Hiring CEOs is no new phenomenon at enterprises today. However, more and more CEOs still decide to leave the organization despite their high positions and attractive compensation. What’s the problem?
Let’s take the example of Binh (*) who has just returned from Australia with his master degree. He was invited to be the CEO of N. Corporation in Tan Binh District. “The chairman said that I would be empowered to decide all important issues and restructure the company”, he said excitedly. But just after a few months, Binh decided to resign…
Easier said than done…
N. corporation is a well-known business in the mechanical industry. Like any organizations in the process of strong growth as their business expands, conflicts arose between the former CEO and the company’s Chairman. This CEO decided to resign and Binh was invited to replace his position with appealing promises. He was so eager to set up the new business. First of all, he re-evaluated the working procedures of all departments under a huge HR restructuring project. The project was then submitted to the Chairman for official approval. But the response from the Chairman is so discouraging to Binh “It’s too early to consider HR matters in April. We will discuss this project at the end of this year.”
After that, Binh suggested a marketing campaign to promote new products through public relations programs. The Chairman rejected again “This campaign should not be launched now because our products can hardly meet the demand.” Recently, the market control forces have disclosed a lot of items counterfeiting N. corporation’s products. Binh proposed an aggressive strategy to fight the problem by printing special identification signs, offering prizes for people reporting counterfeits, and publishing the problem on newspapers… The Chairman threw a glance at the plan and decided to… delay it because he had just bought a yacht and his family “must” go on holidays in Nha Trang.
“There has been yet any good project I ever implemented this year. I’ve learned from my experience that we should be careful with people promising the moon like my boss!” Binh lamented.
Empowerment – it’s something existing on paper!
Mr. P, General Director cum Chairman of one company specialized in construction materials, laments “It’s very hard to retain talent nowadays. After being trained for some time, they would leave the company and we have to recruit the new ones.” Job hoppers are willing to jump to another company if they feel that the new environment is better with appealing opportunities, salary and benefits. For this reason, P. decided to offer attractive salary and benefit scheme, cars and housing allowance… for recruiting a CEO.
However, after only three months, the newly recruited CEO decided to quit the job because he wasn’t allowed to decide anything. Tuan, the CEO, said: “CEO is to manage and decide important things in the company but I have to ask for the Chairman’s opinions anytime, anywhere. He intervened in every of my business. It’s very hard to cooperate with people who always want to demonstrate their power.”
Arrogant CEO?
Every employee in G. Corporation is so surprised at the resignation of the CEO because he and the Chairman did cooperate very well. It was said that the CEO would be committed to the company at least during a few years, but he left after only 11 months. The Chairman said: “I highly appreciate his talent and decisions. However, I did reject one risky project he proposed. In fact, this project is not feasible when the stock market and real estate market are frozen at the moment.”
But still the CEO showed his defensiveness “High risk, high return. We’ll get nothing if we don’t dare to risk. No worries, I’ll run my project at another company.”
It’s obvious that hiring and managing talent are two important separate tasks that business owners should distinctively attach great importance on. Success of one enterprise is made of three elements: opportunity, situation and people. Among them, “people” always play the most important role. That’s the reason why leaders should make the smartest decisions to retain their talent team.
Source: Nguoi lao dong
* These are illustrative names to avoid mentioning the real people.
