The Accidental CEO

摘要

When the white house tapped Kellogg Chief Executive Carlos M. Gutierrez to be Commerce Secretary in the fall of 2004, few people were more surprised than the directors of the Battle Creek (Mich.) cereal maker. Gutierrez, then 51, had led an impressive six-year turnaround, and they expected him to lead the company for another 15 years or so. Thus the call from the Bush Administration was a shocker on a par with, say, Tony the Tiger quitting to work for animal rights. "It fell into the emergency category," recalls director John T. Dillon.