Sublime

The RGMs were thought of as the CEOs of their markets, holding responsibility for revenues and losses, the efforts of thousands of Ops folks, and were always closest to the trickiest problems in the business.

Goldman Sachs: “You learn from day one around here that we gang-tackle problems. If your ego won’t permit that, you won’t be effective here.”2

three to five top objectives—

The second dominant profile that emerged from our analysis was of CEOs who move quickly, act aggressively, work hard, demonstrate persistence, and set high standards and hold people accountable to them. We call these CEOs “Cheetahs” because they are fast and focused. Cheetahs in our study were successful 100 percent of the time. This is not a

To prevent this from happening, group tasks into functions and assign each function to one—and only one—person. These are your areas of responsibility. Apple pioneered AORs in Silicon Valley, but now most successful tech companies use this method. Create a document that lists all of the company’s functions and, for each, the directly responsible

She and her top people, like Ursula Burns, learned the nitty-gritty of every part of the business.

At the Veterans Health Administration, Ken Kizer, appointed by Bill Clinton in 1994, inherited an antiquated, inefficient health-care system. The VA faced changes in its client population, the competitive healthcare environment, and modalities for delivering care.2 In just five years, Kizer instituted an electronic medical record system, made

once a month to put everything that was wrong at Radica on one sheet of paper—he’d told me he’d assume the best if I didn’t tell him otherwise. If a memo about a problem ever exceeded one page, he told me I didn’t understand the problem. Once a year, he asked for a one-page plan in case I went down in an airplane—that was the beginning of our

GINNI ROMETTY Former Chairman, President, and CEO, IBM