It was
announced recently that Time Warner Inc. had forced out Jack Griffin, chief
executive of the media company's Time Inc. publishing unit after less than six
months on the job. This is according to an article in the Wall
Street Journal.
The main reason for this separation coming from inside the
company seems to be a lack of "fit" between Mr.
Griffin and Time. So Jeff Bewkes, CEO of the parent company, decided
to cut his losses and let Mr. Griffin go.
One of the more important things not on any resume' is
"chemistry." This partially explains why companies, even
those who take their time in succession, often fail to ask the right
questions. Will this person fit culturally? Organizationally?
Alongside current management? With the board? With our
customers?
Is there such a thing as a perfect fit? Once in a great while. Most
of the time a more realistic succession goal is a close fit.
Sometimes the situation requires an incoming leader to be different from
the current culture, especially in a turnaround situation. I often
think of Lou Gerstner going to IBM in the 1990s amid that crisis. He
was a one-man "counter-culture."
With the help of a lot of people in the company, Mr. Gerstner led one of the
great recoveries in the history of business. The inside story is
told with clarity in his book, "Who Says Elephants Can't
Dance?" http://www.amazon.com/
From press reports, it sounds as though Mr. Griffin had a mixed bag of things
going against him:
- He succeeds a
long-time executive, Ann Moore, who was there for more than 30 years.
- His behavior
is described as "imperious."
- Early meetings
were called, some starting at 7:30 a.m.
- There was a
clash of personalities and styles.
- An over-reliance
on outside consultants.
- A refashioning
of sales and marketing to reflect his former company, Meredith
Corp.
We look
forward to hearing his side of the story, and there are always two sides.
Short-tenures often follow long ones like Ms. Moore. Why? It
is primarily due to a period of transition. Businesses need to
work their way through the process of changing leaders. The price for this
transition is often paid by the person willing to take on an
assignment of this kind. That is why "interims" are appropriate
in certain circumstances.
Some of the blame for Mr. Griffin not working out belongs to Time
Warner. What were the expectations? How thorough was the
vetting process? Who signed off on the hire?
The biggest predictor of future behavior is frequent past behavior--so an
"imperious" nature should not have been a surprise.
This termination shows how even big corporations with all the right HR
resources can come up short.
The takeaway is how quickly Time Warner moved to correct the
mistake--six months. Failing to deal directly with problem
executives is the number one reason for CEO failure according to
best-selling author and consultant, Ram Charan. Mr. Bewkes, the CEO
of Time Warner, decided Mr. Griffin was not a good fit, decided
not to provide coaching, and acted promptly to change course.
What's the application for your organization?
strategist.com
(C) Bredholt & Co.
