Top Execs On The Move
By Steve Smith -- TWICE, 8/7/2006
Due to a quirk in the calendar or TWICE's schedule, take your pick, it's been three weeks since our last print edition. (We're not alone. International CES will celebrate 40 years in 2007 with a rare Monday to Thursday format next January.)
Even though it's supposed to be the lazy, hazy days of summer, there was no rest for the weary at TWICE since we last published. There has been a fast and furious pace of industry events and stories that we posted on our Web site and included in our daily e-mail.
More top executives changed jobs last month than one could ever recall. Summer was never the season for that. July's list of exec changes made one think that the industry or CEA took a page out of the Major League Baseball playbook and set a “trading deadline” for executives this year.
In our July 17 issue the lead story was about former Kmart exec Julian Day joining RadioShack as its new chairman/CEO. That was only the beginning. Peter Weedfald, Samsung's sales and marketing guru for the past five years who raised the Korean manufacturer's profile in the United States dramatically, left to join one his former key customers, Circuit City (see p. 1).
And that's not all. Nate Davis joins XM as president/COO as Hugh Panero continues as CEO. Three other execs either joined XM or got new jobs within the organization, mostly responsible for marketing functions and branding. David Naranjo, analyst with DisplaySearch, crosses over to become the product development manager for one of the companies he tracked, Mitsubishi. Steve Caldero, a 19-year Yamaha veteran who joined Ken Crane's last year, is named senior VP/COO of the chain, while Pam Crane becomes executive VP and other managers at the retailer get promoted.
And at LG Electronics K.I Kwon, digital display division VP for LG Electronics in North America, was named president of its USA consumer electronics division, succeeding J.M. Lee. (There are plenty more in our TWICE People column on p. 10.)
Is there something in the water? Or are too many corporate types not taking vacations and getting into the water? Was it 100+ degree temperatures across the country? Or just coincidence?
Like the summer weather, the industry has gone from red-hot to white-hot when it comes to competition. In a business known for paper-thin margins and a competitive pace that is light-years ahead of other industries, CE seems to have gone into hyper-drive. What has brought this all on? The typical suspects are digital technology, changing distribution channels, manufacturers becoming retailers and vice-versa, and new suppliers coming from nowhere.
But many top corporations in the industry and their boards still think that people make a difference, and I agree. Good leadership always wins. In this even-quicker, ever-changing industry, board members of public companies and owners of private ones obviously think that if their businesses are not performing properly or not poised for the future, they need to promote from within or hire from outside.
They are absolutely right. As change in this industry becomes more intense, the most adroit and adaptable companies will survive and thrive. They need managers and top executives to lead them through what is the most exciting, but exhausting and stressful, period of growth in CE's history. One thing is clear: If the group of executives who just got new jobs doesn't meet their goals, plenty will come along for the chance to replace them.
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