Wanna' Watch An Info-mercial -- For Crappy Executive Leadership?

Nah. Me either. [H/T Ed Silverman, at Pharmalot for re-posting this dated clip, though. Here's a free short snippet of it, from YouTube, below.]

This is, at bottom, simply a rather dated self-promotion piece, shot when Fred was still looking for a full-time gig. I think I saw a version of it last February, on a consultant's website -- it is drawn from a CNN Europe interview, which is blocked on YouTube in the US, due to copyright clearance issues (but if you're in Europe, you can watch it free at that last link). The erstwhile interviewer allows Fred Hassan to recite (without fact-checking follow-up questions) what are, for Hassan, empty buzz-words. If he executed any of the things he so eloquently describes here, it would be meaningful -- but because he didn't -- it's not.

. . . .“If there’s toxicity in the system, it won’t work”. . . .

-- Fred Hassan, Former Chief Executive, Schering-Plough

Or -- more likely, "toxicity" within the leader, himself.



In addition to the above, here is another longer piece (4:55), freely distributed through YouTube, that covers almost all the same ground, in late 2008. But really, why bother? You know what he's gonna' say -- he tells you about being aligned through the layers of management, while he is busily lining his own pockets, usually at your expense.