2008 Top Business Leaders: Signs of Success In Short Supply
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal offered a compilation of a list of the year's top CEO's. To create the list the authors consulted professors at four leading American business schools. Acknowledging the overall weakness of business performance in the 2008 economy, the article's authors and the professors were clear to make the point that the list would be a short one and that relative failure looks pretty good next to absolute failure.
As it is my nature to care about such things, and appreciating that some of the names on the list appear in my book SIGNS OF SUCCESS, I set about compiling a list of birth dates for all of the leaders mentioned in the article. I don't think this is exactly the technique used by Jim Collins (a fellow Aquarian) in GOOD TO GREAT, but it has its virtues. Anyway, here are a few astrological insights:
Out of a list of ten names to which I can easily attach a date of birth, it is a remarkable statistical anomaly that three of the leaders are of the same sun sign, and that the sign is Pisces. Astrological lore frequently writes off Pisces as a poetic dreamer lacking the energetic focus of the business magnate, but research actually yields a list of leaders---ranging from George Washington and Alexander Graham Bell to Phil Knight and Steve Jobs---as impressive as that of any other sign. Pisces, it may be argued, is the sign of universal psychic connection, and its natives have the gift of intuiting what must be made manifest in the zeitgeist to feed the universal needs and wants of mankind.
Anyway, the Pisces on this year's top CEO list are James Dimon (JPMorgan Chase), Gary Kelly (Southwest Airlines), and Steve Jobs (Apple). What these men all seem to excel in is the marriage of product/service vision and corporate culture creation, as well as a knowledge of how to emotionally connect to the shareholder/consumer. Astrology may be easily attacked on scientific grounds, but it is still interesting to note that Gary Kelly shares the exact same birthday, March 13th, as SWA chairman and founder Herb Kelleher.
Another of the so-called water signs, typified by the dominance of intuitive and emotional components in the personality make-up, has two entries on the top CEO list. The sign is Scorpio, and of particular interest is that the only two women who are mentioned in the article, Anne Mulcahy (Xerox) and Indra Nooyi (Pepsico), are the designees. The 'secret' for each of these women appears to be a no-nonsense action-oriented appraisal of business imperatives and a gift for forging the bonds of allegiance among their colleagues...a charismatic and persuasive power sprung in part from the inspiring inner passion of the individual who refuses to be limited by life's gender or ethnic prejudices.
The only other sign that merits a dual mention is Capricorn, in the persons of Rajiv Gupta (Rohm and Haas) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon). Capricorn is often cited by astrologers as the quintessential sign of management, embodying a tone of realistic appraisal, disciplined authority, and an appreciation of the value of long-term effort & perspective. It is a bit ironic, perhaps, that Gupta is recognized in a year when he is responsible for the sale of this venerable 100 year-old family-based institution to Dow Chemical (technically it's a merger), an event that eliminates his job. Bezos, though, whose company is noted in SIGNS OF SUCCESS as the only one of the great 1990's Internet start up companies (Amazon, Google, eBay, Yahoo!) that is still run on a daily basis by its founder, keeps to his mantra of long-term development and this year has announced Amazon's best performance ever.
Also mentioned in the WSJ article are: Kenneth Lewis (Bank of America), John Thain (Merrill Lynch), and Katsuaki Watanabe (Toyota). Lewis is an Aries, and his aggressive acquisition strategy is succinctly summarized in a recent Harvard Business Review profile that could also be the Aries profile in an astrology text: "Well, that's the Ken Lewis school of leadership: Go for the jugular, buy at moments of maximum distress, keep adding to the portfolio, slash costs more dramatically than anyone thinks possible, and always look to get bigger faster." Thain, the CEO of the most notable of Lewis' recent acquisitions, invokes the duplicity of his Gemini nature as he was brought on board at Merrill Lynch as a "Mr. Fixit" but quickly turned into a "Mr. Sell-It" as market conditions fluctuated and declined.
Perhaps the most interesting name on the list is Toyota's Katsuaki Watanabe. The professor who praised him pointed out that Toyota was at least able to record a (small) profit in a miserable automobile year. The day after the WSJ article was printed, however, the dire news of Toyota's first ever quarterly loss became the business disaster du jour, and the financial press has been filled with speculations of Mr. Watanabe's ouster ever since. Why I find this so personally compelling is that Mr. Watanabe's Aquarius birthday, February 13th, is the same as my own so I kind of get, on a significantly smaller scale, a bit of what he is currently going through.
So if you are reading this, Mr. Watanabe, drop me an email. We need to knock back a couple of Saporros and exchange a few thoughts about the transit of Neptune to the Sun. Hey, we're both looking at some free time...trust me.
To contact Steve: smw@stevemarkweiss.com
As it is my nature to care about such things, and appreciating that some of the names on the list appear in my book SIGNS OF SUCCESS, I set about compiling a list of birth dates for all of the leaders mentioned in the article. I don't think this is exactly the technique used by Jim Collins (a fellow Aquarian) in GOOD TO GREAT, but it has its virtues. Anyway, here are a few astrological insights:
Out of a list of ten names to which I can easily attach a date of birth, it is a remarkable statistical anomaly that three of the leaders are of the same sun sign, and that the sign is Pisces. Astrological lore frequently writes off Pisces as a poetic dreamer lacking the energetic focus of the business magnate, but research actually yields a list of leaders---ranging from George Washington and Alexander Graham Bell to Phil Knight and Steve Jobs---as impressive as that of any other sign. Pisces, it may be argued, is the sign of universal psychic connection, and its natives have the gift of intuiting what must be made manifest in the zeitgeist to feed the universal needs and wants of mankind.
