Should the C.E.O. Blog?
In yesterday’s New York Times Randall Stross wondered why more C.E.O.’s don’t blog. Then he answered his own question: blogging is a risky proposition. As a rule, C.E.O.’s aren’t prone to risk-taking behavior, especially when the potential outcomes aren’t quantifiable. It takes that kind of cautious and calculated attitude to run a successful business.
That said, it’s unwise to state categorically that blogging is too big of a risk for the head honcho to take. Sun Microsystems’ Jonathan Schwartz has met with acclaim from the blogosphere and the mainstream media for his uncensored, if infrequent, posts about the company’s inner workings. Stross offers a spot-on analysis of the value that Schwartz adds by blogging:
Mr. Schwartz has posted his thoughts, very much on the fly, five times a month for two years. Over time he has earned credibility by his willingness to put in public view his unfiltered ruminations on a regular basis.
That credibility was needed last week, when he sought to put a positive spin on Sun’s quarterly earnings, his first as chief executive. One-time charges combined to produce another loss for the quarter — the company has reported losses for the past five fiscal years — but revenue was up significantly.
After the earnings release, Mr. Schwartz itemized on his blog the many positive developments that he sees in the company’s business. Viewed alone, it would be easy for unhappy investors to dismiss. But read as the latest installment of candid self-evaluations of the company’s strategic initiatives and performance, Mr. Schwartz’s optimism exerts a tonic effect.
But based on Schwartz’s success, Stross makes some unfounded generalizations about the entirety of the C.E.O.-sphere. He argues that even though Microsoft has more than 3,000 employees blogging, the lack of a blog written by Steven Ballmer or Bill Gates constitutes “an embarrassing silence at the top.”
“A large company is an outsize elephant,” he wrote. “Each employee works within a tiny wrinkle on the hide. Only the chief executive is in a position to sit astride the beast and share the widest perspective.” True as that may be, it does not necessarily follow that all C.E.O.’s would provide a benefit to their companies and shareholders if they were to broadcast that unique perspective in blogosphere format.
Companies and consultants need to pull their heads out of the C.E.O. box and look at all the options when making decisions about how businesses relate to the blogosphere. Instead of assuming an either-or solution, we need to give companies the chance to determine whether or not their C.E.O. is the right blogger for them. Sure, the C.E.O. can play an integral role in this brave new world of candor and transparency. But it’s not a requirement for him to be out there on his own.
Update: Of course, we’ll be discussing “the CEO box” and how businesses might determine other editorial angles at the next conference, coming up in October.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
According to the book Credibility by James M. Kouzes (chairman emeritus of the Tom Peters Company) and Barry Z. Posner (2003), people expect a CEO to be Visionary and Inspiring.
Visionary means you take do take risks. Who ever heard of a conservative, timid Visionary?
Inspiring means you try things, experiment, and risk falling flat on your face. If a CEO fails, looks stupid in a blog or video, so what?
I don’t get it.
I think they are lying to us.
The real reason a CEO would act clueless or shun blogging is: not fear of flames, but reluctance to really hear the unvarnished complaints, questions, suggestions, and critiques of consumers.
The best thing any CEO can do right now is start Video Blogging. To present a human, fallible, credible, regular guy type image.
CEOs are in dire need of reform and good publicity.
P.S. It’s on page 14 of Credibility. The 6 most valued characteristics of admired leaders:
1. Honesty
2. Forward-thinking (”visionary”)
3. Inspiring
4. Competent
5. Fair-minded
6. Supportive
A CEO may not be the best blogger, though, you’re very right about that. He should be, ala Mark Cuban.
But anyone who has the requisite leadership qualities, and has a Real Passion for the solving the customer’s problems via the product, that’s who your blogger should be.
Not the most articulate, but the most sincere. We in the blogosphere have our digital senses trained to detect insincerity, con artists, and hype BS.
Let the one with the most team spirit, the most altruism, the most product knowledge be the blogger.
It’s sad to think that person might not be the CEO.
Hmmmph.
Vaspers: I recognize that C.E.O.’s are supposed to be visionary leaders. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be cautious and planful when it comes to making important decisions about their companies.
I don’t think that blogging should be viewed as an “extreme sport,” to quote Stross. But I also don’t think that it should be a requirement that a CEO blog. When it comes to companies and the blogosphere, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
The blogosphere began as a rough and tumble realm and it shall remain so.
CEOs who shy away from blogs are generally unwilling to be honest, candid, transparent, and hear directly from all types of customers and stray blog visitors.
There is great ROI on blogging: zero or near zero expense. But there is a time drain, but so what? Email drains time, too.
CEOs making important decisions about their companies? Blogging should be a trivial decision, like business cards and cell phones. No sweat.
Boy, these business people really are a trip, aren’t they?
CEOs, all of the ethical ones anyway, need to be blogging, and video blogging, and preparing to initiate telepresencing (see Aug. 8, 06 issue of PC Magazine).
CEOs should be the leaders, the pioneers, in new media. But instead it’s their teenage children who are paving the way.
Risk aversion? Gimme a break, the poor darlings.
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