CHAPTER 2
The Gray Man
The new CEO had been in the chair for almost a year. I was in the seat facing him for our first weekly meeting in January. Company compensation had been decided, and budgets, with the inevitable encyclopedia of spreadsheets, were in. Prepared for a grilling on the year’s prospects for my subsidiary, I was relaxed and ready to go. It was not to be.
The beginning of the conversation came across as, garble garble garble…reorganization, garble garble…and you become Vice Chairman of the company. The Vice Chair parses long paragraphs in favor of the important bits. I decided on a Socratic approach.
Does the position entail a board seat? No.
Did you speak with the Chairman about this? Yes, but I don’t need permission.
How might ...
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