This is what happens when a news organization has a million pageviews daily on its website and its newspaper has two million daily subscribers.
They get face time with the planet’s big-buzz CEO.
You decide how wisely they used it.
The Wall Street Journal online’s Management section has an interview with David Novak, president and CEO of Louisville – based Yum! Brands.
Yum! Brands has become a Wall Street darling after its successful move into China under Novak, who just released his second book, “Taking People with You.”
“In the Executive Suite with Yum’s David Novak,” the Q&A by Leslie Kwoh, is lighter and flufflier than what we’re used to reading about Yum! Brands in analyst reports:
WSJ: “Do you answer your own phone at work?
DN: “If no one else does.”
Wow!
Instead of breaking down market segments, depreciation, franchisee ratios and ROI, Kwoh wants to know about what defines a CEO. (Which is cool when you’re talking to a guy who brings home 30-plus mil a year.
The Novak interview makes for quick reading, and Novak is really pretty honest about how gung-ho he was back in 1997 when he became president of what is now the world’s largest fast-food empire by total stores. (McDonald’s generates more revenue.)
WSJ: What’s the hardest lesson you’ve had to learn on this job?
Mr. Novak: When I was first learning the ropes of being a CEO, I had to learn how to do more sober selling. I was so passionate and enthusiastic about the prospects of our company, that it was almost too much. I’ve learned it’s very important to share with investors the good, the bad and the ugly. I was too overly enthusiastic of all the things we could do, and didn’t give enough insight into the challenges that we had. So I always try to talk about the unfinished business – things we haven’t done, things we still need to do — to make our company as great as it can be.
WSJ’s David Novak interview: ‘Luck, being at the right place at the right time made me CEO of Yum! Brands’
They get face time with the planet’s big-buzz CEO.
You decide how wisely they used it.
The Wall Street Journal online’s Management section has an interview with David Novak, president and CEO of Louisville – based Yum! Brands.
Yum! Brands has become a Wall Street darling after its successful move into China under Novak, who just released his second book, “Taking People with You.”
“In the Executive Suite with Yum’s David Novak,” the Q&A by Leslie Kwoh, is lighter and flufflier than what we’re used to reading about Yum! Brands in analyst reports:
WSJ: “Do you answer your own phone at work?
DN: “If no one else does.”
Wow!
Instead of breaking down market segments, depreciation, franchisee ratios and ROI, Kwoh wants to know about what defines a CEO. (Which is cool when you’re talking to a guy who brings home 30-plus mil a year.
The Novak interview makes for quick reading, and Novak is really pretty honest about how gung-ho he was back in 1997 when he became president of what is now the world’s largest fast-food empire by total stores. (McDonald’s generates more revenue.)
WSJ: What’s the hardest lesson you’ve had to learn on this job?
Mr. Novak: When I was first learning the ropes of being a CEO, I had to learn how to do more sober selling. I was so passionate and enthusiastic about the prospects of our company, that it was almost too much. I’ve learned it’s very important to share with investors the good, the bad and the ugly. I was too overly enthusiastic of all the things we could do, and didn’t give enough insight into the challenges that we had. So I always try to talk about the unfinished business – things we haven’t done, things we still need to do — to make our company as great as it can be.
Read the entire interview here.