Why CEO biogs are all the same
On the front page of the FT last Tuesday was a photo of three white men in their 60s all shaking hands together.
This was not terribly remarkable: every day the FT is full of pictures of white men approaching retirement age. What was odd about this trio was their extraordinary uniformity. On the left was Phil Condit, departing chief executive of Boeing, and on the right the man who is to take his place.
Both men had the same glasses, the same short brown hair receding sharply at the temples. They were in the same navy blazers with brass buttons and the same button-down shirts with the same top button ill-advisedly undone to reveal the same section of loose neck. The only difference was that the outgoing guy seemed to have eaten more business lunches and looked tougher.
Between them sat Lew Platt, the new chairman, who had dared to be different by wearing grey instead of navy, but otherwise it was the same story with the hair, specs, shirt and neck.
I used to feel a similar urge to conform when I was about 14. At that age, if I did not have the identical Biba T-shirt and loon trousers everyone else had I was not prepared to leave the house. Yet this conformity thing at the top of US corporations goes well beyond what I went through 30 years ago. The clothes and the hairdo are a superficial sign of a deeper urge to be identical.
My evidence for this comes from a study of CEO biographies, which I carried out last week. The biog is a curious document. Not quite a CV, it is a standard five to six paragraphs documenting the subject's proudest achievements to date. It is posted on the company's website and handed out at the slightest excuse.
The purpose of the biography is presumably to distinguish one chief executive from another. Yet, having pored over the biogs of 24 US business leaders, I can confirm that they are identical in both style and form. The result is that I cannot recall a single fact that distinguishes Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard from Richard Wagoner of General Motors or him from Samuel Palmisano of International Business Machines.
This is how to write the classic CEO biog. You start off by giving the date you became CEO of your company, which you must describe as world leader in something or other. If profits or revenues have risen since you became CEO, you should quote the results and attribute them to yourself. If they have not (as is mostly the case now), you keep quiet about them.
I have a biog from Christopher Galvin at Motorola dating from 1998, when he had been CEO for only a year. It starts by saying how, under his leadership, revenues have risen. This section was dropped from the biog once the company's fortunes dived and now no mention at all is made of financial results.
The classic biog proceeds with a list of all the other positions held on the climb up the ladder to the top. These are linked with "previously" and "prior to". The rule here is that no postings are too dull to mention. Take this from the CEO of Sara Lee. "In 1990 he assumed responsibility for Sara Lee's Packaged Meats, Bakery and Foodservice businesses. In 1993 he added Coffee & Grocery and Household and & Body Care businesses, based in Utrecht, the Netherlands . . ." and on it goes. I shall spare you the rest.
Then there is an awards section. The tone here should be uniformly vainglorious so that it is impossible to tell whether the award is prestigious or not. It does not matter if the award was received a while back.
More important still is the charitable stuff. The wording should be like this: "Samuel DiPiazza has always been very active in civic affairs throughout his career", followed by a list of all charitable positions past and present. Quantity is what counts here. Fewer than three charities does not cut it.
Finally you list your degrees and educational achievements. Sumner Redstone tells us that he graduated first in his class at high school some 60 years ago - which was probably gratifying for him at the time but, 60 years on, is of dubious relevance to Viacom's shareholders.
A few end with something like "X resides with his wife Sheila near Ashland, Kentucky" but most of them skip this section, which is a shame. None takes the trouble to document previous wives in the same way they do previous jobs, which is even more of a shame.
Two CEO biogs stand out from the crowd. The first is Steve Ballmer's of Microsoft. He uses his biog as shop window for his passion and makes no attempt to stick to the objective. "Described variously as ebullient, focused, funny, passionate, sincere, hard charging and dynamic, Ballmer has infused Microsoft with his own brand of energetic discipline and spirit over the years," it says.
This is not to my taste at all but I still prefer it to the rest as it gives us some idea about how he sees himself, which is interesting. After all, the point of a biography is that it tells us something about the person. A long list of standard facts tells us nothing.
At the other end of the emotional register is Mr Ballmer's rival at Oracle, whose biog is one mean little paragraph. Although Larry Ellison's brevity is arrogant, it is true to the man and does not waste your time. This makes it my favourite biog. The clear subtext is: "I'm Larry Ellison. I founded and run Oracle. You should know that already. Now get lost."
