Resources

74 Resources for

william j. holstein

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CEOS: Beware of a New Breed of Competitors in Emerging Markets: For decades, chief executive officers of Western multinationals have concentrated primarily on competing against each other—Colgate-Palmolive kept an eye on Procter & Gamble, Pfizer watched Novartis, United Technologies' Pratt aircraft engine division targeted Rolls Royce and General Electric, and so forth. But now, the Boston Consulting Group...; Tags: Games, Strategy, Financial services, William J. Holstein, Gol, Grupo Elektra, Shanda, industry, emerging market; Blog posts 2008-03-31
Are Fewer Clicks A Sign of Trouble for Google?: There's much speculation today about the significance of the fact that the number of U.S. Internet users clocking on Google's search ads in February fell 3 percent from January. It was the second straight month that had happened. Google says the deceleration in clicks is occurring because...; Tags: INTERNET, William J. Holstein, Google Inc., advertisement; Blog posts 2008-03-28
Why The Motorola Breakup is All Wrong: The proposed breakup of Motorola into two companies just doesn't make any sense. Here's my thinking: --It's just crazy for a board to cave in to someone like Carl Icahn. He doesn't have the long-term interests of anyone in mind other than his own, and his is...; Tags: Corporate governance, Cellular phones, William J. Holstein, cell-phone business, Motorola Inc., cell phone, board; Blog posts 2008-03-27
Private Equity in Trouble: How Sweet It Is: Whenever a group that portrays itself as Masters of the Universe gets into trouble, it is time to rejoice. How delicious that Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners are about to lose out on their deal to take Clear Channel Communications private. It's a $19.5 billion...; Tags: Financial services, Investment, William J. Holstein, private equity; Blog posts 2008-03-26
Countrywide, Bear Stearns: Failures in Governance: We've now seen two financial firms fail in the subprime mortgage mess--Countrywide Financial and Bear Stearns. What do they share in common? Spectacularly bad corporate governance. There's been a long-running debate among shareholder activists and corporate leaders whether "good governance" equals "good business," or merely consists of...; Tags: Mortgages, Corporate governance, Financial accounting, William J. Holstein, Bear Stearns & Co. Inc.; Blog posts 2008-03-25

