G2 On Leadership
BP’s Hayward vs. Obama: A race to the bottom?
President Obama finally met last week with BP chief Tony Hayward on the gulf oil spill. From a leadership perspective, which man has been the less effective in his handling of the crisis? What should he have done differently?
KLMNO Jeffrey Pfeffer is a
professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University. Tony Hayward has done a terrible job for BP’s
shareholders and employees even as he has seemingly followed the conventional wisdom about dealing with disasters. That wisdom is: Admit responsibility, apologize, promise to rectify any damages, and act with contrition. BP has done all that, even as its stock has lost about 40 percent of its value, its public approval ratings have plunged and Hayward’s job is on the line. Maybe there was another way. Legal experts will tell you that admitting blame opens up the liability floodgates. BP was not the only party involved in the spill — there was Transocean, Halliburton and others. But Hayward decided it would fall to BP to shoulder the blame — and the costs. Research in social psychology shows that acting embarrassed or remorseful conveys less power — and results in less favorable impressionsthan acting angry. That’s because people want to associate with the winning side and respect strength, and diffidence does not convey winning or power. If companies — or people — are willing to be whipping boys, others will, not surprisingly, pile on. Which is precisely what has happened to BP. Maybe the best leadership under crisis is that
exemplified in the quote attributed to the late Henry Ford II, “Never complain, never explain.” And at a minimum, put you and your company’s actions in the context of what you were trying to do and the difficulties you faced in that effort. John Baldoni is a
leadership consultant, coach and regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review online. Leaders seldom get to
choose their issues. Few remember that Tony Hayward, who became chief executive in the wake of a scandal that forced its previous chief Lord John Browne to step down, was regarded as one who could clean up BP’s shoddy record of environmental and safety violation. Remember the 2005 Texas City refinery fire that killed 15
DAVE MARTIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Q4000 drilling rig, aiding the cleanup, operates in the Gulf of Mexico at the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
on
washingtonpost.com This week’s business chats
washingtonpost.com/ discussions
WEDNESDAY Derrick Dortch, federal jobs, 11 a.m.
Microsoft Office 2010 not yet worth the upgrade I
s even Microsoft tired of the Microsoft Office upgrade treadmill?
Its new Microsoft Office 2010
invites that heretical thought. The Redmond, Wash., company doesn’t give owners of older ver- sions a discount — but does offer two limited but free editions of Office, the online-only Office Web Apps reviewed here last week and the Office Starter Edi- tion bundle of Word and Excel included on some new com- puters. Microsoft doesn’t seem too anxious to have users move to this year’s model. And at its list prices for its two home ver- sions— $149.99 for the Home and Student bundle of Word, Ex- cel, PowerPoint and OneNote, $279.99 for the Home and Busi- ness edition that adds Outlook — few should.
(If you bought the old Office
2007 after March 5, you can get 2010 for free. If your new PC has a locked copy of Office 2010 pre- loaded, activating it with a “Product Key Card” bought at Microsoft’s site saves about $30 on Home and Student and $80 on Home and Business.) Among Office 2010’s constitu- ent programs, Outlook makes the strongest case for itself. This sprawling e-mail/calen-
dar/contacts/tasks/notes appli- cation now features the “ribbon” toolbar introduced in parts of the somewhat underappreciated Office 2007. Many experienced Office users hate this tabbed toolbar, but by showing com- mands relevant to the current task, it eases discovering what Outlook can do. For example, searching through your inbox — far faster in Outlook 2010 than in 2007 on a Windows XP desktop — now brings up a ribbon palette show- ing ways to refine that search.
ROB PEGORARO Fast Forward
Unfortunately, Outlook 2010
— like Office 2007 and, for that matter, much of Windows 7 — re- veals the same old cluttered, confusing dialogs and menus once you dig a layer or two into its interface. This is a generic, maybe genetic defect with Mi- crosoft: The company changes the facade of a program enough to confuse veterans and then fails to fix problems underneath that continue to stymie begin- ners.
Another new Outlook 2010
feature, “social connectors,” seems just as underdone. These downloadable plug-ins connect your contacts list to social net- works, allowing you to see friends’ updates within Outlook. But with only LinkedIn and My- Space access, this feature is lodged firmly in 2005. (Facebook support is due later this year, Mi- crosoft says.) Outlook 2010 also perpetuates such old oversights as an inabili- ty to present a map of an event’s location or show both a person’s home and work addresses in most views. After Outlook comes OneNote.
This free-form note-taking ap- plication does something that neither the rest of Office 2010 nor Google’s free, Web-only Goo- gle Docs can: let multiple people collaborate on a document from both desktop and Web pro- grams.
Opening a shared notebook Among Office 2010’s constituent programs, Outlook makes the strongest case for itself.
