A recent Ivey study confirms the commonly held view that General Electric is an excellent breeding ground for future business leaders. This article summarizes the study and its three conclusions: Firms led by CEOs who were trained at GE will outperform firms led by CEOs who were not; GE's reputation for developing CEO talent is, in fact, well deserved and not mere hype; and GE appears to develop more CEO talent than other noted CEO talent-generating firms.
Paragon Information Systems is a small business unit owned by NewTel Enterprises Limited that manufacturers hardware for information technology and systems integration. The newly appointed chief executive officer is faced with a crisis. Days after his appointment, two vice-presidents resign and start a new company. The new company recruits the entire sales team, members of the technical unit and support staff from Paragon Information Systems, a loss of almost one third of Paragon's staff within two months. The new chief executive officer must meet short-term stakeholder needs, assess, formulate and implement long-term strategies, deal with the competitive threat of the new company, and consider the leadership style and control systems required to make the necessary level of change.
A manufacturer of construction parts spends $150,000 annually on courier services. When the courier threatens to stop shipments because the required $10,000 deposit has not been maintained, one of the company's owners decided to switch couriers. The new courier is late in delivering a vital component, nearly causing a production shutdown. The materials manager wants to recommend that the company return to the previous courier service. He needs to consider that the owner is a principled person, who favored the new courier. As well, the company has had layoffs and pay cuts. Although he had been a long-term employee and is satisfied with his work, the manager needs to determine whether he should approach the issue at the next management meeting or simply allow the situation to be the sole responsibility of the owner.