Dennis Carey and Korn/Ferry International
Dennis Carey, Senior Client Partner of Korn/Ferry International, can take much pride in this company’s latest news. It has been selected to aid in the recruitment of the next President and CEO for Project Management Institute. This Institute has been hailed as, “the world’s leading professional membership organization for project managers.”
Dennis Carey and Business
It shouldn’t be all that surprising that Dennis Carey holds such a vital position in a company as prestigious as Korn/Ferry International, or that with his input, it is doing so well. Dennis Carey has a strong academic background which may have helped him be successful in this area, having a Ph.D. in finance and administration from the University of Maryland as well as being a post-doctoral Fellow at Harvard University in 1982-1983.
Dennis Carey and AirClic
AirClic director Dennis Carey should take pride in his company’s latest mobile software product. The Clinical Perform™ seeks to “maximize operational efficiencies, improve workflow productivity and offer extremely valuable insight into the chain of custody between patients, clinics and labs.” The company itself – originally co-founded by Dennis Carey himself – develops mobile software that advances the performance of “supply chain, logistics and field service operations.”
Clinical Perform™ and Dennis Carey
As someone who is active in the business and managerial world today, Airclic’s new invention should boost all those at the company, including Dennis Carey as it looks set to be quite the success. Basically because there has been (and will continue to be) such an escalation in clinical laboratory testing, this means a higher chance of misplaced specimens and decreased customer satisfaction. Companies dealing in this area can only benefit from the technology developed at AirClic and Clinical Perform™ is set to continue the trend.
CEO Succession Advice from Executive Recruiter Dennis Carey
Dennis Carey, an executive recruiter with years of experience offers a great deal of advice to companies to create smooth CEO succession plans. He offers the following tips to companies to keep in mind as they are about to undergo a CEO succession.
Dennis Carey CEO Succession Tips
First, there is no change that “one size fits all” and each company needs to look at its own needs and plans. Any well-planned succession has to start with a carefully thought-out business strategy to guides the rest of the process.
The likely successor list may shift over time, as the company’s strategies shift. It is imperative that all contenders for the new CEO position are left feeling that they had a fair shot at the position. All practices towards the CEO succession should be done in an open and objective way and all major constituencies should feel that they had a voice in the process.
Korn/Ferry International Announces Exciting Change
Korn/Ferry International recently announced that Lewis Rusen, Senior Client Partner and Office Managing Director of the Firm’s Toronto office, is now going to be the President of the Leadership and Talent Consulting business for North America.
“Lewis is a proven leader who has a passion for Korn/Ferry’s consultative strategy,” said Ana Dutra, CEO of Korn/Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting. Mr. Rusen has been at Korn/Ferry for four years where he has been the Office Managing Director of the Firm’s Toronto office and a Senior Client Partner, similar to the Senior Client partner role that Dennis Carey has with Korn/Ferry.
Retired Outside Chairman Recruited by Dennis Carey
Recruiting outside chairman out of retirement in order to assist struggling companies to get back on their feet is a trend which has been gaining in popularity. Recently, back in the fall of 2009, John “Jack” Kroll was recruited by Dennis Carey to take over as chairman of Delphi Automotive LLP which had recently been through bankruptcy and was in desperate need or a “hands-up” to get back on its feet. With the expertise and experience of veteran executive Jack Kroll that hands-up should prove to be quite a push in the right direction.
As Mr. Carey stated at the time, “These chairmen are strategic equal partners of the CEO because they already demonstrated a successful ‘in the trenches’ style of management.”
But Mr. Kroll is far from the only executive whose extensive knowledge and know-how about running successful companies is sought after to bring companies going through crisis up to speed. The following former CEOs were recently called upon to help companies in distress: Edward Whitacre Jr. at GM; Richard D. Parsons at Citigroup Inc.; Robert Kidder at Chrysler Group LLC; and many others.
Retired CEOs Recommissioned to Help Struggling Companies
In a growing trend in the world of executive management, more and more retired CEOs and board directors are being recalled back to the boardroom to lend their expertise and a hand to struggling companies. For instance, 73 year old John “Jack” Kroll, retired CEO of DuPont Company, was named outside chairman of the struggling auto-parts producer Delphi Automotive LLP. Delphi emerged from bankruptcy court protection back in October, 2009, and Jack Kroll was recruited the following November to roll up his sleeves, develop operating plans and a business strategy to get the company up and running once again.