ROB PEGORARO/ THE WASHINGTON POST
took too many steps — clicking on an e-mailed link to open it in Office Web, then using that site’s “Open in OneNote” command to hand the file over to OneNote — but after that the experience was remarkably smooth. Changes made in OneNote on a Windows XP laptop showed up in a Win 7 laptop’s copy of the program and aWeb version running on a Mac after a minute or so; on the sec- ond laptop, changes appeared highlighted in green and marked with the initials of the other us- er.
Too bad, then, that Microsoft
forgot about mobile use. Its mo- bile Office site doesn’t display OneNote documents, and it only offers a smartphone version of OneNote for its mediocre, irrel- evant Windows Mobile 6.5 oper- ating system, with no an- nounced plans for iPhone, An- droid or BlackBerry releases. The remaining core compo- nents of Office — Word, Excel and PowerPoint —look almost identical to their predecessors, aside from dumping the weird “Office Button” of the old ribbon for a more predictable File menu. They work much like them too. Word’s new photo toolkit, ca- pable of such impressive graphic-design tricks as making a photo’s background transpar- ent, continues this writing tool’s evolution into a desktop-pub- lishing option. But without more basic tools like a red-eye fix, you’ll still need a separate pho- to-editing program. Word 2010 also includes a
faster, more flexible text-search tool than 2007 and allows “co- authoring” over the Internet with other Word 2010 users — but not with Office Web users. The PowerPoint slideshow
creator, for its part, includes the same photo functions and also lets you embed video clips cop- ied from your computer’s hard drive or embedded from You- Tube and other Web video sites. Like Word, its support for collab- orative editing requires other us- ers to run the desktop program. Excel seems to be the forgot- ten part of Office 2010. This spreadsheet now lets you cram miniature “sparkline” charts in- side cells (does anybody actually need that?) but otherwise has lit- tle new to offer for users who don’t throw around Excelspeak like “pivot table” in everyday speech. Excel 2010 doesn’t even match its siblings’ collaboration features; although two users of Excel Web App can work on the same document at once, no such sharing is possible if you leave the file open in Excel 2010. When Microsoft can bring
OneNote’s desktop-to-Web conti- nuity to the rest of Office 2010 — better yet, with mobile access too — this could be a worthwhile upgrade. Until then, most home users can leave this one on the shelf.
robp@washpost.com
Living with technology, or trying to? Read more at voices.
washingtonpost.com/ fasterforward.
FRIDAY Cars columnist Warren Brown, 11 a.m.
Elizabeth Razzi, real estate, 1 p.m.
workers? That was a BP facility. Obviously Hayward has failed the cultural cleanup test. The crisis in the gulf is an ecological disaster; it is also a crisis that has ruined the livelihoods of many thousands who earn their living from the sea’s bounty or the seashore’s tourist appeal. Therefore, President Obama has a unique opportunity to deliver on a simple premise held by Abraham Lincoln, who believed that the role of government is to do what the people themselves cannot do. Leveraging that concept, Obama needs to do two things: Demonstrate that government can be the
operative force for good in the Gulf. It must do more than hold BP accountable. It must continue to activate all available resources to stop the leak. But even more importantly it must mobilize every available private and public resource to prevent more shore contamination and clean up soiled wetlands and beaches post-haste. Stopping the spill may be akin to rocket science, but shore clean up is not. We have the technology and manpower to do it; what’s lacking is centralized focus and willpower. Change the equation on how we derive our
energy. The president can seize the “bully pulpit” to use the crisis to push forward an environmentally responsible, comprehensive energy plan that ensures the safe utilization of coal, oil and natural gas as well as stimulates the development of alternative sources of energy. Mickey Edwards is vice
president of the Aspen Institute, where he directs the Institute’s Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership.
Where has the president fallen down on the
job? By failing to use this episode for a larger purpose. Democrats have had great fun lampooning those who urged “drill, baby, drill,” but the fact is that the desire for drilling is a direct result of our unbelievable demand for more and more energy — to meet the needs of mansion owners (Al Gore and many of the Hollywood celebrities who support him come to mind) and the untold numbers of Americans (some of them quite critical of BP and the president) who drive around our cities in F-150s,
KK
SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 2010
Escalades and Silverados for their dangerous treks to the grocery store and shopping mall. We keep drilling because we cannot stop demanding more and bigger. Well, if a president has any ability to persuade, and this president certainly does, perhaps he should worry less about railing at BP and more about addressing the underlying problem.
Slade Gorton is a former
U.S. senator and Washington state attorney general. First prize, of course, goes to BP and Tony Hayward. It’s their well, their
incompetence that caused the disaster and their utter inability to limit the damage that has us still facing a seemingly unending catastrophe. Professor Andrew
Likierman is dean of the London Business School. He is also non-executive chairman of the National Audit Office and a
non-executive director of Barclays Bank. In the case of Tony Hayward, judgment on his leadership has to be suspended until the well is capped and the crisis can be seen as a whole. President Obama, on the other hand, is not required to cap the well. That’s the central leadership problem. There’s already a completely unrealistic expectation of what he can do, made worse by not making clear which buck stopped with him. So an unstoppable oil well looks like his failure. His actions seem to be a reaction to George Bush’s perceived failure to respond appropriately to Hurricane Katrina. Talk of “kicking ass” and many visits demonstrate him fully engaged, but paradoxically underline how the world’s most powerful leader can be just as powerless as the rest of us. For him, it’s also too early for judgment, but it really is time to move on from not being George Bush to leading the agenda on offshore drilling and oil dependency.
