Working Column

Houston Chronicle
L.M. Sixel

Before former Enron Corp. CEOs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling ran into trouble, the title of chief executive officer was shorthand for the ultimate - corporate jets, limo service, the highest level of hobnobbing at fabulous resorts.

But these days, has the job of CEO become sort of like the carnival barker in the hierarchy of occupations? Do CEOs cringe when the fellow next to them on the plane says, "So, what do you do?"

As the world watched Lay take the Fifth before Congress and Skilling wade through his congressional questioning, millions saw up close what some CEOs are like. And the image has sullied the small but powerful CEO community.

"They're clearly going the way of the politician and used-car salesman," said John Challenger, who is himself chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago. It's no longer a job that commands instant respect as it once did.

The transformation in the wake of the Enron disaster is all the more apparent because the CEO title had taken on new cachet after Sept. 11.

After the attacks, several CEOs stepped into the spotlight to help, said Challenger, referring to the head of Aon Consulting, who rallied with his employees after losing so many people in the World Trade Center.

"Then, bang, comes Ken Lay," said Challenger, who, he added, seems on the surface warm and like a father figure but behind the scenes appears "Nixonian."

Challenger said he's even thinking about changing his own title. Maybe he'll revert to "president," a perfectly good title until it grew out of favor about 20 years ago when it became all the rage to be a CEO.

Or he'll come up with something that says "service." That's what top executives need to emphasize - service to employees, service to shareholders and service to the community instead of self-enrichment, Challenger said.

CEOs also have to deal with a shaken public confidence, said Albert Vicere, executive education professor of strategic leadership at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University in University Park, Pa.

Vicere is betting there will be increased pressure on CEOs to be more in the public eye. They'll need to communicate clearly and frequently, and integrity will be of paramount importance.

But in the near term, there will be a lot of cynicism, said Vicere, who likened the situation to reporters who win Pulitzer Prizes and then evidence surfaces that their background or their stories were fake.

The erosion of CEO reputations may also encourage more to find out exactly what's going on in their companies.

More often than not, CEOs are just dimly aware of potential trouble spots, especially in remote field offices, said Jonathan Bernstein, president and CEO of Bernstein Communications in Los Angeles. Bernstein conducts "CEO vulnerability audits" to find out whether a CEO really knows what's going on.

Often, a well-intended midlevel manager doesn't say anything about a potential problem, and then by the time the CEO finds out, it's exploding as a regulatory and public relations crisis, Bernstein said.

If CEOs are having image troubles, how will companies find board members willing to serve? asked Charlie Rhoads, a partner with Boyden Executive Search Consultants in Houston. It just may not be worth $50,000 a year to have their lifelong reputation destroyed by serving a company that explodes, Rhoads said.

CEOs aren't the only ones having image problems. In the wake of the disaster over the accounting problems at Enron, it may become increasingly difficult to find bright students interested in studying accounting.

Maybe the accountants should borrow a marketing tip from the lawyers who have faced some image problems of their own.

After L.A. Law debuted on television, applications to law schools spiked. Likewise, the accounting industry could benefit from a television show that highlights their lives in an accounting firm.

A lot of romantic entanglements with clients, love among the books while wrestling with late-night bookkeeping problems - that sort of thing. A modest suggestion for a title of the new hit series: Love Ledgers.

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REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu .

Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the eBusiness Research Center, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.

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