Posts in category: Articles

Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on March 16, 2015

On rare occasions, one meets an individual whose passion is driven by wanting to make a real difference in this world, and is on a journey to do so.
Last March, I meet such an individual on my trip to Silicon Valley with Donna De Carolis, the founding dean of Drexel University’s Close School of Entrepreneurship, her staff and 16 of her students. One of those students was entrepreneur Collin Cavote, at the time a Drexel junior, and founder and CEO of Biome, a firm whose mission is to improve the quality of the air that we breathe.

Biome is developing a modular biowall consisting of various types of plants that can be hung in homes and offices. In addition to the esthetics that a biowall provides, plants absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, refreshing the environment. Research by NASA has indicated that plants also serve as purifiers by absorbing toxins in the air.

To uncover the root of his passion, I asked Cavote, “What matters to you, and why?” He paused for a moment and then shared his journey. A number of years ago, Cavote left Temple University and “went off the grid” to explore minimalist living. He states, “I was studying business, … [but] I really didn’t see people creating legitimate value. Society was using up resources, creating a high social and environmental cost. I didn’t want to contribute to that.”

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Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on March 9, 2015

As a former CEO and as a current director and trustee on a number of boards, I am asked to interview candidates for senior leadership positions at for-profit and nonprofit organizations. By the time I am asked to interview a candidate, they have gone through the vetting process regarding their skills, experience and the results they have achieved during their careers. Therefore, I focus on five questions that reveal a lot about an individual’s value system and leadership style, which based on my experience indicates a lot about whether the candidate will be effective and successful.

If you are the interviewer of a candidate for a senior leadership position, ask these questions. If you are the candidate being interviewed, decide how you would respond to them.

• What does tone at the top mean to you, and what tone will you set for your organization?
• What is the corporate or institutional culture you will nurture within your area of responsibility?
• When hiring direct reports, what attributes do you look for, and how will you search for and select the very best people to work for you?
• How would you describe your leadership style?
• How will you lead, motivate and inspire every employee within your organization to achieve great results?

Tone at the top

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Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on March 2, 2015

The power of networking came into sharp focus for me a few weeks ago when I was able to introduce a student of the Pennoni Honors College of Drexel University to a C-suite executive at eBay. I was able to assist this student only through a chain of events that started a year ago. One break in this chain and the introduction would not have occurred.

After speaking with a group of Pennoni Honors College students at a “lunch and learn” event on how to develop into effective leaders as their careers progress, one of the students introduced herself and shared her goal to work in Silicon Valley in the area of communications and marketing after graduation. She asked me if I knew anyone who might be able to help her achieve her goal. I immediately thought of an executive (and Drexel alum) at eBay who I met last March on my trip to Silicon Valley with Donna De Carolis, founding dean of the Close School of Entrepreneurship, her staff and 16 of her students. Had I not gone on that trip, the introduction would not have occurred.

On that trip to Silicon Valley, I witnessed the drive and energy of De Carolis, her staff and Drexel’s Close School students, and met numerous entrepreneurs starting new businesses and pushing the boundaries of what was thought to be possible. Had I not gone on that trip, I would not have been inspired to start writing a column on effective leadership in the Philadelphia Business Journal, which was at the time a new endeavor for this board member and former CEO.

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Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on February 23, 2015

Recently I wrote an article on Comcast’s customer service in which I referenced the American Customer Satisfaction Index survey data published quarterly by the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. That survey data indicated that Internet service providers and subscription TV providers were the lowest-ranked industry in customer satisfaction. There is much room for improvement for companies within this industry.

Companies that provide Internet and subscription TV service are very customer service intensive and their reputations are earned by the customer experience they deliver. My definition of a great customer experience is the ability for a customer to call in to the company, promptly get to the right individual to order new service, cancel their account, receive help operating their remote or fix a billing problem, and have a pleasant experience doing so. When requesting a service call, delivering a great customer experience is to fulfill the customer’s expectation that the service technician will arrive on time, know how to fix the problem and fix it in a timely manner.

Providing a great customer experience – whether it be by a company’s own or contract employees – takes the right people, the right culture and the right training. In addition, the right infrastructure and processes need to be in place so customers don’t get passed around until the right individual is found to handle their issue.

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Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on February 17, 2015

Last week, the U.S. Little League championship team Jackie Robinson West from Chicago was stripped of its title because it was found that the adult leaders of the team stacked its roster with players from outside its geography, a violation of Little League rules. Their opponent who lost the U.S. championship game, Mountain Ridge Little League, from Las Vegas, was then awarded the U.S. title.

