The Ten Roads to Riches: The Ways the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!)

To

be a

hero-CEO,

spend time withyour

smallestcustomersand

lowest

employees.

I

Pardon Me, That's My Throne I41

Carly

Fiorina, ousted from Hewlett-Packard in 2005, fell short

as a hero-CEO. She adorned

TV

and magazine covers

-widely

seen as a glamorous hero. She led

HP

through its merger with rival

Compaq. Initial results were rocky, as mergers often are. At first she

seemed bigger than life. But HP's culture was built on the "man-

agement by wandering around" style of cofounder David Packard.

She seemed aloof. If employees don't adore you, a wannabe hero-

CEO

won't endure. She seemed more comfy with media and her

board than her smallest customers and lowest employees. It's here,

in my

view,

she fell s

hort

and lacked support from underneath when

things got tough

-so

she got axed.

Of

course, she made out ok with

a $21 million parting gift.

IS But in my opinion no one will ever

make her

CEO

of a top-tier firm again. Done .

This leads to a basic rule: Every CEO,

every month, must spend time with normal

bread-and-butter customers and bottom-of-

the-erg-structure employees. Forget this and

you're lost. Ivory tower CEOs get by with it

briefly, easing their own

lives

-but

eventually

fail.

Top CEOs never forget what makesthe firm tick. It'swhy employ-

ees adore

hero-CEOs-he

or she isn't aloof, seems like one of them, is

comfortable with and interested in

them-b

ut is bigger than life.

Mind

you-Fiorina,

O'Neal, Semel, Countrywide's Mozilo,

and ...