Anyway, the Pisces on this year's top CEO list are James Dimon (JPMorgan Chase), Gary Kelly (Southwest Airlines), and Steve Jobs (Apple). What these men all seem to excel in is the marriage of product/service vision and corporate culture creation, as well as a knowledge of how to emotionally connect to the shareholder/consumer. Astrology may be easily attacked on scientific grounds, but it is still interesting to note that Gary Kelly shares the exact same birthday, March 13th, as SWA chairman and founder Herb Kelleher.
Another of the so-called water signs, typified by the dominance of intuitive and emotional components in the personality make-up, has two entries on the top CEO list. The sign is Scorpio, and of particular interest is that the only two women who are mentioned in the article, Anne Mulcahy (Xerox) and Indra Nooyi (Pepsico), are the designees. The 'secret' for each of these women appears to be a no-nonsense action-oriented appraisal of business imperatives and a gift for forging the bonds of allegiance among their colleagues...a charismatic and persuasive power sprung in part from the inspiring inner passion of the individual who refuses to be limited by life's gender or ethnic prejudices.
The only other sign that merits a dual mention is Capricorn, in the persons of Rajiv Gupta (Rohm and Haas) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon). Capricorn is often cited by astrologers as the quintessential sign of management, embodying a tone of realistic appraisal, disciplined authority, and an appreciation of the value of long-term effort & perspective. It is a bit ironic, perhaps, that Gupta is recognized in a year when he is responsible for the sale of this venerable 100 year-old family-based institution to Dow Chemical (technically it's a merger), an event that eliminates his job. Bezos, though, whose company is noted in SIGNS OF SUCCESS as the only one of the great 1990's Internet start up companies (Amazon, Google, eBay, Yahoo!) that is still run on a daily basis by its founder, keeps to his mantra of long-term development and this year has announced Amazon's best performance ever.
Also mentioned in the WSJ article are: Kenneth Lewis (Bank of America), John Thain (Merrill Lynch), and Katsuaki Watanabe (Toyota). Lewis is an Aries, and his aggressive acquisition strategy is succinctly summarized in a recent Harvard Business Review profile that could also be the Aries profile in an astrology text: "Well, that's the Ken Lewis school of leadership: Go for the jugular, buy at moments of maximum distress, keep adding to the portfolio, slash costs more dramatically than anyone thinks possible, and always look to get bigger faster." Thain, the CEO of the most notable of Lewis' recent acquisitions, invokes the duplicity of his Gemini nature as he was brought on board at Merrill Lynch as a "Mr. Fixit" but quickly turned into a "Mr. Sell-It" as market conditions fluctuated and declined.
Perhaps the most interesting name on the list is Toyota's Katsuaki Watanabe. The professor who praised him pointed out that Toyota was at least able to record a (small) profit in a miserable automobile year. The day after the WSJ article was printed, however, the dire news of Toyota's first ever quarterly loss became the business disaster du jour, and the financial press has been filled with speculations of Mr. Watanabe's ouster ever since. Why I find this so personally compelling is that Mr. Watanabe's Aquarius birthday, February 13th, is the same as my own so I kind of get, on a significantly smaller scale, a bit of what he is currently going through.
So if you are reading this, Mr. Watanabe, drop me an email. We need to knock back a couple of Saporros and exchange a few thoughts about the transit of Neptune to the Sun. Hey, we're both looking at some free time...trust me.
To contact Steve: smw@stevemarkweiss.com
Cool,
So pieces are naturally born leaders... what about libras?
Thanks for writing, most people don't bother.
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Pisces are not so much natural born leaders as they are natural born visionaries. Of course, many Pisces have planets in the adjacent sign of Aries which gives them the fiery energy we associate with leadership, or in the other adjacent sign of Aquarius which gives them an inventive nature and effectiveness among groups of people. What makes the Pisces leader most unique, however, is in the ability to track the collective unconscious towards its eventual manifestation in cultural life on this planet the day after tomorrow.
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Libras are natural born controllers, since many of their planets- mercury -communications, -mars- aggressiveness are in scorpio, but never tell this to a libra since they are ruled by Venus and consider their decisions more than fair. Many Libras have planets in Virgo and they try to be perfect. There have been more than few QB's in the NFL that I can think of...can U say Brett
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Your point is well taken. It's true that there are often Scorpio and Virgo planet placements in a Libra chart, giving many Libras a decided edginess. Many people also forget that Libra is a cardinal (leadership) sign that relies on consensus-building and persuasion rather than autocratic coercion to motivate others. I have found that there are many prominent Libras in all team sports...and in sports such as ice skating where balance and grace are preeminent virtues.
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Great site. I like the way you explain everything without using complicated terms.
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I appreciate the kind words.
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fantastic article, it was so learning for me, thanks so informative.
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