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Working Fewer Hours Is Hard for Most CEOs, But Some Find a Way Hymowitz, Carol . Wall Street Journal , Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]12 July 2005: B.1.

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ABSTRACT (ABSTRACT) LARRY ELLISON, chief executive of Oracle, rejects a management model he thinks too many chief executives

follow of being "weak kings with strong dukes." Under this model, he says, CEOs allow business unit heads "to run

their own show as long as they make their profit numbers." The CEOs may not know what's really going on in

Japan or Chicago, he argues, and "it isn't terribly efficient since not everyone is following centralized processes."

MICHAEL ESKEW, CEO of United Parcel Service, has told some colleagues that ideally he'd like to divide his time

into five parts, spending 20% with employees, 20% with customers, 20% with investors, 20% on civic activities and

20% on self-renewal. "Unfortunately it hasn't worked out as well as he'd like when it comes to time for himself to

learn new things," says Ken Sternad, vice president, public relations. Still, Mr. Eskew, who has diversified UPS from

a package- delivery to a broader services company, tells his managers that achieving balance is an important part

of leadership. "He says, 'You should take your job seriously, your family seriously and your community seriously,

but just don't take yourself too seriously,' " says Mr. Sternad.

"Everything I do now, I really enjoy doing, think I'm reasonably good at, and will keep doing for some time to come,"

he says. But relying on underlings to oversee bigger chunks of the business is the easy part of curtailing work, he

admits. "An awful lot of my work is just thinking about the business and that's tricky" to turn off, he says. "I can't

just stop thinking about what we should do in this industry." FULL TEXT LARRY ELLISON, chief executive of Oracle, rejects a management model he thinks too many chief executives

follow of being "weak kings with strong dukes." Under this model, he says, CEOs allow business unit heads "to run

their own show as long as they make their profit numbers." The CEOs may not know what's really going on in

Japan or Chicago, he argues, and "it isn't terribly efficient since not everyone is following centralized processes."

But Mr. Ellison doesn't want to be the king at court all the time, either. Since completing his bitterly fought $10.6

billion takeover of PeopleSoft, Oracle's largest acquisition ever, earlier this year, he has cut his work hours to 40 to

50 a week from about 80. "I decided this [much work] is crazy," says the billionaire software maker, who delegates

more day-to-day responsibilities to his three co-presidents and devotes more time to sailboat racing, his medical

foundation and other interests.

In an age when executives sleep with their BlackBerrys on their night stands so they can respond to email 24/7,

cutting back at work isn't always feasible. It certainly isn't an option for newly named CEOs, such as Mark Hurd at

Hewlett-Packard and John Mack at Morgan Stanley, who must fashion new corporate strategies or overcome

internal culture wars.

Even veteran CEOs at solidly performing companies have trouble getting off the work treadmill or don't want to

admit they have, afraid they may be judged uncommitted by investors or may send employees the message that

they, too, can work less. "There's a relentlessness to being a CEO these days," says Niko Canner, managing partner

of New York consultant Katzenbach Partners. "Still, a few savvier heads of companies worry about the emotional

and physical sustainability" of their schedules and wonder "what things they need to do for themselves to stay

focused, energized and inspiring."

MICHAEL ESKEW, CEO of United Parcel Service, has told some colleagues that ideally he'd like to divide his time

into five parts, spending 20% with employees, 20% with customers, 20% with investors, 20% on civic activities and

20% on self-renewal. "Unfortunately it hasn't worked out as well as he'd like when it comes to time for himself to

learn new things," says Ken Sternad, vice president, public relations. Still, Mr. Eskew, who has diversified UPS from

a package- delivery to a broader services company, tells his managers that achieving balance is an important part

of leadership. "He says, 'You should take your job seriously, your family seriously and your community seriously,

but just don't take yourself too seriously,' " says Mr. Sternad.

For some, achieving this kind of balance is more possible some years than others. Edwin Thomas, CEO of Asbury

Services, a retirement- communities company, skipped his summer vacation last year because his business was

adding and redesigning facilities. But he just returned from a two-week trip to Europe with his family. "I think you

need the first week just to unwind and the second to be there," says Mr. Thomas, who stayed connected via his

BlackBerry. "Next year, I just may leave that at home," he adds.

He has also curbed his impulse to go to the office on weekends by moving to a home that is 25 minutes away.

"When I lived five minutes from the office, I was always there on Saturday," he says. He traveled a lot when his

children were young, he says, "but I reached a point in my 40s where I said, 'I'm going to leave work when my

daughter has a volleyball game or my son has a soccer game.' " By intentionally limiting his office schedule, Mr.

Thomas believes he's more focused, creative and productive when he's at work.

ORACLE'S MR. ELLISON, a demanding leader who has in the past turned a cold shoulder on once-trusted

lieutenants, says he cut back by delegating what he least enjoys doing to his three co-presidents, Gregory Maffei,

who is also Oracle's chief financial officer and in charge of such functions as human resources, manufacturing and

distribution; Safra Catz, who oversees business development, including mergers and acquisitions; and Charles

Phillips, who oversees customer relations.

Mr. Ellison, who will turn 61 years old next month, still confers directly with executives at General Electric, Oracle's

biggest commercial customer. "I'm still the corporate sponsor with GE and sit in on their management meetings" to

work out implementation of Oracle software, he says. But he's less involved with sales to other customers than he

used to be.

That's not the case when it comes to developing and strategizing about the company's software products,

however. "I've run engineering from Day One, and still do," says Mr. Ellison, who put himself through college as a

software programmer and then quit to become an entrepreneur.

"Everything I do now, I really enjoy doing, think I'm reasonably good at, and will keep doing for some time to come,"

he says. But relying on underlings to oversee bigger chunks of the business is the easy part of curtailing work, he

admits. "An awful lot of my work is just thinking about the business and that's tricky" to turn off, he says. "I can't

just stop thinking about what we should do in this industry."

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DETAILS

Subject: Working hours; Chief executive officers; Executives

Business indexing term: Subject: Working hours Chief executive officers Executives

Classification: 2120: Chief executive officers

Publication title: Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.

Pages: B.1

Publication year: 2005

Publication date: Jul 12, 2005

column: IN THE LEAD

Publisher: Dow Jones &Company Inc

Place of publication: New York, N.Y.

Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.

Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance

ISSN: 00999660

Source type: Newspapers

Language of publication: English

Document type: Commentary

ProQuest document ID: 398920351

Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/newspapers/working-fewer-hours-is-hard-most-ceos-

some-find/docview/398920351/se-2?accountid=28844

Copyright: Copyright (c) 2005, Dow Jones &Company Inc. Reproduced with permission of

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Last updated: 2020-11-20

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