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The Life Cycle of a CEO— Claudius A. Hildebrand & Robert J. Stark

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Introduction

In fact, Dave hadn’t been the first choice for the CEO position, or even the second or third choice. Word was five others had been offered the job before him. What’s more, a couple of years earlier he’d been unceremoniously fired from his position as divisional president at a leading competitor. No one would have suggested from his educational background, either, that he was CEO material. Not only did he not have a degree from an elite school, but it also took him six years to graduate. He hated college and he’d dropped out for a time.

As Dave’s first year in the CEO seat progressed, the sneering assessments of that Florida night prevailed on the Street; the company’s stock slid 40 percent.

Yet, Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom, who has tried for twenty years to determine the characteristics of the most effective corporate leaders, cautions, “You look at the data, there’s ten different recipes for success. Sure, there are some people who are better than others, but it’s damn hard to tell what it is.

Questioning so many people early on is also a powerful way to convey respect for people’s knowledge, showing them, not just telling them, that you respect them. It also harnesses the enormous power of demonstrating humility. Mark Hoplamazian, who took the helm at Hyatt Hotels Corporation in 2006, credits his great success to fulsomely owning up to his ignorance and asking for help in understanding the business. When he took over at Hyatt, “My experience was within finance: I did not have a lot of managerial experience. On paper, I was seemingly unqualified for the role.

Ebel’s routine of five annual field visits speaks to how important it is to do this deep and broad discovery work not only in the early days but also throughout your tenure. The time has proven so valuable that many leaders incorporate various listening and observing practices into their ongoing agendas. Chris Nassetta said, “I am talking to customers and our team at all levels all over the world all the time to make sure that I’m learning and understanding what’s going on inside our business.

Flush off of that achievement, Hoplamazian turned his attention to a feature of Hyatt that was the reason he’d decided to make his big leap. In his months as interim CEO, working closely for the first time with the Hyatt executive team, he realized that “there was something so special about the culture of Hyatt. I couldn’t quite put it into words, but nobody was showing up just to punch a clock.” He felt deeply that he’d had “a true emotional experience of joining the Hyatt family.” Now he decided to delve into the power behind that strength of connection he felt as fuel for growing the company.