24-26-hotseat.qxp 14/12/09 14:07 Page 25
~LEADERSHIP~
A test of mettle
Taking the helm of a business can be a giddy,
nerve-wracking experience. Marc Barber finds out
how CEOs managed the transition from director to boss
T
he stakes are as high as they are much more of a public figure. You Alterian, comments, ‘The big difference is
come for Jasmine Whitbread, are the visible face of the organisation; that while you are part of a team in the
the CEO of Save the Children you’re always in the public eye. At the company, you’re basically the leader and you
(StC). For her, getting the form and shape start, you realise you never have a private are responsible for setting the culture and
of the business right really can be a matter moment and are always expected to have vision of the business. If you’re not clear
of life and death. top-notch judgement.’ about that being your job, then it won’t be
‘We want to make sure that no child Richard Glasson made the switch from done properly. While it’s important to absorb
dies before the age of five for preventable chief operating officer (COO) to CEO of input from others, you must be willing to
reasons,’ says Whitbread, who left her GyroHSR last year. Like Whitbread, he make the big decisions and enforce them.’
position as a director at Oxfam to run experienced that strangeness in the early When taking the hotseat, it’s important
StC in 2005. to make your mark, but
Since joining, she has taken strutting around declaring
StC’s revenue from £130
‘As a good CEO, you have to look at your
‘I’m the CEO’ and
million to £216 million. Staff implementing changes too
numbers range from 5,000 to
organisation and identify the passion killers’
radically may alienate staff.
6,000, depending on any Whitbread spent the first
given emergency. ‘What we’re three months listening to
obsessing about now is that if we are to days of realising that the buck really did staff and understanding the organisation’s
make these changes for children in the stop with him: ‘Soon after taking over, there pressure points. She travelled around the
21st century, then we need to ensure that were a couple of occasions where finely world, speaking to various people at the
the changes we make in the organisation balanced decisions needed to be made, and organisation, before writing a manifesto
are relevant.’ then you understand that everyone in the stating what had to be done. ‘People could
When Whitbread started, she recalls room is looking at you.’ see their own words in my report,’ she
underestimating how ‘stretched’ she would recalls. ‘Everybody knew what needed to
feel in the role. ‘It wasn’t the volume, as in LEADING THE WAY be done but there wasn’t the bigger picture,
the amount of work, it was the scope and The qualities needed to be a director and so I pieced it all together. As a result, I had
sense of responsibility and the call on my those required for running the entire an amazing mandate, and I wasn’t on my
judgement,’ she explains. ‘It’s not only company couldn’t be more different. David own as I felt the whole organisation was
internally, but as a chief executive you Eldridge, CEO of software specialist really backing me on it.’ ▼
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