Kenneth Lay Quotes

I do not want to be a long-term CEO.

I think there's few cases in history where the C.E.O. steps down and is also the founder and reports to someone and that works.

I'm the ninth CEO of IBM. Every one of my predecessors has steered through a technological shift, and every one left the company in a better position than the person before them and prepared this company with a very strong balance sheet to allow it to continue to invest for the next shift.

The industry has to learn how to do CEO succession well. If your definition of success is Intel or Microsoft or HP or IBM, that's not a good track record, and yet they are the most successful ones.

Deciding whether or not to bring in an outside CEO is one of the most gut-wrenching decisions that a founder will ever need to make.

I'm a really big believer in chief executives not staying forever.

The role of a board of directors is to be a sounding board for the vision of the company - to hold executives accountable in executing that vision and to ensure a management succession plan is in place.

I think running Apple is a great job, but it suits Steve Jobs so well. I wouldn't want to be the person that ran Apple after Steve, but he has a great job.

As a former member of JWA's management team, and more recently as a director, I am delighted to have the opportunity now to take the reins of leadership of the company. I look forward to working with JWA's management team to chart the course and execute the plan to further strengthen and broaden JWA's leading product franchises.

You can stay too long in a job, that's for sure. But by the same token, in the 12 years I have been CEO of GE, there have been four CEOs of Toshiba. So there's too short a time to do it, and there's too long a time to do it.

I think every responsible public board at every board meeting should be discussing succession. And, of course, Walmart has a very mature board: our chairman Rob Walton and other members. So succession is an ongoing. I think when I first joined the board of directors, it was discussed then. And it's discussed at every board meeting continually.

Every employee in a company depends on the C.E.O. to make fast, high-quality decisions.

Back when I was looking for my next step and was researching Gannett, I was interested in who was leading the various businesses within the organization: Are there a lot of women and minorities in important, operational roles, senior management and the board of directors?

If it were up to the executives, they probably wouldn't have directors at all.

The executive moves we are announcing today will strengthen American for the long-term future and reflect well on the depth of the Company's management team.

If somebody's going on your board, and you're going to be C.E.O., it will help if that person knows how to be C.E.O., who has done it before.

I'm in a different position than most CEO's. I'm a founder. I'm not a hired CEO. Now, I can be fired by the board, but most CEO's are hired by the board.

The lesson is that, No. 1, this management has to be at the highest class possible. No. 2, they have to have a succession plan.

CEOs resign when the internal dynamics of the company and the external dynamics of the company actually come together to say it is appropriate. When the internal dynamics ask you whether you have a replacement. I think the transition from CEOships have also become cartoonish.

If longevity is the best index to measure a company, a basic requirement is the ability of the corporation to generate new and new leaders.

Every time a new CEO came, I got a promotion till I was made CEO myself.

Michael Eisner let it be known last week that he had no intention of leaving the entertainment business once he steps down as CEO of Disney in October.

At IBM, if we kept our same leadership for 36 years, we'd be bankrupt.

At great, great remove sit the head of General Electric, the head of News Corp, the head of Viacom, or the head of this giant international corporation that wants these ratings.

A great advantage of a large corporation is supposed to be the large pool of talent in which its leaders can find and groom high achievers and successors.