![]() The mad manFortune crowns the business leader of our time. Not everyone agrees with the choice.(Fortune Magazine) -- The announcement of the CEO of the Decade apparently caught the 11th runner-up by surprise. At the black-tie gala, Bob Nudnik, who runs a corporation not unknown to readers of this magazine, behaved quite badly, refusing to make an acceptance speech and throwing the leg of his rubber chicken at a subordinate. Noting that such a display of infantile ego was consistent with a higher standing in the contest, the editors of Fortune dispatched this correspondent to discuss the matter with the unruly competitor. Stanley Bing: I understand you're somewhat upset about your 11th-place finish. Nudnik: Are you kidding me? I spit on this stupid statuette! It's plastic! Nudnik throws his award to the ground and jumps on it. SB: Feel better? N: No. There are winners and losers and nothing in between. SB: I can certainly see how that absolutist value system would make you very unhappy and also quite hard on other people. N: Precisely! SB: But that personality, while persuasive, isn't enough to win you the top slot in a race like this one. N: Yeah? What were the metrics? SB: Well, innovation, for one thing. N: That's my middle name! In 2005, I invented a whole new way of expressing debt that was essentially legal, helped boost shareholder value, and vaulted my comp into eight digits. Architectural Digest did a four-page spread on my dog's condominium! SB: Your dog has a condo? N: Well, it's a co-op, actually. SB: Being a great CEO is not all about financial know-how and wealth, though. N: Really? SB: It's also about producing a product or service that transforms our society and bringing it to market with distinction. N: Are you saying we don't? At this juncture Nudnik rises to his full height of 5 feet 2 inches and brandishes the metal candelabra at the center of the table. N: We make everything from baby formula to nuclear timing mechanisms! We kick butt all over the world! Collapses into a chair. SB: I must say you do seem to qualify under the Personal Eccentricity category. N: Yes. That's what I don't get. Like your winner, I also go away every year to a place in the mountains and can't be heard from for weeks at a time. SB: Yeah, but you're skiing! N: I've come up with some of my greatest ideas at Gstaad. SB: What about the reverence that your people ought to have for their leader? Does the idea of living without your mystical presence send them into bouts of confusion and fear? N: It better. SB: In addition, the truly great CEOs embody all that the company means to its customers and its employees. They're the brand. Are you? N: Come over here so I can smash your face in. SB: You know, sir, I'd have to say that your standing in the competition seems pretty fair to me. You seem like a garden-variety bureaucrat who has ascended through hard work, luck, and toxic narcissism. In other words, a typical CEO. N: How much would it take to get you to work for me? SB: I beg your pardon? N: I like having people around who tell me the truth, so that I can make their lives miserable and eventually destroy them. SB: I sort of have that job already. N: So what would it take? Here the tape inexplicably comes to an end. Stanley Bing has recast his book Executricks for the paperback edition due out in November; it is now titled "How to Relax Without Getting the Axe." For more Bing, unrelated to the Microsoft search engine, go to stanleybing.com.
Recent Columns
Archive
| ![]() Tell us about your crazy boss
Is your boss heading for a self-made disaster? Scared of his own shadow? Just plain weird? Share your insane workplace story.![]() ![]() | ||
|