Analyzing the Impact of Black Execs

The Democratic presidential candidates are not undermining their party's chances at the white house. The Republican candidates' gloves came off the same way last week during a debate; thus breaking Reagan's 11th commandment of not criticizing another Republican.

The primaries are just around the corner. So it was no surprise Hillary was going to be the sole target seeing her commanding lead in the major polls.

Sent by Moji | 5:33 PM | 11-1-2007

When Newsweek did a front-cover story on these black CEOs nearly six years ago, many of us foolishly began to believe that this was some sort of new Black Power in America.
The reality is that they're and were nothing more than glorified high-paid employees and apointees--nothing more.
Until we begin to establish and own our own companies and build them into Fortune 500 companies, no one will truly and ultimately respect us. So now that we've run their Fortune 500 companies with some semblance of success, I say now it's time we begin developing our own for the benefit of our own collective future.

Sent by Jomo Basoga | 7:40 PM | 11-1-2007

The past reporting on Stan Oneal's termination totally dicredits his past acheivements. It's dangerous for (News & Notes), Tell Me More Etc.) to continue to implicate that race in anyway played a role in his being fired. When working for any company there are expectations of performance and we keep jobs depending on how those expectations are met not meeting those goals and your likely to be fired; black or white or whatever.

Sent by Mr. Politics | 11:10 AM | 11-2-2007

The presence and the power of black executives has been building for decades. Having worked at Xerox for many years it was clear that the environment and precedent has long ago been set that a black woman might run the entire enterprise. But more importantly the experiences of black folks at that Fortune 100 company obliterated all fantasy and wishful thinking about 'corporate America'.

This represents another level of social progress for African Americans. The operation of multinational corporations is no longer the mystery it once was. And so now black folks can make rational decisions about how and where they work without resorting to decisions made about fear of white racism.

Sent by Bowen | 11:33 AM | 11-2-2007

Dear Stanley:
If you listen to our interviews with Alfred Edmond, Jr., of Black Enterprise and columnist Clarence Page, you'll notice that we don't ascribe O'Neal's firing to race. What we do, instead, is look at whether or not black CEO's actually make a difference (in diversity and other factors) in the organizations they head; how many African-Americans are at the head of multi-billion-dollar institutions; and how long, in general, these titans of industry hold on to their jobs.

Thanks for writing....

Sent by Farai | 1:01 PM | 11-2-2007

I recall reading a Fortune magazine article in 1995 entitled: SO YOU FAIL. NOW BOUNCE BACK! When I saw the images of the people who failed, it was clear that there were no African-American executives on this list of folks who got second chances. Not surprising 12 years ago. Fast forward, to now. It's 12 years later, and what you will see is that most of the executives who have ascended the corporate ranks who are African-American do not follow the prescription outlined in the Fortune article of being able to bounce back at another behemoth organization. Their (Black executives) tend to get involved with much smaller ventures, which is great, I suppose.

For example, Lloyd Ward, former CEO of Maytag presided over the largest run-up of the company's stock, took the bullet when the stock dived. But interestingly enough the company followed his strategies after he departed. He???s out of big business for now and has been for a while. Another example is A. Barry Rand. He ran Avis for a two year period and subsequently went to run a small business process outsourcing company ultimately acquired by IBM. Since I don't have countless examples from which to chose, these two serve notice that you pretty much get one shot at running a global, Fortune 500 enterprise--especially if you get fired.

It is highly unlikely that Franklin Raines will lead another company the size of Fannie Mae. I think the message is clear: Messrs Ward, Rand, Raines and soon to be Richard Parsons will probably not get the second chance you see in the 1995 Fortune article. To me, that is the real test of progress in our society. The interesting thing though is that Black executives tend to be on the back side of their most product years (60 plus) and thus opportunities tend to be limited at this stage of one's career due to extensive travel, family commitments, and the overall pace and demand of these jobs. The question now is do we have capable talent in the pipeline with a real shot at these top jobs? The Fortune article is at:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1995/05/01/202473/index.htm

Sent by Lafayette Howell | 1:16 PM | 11-2-2007

Second chance? These top executives get golden parachutes. Who needs a second chance with that benefit?

Sent by MJB | 11:15 PM | 11-2-2007