Rolling the Dice: The Leadership Gamble

Annie Lennox, the singer-songwriter from Eurythmics, achieved great success in the 1980s. One of her songs, ‘Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves’, includes the famous line: “Behind every great man, there’s a great woman.”

While I can’t speak to the accuracy of that sentiment, I firmly believe that behind every great company is a great CEO.

Annie Lennox, Eurythmics

Take Apple, for example. Under John Sculley, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy, with only 90 days of cash remaining. Then Steve Jobs returned and propelled Apple into the stratosphere.

IBM followed a similar pattern. Thomas Watson built it into one of the world’s most powerful companies, but when Lou Gerstner took over, the company suffered irreparable damage.

Intel, once a market leader under Noyce, Moore and Grove, has struggled to remain relevant under new management.

There are plenty of stories like these, but you get the idea.

“The same company, with different management, is no longer the same company.”

As investors, we are not looking for the next Apple, the next IBM or the next Intel. Instead we are looking for the next Steve Jobs, the next Thomas Watson and the next Noyce, Moore and Grove combination.

“Invest in the right people or it could cost you everything.”

Every time management changes, shareholders are essentially rolling the dice on their investment and with each roll, there’s always the risk of a bad outcome. The question is - how many times are you willing to take that gamble?

Now, consider this: the average CEO of a public company in the U.S. serves for just over four years. For buy-and-hold investors this presents a significant challenge as it requires rolling the dice many times over a long-term holding period. Yet, most investors pay little or no attention to this risk when evaluating a company as an investment.

A long-term CEO, often a founder, with real skin in the game is always good to see. But that alone is insufficient. To be a truly outstanding leader, the person steering the corporate ship requires a set of very specific character traits.

This video/podcast explores eight key leadership qualities with reference to eight exceptional CEOs - those featured in Will Thorndike’s highly acclaimed book, The Outsiders:

• Independence ~ Henry Singleton

• Adaptability ~ Bill Anders

• Conviction ~ Katharine Graham

• Contrarianism ~ Warren Buffett

• Practicality ~ John Malone

• Frugality ~ Tom Murphy

• Integrity ~ Dick Smith

• Opportunism ~ Bill Stiritz

Each of these is highlighted in this short inspirational video¹ at the top of this page - I promise you that watching it will be 18 minutes well spent.

Enjoy!

1. A special thank you to the Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship for allowing us to share some of their materials.

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