CEO小传为何都大同小异
上星期二的《金融时报》主页上登出了三个60多岁的白人男性在一起握手的照片。
这本来没有什么出奇之处，《金融时报》上到处都可以找到将要退休的白人男性图片。但我说的这张三人照却又有些不寻常的地方：这三个人看上去非常类似。左边是波音公司即将卸任的首席执行官菲尔o康迪特(Phil Condit), 右边是他的接任者。
这两个人戴的眼镜一模一样；两人都留着短短的褐色头发，太阳穴处的发际都明显后退；两人都穿着海军蓝的运动夹克，夹克上面都是铜纽扣；两人里面都穿着同样的衬衫，衬衫最上面一颗纽扣都没扣上，所以都不雅地露出脖子的同样部位，而且两人的脖子都显得松弛。唯一的不同是离职的那位似乎吃过更多商务餐，看上去更强悍一些。
坐在二者中间的是刘易斯o普拉特(Lew Platt)，波音公司的新任董事长，他衣服颜色竟然和上述两位不同，穿的是灰色而不是海军蓝。但是其它方面，如头发、眼镜、衬衫和脖子都和另外两位一样。
在我大约14岁的时候，我有一种强烈的趋同欲望。在那个年龄，我若是出门，就必定要和周围人一样穿上Biba体恤衫和懒汉裤。但是美国顶尖企业的求同特征却远超过了我30年前的经历。他们的服装和发型都说明他们在内心强烈求同。
上述观点的证据，是我上周研究首席执行官个人小传时发现的。个人小传是一种有趣的文件。它不完全是简历，而是五六段标准化文字，记录某人到目前为止最得意的成就。个人小传登在公司网站上，而且动不动就被发送出去。
个人小传的目的照说是将一个首席执行官和其他首席执行官区分开来。但是，看过24个美国商业领袖的个人小传后，我断定这些小传的写作风格和形式都非常雷同。到最后，我根本记不得惠普的卡莉o菲奥莉娜（Carly Fiorina）和通用汽车的理查德o瓦格纳（Richard Wagoner）以及IBM的塞缪尔o帕尔米萨诺（Samuel Palmisano）有哪些不同。
首席执行官个人小传的典型写法如下：开始，你要给出你上任所在公司首席执行官的日期，你要把你所在公司说成是某某某领域的世界领头羊。如果你担任首席执行官之后公司的利润或收益上升，你要把这成绩写下来，归功于自己。如果没有上升（如今大多数公司的业绩都没有上升），那就闭嘴不谈。
我看到了摩托罗拉公司克里斯托弗o高尔文（Christopher Galvin）的个人小传，刊登时间是1998年，当时他担任首席执行官才一年时间。该个人小传的一开始是说在他的领导下，公司收益如何上升。公司命运逆转之后，这些小传上就再也不提财务方面的问题了。
典型的个人小传会接下来列出某人攀上头把交椅之前所担任的其它职位。连接词一般是"以前……"、"在……之前"等等。这中间的规则是不要提出太乏味的职位。我们以莎拉李（Sara Lee）公司首席执行官的个人小传为反例。"1990年他开始负责莎拉李公司的包装肉制品、烘品和饮食服务。1993年，他又开始在荷兰的乌特列支任职，除上述业务外，又接管了咖啡、食品、家用品和身体护理产品……"等等等等。我就不赘述了。
接下来是获奖的部分。这些奖无论是大奖还是小奖，是最近获得的，还是陈年往事，这都不重要，务必要很自负地去写。
最重要的，是慈善部分。此处的用语应该像这样："塞穆尔o迪佩萨（Samuel Dipiazza）在他的职业生涯中，一直积极参与社会事务"，然后列出他过去现在所担任过的所有慈善公益性职务。此时数量很重要，越多越好。少于三个慈善性职位那可就不妙了。
最后，你要列出你的学位和教育成就。萨默纳o雷斯通(Sumner Redstone)告诉我们说他60年前从高中毕业的时候，成绩是全班第一，当时这可能是件得意的事，但是六十年后，这一成就和维亚康姆公司的股东们有什么关系就很可疑了。
有些个人小传是这样结尾的："某某某和妻子谢拉（Sheila）现住在肯塔基州亚什兰市。"但大多数个人小传都把这部分省掉了，这很可惜。他们不厌其烦，把以前的职位都一一列举出来，唯独把他们一任任的前妻给漏掉了，这太可惜了。
有两家公司首席执行官的个人小传卓尔不群。第一个是微软公司的斯蒂夫o鲍尔默。他用个人小传展示他的激情，根本不去管小传的目的。小传中写道："多年来，鲍尔默用他特有的活力、纪律和精神浇灌着微软公司，他的个人风格可以用热情、专注、有趣、热情、执着、活跃等不同方式来形容。"
这种写法不合我的口味，但我还是宁愿读这样的个人小传，至少它让我们看到鲍尔默是怎样看待自己的，这本身就很有趣。毕竟，传记的目的是让我们了解一个人。列出一长串标准化的事实，结果只是让人一无所知。
另一个极端是鲍尔默的对手、甲骨文公司首席执行官的个人小传。这小传只有区区一段话。尽管这种简略反映了拉瑞o埃里森（Larry Ellison）的自负，这自负却正是他的真实风格，而且看这么短的小传不浪费时间。它是我最喜欢的个人小传。他的个人小传潜台词是："我是拉瑞?#22467;里森。我是甲骨文公司的创办人和管理者。这你应该知道了。好了，滚吧。"
