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The Case of a New CEO

Beverly Angelo is a board member and head of the nominating committee of a privately owned company, Doxyl LTD. Droxyl is a wholesale industrial chemicals company. While the average consumer might not recognize the names of Droxyl’s products they would recognize the names of the products that Droxyl chemicals are in. Droxyl is a company that is proud of its heritage. Founded by Hermann Meyer in 1892, Droxyl manufactures inks and dyes. Hermann Meyer was an immigrant from Germany where he had been a dyer in a large German dye company. He had taken this knowledge combined with a genius for innovation and used it to start a company in the United States. The company over time climbed up in market share to rival some of the major German suppliers. Over the years, Droxyl has been known for the dependability and standardization of its products. However there are issues that face the Droxyl Company.

Like a lot of successful companies over the past several decades Droxyl has become complacent and more inwardly focused then focused on the customer and the global marketplace. Cheaper dyes and inks from China are posing a greater threat to the company as the quality of Chinese products improves. In Beverly’s opinion the company has lost some ground on innovation. She has seen fewer new product launches over the past decade. Droxyl’s market share has been slowly, but steadily declining. In addition to this Beverly has heard from several Meyer family members (the majority shareholders of the company) that there is interest in taking the company public so that they can cash out and move to Boca Raton, Florida.

Beverly has been charged with developing a list of candidates for the CEO position. . Every CEO since Hermann has been a member of the Meyer family. The current CEO, Hermann Meyer the IV is planning to retire within the next year. Hermann the IV and the other family shareholders have said that the next CEO need not come from the Meyer family. They told her that she needs to develop a roster of candidates based of the best people available for the position.

In a way this is a relief for Beverly because in opinion none of the current Meyer family members in the firm would be a good candidate for CEO. Hermann Meyer the V is a chemist with the company and has indicated that he has no desire to run the company. The generations of Meyer family leaders have all been rather studious, quiet and thoughtful leaders. These were not bad traits when the business environment was stable and with few competitors. However, with all of these impending changes, Beverly feels the time is now to introduce some new leadership. The problem is what type of leadership should that be? How does Beverly put together a list of qualities or guidelines in order to determine who should be on the candidate list?

Beverly needs to present to the Board the guidelines/qualities of the new CEO for their approval and to get the candidate list started. Several years ago the Board put together material in anticipation of the CEO succession. Beverly wonders if it is still relevant. (See the appendix).

As a student of leadership theories, Beverly needs your help. What traits or set of traits would work best for her in developing her list? What traits do you think should be included in the identification process?

APPENDIX A

CEO Trait Profile

Integrity and Trust

Ethics and Values

Dealing with Ambiguity

Learning of the Fly

Strategic Agility

Perspective

Integrity and Trust	Is widely trusted; is seen as a direct, truthful individual; can present the unvarnished truth in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; doesn’t misrepresent him/herself for personal gain.
Ethics and Values	Adheres to an appropriate (for the setting) and effective set of core values and beliefs during both good and bad times; acts in line with those values; rewards the right values and disapproves of others; practices what he/she preaches
Dealing with Ambiguity	Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; isn’t upset when things are up in the air; doesn’t have to finish things before moving on; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty
Learning of the Fly	Learns quickly when facing new problems; a relentless and versatile learner; open to change; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; quickly grasps the essence and the underlying structure of anything
Strategic Agility	Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihood's; can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.
Perspective	Looks toward the broadest possible view of an issue/challenge; have broad-ranging personal and business interests and pursuits; can easily pose future scenarios; can think globally; can discuss multiple aspects and impacts of issues and project them into the future.

Copyright © Mark Whitmore, 2010