Excerpts from On Leadership, a Web feature exploring vision and motivation by Steven Pearlstein and Raju Narisetti. To see videos and read the entire panel’s comments, go to
www.washingtonpost.com/leadership.
Help File: The trick to moving your collection of old recordings to a new, high-definition TiVo
Q: I just upgraded from a TiVo Series 2 to a high-definition TiVo. How do I transfer my old recordings to the new box?
A: Neither the TiVo HD and
the newer TiVo Premiere include any video or audio inputs, just a coaxial connection for an antenna or a cable-TV feed. Instead, explained TiVo product manager Jason Todd, you have to link the two over a home network. (Since the TiVo Series 2 didn’t include an Ethernet port, much less WiFi, you’ll first need to add a wired or wireless network adapter to the old unit.) In one scenario, you’d install
the TiVo Desktop program on a PC or Mac and use that to copy recordings from the old box, then send them to its successor. In another, you’d send recordings directly from one TiVo to the other — if you haven’t already transferred your TiVo service to the new model. First, you’d unplug the old TiVo from the network. Second, you’d move your account to the new TiVo and set that up. Third, you’d disconnect your network from its Internet connection (usually, by turning off the cable or DSL modem). The old TiVo, unable to
THE COLOR OF MONEY How to protect the elderly from a swindle color from G1
The project centers on teaching medical professionals and adult protective services workers to identify the red flags that a senior is being financially abused. The professionals are encouraged to probe and pay attention to any changes in an elderly person’s behavior or the presence of a caregiver who appears excessively protective or dominating. Using a grant from the Investor Protection Trust, clinicians and geriatrics faculty from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston have developed a “Clinician’s Pocket Guide” with questions and checklists. To download the short brochure, go to www.
investorprotection.org. “Our goal is to improve communication among medical professionals, older Americans, adult children and state securities regulators in order to head off financial swindles before the damage is done,” said Don Blandin, president and chief executive of the trust. To help direct professionals who might not know how to broach this topic, the pocket guide suggests saying: “We find that some older adults worry about money. May I ask you a few questions about this?”
A few of those questions:
Who manages your money day to day? How is that going? Have you given power of attorney to another person? Do you have a will? Has anyone asked you to change it? If the answers raise any concerns, the professionals are then instructed to consult a checklist for further signs that the elderly person may be a victim of financial fraud. The guide lists resources and where to report the suspected abuse. The elder abuse project was
field tested in Texas, where several cases went to trial and resulted in convictions. One involved a lawyer who was sentenced to 99 years in state prison for a $10million investment scheme that snagged mostly the elderly. Eliciting the help of the medical community is a smart idea. But there are others who frequently come in contact with seniors who should keep the pocket guide handy. In one awful case in
Maryland, it was an elderly woman’s beauticians who suspected that something was wrong and called county authorities, albeit too late to prevent a substantial financial loss to the woman and her since-deceased husband.
Nonetheless, the call led to an arrest. The abuser pled guilty to swindling the woman and her husband out of at least $180,000, according to prosecutors. The couple didn’t have children, and as the husband’s health deteriorated, the 48-year-old perpetrator persuaded the wife to sign a power of attorney giving him full access to her money. The more seniors who are scammed out of their money, the greater the financial burden to care for them will fall to the government.
“Older people simply don’t
have the time to recover whatever losses they might incur,” Blandin said. So watch out for the seniors you know, especially if you begin to see signs of mental loss. Report any suspected abuse. This is your business.
singletarym@washpost.com
Readers can write to Michelle Singletary at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.
Comments and questions are welcome, but because of the volume of mail, personal responses are not always possible. Please note that comments or questions may be used in a future column, with the writer’s name, unless a specific request to do otherwise is indicated.
see if it had service, would then give you a 14-day grace period in which to transfer the recordings. What if you don’t own a
network adapter for the old TiVo, let that 14-day grace period elapse or own a first-generation recorder that can’t be networked? Then you’ll have to connect a VCR, DVD recorder or computer with a video-capture adapter to the old TiVo and use that to record its output. Why didn’t TiVo include regular audio/video inputs on its new models? Todd said that the TiVo HD and Premiere are meant to replace cable boxes, making that function extraneous: “Once it’s understood that it’s a DVR replacement box, there’s no need for video inputs anymore.” Wrong. The next time, TiVo’s engineers should spend less time fussing about their device’s purity of essence and more time solving customers’ problems.
Rob Pegoraro attempts to untangle computing conundrums and errant electronics each week. Send questions to The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 or
robp@washpost.com. Visit
voices.washingtonpost.com/ fasterforward for his Faster Forward blog.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170