![]() ![]() Under his stewardship, Emerson’s sales grew 15-fold, to more than $15 billion, and earnings increased 18-fold, to more than $1.4 billion. But over the course of the CEO search, he changed his mind and assumed the top spot in 1973 at the age of 37. “Buck” Persons, who led Emerson for 19 years, invited Knight to take over as CEO in 1972, Knight initially decided he would rather stick to consulting, since he recently had acquired control of his family business, Lester B. He chose good people who were like him, who fed off each other and strived to make the company better.” He hates to lose.”Įvans agrees, “There was a desire to excel and be good at what you do. and a former senior vice president at Emerson. Thomas McKane, chairman of Franklin Park, Illinois-based A.M. “He might phone you any hour-Sunday morning or Saturday afternoon,” recalls G. Knight, who retired in 2000, ran Emerson on a 24/7 basis even before the around-the-clock schedule became part of the corporate lexicon. Drury III, a longtime executive recruiter who now chairs his own recruiting firm in Chicago, James Drury Partners. ![]() “If I had a $2 billion client looking for a CEO, a good candidate might be someone running a $1 billion part of Emerson,” says James J. In addition, Emerson’s highly decentralized structure was good for breeding leaders because managers could gain profit and loss responsibility for business units at a relatively young age. Executive recruiters liked to target Emerson talent who could export Knight’s exacting management style to other corporations. But executives who worked for Knight put their former boss on the same footing. Knight never received the national media attention of such Forbes 500 CEOs as Jack Welch of General Electric Co., Lawrence Bossidy of Honeywell International or Louis Gerstner of IBM Corp. “He kept asking until he got the answer and a comfort level.” ![]() “He didn’t have all the answers, but he was asking the right questions,” recalls Ike Evans, former president and chief operating officer of Union Pacific Corp. Louis manufacturer of motors, process controls and instruments, power systems, appliances and tools, which generated revenue of $17.3 billion last year. The sometimes harsh and unyielding process was, in fact, remarkably effective and contributed to an unbroken string of 108 quarterly earnings increases during Knight’s 27-year tenure at the St. “I jumped out of my chair often,” recalls the 70-year-old Knight, now Emerson’s chairman emeritus and a benefactor of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. He or she surely would be the target of a withering comment from the demanding CEO who saw marathon meetings as an essential way to set targets, track progress and steep managers in the Emerson culture. Pity the poor young executive who didn’t have the relevant margin numbers at his or her fingertips. He elevated the strategic planning process at Emerson Electric Co. Knight, planning has always been a contact sport. ![]()
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