Biz Bits
The Business > Biz Bits
The latest essential buys for executives.
Card Trick
CardScan USB Scanner
$249.99 This USB-powered device scans business cards into a manageable electronic format, so you can wave goodbye to chaotic desktops and messy bottom drawers. It’s easy to use, has built-in character recognition (which even works when the ink is slightly smudged), and it allows you to import cards into your e-mail program. www.cardscan.com
The Missing Link
Belkin N1 Wireless Router
$149.99 The new Belkin N1 Wireless Router allows several different applications to run at once without any connection drops, so you can listen to digital music, send emails, transfer photos, stream HD video and handle multiple VoIP phone calls all at the same time. MIMO technology (multiple input multiple output) enables receivers and transmitters to receive and send data through the air, with a link rate of up to 300Mbps in 40 MHz channel mode. The funky design features an icon status display with easily identified indicators about your network, which equates to speedy troubleshooting. www.belkin.com
Bookshelf
Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO
By Nathan Bennett and Stephen A. Miles (Stanford University Press $27.95)
Plenty of books focus on the role of the CEO, but surprisingly few home in on their second-in-command, the COO. Nathan Bennett and Stephen Miles—a scholar and a consultant, respectively—draw on first-person accounts from admired COOs to provide new insights into this important position. An essential resource that should help CEOs and COOs to establish a workable leadership structure.
Q&A
Stylish Finance
Ted Prince
Ted Prince is the author of new book, The 3 Financial Styles of Very Successful Leaders (McGraw-Hill $29.95), which aims to transform the ways corporations train their executives to improve financial and valuation performance. We caught up with him to find out more.
Which CEO do you most admire for their financial style?
I like Lou Gerstner, formerly the CEO of IBM. This might seem surprising, since he was a conglomerator and, in the financial signature model, they actually consume capital over the longer term.
So why was his style such a success?
At the stage that he took over, their need was actually to drop the value-added of their overall product mix and to increase expense and investment, both of which he did. Both Gerstner and the IBM board were wise enough to see that they needed a deficit style at that particular stage of the company’s evolution. And both were wise enough to see that Gerstner was there to do a job, and that once he had completed it, the best interests of the company were served by his departure, which occurred at the right time.
Can you give an example of a renowned business failure that had financial-style problems at its core?
I think that Dennis Kozlowski, the CEO of Tyco, is a great example. He was a mercantilist—low value-adding and high expense. His strategy of building Tyco by acquisition was a total failure because the acquisitions were unrelated and added no value.
How could the failure have been avoided?
Had the board and investors been aware of financial signature, they would have seen the warning signs and taken appropriate action, either by removing him or—at the very least— appointing a strong COO.
What other factors are vital to a successful company?
Strong ethical values, a compelling company vision powerfully supported by company staff, and executives and staff who are strongly focused on decisive and rapid execution.
The Closing Bell
Jack Guinan