Back in late April, IBM’s poor earnings report caused their CEO Virginia Rometty to deliver a company-wide reprimand in a five-minute video to all of “Big Blue’s” 434,000 employees.

Ms. Rometty’s message (she is IBM’s ninth CEO in their 102 year existence) was simple: “the company needed to move faster and respond more quickly to the needs of its customers,” (as reported in the 4/25/13 Wall Street Journal).

By taking this action, Ms. Rometty was showing her acceptance of a key CEO responsibility – move aggressively to take corrective action when the current strategy is not delivering the desired or expected result.

If you’re the CEO or leader of your company (regardless of the size of your company), taking quick and deliberate corrective action as soon as it is needed is one of your key duties. Why? Because, as the leader, you are paid to deliver (get) results – period! Your Board (if you have one) is charged with monitoring your performance and if you are a public company, your shareholders (along with your Board) also have a role in keeping an eye on your performance.

And, make no mistake, whether you’re a publically or privately held company, your customers have a say in how well you are doing with respect to the quality of your results. Ms. Rometty’s took her action based on the following business truths:

If your results don’t meet your customer’s expectations, they have a very simple way of telling you: they go… Read more