Impresario

"Impresario." There are not many company CEOs who can be called that. Steve Wynn is one. The business world needs impresarios. They make things happen -- with an extra bit of zing and swagger in everything they do.

Directors & Boards almost had Wynn in our hometown. For the past few weeks he had been angling to take over a long-troubled casino project on the Philadelphia waterfront. It looked like he had a lock on the property — extensive design plans were drawn up and he had been making good headway with the licensing authorities.

Although I hate the idea of city and state municipalities resorting to gambling to close their budget gaps, I looked forward to seeing Wynn bring his brand of sizzle to a business community that has very little of it. I thought to myself that maybe when he got established here I would have the opportunity to do a sit-down with him to talk about how he runs his board at Wynn Resorts.

Then . . . poof. Away he went. Sudden abandonment of any interest in the casino development. It was a surprise when he first showed up, and it was surprise when he scooted back out of town. But that's the way with impresarios — they are full of surprises.

Say what you want about Wynn, this he has: a crisis management philosophy that belongs in every CEO and board playbook. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal during the darkest days of the financial markets meltdown, he showed no fear. "Are we all supposed to go buca buca buca and fall dead on the floor? Or are we supposed to have the ability to survive and do well? ... The hell with Wall Street. I'll be here after this is over."

That's what I like about impresarios. And that's why we need more of them in Corporate America.

Peter Drucker's Humble Assertion

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Peter Drucker's birth, about which a big deal is being made in the business media and throughout the business world. Activities include an international conference in Vienna, the city where he was born.

Drucker made several appearances in the pages of Directors & Boards. The first such appearance is the most memorable — an eight-page Q&A interview conducted by another expert on leadership, Warren Bennis. We published it in early 1982, just a few months after I joined the journal. (What an early coup for the new editor.) And what a textbook case of two brilliant guys sitting around talking about "The Invention of Management," as we titled the article.

Drucker made a rather charming admission in our article. "I am ashamed to admit how little I knew about management," he recounted to Prof. Bennis about his early forays into studying industrial organizations. "It was amazing, not because I was so ignorant but because nobody knew anything."

As he explained: "You could find all the books you wanted about salesmanship — and they have not improved since, by the way. You could find all you wanted about accounting; of course, that has improved. You could find an enormous amount about insurance and insurance law and banking. But management? Nothing.

"So maybe I can claim to have been the first, in my one-eyed way, and with very poor vision in that eye. I saw management as a generic function in the future of industrial man. That, I think, is the one and only contribution I've really made to management."

I'm sure all those convening today and throughout the month to honor this management thinker on the centennial of his birth would vigorously dispute his humble assertion.

Portrait of Peter Drucker that accompanied his 1982 Directors & Boards article.

Handling Crisis: A Tale from Black Monday

Davia Temin (pictured) tells an interesting "Black Monday" market crash story in her recent client letter. Temin, president of Temin and Co. Inc. and a longtime colleague, is a top adviser to managements on mission-critical marketing, communications, and reputation management matters. Her client letter is intriguingly titled Crisis and Marketing Strategies for 2009: Swimming Naked with the Black Swans.

I'll let Davia tell her story. It's one that all directors and senior management can appreciate in these days of coping with business and financial crisis. From here on down in this posting, drawing from her "Swimming Naked..." client advisory, it's all Davia:

"It is widely known that stress brings out the best and worst in us, but crisis is the ultimate Rorschach test. And people—boards, CEOs, managers, clients, co-workers, family—are watching. And judging.

"I do a great deal of communications and crisis coaching at the C-level. One of the things leaders are most concerned about in their organizations right now, apart from survival, is the morale and behavior of those who are left after downsizing, bankruptcy, restructuring, and 'compensation readjustments.'

"Who sees clearly? Who remains laser-focused on mission and sales? Who keeps his or her cool and quickly figures out new ways to adjust?

"Alternatively, who acts out? Who uses the stress to excuse the worst kinds of cut-throat behavior and internal politicking? Who remains courteous and, yes, even compassionate, throughout the process? Who remembers the human costs of this global disruption?

"On Oct. 19, 1987, the day of the huge, precipitous drop in the markets called Black Monday, I was working at a major global money management company. The head of the New York headquarters was roaming the halls that day, looking into every office, instead of talking to his own clients. I thought that was a bit odd, and asked him why. He told me he wanted to see how people were handling the stress, and that their behavior would be taken into consideration the next time managing directors were chosen.

"No matter how bad the crisis, people still have to come to work each day and be productive—if they are lucky enough to be employed. Leaders have an obligation to guard the psychic well-being of their employees as well as the bottom line. Employees have an obligation to put their anxieties aside and work tirelessly for their organizations, as well as to help their less-fortunate colleagues and communities.

"So, model good behavior in your own organizations and families—it will rebound well for you in ways we cannot even know."

Davia's full "Swimming Naked with the Black Swans" client letter can be read on her firm's website, click here.