Working Fewer Hours Is Hard for Most CEOs, But Some Find a Way
Larry Ellison, chief executive of Oracle, rejects a management model he thinks too many chief executives follow of being "weak kings with strong dukes." Under this model, he says, CEOs allow business unit heads "to run their own show as long as they make their profit numbers." The CEOs may not know what's really going on in Japan or Chicago, he argues, and "it isn't terribly efficient since not everyone is following centralized processes."
But Mr. Ellison doesn't want to be the king at court all the time, either. Since completing his bitterly fought $10.6 billion takeover of PeopleSoft, Oracle's largest acquisition ever, earlier this year, he has cut his work hours to 40 to 50 a week from about 80. "I decided this [much work] is crazy," says the billionaire software maker, who delegates more day-to-day responsibilities to his three co-presidents and devotes more time to sailboat racing, his medical foundation and other interests.
In an age when executives sleep with their BlackBerrys on their night stands so they can respond to email 24/7, cutting back at work isn't always feasible. It certainly isn't an option for newly named CEOs, such as Mark Hurd at Hewlett-Packard and John Mack at Morgan Stanley, who must fashion new corporate strategies or overcome internal culture wars.
Even veteran CEOs at solidly performing companies have trouble getting off the work treadmill or don't want to admit they have, afraid they may be judged uncommitted by investors or may send employees the message that they, too, can work less. "There's a relentlessness to being a CEO these days," says Niko Canner, managing partner of New York consultant Katzenbach Partners. "Still, a few savvier heads of companies worry about the emotional and physical sustainability" of their schedules and wonder "what things they need to do for themselves to stay focused, energized and inspiring."
Michael Eskew, CEO of United Parcel Service, has told some colleagues that ideally he'd like to divide his time into five parts, spending 20% with employees, 20% with customers, 20% with investors, 20% on civic activities and 20% on self-renewal. "Unfortunately it hasn't worked out as well as he'd like when it comes to time for himself to learn new things," says Ken Sternad, vice president, public relations. Still, Mr. Eskew, who has diversified UPS from a package-delivery to a broader services company, tells his managers that achieving balance is an important part of leadership. "He says, 'You should take your job seriously, your family seriously and your community seriously, but just don't take yourself too seriously,' " says Mr. Sternad.
For some, achieving this kind of balance is more possible some years than others. Edwin Thomas, CEO of Asbury Services, a retirement-communities company, skipped his summer vacation last year because his business was adding and redesigning facilities. But he just returned from a two-week trip to Europe with his family. "I think you need the first week just to unwind and the second to be there," says Mr. Thomas, who stayed connected via his BlackBerry. "Next year, I just may leave that at home," he adds.
He has also curbed his impulse to go to the office on weekends by moving to a home that is 25 minutes away. "When I lived five minutes from the office, I was always there on Saturday," he says. He traveled a lot when his children were young, he says, "but I reached a point in my 40s where I said, 'I'm going to leave work when my daughter has a volleyball game or my son has a soccer game.' " By intentionally limiting his office schedule, Mr. Thomas believes he's more focused, creative and productive when he's at work.
Oracle's Mr. Ellison, a demanding leader who has in the past turned a cold shoulder on once-trusted lieutenants, says he cut back by delegating what he least enjoys doing to his three co-presidents, Gregory Maffei, who is also Oracle's chief financial officer and in charge of such functions as human resources, manufacturing and distribution; Safra Catz, who oversees business development, including mergers and acquisitions; and Charles Phillips, who oversees customer relations.
Mr. Ellison, who will turn 61 years old next month, still confers directly with executives at General Electric, Oracle's biggest commercial customer. "I'm still the corporate sponsor with GE and sit in on their management meetings" to work out implementation of Oracle software, he says. But he's less involved with sales to other customers than he used to be.
That's not the case when it comes to developing and strategizing about the company's software products, however. "I've run engineering from Day One, and still do," says Mr. Ellison, who put himself through college as a software programmer and then quit to become an entrepreneur.
"Everything I do now, I really enjoy doing, think I'm reasonably good at, and will keep doing for some time to come," he says. But relying on underlings to oversee bigger chunks of the business is the easy part of curtailing work, he admits. "An awful lot of my work is just thinking about the business and that's tricky" to turn off, he says. "I can't just stop thinking about what we should do in this industry."
