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The activity of lower level IRS agents was known by people one degree away from the president. An executive office staff that saw their boss as vulnerable, as every CEO is, would have made sure that he was aware and prompted an early and public intervention.
Likewise the AP story; instead of going outside, a route any CEO would instinctively know held danger, focus inside. Before tramping on constitutional rights, especially those the press holds sacrosanct, work the White House information chain backwards — who knew leaked facts? Federal employees with secret clearance know that lie detector testing comes with the job.
Mr. Obama’s political talent is nonpareil. His path to being a CEO is one of learning by doing. First, get back into grace with your bosses – the voters! Hollow rhetoric – “holding accountable” — isn’t working. He should apologize loudly and repeatedly, taking responsibility and actions that matter. The CEO’s script: “I can't believe federal servants did not protect diplomats, spied on the press, and singled out conservative groups using the tax code. It seems the apparatus of Washington forgets who has the ultimate authority – not aides, deputies, and not bureau chiefs. It’s mine; I’m President.”
Barack Obama's Scandals Confirm That He's Not A CEO
Every CEO is a politician. Not every politician is a CEO. The current set of messes that President Obama faces makes the point. They are as much management failures as they are political/legal nightmares. There is a price for having no market-facing executive experience. Indeed, Mr. Obama’s first cabinet had almost no private sector management experience.
Most of our better presidents have had business or military leadership experience. This is of tremendous value when running the world’s largest organization. Those who haven’t, like Bill Clinton, himself tested by failure as a politician and familiar with the executive role governor’s play, knew that private sector executives have a different view of what successful management is and kept a few close at hand.
Every CEO deals with crisis — the storms that customers, suppliers, regulators, and investors present. They deal with a faceless market that can’t be manipulated hoping the next news cycle will make the numbers of a bad quarter go away. The political side of being a CEO: get a big decision wrong you lose your job — tomorrow! Manage a crisis well and your “decision wisdom” grows and so does your market value.
Successful executives understand their organizations intimately – they have a sense of the talent level, culture, and the values that drive their companies. They are always trying to improve all three. No chief executive trying to improve performance would just “trust” the firm’s bureaucracy. Private sector presidents know “Bureaucracy eats strategy for lunch.” President Obama seems to value bureaucracy; he’s made it bigger and paid it better even when taxpayers have lost jobs, income and substantial household wealth. But, as he might be discovering, just as in private sector companies an unmanaged bureaucracy eventually will bite its boss.
Had the president sought counsel from some CEOs who weren’t cozying up as members of his advisory panels, most of whose companies enjoy larger federal subsidies from his administration, his political life might be a lot better.
For starters, none of these crises had to happen! CEOs read history. They know the “why” of the steel industry reinventing itself in micro-mills, the Tylenol crisis story, what went wrong inside Enron. They put themselves into such stories to understand how success and failure happened and to test what they would do. The point: crises will happen — prevent as many as you can. There was trouble afoot in Benghazi; 9-11 coming up prompted caution. A CEO would have said to his NSC chief: “No incidents on the anniversary.”
The activity of lower level IRS agents was known by people one degree away from the president. An executive office staff that saw their boss as vulnerable, as every CEO is, would have made sure that he was aware and prompted an early and public intervention.
Likewise the AP story; instead of going outside, a route any CEO would instinctively know held danger, focus inside. Before tramping on constitutional rights, especially those the press holds sacrosanct, work the White House information chain backwards — who knew leaked facts? Federal employees with secret clearance know that lie detector testing comes with the job.
Mr. Obama’s political talent is nonpareil. His path to being a CEO is one of learning by doing. First, get back into grace with your bosses – the voters! Hollow rhetoric – “holding accountable” — isn’t working. He should apologize loudly and repeatedly, taking responsibility and actions that matter. The CEO’s script: “I can’t believe federal servants didn’t protect diplomats, spied on the press, and singled out conservative groups using the tax code. It seems the apparatus of Washington forgets who has the ultimate authority – not aides, deputies, and not bureau chiefs. It’s mine; I’m President.”
Then, “I mean to run government in a way that inspires trust.” “I am firing the Attorney General, the head of the NSC, the Chief of the Joint Staff, and my White House counsel. I don’t know what the Attorney General did. It really doesn’t matter. Justice so abused the 1st Amendment I have no choice. NSC and Defense misjudged the potential in Benghazi badly and failed to save American personnel in ongoing danger — I can’t tolerate such bad management. My White House counsel knew of the IRS investigations for weeks without telling me.” He appoints some esteemed former judge of the Tax Court to clean up the IRS. Then the president preempts the Congress by saying that he wants them to reconsider Obamacare taking away any role for the IRS.
