7-11社长辞职让人肃然起敬

在董事席位争夺战败给对冲基金经理丹•罗伯后，铃木于上周四宣布辞去Seven &i控股公司，也就是7-Eleven连锁店母公司社长职务。

但铃木一点也没因为失败表现得懊恼。他表示，辞任的决定不能怪罪声势日益高涨的维权股东、短期效益主义，跟自己长时间职业生涯也无关。铃木的矛头只针对自己。他在新闻发布会上简单地解释说，辞职的原因是“自己德行不够，羞愧难当”。

铃木表示，他甚至不打算提名继任者，还表示自己配不上这个职位。

来跟美国一些知名CEO在动荡之中下台的情况比较下。

杰夫•斯基林突然离开安然时声称是出于个人原因，和他一手创立的安然已经腐败透了濒临倒闭没有关系。斯基林发布声明称：“我要感谢肯•莱理解我完全出于个人原因辞职。”不到四个月后，安然破产。五年后，斯基林入狱。

时代华纳前CEO李文宣布卸任时，拼命想把美国在线和时代华纳的合并描述为成功之举。但这次合并导致时代华纳的股价下跌了90%，此后一直被称为历史上最糟糕的并购案例之一。李文还表示相信管理团队的能力，这又是CEO离任时的典型说辞。当时，李文表示：“我完全相信，迪克•帕森斯有能力带领公司前行，联合各方利益，与战略伙伴通力合作，努力实现远大的目标。”

雷曼兄弟首席财务官艾琳•卡兰被扫地出门时，她解释说原因是别处有一份令人激动的工作在召唤她。卡兰表示：“能加入瑞士瑞信银行我很激动，我很期待和瑞信的优秀人才一起工作。我终于有机会回归本源。”然而，她在这个“令人激动”的新职位上只待了不到七个月。

最经典的莫过于雷神公司CEO丹•伯纳姆。2003年他在接受《华尔街日报》采访时表示，离职是为了“陪陪家人，教书，也可能到其他公司担任董事”。三年后，涉嫌造假账的伯纳姆和美国证券交易委员会达成协议，缴纳罚款并退还175万美元奖金中的部分。

这并不是说铃木没有任何过错。显然，他曾设计把一位可能接替他的高管挤走。据报道，铃木排挤高管的原因是希望把社长一职传给自己的一个儿子。这不是什么光彩的事，但和斯基林在安然的所作所为相比，这简直不值一提。此外，在美国，表现比铃木糟糕得多，卸任时一点歉意也没有的CEO大有人在，甚至是不计其数。

或许，要是美国CEO在辞职时承认错误成为一种常态，可能一开始他们也就不会做出让自己蒙羞的事。至少最终被迫说再见时，听上去也不会那么傻。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

U.S. CEOs could learn a thing or two about taking responsibility and expressing humility from Toshifumi Suzuki, the 83-year-old Japanese convenience store mogul. Suzuki, whose Seven & i Holdings is the parent company of the 7-Eleven chain, announced he was resigning as CEO on Thursday after losing a boardroom battle with hedge fund manager Dan Loeb.

But Suzuki was far from a sore loser. He didn’t blame the growing tide of activist investors, short-termism, or a long career for his decision to step down. Instead, Suzuki blamed himself. He simply explained his reason for resigning at a press conference as, “It is my lack of virtue and I am unbearably ashamed.”

Suzuki said he wasn’t going to even try to name a successor. He said he wasn’t worthy of the job.

Compare that to the way some high profile U.S. CEOs exited their jobs amid turmoil.

When Jeff Skilling abruptly exited Enron, he said he was doing so for personal reasons and that it had nothing to do with the fact that he had built a company that was corrupt at its core and on the verge of collapse. “I want to thank Ken Lay for his understanding of this purely personal decision,” Skilling said in a statement. Within four months, Enron was bankrupt. Five years later, Skilling was in jail.

Gerald Levin tried to paint the AOL-Time Warner merger that led to a 90% drop in the company’s stock price and has since been dubbed one of theworst deals in history as a success when he announced his departure from the company. He also said he believed in the strength of his management team—another classic of CEO getaway speeches. “I have the greatest confidence in Dick Parsons’ ability to lead the company forward, coalesce its diverse interests, and work with our strategic partners to achieve our ambitious goals,” he said at the time.

When Lehman Brothers CFO Erin Callan was pushed out, she said she was leaving her employer because an exciting new position had opened up elsewhere. “I’m excited to be joining Credit Suisse and look forward to working with their talented people,” Callan said. “This gives me the opportunity to return to my roots.” She stayed in that “exciting” new job for less than seven months.

And the classic: In 2003, Raytheon CEO Dan Burnham said he was leaving his job to “spend time with his family, teach and possibly become a director on other company boards,” according to theWall Street Journal at the time. Three years later, Burnham agreed to pay a fine and return part of a $1.75 million bonus in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations of accounting irregularities.

That’s not to say Suzuki didn’t do anything wrong. Apparently, the CEO tried to remove a fellow executive who was a likely successor. Suzuki reportedly wanted to hand the job to one of his sons instead. That’s not great. But it’s nothing compared to what Skilling did at Enron. Countless other U.S. CEOs have done far worse and left without saying sorry.

Perhaps if it was the norm for U.S. CEOs to fess up to their mistakes when they resign, maybe they would be less willing to try to get away with the kind of behavior they should be ashamed of in the first place. At the very least, they wouldn’t sound as silly when they are finally are forced to say, “Goodbye.”