dispatches from the new world of work

A Clear and Present Danger to Society

Yes "he" did. "He" actually said, "That's a very diverse team." "His" 7-member executive committee has ... two Indians. "His" 14-person Board of Directors has one woman—not an exec.

"He"/"Him" is Patrick Cescau, CEO of Unilever.
(About 85%+ of "his" products are bought by ... WOMEN.)

Could "he" have ... actually ... said: "This is a very diverse team." [My italics.] It would have been an incredible statement without the "very." With the "very" it "very much" suggests a psychiatric session or two might be in order—or at least he should have to say it in front of his wife at a "very" public gathering.

[Source of quote: Financial Times, 24-25 June.]
[See brief PP attached.]

Tom Peters posted this on 06/27/06.

Comments

Sounds like he's being advised by a couple of yahoo's, you know Clue and Les. Sometimes I wonder when these "guys" are going to get it.

Posted by Andrew Hayden at June 27, 2006 12:29 PM

yeah, "very diverse team".. who are you trying to kid eh ??

Posted by /pd at June 27, 2006 1:25 PM

hahahaha..I missed the ppt

"thats a very sick man" - TP !!

hear hear !!

Posted by /pd at June 27, 2006 1:27 PM

Typical discount of European "diverse" - liberal term has just a political and business meaning - no true academic one.

Posted by Sean at June 27, 2006 2:14 PM

The really sick part is that this behavior flows downhill in an organization this large. Perhaps some charm school is in order as well.

Posted by Kate at June 27, 2006 2:33 PM

While the primary responsibility of boards is to ensure that the corporation's management is performing its job correctly, actually achieving this in practice can be difficult. In a number of "corporate scandals" of the 1990s, one notable feature revealed in subsequent investigations is that boards were not aware of the activities of the managers that they hired, and the true financial state of the corporation. Alarming!

Directors often feel that a judgement of a manager, particularly one who has performed well in the past, should be respected. This can be quite legitimate, but poses problems if the manager's judgement is indeed flawed. Pathetic!

Because of this, the role of boards in corporate governance, and how to improve their oversight capability, has been examined carefully in recent years, and new legislation in a number of jurisdictions, and an increased focus on the topic by boards themselves, has seen changes implemented to try and improve their performance.

My question - Is there anything called the BEST BOARD...or does having the BEST BOARD yield BETTER RESULTS?

Posted by K.Sriram at June 29, 2006 12:09 AM

I wrote about this type of mindset a few days ago. Mr. Cescau is living proof! Sometimes I wonder if certain CEOs are just "wind up" toys parading as leaders.

Posted by Eric Pennington at July 2, 2006 4:12 PM