According to Dennis Carey, senior client partner at the famed recruiting firm Korn/Ferry,
“These chairmen are strategic equal partners of the CEO because they already demonstrated a successful ‘in the trenches’ style of management.”
Mr. Carey was helpful in the recruitment of Mr. Kroll to Delphi as part of a boardroom shake-up after a few Delphi lenders as well as its prior parent company General Motors, acquired the majority of Delphi’s assets.
Carey Urges SEC to Go Easy on Apple
Bad Rx for Boards.” In this article Carey questions the priorities and practices of the SEC, pointing out that although there were hints and tips concerning the questionable (to say the least) business practices of Bernie Madoff and R. Allen Stanford for at least 10 years, instead of improving investigations in this type of transgression, the SEC is instead spending valuable time and money exploring the less vital issue of whether the board of Apple Corporation misrepresented the state of their CEO’s, Steve Jobs’, health.Carey Says One Boss Better than Two
In an article which appeared in the Management section of the Wall Street Journal in March 2009, the growing support of corporate leaders for the separation of the roles of chairman and chief executive, rather than having those roles embodied within one person is discussed. Dennis Carey is among those that do not believe that splitting the roles of chairman and chief executive will necessarily improve corporate management or bolster board oversight. Carey explains here that separating the chairmanship can cause power struggles between the two, and lower level management and employees can be confused about who is in charge. As Carey is quoted in the article, most CEOs prefer to chair their boards because;”they think having one boss at the helm is better than having two.”
The Chairman Academy
Founded in 2003 by executive recruiter Dennis Carey, the Chairman Academy invites over 200 of the world’s most prominent business chairmen and directors to participate. Together, these business leaders meet once a year to discuss their governance insights and their experiences.
They examine the changes occurring all the time in governance, shareholders and compliance. The next program is scheduled for May of 2010 in New York City. Past participants have included: Norm Augustine, retired Chairman & CEO, Lockheed Martin Corporation; J.T. Battenberg, Chairman, President & CEO, Delphi Corporation; Betsy Bernard, retired President, AT&T; Ed Brennan, Executive Chairman, AMR Corporation and many others.
Past speakers for the Chairman Academy have included: Chuck Ames, Partner, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice; Peter Atkins, Partner, Skadden, Arps; Joe Badaracco, Professor, Harvard Business School; John Blystone, Chairman, President & CEO, SPX Corporation; Larry Bossidy, retired Chairman & CEO, Honeywell International and many others.
Picking the Right Insider for CEO Succession
In an article which appeared in the Harvard Business Review Dennis Carey discussed the method in which the new CEO of GlaxoSmithKline was appointed when the old CEO, Jean-Pierre Garnier retired in 2008.
The process was complex and thorough. Three candidates from inside the company competed for the coveted position. All three were qualified to become the new CEO so it was decided to judge the most qualified by giving each candidate a year-long project on the level appropriate to a CEO while being carefully supervised by the retiring CEO Garnier and the board of directors.
Since each of the three tasks were not alike, it was decided to create a parallel process to better evaluate each candidate on similar terms. The parallel process consisted of a completely confidential and outsider-led assessment of the candidates originating from 14 internal executives who were able to work directly with all three.
Interviews were also conducted with each of the three candidates, by Dennis Carey, who submitted feedback to the board and to Garnier. The 14 inside executives were then asked a battery of questions to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of each of the three CEO candidates. They were asked questions like: “What were the candidates’ best and worst decisions? What are their strongest and weakest leadership qualities? Whose capabilities are the most suited to meet the company’s strategic needs? Whose temperament, passion, and work style best match the company’s culture and strategy?”
The interviews with the 14 execs were able to give the kind of useful information which allowed the board and Garnier to assess the candidates capabilities for leadership strengths and weaknesses in a more comparable and useful way.
Dennis Carey praised this thoughtful process for finding the best replacement CEO, but bemoaned the fact that the media seemed to miss the most important lesson for corporations, as Mr. Carey says in his article,
“A company would do well to establish parallel approaches to succession. Insiders often get the corporate top job—in fact, more than 80% of the current Fortune 100 CEOs were selected from within the companies’ ranks—yet the high turnover among CEOs is testament to the frequency with which companies pick the wrong insider. A set of parallel approaches allows a company to gather comparable data about internal candidates, with each process filling in the informational gaps left by the other.”
