From Surgeon to Risktaker/Undertakers

In 1993, when I wrote my book: Risktaker, Caretaker, Surgeon, Undertaker- the four faces to strategic leadership, I found that many of the major corporations were being led by Surgeons, that it individuals who were skilled at managing a strategic portfolio and divest or liquidate the "poor businesses" and invest in what they considered to be winners.

On the other hand, I had problems identifying leaders who thought that they were risk takers but in actually were undertakers. But today, this seems to be the most prevalent type of leader globally.

Almost every week, there is a story of individuals who were willing to bet the future of their companies on focusing on businesses that had immediate financial rewards, that have proven to be lead to the destruction on their companies. They didn't do their homework and were surprised that where they bet were major losers, such as sub-prime mortgages and other creative financial instruments. The strange thing about all of these undertaker leaders is that they have been personally rewarded to destroy their companies.

I hope that this is only a short time phenomena and that we will be able to have more real risk takers and caretakers who do their homework, bet on realism not wishful thinking and are more concerned about their companies than their own personal rewards.

Bill Rothschild, author of Risktaker, Caretaker, Surgeon, Undertaker- the four faces of strategic leadership.