火狐CEO下课的启示：不怕闷，就怕冲

    上周，浏览器开发公司Mozilla收到了一条令人难堪的提醒：公司CEO不妨与CBO（首席品牌官）调换一下位置。

    事情是这样的：Mozilla【开源计算公司，以其火狐浏览器（Firefox）而闻名】新任CEO布兰登•艾克上任后不久，便发现自己成了众矢之的，因为他被披露曾在2008年为加州反同性恋婚姻立法捐助过1,000美元。Mozilla员工要求他下台，约会网站OKCupid将艾克对同性恋婚姻的立场告知了访问该网站的Firefox用户，并建议他们更换浏览器。

    （颇具讽刺意味的是，OkCupid联合创始人兼CEO山姆•亚甘也曾向反同性恋权利国会候选人捐款。）

    艾克于4月3日辞职。他离开公司后，Mozilla在公司博客中写道，公司“未能在争议开始出现的时候迅速采取措施，与公众沟通。Mozilla一直坚持平等与言论自由的理念。但要同时做到这两方面却很难。”实质上，艾克的个人信仰与Mozilla开放、包容的形象格格不入。

    教训：CEO本身便是一个品牌；一个必定要与公司形象融为一体的品牌。如果两者无法融合，必将带来灾难。

    耶鲁大学（Yale）市场营销教授、用户观察中心（Center for Customer Insight）主任莱维•多尔说：“不管这种观点是否正确，CEO所持观点并非CEO本人的观点。在身份认同方面，CEO和他们所代表的公司往往被混为一谈。所以，人们会认为，CEO的观点肯定也是公司的观点。这种情况在政治领域同样存在。如果奥巴马或布什持有某种观点，全世界都会认为所有美国人均相信同样的观点。”

    CEO已经成为一个吉祥物——是一家庞大公司的代表。与此同时，公司领导人始终处在监视之下。在微博盛行的年代，任何失态或有争议的言论很快就会传遍整个网络。

    这些因素导致了艾克的下台，但他开创的先例对于其他同行或整个商业圈而言并不是什么好消息。

    多尔说：“很不幸，这意味着CEO们不会说太多话。他们会变动更加无聊，因为他们担心自己所说的话可能在无意中就和公司品牌联系在一起。”

    这听起来不算坏事，但对于CEO们领导的公司来说，却是坏消息。耶鲁大学管理学院（Yale School of Management）的杰弗瑞•索南菲尔德参与的一项CEO调查发现，CEO越有人格魅力，他们领导的公司财务绩效就会越出色。按照这个标准，公司绩效约有10%至15%应该归功于CEO的个人魅力。2006年的研究发现，CEO上任前几年个人魅力的影响力越大，之后会逐渐减弱。索南菲尔德说：“但可以肯定，人格魅力很重要。”

    或许，高管们依然可以展现自己非凡的魅力，只是不要在外人面前。（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    Mozilla received an ugly reminder last week that the CEO title might as well be swapped with CBO -- chief brand officer.

    Here's a recap: Shortly after taking over as CEO of Mozilla, the open-source computing company known for its Firefox web browser, Brendan Eich found himself on the receiving end of public outrage over revelations that he'd donated $1,000 to anti-gay marriage legislation in California in 2008. Mozilla employees called for his departure and OKCupid notified Firefox users that visited its dating site about Eich's stance on gay marriage and recommended that they use a different browser.

    (As irony would have it, OkCupid co-founder and CEO Sam Yagan once donated to an anti-gay rights congressional candidate.)

    Eich resigned on April 3. Upon his leaving the company, Mozilla wrote on its blog that the company "didn't move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech… Figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard." In essence, Eich's personal beliefs clashed with Mozilla's reputation as an open, inclusive community.

    The takeaway: a CEO is a brand unto him or herself; a brand that undoubtedly melds with the company's own image. If the two don't mesh, it can spell disaster.

    "Whether or not it's right, it's not just the [CEO] who holds a certain view. They are blurred with the company, so people assume that the company must also hold that view," says Ravi Dhar, a marking professor at Yale and director of its Center for Customer Insight. "It's not unlike what happens in politics. If Obama or Bush holds a certain view, suddenly the rest of the world thinks all Americans believe the same thing."

    The CEO has evolved into a mascot -- the human face of a behemoth company. At the same time, business leaders are constantly under scrutiny and any gaffe or controversial statement can spread across the web in the time it takes to type 140 characters.

    The confluence of these factors resulted in ruin for Eich, and the precedent set by his experience doesn't bode well for others, or for the business community overall.

    "Unfortunately, it means that CEOs won't talk as much," says Dhar. "They'll become boring since they'll worry that something they say may inadvertently be linked to the brand."

    That doesn't sound like such a bad thing, but it could be bad news for the companies these CEOs lead. A study of CEOs co-authored by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld at the Yale School of Management found that the more charismatic a CEO, the better his or her firm performed financially. Depending on the measure, roughly 10% to 15% of a company's performance can be attributed to CEO charisma. A 2006 update to the study found that the impact of CEO charisma was greatest in the early years of a chief exec's tenure -- and then the effect tapers off over time. "But it surely did matter," Sonnenfeld says.

    Perhaps these execs can still be extra charismatic, but only on the inside?