Best Columns: Business

Still waiting for a great business network

Elizabeth Spiers

Fast Company

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Give the new Fox Business Network some credit, said Elizabeth Spiers in Fast Company: At least it’s trying to be different. While FBN’s established competitors, CNBC and Bloomberg News, cater to Wall Street insiders and business executives, Fox, which launched in October, is going broader. With features such as “Dating to meet your match and your budget” and explainers such as “What is Wall Street?” Fox certainly can’t be accused of being elitist. The question, though, is whether it’s being condescending, and missing some great stories as a result. Fox executives apparently perceive business “to be too complex for the notoriously dumbed-down medium and its presumably dumb audience.” As a result, it “misses an opportunity to really examine the influence of private-sector power in modern society”—an issue that Fox’s cable rivals avoid as well. That’s too bad. Business coverage, done right, can be highly relevant to the average American. Boring vs. dumb need not be the only choice.

Good corporate leadership is an inside job

Bill George

BusinessWeek

We’re often told that the turmoil at the top of Citigroup and Merrill Lynch was caused by those toxic subprime mortgages, said Bill George in BusinessWeek. True enough, but the problems have been greatly compounded because the companies’ boards failed to do their most important job: setting out clear lines of leadership succession. “It’s astounding that a huge multinational such as Citigroup” has been unable to find a permanent successor to Charles Prince, who resigned in November. Merrill’s board has done better, bringing in John Thain from the New York Stock Exchange. “But why weren’t these boards grooming internal candidates for these jobs?” For that matter, why did Procter & Gamble’s board initially pass over internal candidate A.G. Lafley to hire outsider Dirk Jager? Only after “a management revolt” did the board fire Jager and turn to Lafley, “who has emerged as a great leader.” Boards need to understand that “the best CEOs come from within the organization,” because they understand the corporate culture and “the subtleties of the business.” All too often, though, boards waste their time in a futile search for a “new superhero.”