Stephen Keener, president and CEO of Little League International, stated, “We had to do this, we had no choice. We have to maintain the integrity of the Little League program. We have over 7,000 Little League programs around the world that are looking at us to provide leadership and uphold the standards of our program. So as painful as this is, it is a necessary outcome from what we finally have been able to confirm. … We just feel horribly for the kids that are involved in this. … They were kids just out playing baseball … It’s going to be hard on these kids … that’s the part that breaks our hearts.”

Community activist Rev. Michael Pfleger said in a Philly.com article, “We are asking a law group to look into this, to investigate, because we are hearing from folks all over the country that the [geographic boundary] standards Jackie Robinson West is being held to … [are not the standards to which other teams are being held] …” Rev. Jesse Jackson has accused Little League Baseball of racism for stripping the title from JRW, the first all-African-American team to win the championship. Certainly, those supporting JRW will conduct their own investigation to determine if geographic boundary rules were violated, and determine if Little League Baseball has held other teams to the same standard.

If Little League geographic boundary rules were violated which favored one team over another, action must be taken. Just think how patently unfair it would be to the other teams if the team which violated the rules was not disqualified, even if the violation was not caused by the kids, but by the adults managing the team. If a team does violate the boundary rules and is not disqualified, what precedent does it set?

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Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on February 10, 2015

It was only a few short years ago that the Point Breeze and Girard Point oil refineries owned by Sunoco in South Philadelphia were about to be abandoned. Along came visionary Phil Rinaldi who saw something that Sunoco did not see – irreplaceable assets sitting in the middle of a major metropolitan region whose residents and businesses provided a ready market for the products produced by these assets. The refineries are in an area with excellent infrastructure – two deep-water navigable rivers with ocean access, rail service and interstate highways, and the potential of someday processing Marcellus shale natural gas that is only 100 miles away. With the financial backing of The Carlyle Group, Rinaldi formed a new company, named it Philadelphia Energy Solutions and purchased the two refineries.

During my interview with Rinaldi, he exuded a quiet determination, a sense of confidence in what he and his team at Philadelphia Energy Solutions and other stakeholders were accomplishing by reestablishing this important industry in Philadelphia. He saw possibilities, where others saw obstacles that could not be overcome. He saw the glass as half full, while others saw it as half empty.

Rinaldi spoke of the opinions of the “experts” at the time, who felt that oil refining did not have a place in the “new economy” and that gasoline, heating oil and other refined products could be refined elsewhere and shipped here. Rinaldi stated that there was a view that perhaps the refineries should be bulldozed and the condominiums built on these sites.

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Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on February 2, 2015

An incident hit the news late last week in which a Comcast customer in Spokane, Wash., learned his name had been replaced on his account with a vulgarity after he canceled his service. The incident went viral on social media and was widely reported in the press.

Comcast Senior Vice President of Customer Experience Charlie Herrin released the following statement: “… We have apologized to our customer for this unacceptable situation and addressed it directly with the employee who will no longer be working on behalf of Comcast. We are also looking at a number of technical solutions that would prevent it from happening moving forward. We took this opportunity to reinforce with each employee just how important respect is to our culture. …”

A few days prior to this incident becoming public, I interviewed Herrin and Senior Vice President for Customer Service Tom Karinshak to learn more about Comcast’s journey to improve customer experience. I have no doubt that both individuals and the executive leadership of the company view improvement of customer experience with Comcast as an imperative. Given the number and frequency of negative experiences that have gone viral, they have much work to do, to change the perceptions of the public.

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Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on January 26, 2015

Setting goals as a business unit leader at PQ Corporation, as the company’s CEO and as a board member approving the operational and strategic plans of other CEOs, I have developed a perspective on the annual and strategic goal-setting process. Done effectively, goal setting drives execution and individual, team and organizational performance.

There are six major factors that determine the credibility of any organization’s operational and strategic plans, and the goals outlined in those plans:

• Talent and capabilities of the business unit’s management team, and their ability to execute and achieve results
• Competitive position of the company’s products or services in its markets and the strategies of competitors
• Availability of capital and operating resources needed to execute the plan
• Whether upside potentials are balanced by downside risks and if there is an imbalance, how it is addressed in the goal-setting process.
• Ownership in the plan by the employees who will execute it
• Effectiveness of strategies to achieve results

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Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on January 20, 2015

I recently watched “The Imitation Game,” a film that received eight Oscar nominations, including best picture. The film is about Englishman Alan Turing (brilliantly played by best actor nominee Benedict Cumberbatch) and his small team of elite mathematicians and code breakers who broke the “unbreakable” German Enigma code during World War II. This permitted the British to successfully use a captured German Enigma machine to decode military messages and turn the tide of the war.