看CEO如何摆脱工作缠身之苦
作为甲骨文(Oracle)的首席执行长，拉里?埃利森(LARRY ELLISON)不愿接受一种他认为有太多首席执行长追随的管理模式，即“君弱臣强”。他说，在这种模式下，首席执行长允许业务子公司的主管“自行其是，只要他们能达到利润目标”。这些首席执行长可能并不了解日本或芝加哥的真正情况，他争辩称，而且“这种模式并不十分有效，因为不是每一个人都在遵循中央集权式的业务流程。”
但埃利森也不想总是做一国之君。自从他于今年早些时候完成甲骨文有史以来最大的收购案－－斥资106亿美元收购仁科(PeopleSoft)以后，埃利森已经把每周的工作时间由80个小时左右减少到了40至50个小时。“我认为这么多的工作简直是疯了，”这位亿万富翁软件开发商说。他于是将更多的日常工作交给他的三位联席总裁，并把更多的时间投入帆船比赛、他的医学基金和其他兴趣上。
在眼下这个年代，高级管理人士通常都要抱著他们的BlackBerry入睡，以便能够随时回复电子邮件，想减少工作量并不总是切实可行的。对于那些新任的首席执行长们来说，比如惠普(Hewlett-Packard)的马克?赫德(Mark Hurd)和摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)的麦晋桁(John Mack)，这当然不会是他们的选择，因为他们还必须构筑新的公司战略或克服内部的文化纷争。
即便是业绩稳健的公司，那些身经百战的首席执行长们在减少工作时间方面也会遇到困难，抑或是他们不想承认，因为担心投资者会认为他们不够敬业，或者可能向员工传达出这样的讯息：即他们也可以少干点。“如今当首席执行长可是一个需要不屈不挠的职业，”纽约咨询公司Katzenbach Partners主管合伙人尼科?坎纳(Niko Canner)说。“尽管如此，少数精明的公司首脑仍担心他们的日程安排会影响情绪和身体上的可持续性，并且想知道他们得为自己做些什么才能保持思想集中、精力充沛和富有灵感。”
联合包裹运送服务公司(United Parcel Service, 简称UPS)的首席执行长迈克尔?艾斯古(MICHAEL ESKEW)曾向一些同事表示，理想上，他希望把自己的时间分为五个部分，20%给员工，20%给客户，20%给投资者，20%从事义务活动，20%用于自我充电。公共关系部副总裁肯?施特纳德(Ken Sternad)说，不幸的是，一到自己学习新事物的时候，这个时间分配计划的实行就不像他想像的那么好了。尽管如此，艾斯古告诉他的经理们，实现平衡是领导艺术的一个重要部分。“他说，'你应该认真对待工作，认真对待家庭，认真对待社区活动，但只是不要对自己太过认真。'”施特纳德说。艾斯古已经将UPS从一家包裹运送公司发展为一家提供更多服务的多元经营企业。
对于一些人来说，实现这种平衡的可能性在某些年月要大于其他时候。退休社区公司Asbury Services的首席执行长埃德温?托马斯(Edwin Thomas)去年放弃了夏季度假计划，因为他的业务蒸蒸日上，而且还在重新设计有关设施。不过，他最近刚刚和家人去欧洲度过了两周的假期。托马斯通过BlackBerry与公司保持联系。“明年，我可能会把这玩意儿留在家里，”他补充道。
托马斯还把住处搬到了一个距离公司25分钟车程的地方，从而克服了周末去办公室的冲动。“当我住在距离办公室仅5分钟的地方，我周六总是去那儿，”他说。托马斯说，孩子还小的时候，他经常出差，“但到了40多岁的时候，我对自己说，'我要放下工作，去看女儿的排球赛或儿子的足球赛。'”通过刻意限制自己的办公日程，托马斯认为他在工作的时候思想更集中，更具创造力，也更有效率了。
甲骨文的埃利森是一位苛刻的领导者，过去他曾对一位一度备受信任的副手冷眼相看。埃利森说，他通过把自己最不愿做的事情放手交给三位联席总裁来减少工作量。这三位总裁是：葛瑞格?马菲(Gregory Maffei)，甲骨文的首席财务长，他还负责人力资源、制造和分销等部门；沙弗拉?卡茨(Safra Catz)，负责业务开发，包括并购事项；以及查尔斯?菲利普斯(Charles Phillips)，负责客户关系。
60岁的埃利森仍然与甲骨文最大的商业客户通用电气(General Electric)的管理人士直接进行沟通。“我仍然是通用电气的企业赞助商，并出席他们的管理层会议，演示甲骨文的软件，”他说。但与过去相比，埃利森现在较少参与面向其他客户的销售工作。
不过，谈到开发公司产品并制定相关战略，情形就不一样了。“我一开始就负责工程，现在仍是这样，”埃利森说。埃利森在大学期间是一个软件程序员，后来他辍学创业。
“我现在所做的每件事，都是我真正喜欢做的，也是我认为我做得相当不错的，而且还将在一段时间内继续做下去，”他说。但他承认，依赖部下监督更多的业务是削减工作量的一个简单之道。“我的一大部分工作就是思考业务发展，很难不去想它，”他说。“我只是禁不住要思考我们应该在这个行业里做些什么。”
