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FRIDAY DECEMBER 14
Meetings, Bloody Meetings Do you spend too much time in meetings? By: Jeff HeilmanDecember 2007 In my recent interview of Embarq CEO Daniel Hesse for Corporate Leader, he described the bloated meetings culture he encountered when taking over Sprint’s former local telephone division. Facing the prospect of “spending all his time in meetings,” he vacated eight weeks worth of internal gatherings right off the bat, renamed his conference room the "War Room," and got down to business--with strong results.
Comic legend John Cleese’s entertaining videotape The post cites findings from New Hampshire-based NFI Research, whose CEO Chuck Martin makes it his business to sample the moods and intentions of senior leaders from 1,400 companies in 50 countries, including many from the Fortune 100. Martin found that 57 % of business leaders spend 21-60% of their time each week in internal meetings, with 56% of them finding only half of their meetings productive. That's not very productive. And neither, by the way, are some CEO bloggers, my imagined allies in keeping the churn going. Even a cursory survey shows inattention to daily blog upkeep. CEO Michael Kempner of MWW Group in East Rutherford, NJ (one of my favorite PR firms) last blogged on October 12; Reuters chief Tom Glocer logs on monthly; and Jet Blue Chairman David Neeleman last updated his Flight Log in August and then October. Lufthansa, by the way, is close to taking a stake in the airline. Kudos to all for being in the blogosphere, but bloggers blog, yes? Too many meetings, perhaps? |
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