“I don’t want to be known as the CEO who brought Chrysler back from the Dead” – attributed to Robert J Eaton, former CEO of Chrysler

 

You could call it a coincidence that in the midst of the news from the Malaysian General Election, which saw Malaysia’s Prime Minister in Perpetuity, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad lose his seat and the deposit, an old friend of mine sent me an article about the return of Mr. Bob Iger, returning as CEO of Disney and asked me for my thoughts. The article can be found at:

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/bob-iger-is-returning-as-disney-ceo-in-a-huge-shakeup-065239929.html

While the results of the Malaysian election and Mr. Iger’s return to his old job, might seem unconnected, they both illustrate one of the key problems in brand management for the age of instant news. Both Mr. Iger and Dr. Mahathir are giants to their respective organisations, so much so that as far as most people were concerned, Mr. Iger was Disney and Dr. Mahathir was Malaysia. Mr. Iger lead Disney for a long time and through a very successful period and you could say that the same was true for Dr. Mahathir, who is Malaysia’s longest serving Prime Minister and the man credited with raising Malaysia’s economy from third-world resource dependent to a credible one.

Both men had developed personal brands that were reflected in the bands of the organisations that they led. The personal and the corporate/country brand seemed to enhance each other and to an extent, everyone seemed happy with that.

Then, there was the fact that neither was succeeded by someone who was a capable steward of the company brand. Mr. Bob Chapek, who was both Mr. Igar’s successor and predecessor as CEO of Disney ended up being blamed for the fall in business at Disney’s theme park and film distribution business. For Dr. Mahathir, he had Abdullah Badawi who only lasted half a decade and Mr. Najib who brought government corruption to a level worthy of a Hollywood movie (which was what happened when 1MDB fund were used to fund the Wolf of Wall Street).

When Dr. Mahathir returned to his old job in May 2018, he was regarded as something of a saviour who would help Malaysia return the glory of his first administration after being plundered by Mr. Najib. There is some hope that Mr. Igar will return Disney to its old magic.

Now, there is nothing wrong with a superstar leader returning to the organisation he or she once led. Steve Jobs for example, was ousted from Apple in 1985 and then came back in 1997, where he transformed Apple from needing cash from its great rival, Microsoft, into one of the most valuable companies in history (Apple is the second company in history to have a market capitalisation of over a trillion dollars and in any given quarter from 2011 onwards, Apple has been either the most valuable or second most valuable company in the world - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_corporations_by_market_capitalization )

In sport, there is the example of Graham Henry, who coached the All Blacks during their worst ever world cup performance in 2007 (first time New Zealand failed to reach the semi-finals) but held onto his job long enough to win the tournament in 2011 (prior All Black coaches got the sack when they failed to advance in the World Cup).

So, second chances are not a bad thing. Both Mr. Jobs and Mr. Henry went onto use their personal brands to enhance the brand of the organisations they lead. Former, long-serving leaders know the system and by extension know what needs to be done. Mr. Jobs for example, knew Apple had a great culture of innovation but needed to know where to focus its energy and he knew how to stir Apple the right way. Prior to announcing his illness, Mr. Jobs had the good sense to find a capable successor in Tim Cook and saw to it that there was distance between his personal brand and the corporate brand. There’s nothing wrong with Mr. Igar returning to Disney if, like Mr. Job, has an idea of where he wants to bring the company.

However, the problem with long serving leaders is that there is a tendency to forget that they are only human and prone to human failings. Having their brand infused with the organisations has a way of making them forget that the organisation needs to be greater than them and as they say, you need to have an idea of where you are going to take the organisation and you got to deliver results. Mr. Jobs created incredible value for Apple shareholders in his second stint leading the company, hence nobody ever said anything about Mr. Jobs making a return to Apple.

The same cannot be said for Dr. Mahathir in his second stint as Prime Minister of Malaysia. At best, you could say that Dr. Mahathir did cancel some of the more extravagant of Mr. Najib’s era but that was pretty much it. In the end, the voters saw an old man who whilst feisty, was more interested in political horse trading to secure his power rather than making life better for voters.

 

 What did he do with his second chance? – copyright CNN.

While there’s nothing wrong with being given a second chance, one needs to use it to do more than during the first stint. If your interest in only yourself, the people who gave you a second chance will be considerably less willing to let you back in.