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from The Great Debate UK:
Steve Tappin on what makes a CEO tick
Being a CEO should be one of the best jobs in the world, argue the authors of a new book.
"It offers the chance to make a real difference," Steve Tappin and Andrew Cave write in The New Secrets of CEOs: 200 Global Chief Executives on Leading.
"However, real life for most CEOs is tough and many are not enjoying it."
The authors interviewed 200 CEOs for the book, which includes profiles of such leaders as Tesco's Terry Leahy , Avon's Andrea Jung, Xstrata's Mick Davis, Kraft's Irene Rosenfeld, Haier's Zhang Ruimin and Cisco's John Chambers.
CEOs are divided into five "distinct categories" characterised by similar leadership styles.
In the following video interview, Tappin, who heads up the CEO counselling firm Xinfu, discusses some major issues confronting top leaders at global firms since the financial crisis of 2007-2009, and shares his views with Reuters on how BP's Tony Hayward should manage the the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis.
Will you miss the British Cadbury?
What will become of the Curly Wurly?
After an interminably long stand-off, U.S. food giant Kraft has agreed a deal to buy British confectioner Cadbury for 11.9 billion pounds.
While the announcement that an agreement had finally been reached hardly came as a surprise, it has provoked an outpouring of consternation and sentimental musing on message boards and social media sites like Twitter.com
A fourth generation member of Cadbury’s founding family, Felicity Loudon, expressed dismay that the iconic sweet maker, with brands such as Flake, Twirl and Wispa, should sell out to a “plastic cheese company” and some members of the general public have expressed similar concerns.
@CharmedLassie, writing on Twitter, said: “If there’s any chance we can stop Cadbury being taken over by Kraft we should take it. This is another sad step out of the UK.” Another user, @ClareCarney wrote: “No! It’s the end of an era!”
On a lighter note, journalist Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) posted: “Gordon Brown should have nationalised Cadbury, and given everyone a free Twirl = shoe-in at the next election.”
‘Cadbury’ is currently one of the most talked about topics on Twitter and hundreds of users have signed up to the ‘I love Cadbury’ campaign on the micro-blogging site.
If Kraft were a company with quality products then perhaps this takeover would not be opposed so much. But the stuff it calls cheese is vile and its chocolate biscuits must be a major contributor to obseity in America. Kadbury’s is doomed.
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The Wall
