Ram Charan On The Cio's Role

摘要

World-renowned business adviser Ram Charan, author of the new book Leadership In The Era Of Economic Uncertainty (McGraw-Hill, 2009), recently talked with InformationWeek editor in chief Rob Preston about how ClOs and other executives must step up amid the economic turmoil. Following are excerpts. InformationWeek: You meet with CEOs from all over the world on a regular basis. What's changed at the highest levels of business? Charan: Boards have gotten very actively engaged in the interests of the enterprise. That wasn't so before. Some boards met in the September-October period more than six times on the telephone, on very short notice. It's not that many companies have done wrong. It's because the global financial system went out of control.The most critical thing is, you have to manage first for the survival of the company, even if you're a AAA-rated company. Now it's all about cash. We've got to see where the cash is coming from, where it's going, and if the demand for your products takes a deep dive, what would you do?