President Obama will have his mojo back instantly. Republicans will be flummoxed. As a CEO he can really shape his legacy. He can focus on getting the economy growing again. After 4 plus years of stimulus, taxes, expensive initiatives, and regulation we still have no real job growth. If he proposes material revisions to Obamacare the economy will jump on the news. Endorsing Keystone makes the economy leap. And, if like JFK he rejects his economists’ advice, cuts taxes and spending, he’d leave office with GDP at 6+ percent! The nation’s affection for Bill Clinton will look like puppy love. What private sector CEOs know and do is an unrecognized national asset that might be of enormous help to the President and the nation just now.
Most of our better presidents have had business or military leadership experience. This is of tremendous value when running the world’s largest organization. Those who haven’t, like Bill Clinton, himself tested by failure as a politician and familiar with the executive role governor’s play, knew that private sector executives have a different view of what successful management is and kept a few close at hand.
Every CEO deals with crisis — the storms that customers, suppliers, regulators, and investors present. They deal with a faceless market that can’t be manipulated hoping the next news cycle will make the numbers of a bad quarter go away. The political side of being a CEO: get a big decision wrong you lose your job — tomorrow! Manage a crisis well and your “decision wisdom” grows and so does your market value.
Successful executives understand their organizations intimately – they have a sense of the talent level, culture, and the values that drive their companies. They are always trying to improve all three. No chief executive trying to improve performance would just “trust” the firm’s bureaucracy. Private sector presidents know “Bureaucracy eats strategy for lunch.” President Obama seems to value bureaucracy; he’s made it bigger and paid it better even when taxpayers have lost jobs, income and substantial household wealth. But, as he might be discovering, just as in private sector companies an unmanaged bureaucracy eventually will bite its boss.
Had the president sought counsel from some CEOs who weren’t cozying up as members of his advisory panels, most of whose companies enjoy larger federal subsidies from his administration, his political life might be a lot better.
For starters, none of these crises had to happen! CEOs read history. They know the “why” of the steel industry reinventing itself in micro-mills, the Tylenol crisis story, what went wrong inside Enron. They put themselves into such stories to understand how success and failure happened and to test what they would do. The point: crises will happen — prevent as many as you can. There was trouble afoot in Benghazi; 9-11 coming up prompted caution. A CEO would have said to his NSC chief: “No incidents on the anniversary.”
The activity of lower level IRS agents was known by people one degree away from the president. An executive office staff that saw their boss as vulnerable, as every CEO is, would have made sure that he was aware and prompted an early and public intervention.
Likewise the AP story; instead of going outside, a route any CEO would instinctively know held danger, focus inside. Before tramping on constitutional rights, especially those the press holds sacrosanct, work the White House information chain backwards — who knew leaked facts? Federal employees with secret clearance know that lie detector testing comes with the job.
Mr. Obama’s political talent is nonpareil. His path to being a CEO is one of learning by doing. First, get back into grace with your bosses – the voters! Hollow rhetoric – “holding accountable” — isn’t working. He should apologize loudly and repeatedly, taking responsibility and actions that matter. The CEO’s script: “I can’t believe federal servants didn’t protect diplomats, spied on the press, and singled out conservative groups using the tax code. It seems the apparatus of Washington forgets who has the ultimate authority – not aides, deputies, and not bureau chiefs. It’s mine; I’m President.”
Then, “I mean to run government in a way that inspires trust.” “I am firing the Attorney General, the head of the NSC, the Chief of the Joint Staff, and my White House counsel. I don’t know what the Attorney General did. It really doesn’t matter. Justice so abused the 1st Amendment I have no choice. NSC and Defense misjudged the potential in Benghazi badly and failed to save American personnel in ongoing danger — I can’t tolerate such bad management. My White House counsel knew of the IRS investigations for weeks without telling me.” He appoints some esteemed former judge of the Tax Court to clean up the IRS. Then the president preempts the Congress by saying that he wants them to reconsider Obamacare taking away any role for the IRS.
President Obama will have his mojo back instantly. Republicans will be flummoxed. As a CEO he can really shape his legacy. He can focus on getting the economy growing again. After 4 plus years of stimulus, taxes, expensive initiatives, and regulation we still have no real job growth. If he proposes material revisions to Obamacare the economy will jump on the news. Endorsing Keystone makes the economy leap. And, if like JFK he rejects his economists’ advice, cuts taxes and spending, he’d leave office with GDP at 6+ percent! The nation’s affection for Bill Clinton will look like puppy love. What private sector CEOs know and do is an unrecognized national asset that might be of enormous help to the President and the nation just now.
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