In this podcast, Bates talks about what it means to speak like a CEO, what makes President Obama's communications style so effective, how CIOs can use good communications to maintain staff morale, and how gender differences in communications styles can affect your job performance.

What do President Obama and Jack Welch have in common? They're both excellent communicators. Although they have different communications styles, they both know how to command attention and to get results. They also both know how to inspire and to motivate others.

If you want to move up the IT ladder, you, undoubtedly, need to have good technical skills and solid business experience. On the other hand, if you want to earn that CIO seat at the executive table, your better hone your communications skills. You might start by going to amazon.com and ordering either Motivate like a CEO - Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act! or Speak Like a CEO - Secrets to Commanding Attention and Getting Results. Suzanne Bates, the author, is CEO of Bates Communications, an executive communications consultancy, and a former award-winning television anchor and reporter.

When Jose Alvarez, president and CEO of Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. wanted to improve his communications skills, he turned to Bates Communications, based in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm offers everything from formal strategic communications consulting to executive presence seminars and workshops. Clients include Blue Cross Blue Shield, Dow Chemical, Fidelity, and Mellon/Bank of New York. Bates says that the company's mission is to transform leaders into powerful communicators who get business results.

She says that many leaders get promoted because of their business and technical skills. "When you reach the leadership of a C-level position, your primary role is to communicate the organization's vision, strategy, and values. You need good communication skills if want to inspire, to motivate, and to align the organization with the vision and strategy.  Even middle managers need good communications skills. In many cases, communications is the missing link that holds people back from reaching their full potential."

During her 20-year year in television news reporting, Bates interviewed 1,000 of political leaders, CEOs, experts, authors, and celebrities. She says that some people were better speakers than others. After Suzanne started working with executives at Bates Communications, she realized that good communications skills aren't necessarily an innate ability. "It's something you can learn. Leaders, like Jack Welch and President Obama, have learned to develop their own compelling communications style. All writing and all speaking has to come from inside. Many executives struggle with bringing out their authentic voice. It takes practice."

Bio
For about 20 years, Suzanne Bates was an acclaimed news anchor and news reporter with major television stations: WBZ-TV Boston, WCAU-TV Philadelphia, and WFLA-TV Tampa-St. Petersburg. She won an AP News Award and was nominated for a Columbia DuPont Award.

In 2000, Bates started Bates Communications, an executive communications and executive coaching consultancy. In 2005, her book, CEO-Secrets to Commanding Attention and Getting Results, topped the best-seller's list at amazon.com. The book is in its seventh printing and also has been published in several languages. In February 2009, Bates came out with Motivate like a CEO-Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act!
Bates has a B.S. in broadcast journalism from the University of Illinois.

Resources
The Benefits of Executive Presence - Bates Communications
How to be Yourself in front of an audience - EmploymentCrossing
Harvard Business School - Suzanne Bates Delivers Message on the Power of Communication

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio Producer
Audio Editing by Doug Marcis

Do you carry Altoids, Life Savers, or Juicy Fruit chewing gum? The 116-year-old Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company provides these well-known brands of gum, mints, and candies to consumers in 180 countries around the world. In 2001, the $5 billion company decided to expand the global image and reputation of the Wrigley brand. This move included replacing an aging, disparate IT infrastructure with a single supply chain platform using SAP.

Donagh Herlihy, Wrigley's CIO, spearheaded the three-year, international SAP implementation, and helped shape the governance process needed to carry out the initiative. To help Wrigley continue to build brand awareness with consumers, the IT team is helping consumer marketing lay out a strategy and a presence in the virtual world of Second Life, and to provide a safe, family-fun Web environment at www.candystand.com, where kids can indulge in multi-player games.

In this podcast, Donagh Herlihy, CIO and vice president, supply chain strategy and planning for the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, talks about the lessons learned from deploying SAP on a global scale with a new organizational structure, the role IT has played in shaping the Wrigley Innovation Center, and more.

Resources

SAP CRM Sweetens Wrigley's Trade Promotion

Wrigley Web site

Wrigley's Candy Stand

Bio

Donagh Herlihy is vice president, supply chain strategy and planning and chief information officer for the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. In this position, Mr. Herlihy is responsible for setting the strategic direction for the global supply chain function and for optimizing the existing supply chain network. As CIO, he is responsible for all aspects of IT. Prior to this position, Mr. Herlihy served as the company’s CIO and drove the transformation of the company’s core business processes, enabled by a global implementation of SAP. Prior to joining the Wrigley Company in 2000, he led the IT function for Duracell.

Production Credits

Elizabeth Ferrarini, Producer
Dana Farver, Executive Producer, Communities Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show Host

Because of the rapidly accelerating pace of change in global business today, C-level executives in all size companies need to respond quickly to changes in their business climate. Thus, executives have to be aware, not only of their own external environment, but also they have to immerse themselves in their industries, and to look at society -- both nationally and globally. By understanding where changes come from or what changes to make, executives can take advantage of new opportunities. Meanwhile, executives must also focus on innovation and entrepreneurship in order to be successful. In fact, the Carnegie Mellon MBA programs looks at innovation in organizations, ranging from startups to the Fortune 500 companies.

In this podcast, Dr. Art Boni, the director of the Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, talks about how entrepreneurial leadership and innovative drive corporate growth. (Boni also holds the John R. Thorne Chair of Entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business.) He says that to achieve this, executives need to understand their market, and their customer needs, and then to develop strategies for going forward. He says, "Companies also need to have good leadership because a strategy without a good team to execute it won't go very far." Boni views corporate strategy as an integral part of innovation and success for any organization. He adds that good integration of information across the enterprise can help executives better execute their strategies and move the company forward.

Dr. Boni has solid experience to back up what he teaches and preaches. Before getting his doctorate and becoming a full-time professor, Boni pursued an entrepreneurial career in the private sector. He joined Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) after its startup period and become part of the senior management team that built the company to $700 million in revenues. Today, SAIC is an $8 billion technology conglomerate. He also founded and served as CEO of a technology incubator, and four companies in technology and life sciences.

Bio
Dr. Art Boni holds the John R. Thorne Chair of Entrepreneurship and is the director of the Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business. His teaching interests include entrepreneurship, commercializing technology and biotechnology, and corporate innovation. Dr. Boni spent most of his career as an entrepreneur in technology and in life sciences. He received a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego. He left a tenure track appointment in the Dept. of Engineering and Applied Science at Yale University to embark on an entrepreneurial career.

Resources
Pittsburgh Business Times - Write a Development Plan
BusinessWeek - The Art of the Start

Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
5AlarmMusic.com  Production Music Library for Broadcast, Film, Video & Post Production