Frieixe is both West German and Swiss and extremely well-educated as you point out, Al. And as such, these individuals are typically very discreet. However, when the love bug bites, best to keep the Crunch bar under wraps!
Wow. Good article and very amusing too!! You know, in a funny / not funny way. But yeah, these guys have to practice what they preach and what they expect their subordinates to follow.
CEOs (generalizing), or at least CEO wanna-bes, don't seem to believe what they expect from their subordinates is expected of them as well.
I'll never forget being reamed out for paying a visit on the CEO of the company I worked for just before being posted overseas, as a "friendly" courtesy, and thanks. I was on at least occasional dinner terms with he and his wife - both journalists, and he, being India bureau chief at the same time I was a middle schooler witnessing the same war in India he was covering - and, being vaguely aware of office politics, figured as I was soon to be working abroad, it might be a good idea to reconnect before my time overseas.
When confronted by my immediate manager, who'd been (I'm guessing) reamed out by a manager aspiring to become CEO, who I noticed waiting outside the CEO's office when I went in (able to breathe the rarified air at the top of the office tower, without a problem or oxygen mask), and who asked if that is where I'd just been (as I was returning to my desk), I answered: "Yes!" When he asked "why?" I said two things: 1) as a journalist, I'm used to talking to anyone, including corporate and government officials, and do not see my own corporation's CEO as "off-limits" or "unapproachable," and 2) "We're friends. Need I remind you his wife is one of my references?"
A fact, apparently, of which the CEO-in-waiting, at least in his own mind, was unaware.
In other words: CEOs need occasionally to be reminded they are human, and flawed, and fallible - just like the rest of us. And not "Gods," unapproachable by the "workers." If I gotta sign an Ethics code, so do they. And if I've sworn to uphold that code...
Frieixe is both West German and Swiss and extremely well-educated as you point out, Al. And as such, these individuals are typically very discreet. However, when the love bug bites, best to keep the Crunch bar under wraps!
Thanks, Jim. I tried to contain myself on candy bar puns, but keeping it under wraps is pretty good.
Al, always loved your comments from our Denver Post days with the Enron fiasco
JohnBishop
Thanks, John. Always good to hear from you.
Fabulous hed, Al!
I thought it would be in good taste.
Wow. Good article and very amusing too!! You know, in a funny / not funny way. But yeah, these guys have to practice what they preach and what they expect their subordinates to follow.
CEOs (generalizing), or at least CEO wanna-bes, don't seem to believe what they expect from their subordinates is expected of them as well.
I'll never forget being reamed out for paying a visit on the CEO of the company I worked for just before being posted overseas, as a "friendly" courtesy, and thanks. I was on at least occasional dinner terms with he and his wife - both journalists, and he, being India bureau chief at the same time I was a middle schooler witnessing the same war in India he was covering - and, being vaguely aware of office politics, figured as I was soon to be working abroad, it might be a good idea to reconnect before my time overseas.
When confronted by my immediate manager, who'd been (I'm guessing) reamed out by a manager aspiring to become CEO, who I noticed waiting outside the CEO's office when I went in (able to breathe the rarified air at the top of the office tower, without a problem or oxygen mask), and who asked if that is where I'd just been (as I was returning to my desk), I answered: "Yes!" When he asked "why?" I said two things: 1) as a journalist, I'm used to talking to anyone, including corporate and government officials, and do not see my own corporation's CEO as "off-limits" or "unapproachable," and 2) "We're friends. Need I remind you his wife is one of my references?"
A fact, apparently, of which the CEO-in-waiting, at least in his own mind, was unaware.
In other words: CEOs need occasionally to be reminded they are human, and flawed, and fallible - just like the rest of us. And not "Gods," unapproachable by the "workers." If I gotta sign an Ethics code, so do they. And if I've sworn to uphold that code...
They just get too much attention and live in a fake positive feedback loop.