Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Businessweek’s The Worst CEOs of 2012



Who are the absolute worst chief executives of 2012? Sydney Finkelstein thinks he knows. The longtime professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business is the author of 11 books with such titles as Why Smart Executives Fail and Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions, so he knows a thing or two about utter failure.

1. Brian Dunn, who resigned as chief executive of Best Buy (BBY) in April after allegations surfaced that he had an inappropriate relationship with a much younger subordinate...

2. Aubrey McClendon, the CEO of Chesapeake Energy (CHK) who apparently has trouble keeping his company’s finances and his own apart..

3. Andrea Jung, who stepped down as chief executive of Avon (AVP) in April but remains as chairman through the end of this year. Jung has been unable to fix the company’s operational problems, failed to groom a successor, and turned down a $10.7 billion offer from the beauty-care company…

4. Mark Pincus, the CEO of Zynga (ZNGA), the mobile gaming company that brought the world Farmville, among other online distractions. Zynga stock is down 75 percent so far this year, and the company is losing top executive talent..

Two other executives—Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook and Andrew Mason at Groupon (GRPN)—almost made the list. The rap on Zuckerberg is his “massive ego,” while both men get demerits for immaturity and shares that move in only one direction, and not the right one. Says Finkelstein: “There’s no reason to believe they have the management skills to run a major public company.”

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