Cautionary Tale: How Starbucks Lost Its Edge: Howard Shultz is seeking to revitalize Starbucks now that he has come back in as chief executive officer. He says the reason he's coming back in is not because of competition from McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts. It relates to internal challenges. Here's some of what he said: ...; Tags: William J. Holstein, Starbucks Corp., Howard Shultz; Blog posts 2008-03-20
Sprint Gets Rid of Four Directors: I've been beating up on the Sprint Nextel board of directors for months and it appears that someone in Kansas agrees with me: four out of 13 directors are stepping down. See this account. Two directors, Linda Koch Lorimer and Keith Bane, told the Securities and Exchange...; Tags: Corporate governance, William J. Holstein, board, Sprint Communications; Blog posts 2008-03-19
IBM's Study on Corporate Social Responsibility: It's a New World: IBM is out with an interesting new study that I think speaks volumes about what top managements should be thinking about these days. Essentially, IBM is arguing, based on a survey of 250 companies globally, that we have crossed from one world--in which chief executive officers worry only about shareholders--into...; Tags: Business ethics, Corporate law, Leadership, William J. Holstein, CSR, IBM Corp., Corporate Social Responsibility; Blog posts 2008-03-18
An Important Message: Get People Connected: For those of us who write about business, every once in a while, a book or an article comes along that seems so simple on some levels yet communicates great wisdom. "The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage" is one such work. Here's a link to the download. The author is Michael Lee...; Tags: William J. Holstein, Connected Corp.; Blog posts 2008-03-17
Why Bill Gates Is Wrong on H-1B Visas: This is an extremely complicated issue, and it's been around for years, but let's talk some common sense about H-1B visas. Bill Gates went before Congress this week to try to make it easier for companies to hire foreign tech workers, using this visa status. Essentially, companies can bring in...; Tags: William J. Holstein, H-1B; Blog posts 2008-03-13
The Fed Bailout: Beware the Moral Hazard: The Federal Reserve's decision to pump $200 billion into the hands of American banks deserves a cautionary yellow-flag. The Fed is clearly putting taxpayer dollars at risk by allowing the banks to trade their funny money mortgage-related instruments for Treasury bonds and bills. The banks don't know...; Tags: Financial services, William J. Holstein, Federal Reserve Board, bank; Blog posts 2008-03-12
Eliot Spitzer's Character: I Told You So: Right now, a lot of people are piling on Eliot Spitzer for portraying himself as being so righteous in stamping out evil even while reportedly seeking out the services of high-priced call girls. People seem to be surprised. But I'm not. I was very lonely out there in the...; Tags: Quality, Financial accounting, William J. Holstein, Eliot Spitzer; Blog posts 2008-03-11
Memo to Michael Dell: CEO Sharing Doesn't Work: Dear Michael, Remember when I came down there to Round Rock and interviewed you and Kevin Rollins almost five years ago? It was for Chief Executive magazine. Basically, I believed you and Kevin when you told me that it was possible for two people to share the...; Tags: Recruitment & Selection, William J. Holstein, Kevin; Blog posts 2008-02-29
Needed: Major Financial Reform: It seems to me that a very important message in getting the lost in the shuffle of "Will the Fed lower rates or not?" and "How bad will the recession be?" The important message is that we need deep structural reform in our financial sector. In some...; Tags: Corporate governance, Advertising & Promotion, Financial accounting, Financial services, William J. Holstein, financial, agency; Blog posts 2008-02-28
Indian CEOs in Demand--Indra Nooyi of Pepsi: Fortune magazine has a cover story on Indra Nooyi, the relatively new CEO of Pepsi. It makes for interesting reading and I recommend it. We've had this discussion about Indian CEOs in the Corner Office before but the thing that strikes me about Nooyi is that she...; Tags: William J. Holstein, Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo; Blog posts 2008-02-27
The Battle for The New York Times: This is a fascinating battle where two fundamental impulses--the right of shareholders to earn the best possible returns and the role of an independent media in the American democracy--come into conflict. Disclosure: I've been writing for the Times for seven years, but think I can step back...; Tags: Corporate governance, Asset management, Investment, New York Times Co., William J. Holstein, Sulzbergers, board, counterargument, American Media; Blog posts 2008-02-26
The Economy: A Grinding Five-Year Restructuring: I made that pronouncement in my previous posting and now I'm being challenged to explain what I mean. I relish the opportunity. This is more than a one- or two-quarter recession. This is the end of a nearly 30-year cycle that started when Ronald Reagan took office...; Tags: William J. Holstein; Blog posts 2008-02-21
Nell Minow: What Went Wrong at Citi, Merrill: Nell Minow, editor of The Corporate Library, has been a gadfly and corporate critic for many years. Her No. 1 issue these days is compensation for chief executive officers. And she's right that mismanagement of CEO compensation played a role in what went wrong at the top of some of...; Tags: Benefits, Financial services, Citigroup Inc., William J. Holstein, Nell Minow, compensation; Blog posts 2008-02-21
Mad in Seattle: Microsoft's Proxy Fight Is All Wrong: I know this marks me as oh-so-last century, but one American military officer fighting in Vietnam was quoted as saying, "We had to destroy the village to save it." In other words, to prevent the village from falling into the hands of the Commies, it had to be torched. ...; Tags: Workforce management, William J. Holstein, Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft Corp.; Blog posts 2008-02-20
Are American Multinationals Still "American?": In case you missed it, Claudia Deutsch of the New York Times had an excellent article about how General Electric is trying to become even more international than it already is. Many of America's top companies are making 50 percent of their sales offshore. United Technologies makes 60 percent of...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, William J. Holstein, sales offshore, sales; Blog posts 2008-02-19