BOOK OF THE DAY: David Went reviews The Secrets of CEOs: 150 global chief executives lift the lid on business, life and leadership. By Steve Tappin and Andrew Cave. Nicholas Brealey Publishing. 304pp; price £18.00
I READ THIS book reluctantly because, as Sir Richard Branson says in his foreword, "I am not a great reader of business books". Judging by the extensive business selection you now see at every airport book shop, Branson and I must be in something of a minority.
This book, while clearly the product of many hours of discussions with 150 senior business people, suffers from a significant defect that afflicts business books attempting to deal with people and events in a fast-moving world. The chapter on the "capital crunch" was clearly written before the realisation that things could indeed get worse - HBOS and Andy Hornby are praised as far-sighted survivors!
Drawing lessons from the fast-moving present is perhaps best done in a newspaper - or, recognising the inevitable, in a loose-leaf format.
The shredding of CEOs' reputations in the current hostile environment detracts from the utility of this volume.
The book attempts to tell us what it is really like to be a chief executive - it's difficult and not all it's cracked up to be. There are five "hard facts" of life that will be critical to business success: hard globalisation, sustainability, surfing the third wave of the web, dealing with alternative capital and waging the first world war for talent. While these might all be interesting as academic (and complex) contributions, I am not sure that, given the pressures of the day job, a real world chief executive would wade through this and the somewhat impenetrable charts/tables that are everywhere.
What motivates and drives the world's top chief executives? The key business differentiator is talent. Martin Sorrell says: "If you have the right people running the business units it works magically. It's like turning up the volume." Chief executives only succeed through people.
The best part of the book (and for me the only really good part) lies in the chapter on preparing to lead. This requires ambition, but above all, an appreciation that being a leader mandates an apprenticeship of sorts and an understanding that there is no defined path to success.
There is good solid advice here: build the right foundations; get wide experience best found in a fast stable (per Archie Norman, companies such as Mars, Tesco, some professional firms, I suspect, McKinsey); be prepared to go where the opportunities are; work globally. You need to develop what are described as business leadership habits: adapt the mindset of a chief executive, develop winning habits but know how to lose, find a mentor, but also have a life and learn to celebrate your successes. And above all, be true to yourself.
There is sound advice for the CEO end game, beginning with one nugget that should be up in lights for all in leadership positions, whether politics or whatever - it's better to step back too early than too late! You need to be careful that the business does not lose momentum by gradual transition - there's nothing so like a busted flush as a departing chief executive. An active chairing role elsewhere allows a phased transition and the CEO is advised to develop a full range of stretch commitments which will enable the passing on of years' of executive learning to the next generation. Above all, teaching them the tricks of being a CEO and winning, thanks to support networks of family and friends - and perhaps even an executive coach!
• David Went is chairman of The Irish Times Limited and former group chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent plc