方案"问题。
身兼Cox Communications Inc.、Express Jet和E-Fund Corp.董事的詹妮特?克拉克(Janet Clarke)也认为，在接班人问题上，董事会需要有几个备选方案，她说，如果一家公司的董事长和首席执行长是由两个人担任的，那么在其中一人突然去世的时候，另外一个人应该能暂时接管他的工作。她补充说，一般来说，如果一家公司的领导人在任时间不长，而且年龄不大，那么董事会可能就不止有一个接班人人选，因为董事会希望有更多的选择。或许再过一年你的想法会有所不同。但对麦当劳的董事会来说，他们之前就已经有充分准备了。
公司治理专家们说，麦当劳迅速任命新掌门人的举动只是个特例，并非每家公司都能做到。哈佛商学院教授杰?劳什(Jay Lorsch)说，麦当劳的反应速度或许并不让人意外，但在那样的灾难面前，很少有其他公司能像麦当劳表现地那么素有准备。
耶鲁大学管理学院副院长杰弗里?桑菲尔德(Jeffrey Sonnefeld)说，大多数公司的突发事件应急方案充其量只是权宜之计，而不是从整体战略出发作出的选择。而麦当劳能在出事后迅速任命一位久经考验的内部人士执掌公司，这充分显示出该公司在接班人计划方面有充分准备。 一般来说，多数公司在任命临时人选接替突然身故的一把手后，至少要再用数月的时间挑选正式人选。比如汽车零部件供应商Dana Corp.。2003年9月，该公司董事长兼首席执行长约瑟夫?马利奥凯蒂(Joseph Magliochetti)因胰腺炎并发症突然死亡，时年61岁。
董事会随即任命Owens Corning前董事长格兰?辛纳(Glen H. Hiner)任代理董事长，并任命公司汽车系统子公司负责人比尔?卡罗(Bill Carroll)任代理总裁。
在后来的几个月动荡不定的时间里，Dana全力应付其竞争对手ArvinMeritor Inc.发起的恶意收购。今年3月份，该公司终于任命原在通用汽车(General Motors Corp.)任职的迈克尔?伯恩斯(Michael J. Burns)为新的总裁兼首席执行长。
辛纳继续担任董事长。该公司一位发言人说，公司需要有足够的时间在公司内部和外部充分挑选新的领导人。
再以可口可乐(Coca-Cola Co.)为例，该公司富有传奇色彩的董事长兼首席执行长罗伯特?高祖塔(Roberto C. Goizueta)在被诊断出肺癌且消息对外公布后不到两个月即撒手人寰。他去世后，董事会迅速任命总裁兼首席营运长道格拉斯?依维斯特(Douglas Ivester)接替他的职务，但依维斯特的任期没能维持多久。在上任仅3年后，由于对数起危机处理不力，依维斯特被赶下了台。后来的继任者是道格拉斯?答夫特(Douglas Daft)，目前可口可乐又在物色新的接班人。
麦当劳并不是第一家遭遇首席执行长突然以悲剧性的方式辞世的公司。1991年1月份，吉列公司(Gillette Co.) 61岁的董事长兼首席执行长克柯曼?莫克勒(Colman M. Mockler)因突发心脏病倒在了办公室里。
就在之前几个月，吉列刚刚任命阿尔夫雷德?伊恩(Alfred M. Zeien)担任总裁兼首席营运长，但是，尽管此前莫克勒已决定在1991年年底退休，而董事会当时尚未对莫克勒的下任人选问题作出决定。后来，在他去世大约1个月后，伊恩接替了莫克勒的职务。
Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.总裁兼任首席执行长约色夫?克莱顿(Joseph Clayton)说，他保证公司董事会每年至少两次讨论他的接班人问题。这位54岁的掌门人说，在当今的环境下，需要有不止一个选择。他反问道：否则，如果出事时你和你的接班人刚好在同一架飞机上，那该怎么办？
克莱顿本人就曾有过上司突然故去的伤痛经历。1997年6月，他被纽约电话公司Frontier Corp.聘任为总裁兼首席营运长。当时，人们认为他的上司罗纳德?比特纳(Ronald L. Bittner)在作完脑肿瘤手术后已经恢复了健康。但后来他的健康状况每况愈下，公司不得不任命克莱顿接替他的首席执行长一职，而仅仅11天后，比特纳就离开了人世。
有时，一家公司的接班人计划如果安排得不合适，甚至有可能导致公司解体。比如TLC Beatrice International Holdings Corp.。该公司董事长、控股股东雷金纳德?
路易斯(Reginald F. Lewis)在1993年因脑出血去世，时年50岁。公司随后安排董事长办公室的3个人临时接管他的工作，后来很快任命其同父异母的兄弟接任。不到一年之后，金纳德的遗孀洛塔?路易斯(Loida Nicolas Lewis)又接任了董事长一职。两年后，洛塔?路易斯开始出售TLC Beatrice的部分资产。 已经退休的Medtronic Inc. 董事长兼首席执行长威廉?乔治(William W. George)说，在他任董事的三家公司董事会中，非执行董事们每年都会讨论几次首席执行长的接班人问题。他是Target Corp.、高盛公司(Goldman Sachs Group Inc.)和Novartis AG.的董事。他说，董事们会讨论公司领导人退休后或发生突然去世的情况时如何安排应急方案。他们会互相讨论主要的内部人选的相关情况和工作表现。
不过他说，遗憾的是，在面对各种接班人问题的公司中，多数都显得没有充分准备。他说，麦当劳的例子应该能提醒他们，并给他们树立一个榜样。
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