The 21st Century Executive: Innovative Practices for Building Leadership at the Top

Lawrence A. Bossidy, Marcia J. Avedon

This chapter is based on an interview with Lawrence A. Bossidy, chairman and CEO of Honeywell International (formerly AlliedSignal, Inc.). Larry Bossidy has been cited in many business articles for his superior financial performance and transformational leadership during his nine-year tenure as chief executive of AlliedSignal (Stewart, 1992, 1999; Franco, 1999; Maynard, 1994). In 1998 Larry Bossidy was selected among his peer CEOs as CEO of the year (Dolan, 1998). “Larry Bossidy led one of the most remarkable turnarounds in corporate history,” says J. P. Donlon, editor-in-chief of Chief Executive.

The interviewer and author of this chapter, Marcia Avedon, has had the opportunity to work with Larry Bossidy at AlliedSignal and Honeywell on recruiting and selecting executives, determining executive compensation, and providing development opportunities and succession plans.

What are your thoughts about the role of executives, how their role may differ from other managers in companies, and how you may have seen the role change over your career?

First, the role has to be one of leadership. I think that is much different than it was 5 years ago, let alone 15 years ago, when manager

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