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The
corner office
What's it like at
the top?
Related
articles:
- Saving
a historic bank
- At Bay Mechanic, founder
steps back following brush with death
- Military background helps
founders call the shots at ITA
- No fancy office
for LandAmerica's CEO
Virginia Business
July
2004
For nearly two years now, corporate
America has been taking it on the chin. High profile
stories have exposed a wave of scandals as one CEO after
another was caught with his hand in the corporate cookie
jar. The prestige of the executive suite sagged with
revelations about leaders such as Tyco’s Dennis
Kozlowski, who looted his company of millions to pay
for goodies like a $1 million birthday bash for his
wife.
The incidents of greed and fraud grabbed
headlines and resulted in indictments and a few jail
sentences. In the meantime CEOs continued to plug along,
with most of them dealing with the far more mundane
challenges of leadership, technological innovation and
surviving an uncertain economy. With the economy on
the rebound, many companies are expanding now, but it
remains a tough time to be a CEO or a company owner.
The public scandals have sparked public distrust, and
shareholders and boards of directors are demanding irreproachable
ethics and solid results. It’s no wonder, according
to one study, that the average stay in a Fortune 100
corner office these days is six years.
Given the recent turmoil, Virginia Business
decided to talk with CEOs and company owners in Virginia.
We wanted to know about the challenges in running a
business today and how they meet them. We quizzed executives
of both public and private companies about their backgrounds,
what inspires them and how they respond to the pressures
of the top job.
LandAmerica’s Charles E. Foster
Jr. heads a company with annual revenues of $3.4 billion
that just broke into the Fortune 500. Accordingly, he
spoke about the strategies that built the firm into
an industry leader. Private entrepreneur Rod Rodriguez
is at the other end of the spectrum. After years of
calling the daily shots at his mechanical contracting
firm in Virginia Beach, he’s stepping back after
a life-threatening illness caused him to reassess priorities.
A woman banking CEO faces the biggest challenge of her
career — trying to save a historic African-American
bank — while a former military officer tapped
into his background to co-found a company that offers
multimedia training to government defense contractors.
From these profiles, we hope readers
will find insights about both the trials and triumphs
of the corner office.
Return to Virginia Business - July 2004
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