Two crises, same common thread: Business leadership under attack.
In one corner of the ring punching and jabbing like life depends on it is David Neeleman, CEO of JetBlue Airlines. You would be, too, if your business had completely broken down for the world to see on Lover's Day, or what some have quickly labeled the Valentine's Day Massacre. "We've been JetBlued" has now entered the traveler lexicon. But that's another story.
In the other corner, not really jabbing but taking wide swings is Ken Lewis, CEO, Bank of America, which has been singled out for peddling credit cards to illegal immigrants. The company would tell you otherwise. What made the program highly controversial were 24 percent APR interest rates on cards marketed in Los Angeles' Hispanic community. Whether the immigrants were legal or illegal misses the larger business point.
The easy conclusion to draw here is obvious: CEOs under attack for their company's performance and bad behavior. How each has handled their respective crises, however, bears further examination. So do exploring the sum of their experiences, the forgotten variable often overlooked when reporting about monolithic companies.
Neeleman is a devout Mormon with nine children. His first experience in business was observing his grandfather's convenience store, where if a product sold out, he would run down to the nearest supermarket and buy more of the item in demand. A self described sufferer of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Neeleman dropped out of a college to start a travel agency. He then founded an airline which was subsequently sold to Southwest Airlines whose CEO at the time was Herb Kelleher, an entrepreneurial legend in his own right. According to a previously published profile in Fortune magazine, Neeleman was fired after about five months on the job. By the time he started JetBlue in 1999, it's safe to say that he had experienced just about every up and down (no pun intended) an airline executive could experience.
Now juxtapose this personal history with Ken Lewis, the iron clad CEO of Bank of America, which has witnessed incredible growth under his watch. Lewis joined what was then NCNB in 1969 as a credit analyst and worked his way up to the top job through grit and determination over 30 years. No small feat in its own right.
Ok, interesting personal histories. But what's the point? We are framed by influences, events and experiences that create who we are. Leaders, however, are held to a higher standard. Hence the term, “leadership.” It's their responsibility to help others adapt and respond to change, which often rears its ugly side through crises.
In one corner of the ring punching and jabbing like life depends on it is David Neeleman, CEO of JetBlue Airlines. You would be, too, if your business had completely broken down for the world to see on Lover's Day, or what some have quickly labeled the Valentine's Day Massacre. "We've been JetBlued" has now entered the traveler lexicon. But that's another story.
In the other corner, not really jabbing but taking wide swings is Ken Lewis, CEO, Bank of America, which has been singled out for peddling credit cards to illegal immigrants. The company would tell you otherwise. What made the program highly controversial were 24 percent APR interest rates on cards marketed in Los Angeles' Hispanic community. Whether the immigrants were legal or illegal misses the larger business point.
The easy conclusion to draw here is obvious: CEOs under attack for their company's performance and bad behavior. How each has handled their respective crises, however, bears further examination. So do exploring the sum of their experiences, the forgotten variable often overlooked when reporting about monolithic companies.
Neeleman is a devout Mormon with nine children. His first experience in business was observing his grandfather's convenience store, where if a product sold out, he would run down to the nearest supermarket and buy more of the item in demand. A self described sufferer of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Neeleman dropped out of a college to start a travel agency. He then founded an airline which was subsequently sold to Southwest Airlines whose CEO at the time was Herb Kelleher, an entrepreneurial legend in his own right. According to a previously published profile in Fortune magazine, Neeleman was fired after about five months on the job. By the time he started JetBlue in 1999, it's safe to say that he had experienced just about every up and down (no pun intended) an airline executive could experience.
Now juxtapose this personal history with Ken Lewis, the iron clad CEO of Bank of America, which has witnessed incredible growth under his watch. Lewis joined what was then NCNB in 1969 as a credit analyst and worked his way up to the top job through grit and determination over 30 years. No small feat in its own right.
Ok, interesting personal histories. But what's the point? We are framed by influences, events and experiences that create who we are. Leaders, however, are held to a higher standard. Hence the term, “leadership.” It's their responsibility to help others adapt and respond to change, which often rears its ugly side through crises.
Applying this rule to the Neeleman and Lewis examples, who do you think is more suited to lead?
The short answer is we won't know for awhile. JetBlue has to re-earn the trust and confidence of customers, which is no easy task with or without a "bill or rights." Bank of America seems to have weathered its storm despite not appearing to be forthright and visible on the controversial credit program.
Neeleman has chosen a star-driven public profile, appearing on the David Letterman show and in other countless formats to answer criticism. Other than an op-ed on the Wall Street Journal’s sympathetic editorial page, Lewis has remained relatively tight lipped like a good banker always is taught to be. Different strokes for different folks. Savvy public relations can only provide air cover for so long.
The harder answer to the leadership suitability question generally requires digging deeper beyond the surface, which regrettably, our attention spans do not allow. Whether Neeleman and Lewis meet some unknown threshold may make good news, but it doesn't produce any lasting lesson. A far more productive exercise would be if more business leaders could apply their core values, assuming they have some, to the issues at hand. Then we might get somewhere on the trust and confidence meter.
The short answer is we won't know for awhile. JetBlue has to re-earn the trust and confidence of customers, which is no easy task with or without a "bill or rights." Bank of America seems to have weathered its storm despite not appearing to be forthright and visible on the controversial credit program.
Neeleman has chosen a star-driven public profile, appearing on the David Letterman show and in other countless formats to answer criticism. Other than an op-ed on the Wall Street Journal’s sympathetic editorial page, Lewis has remained relatively tight lipped like a good banker always is taught to be. Different strokes for different folks. Savvy public relations can only provide air cover for so long.
The harder answer to the leadership suitability question generally requires digging deeper beyond the surface, which regrettably, our attention spans do not allow. Whether Neeleman and Lewis meet some unknown threshold may make good news, but it doesn't produce any lasting lesson. A far more productive exercise would be if more business leaders could apply their core values, assuming they have some, to the issues at hand. Then we might get somewhere on the trust and confidence meter.
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