Film critics gave “The Imitation Game” and its actors high marks in many categories. Not one critic, however, mentioned that three of the themes that ran through the film are great lessons in counter-intuitive leadership, breaking paradigms and the importance of respecting the abilities of women.

Don’t discount a counter-intuitive leadership style

Turing lacked interpersonal skills and would have failed as a leader in most situations. As a team member, he alienated his fellow code breakers. He was driven, however, by his strong belief that “… only a machine could defeat another machine.”

Prior attempts at breaking the Enigma code by humans using traditional methods were unsuccessful. In spite of having no interpersonal skills, he slowly won his team over with an unwavering resolve that his approach was the only one that would break the code. His team began to develop ownership in Turing’s approach, and threatened to quit when the naval commanding officer who headed the Enigma project wanted to fire Turing because the military had no faith in anything outside of their own narrow inflexible framework for breaking the code.

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Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on January 12, 2015

“Good is the enemy of great” are the opening words of “Good to Great,” the best-selling iconic book by preeminent leadership and management thought leader Jim Collins, on “why some companies make the leap [to outstanding sustained performance] … and some don’t.” If you think that “good” is good enough, you will never become great.

When I became the president and CEO of PQ Corp., chairman of the PQ board Richard D. Wood Jr. gave me a copy of “Good to Great.” I will be forever grateful to Wood, because the book outlined the characteristics of companies that have achieved outstanding sustained performance. Collins’ book served as a guide for leading PQ during my tenure as CEO, and later as an independent board member at other companies, assessing their leaders and organizations.

Collins and his team of researchers poured over reams of data to uncover 11 companies that had cumulative stock returns at least 6.9 times that of the general market over a 15-year period. For perspective, from 1985 to 2000, GE had cumulative stock returns only 2.8 times that of the general market. Collins and his team then studied the characteristics of these companies and the characteristics of their CEOs, versus comparison companies that did not perform as well. Collins identified eight principles that differentiated these high-performing companies from the comparison companies. Here are the four differentiating principles that were most impactful for me:

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Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on January 5, 2015

Every January, thought leaders write about “new trends” for the coming year. It was suggested that I do the same in the area of leadership. What I want to write about, however, are not trends. They are timeless leadership imperatives that are characteristic of all high-performing organizations. We all should remember these as we start 2015.

Communicate the vision, mission and goals for the organization

Your employees can’t help fulfill the vision and achieve the mission and goals of the organization unless they know what they are. Communicate these to them, and why they were chosen. Work to gain buy-in from your employees to make them shared vision/mission/goals. If 2015 is the year to re-write the vision/mission statements, involve employees at various levels within the organization. Set joint goals with your direct reports, so they have ownership in them. Periodically update employees on the progress of the journey to achieve the organization’s vision/mission/goals.

Let your employees know what their role is on this journey. As CEO of my company, I once told an operating division of a mature business that their role is to generate cash flow that could be invested in high-growth businesses in other parts of the company. I also told them that they needed to continue their successful efforts on continuous improvement, and they would continue to receive capital for process improvement projects that had an attractive return on investment. These employees shared with me that it was the first time that they were ever told what their role is in the company’s growth. They embraced their role and fulfilled their job as a cash generator with newfound dedication.

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Article originally published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on December 29, 2014

Writing a weekly column on effective leadership for publication in the Philadelphia Business Journal is a team effort between my editors and me. My editors are two Drexel University undergraduate English majors, Julia Casciato, the former editor-in-chief and managing editor of Drexel University’s independent student newspaper, The Triangle, and Alexa Josaphouitch, a co-chief copy editor of The Triangle. Speaking with both of them over time, I learned how each has gained valuable leadership experience as undergraduates.

In their role as editors, what do Casciato and Josaphouitch do? They are a set of eyes beyond mine. In addition to checking spelling, tense, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure, they check for inconsistencies and ensure that the ideas and concepts I present tie together in a logical way. In addition, they check for AP Style, which is a set of writing conventions for newspaper articles. They comment on the tone of the article and if I am effectively delivering my message to the reader.

I interviewed both Casciato and Josaphouitch to learn about their leadership experiences as undergraduates at Drexel, and what they have learned editing articles for my weekly column. They both shared that by editing my column, they are exposed to leadership issues that they would not normally be exposed to as undergrads.

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