The Interviews

March 24, 2019

March 24, 2019

My search firm was recently tasked with identifying candidates for the CEO job of a major, international corporation. The company involved has operations and interests in almost every country in the world. It is a multi-billion dollar operation, has tens of thousands of employees, and does business in over 100 languages and currencies around the world. It is the leader in its business. There are many other companies in its business, but no one rivals this company in scope and expertise. The company is growing steadily, but not quite as fast as it would like. It has international arrangements and agreements with dozens of companies on several continents.

The company wants a CEO with corporate experience at both the domestic and international level. Experience with another conglomerate would certainly be helpful. The company wants someone who would understood all of its stakeholders. The company wants someone who could work with all levels of management, its customers, its investors, and the Board of Directors. The candidate should be smart, tough, personable, and creative. He or she should be a good communicator. We identified two candidates.

The first candidate was a female. She was actually married to a former CEO, who passed away suddenly. She was a mother and a grandmother. After her husband’s passing, she went back to law school, having graduated first in her class years before from a very prestigious college. She needed no help in getting in. After graduating from law school, she went to work for a major US corporation as a staff attorney. Having done her work capably, she felt unfulfilled so she asked to be transferred to a line position where she could learn more about how the company operated. She eventually became head of the company’s biggest division in the Northeast. After a successful six years in this position, where she had to deal with some of the worst disasters the company ever faced, she was tapped to run the company’s entire international operation. She was very effective in dealing with foreign governments and international clients. She developed a reputation for being meticulously prepared and tough.

In the interview, she was clearly the smartest person in the room. She had an answer for everything. She was supremely confident. She was assertive, if not abrasive. She seemed annoyed with some of the questioning. She was nice enough, but there was something about her that made us uncomfortable. She acted as if the job was already hers.

The second candidate was a male. He attended a small, private Catholic university for two years before transferring to an Ivy League business school. There was no record of his grades, nor any evidence of his academic achievement. He went to work immediately in his father’s family real estate business, which is where he was until today. He had been married three times, and there were many rumors about inappropriate behavior. He claimed to be very successful despite a string of personal bankruptcies. He was well known in the press as tabloid fodder. His chutzpah was second to none. He reminded us of a combination of P.T. Barnum and The Music Man. He was always selling himself, often at the expense of others. He made a strong case that he knew what we needed to stimulate growth despite having no experience in managing an international conglomerate like ours. He said it was all about leverage. Debt was the answer. He also advocated ripping up most of our agreements with foreign companies in favor of a go-it-alone approach. He said he could drive much better deals, and that we would get “tired of winning.” He said that medical benefits were killing our bottom line, and needed to be addressed. He even advocated doing away with our medical plan.

In the end, despite our recommendation, the company chose the man despite his lack of any tangible qualifications. “He seemed like our kind of guy,” they said. He was a better fit. Regarding the woman, a passage from “To Kill a Mockingbird.” summarized their feelings. “It’s not necessary to tell all you know. It’s not ladylike—in the second place, folks don’t like to have somebody around knowin’ more than they do. It aggravates ’em.”