Chips, CEOs, And High-Impact Ancient Advice
What do chips, CEOs and ancient advice share in common? Who is the almost-CEO of Texas Instruments who ultimately turned the tech world upside down – in Taiwan? According to recent research, besides setting vision and leading the troops, what’s the strategic task that if minimized can have a dramatic chilling effect on potential CEO excellence – and a possible quick end to a C-level career? And what ancient source has remarkable staying power in shaping high-impact leadership?
The answer to these questions showed up when Fortune magazine polled 41 Fortune 100 CEOs earlier in 2023 and asked: “What’s the best book you’ve read in the last year?” Here’s a brief synopsis of the top three.
The World’s Most Critical Technology
The first book favored by CEOs in the summer of 2023? Chris Miller’s Chip War, which was also the 2022 Financial Times “Book of the Year.” Chip War was described by Fortune editor Alan Murray as “ a must-read for anyone trying to understand the geopolitical economics of our era.”
Clocking in at 431 pages, this fast-paced epic sets out just how vulnerably dependent and exposed the entire global economy remains on tiny, infinitely complex semiconductors. How did this advance? Beginning in the late 1950s, crude semiconductor development was fueled initially by a critical need for lightweight guidance processors for nascent intercontinental ballistic missiles.
But their status as a niche innovation didn’t last long. Semiconductors quickly transformed into indispensable must-have components of “pretty much every device” manufactured today (emphasis Miller’s), rising in commercial and national security importance to become the “new oil.” In fact, today “most of the world’s GDP is produced with devices that rely on semiconductors.”
America once occupied the epicenter of virtually all semiconductor research and manufacturing. But no longer, although the U.S. still holds a dominant position. The nation today faces dramatic competition from virtually every corner of the earth.
Morris points out that the intense competition for semiconductor dominance was largely ignored by political figures around the world. That is, until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“When Joe Biden and [then-German Chancellor] Angela Merkel asked why their country’s car factories were shuttered, the answer was shrouded behind semiconductor supply chains of bewildering complexity,” writes Morris. While perhaps popularly thought to be centered in the tiny controversial island of Taiwan, semiconductor manufacturing and technology actually spans the breath of the world, stretching from Israel to Europe, to Japan, to South Korea, to the People’s Republic of China, to multiple sites and factories in America and even further.
It is so complex, Morris writes, that “If any one of the steps in the semiconductor production process is interrupted, the world’s supply of new computing power is imperiled.” Hence, the book moniker Chip War, and the advent of a new U.S. chip frenzy fueled by the $52.7 billion CHIPS And Science Act, igniting hundreds of all-new highly competitive developmental ecosystems across the North American continent.
Morris Chang, the once-almost CEO of semiconductor giant Texas Instruments, today works to ensure that both his legendary company TSMC and Taiwan “retains its central role in the world’s chip industry.” This focus remains, even though the island of Taiwan increasingly faces multi-pronged threats of PRC invasion and disruption from 100 miles west. Such an invasion, Morris opines, could risk no less than devastating nuclear war between the United States and Western nations against China, “as the battleground would be the beating heart of the digital world.”
What separates the best CEOs from the rest?
Why is CEO Excellence topping a book list of Fortune 100 chief executives? “Unlike the business classics and most case studies taught in business school, CEO Excellence relies on the wisdom of the best of contemporary CEOs,” writes editor Murray.
To produce a tome referred to as "a master class," three senior partners at McKinsey surveyed, interviewed and re-interviewed a sizable chunk of the most-successful CEOs working today, boiling down the core group to an elite conclave of 65.
Initially working to isolate three critical elements that embody CEO success, the McKinsey team found that six stand-out responsibilities appeared among the most successful CEOs:
While these traits solidly and universally emerged, how they are deployed is highly personal and unique. As the authors outlined: “How the CEOs prioritize each of the six responsibilities depends on a complex interplay between the specific business situation and the CEO’s unique capabilities and preferences.”
But one common trait showed up: “The key takeaway was that despite their different approaches, every CEO at every stage of their tenure meaningfully tended to all six responsibilities. The best CEOs kept all six plates spinning at all times, even if…some needed to be spun faster or slower than others.”
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Excellence in the CEO position remains tough to achieve for a variety of reasons. “A CEO is accountable for everything,” they found, making the position a highly public lightning rod. Chief executives also have to deal with the fact that “The CEO role is the intersection of all contradictions,” particularly in measuring and directing short-term vs. long-term organizational performance.
The third challenge? An astonishing amount of never-ending work. “The sheer weight of the six challenges…falls on the CEO’s shoulders,” the writers warned. The position “consumes your life.”
What’s a key differentiator between successful CEOs and those of a lesser ilk? They believe they must always “be bold.” The alternative performance sapper? “In today’s complex world, many CEOs try to minimize uncertainty and guard against making mistakes.”
The McKinsey authors found in their multiple interviews that successful CEOs have “a different mindset. The embrace uncertainty with a view that fortune favors the bold.”
Successful CEOs are “less a ‘taker’ of their fate and more a ‘shaper’ – constantly looking for and acting on opportunities that bend the curve of history.”
What trait ultimately leads to CEO success? The three McKinsey partners point to decathlon athletes – those who compete in multiple sporting events over a grueling two-day period – as a close role model for success. Citing individual performance of the six responsibilities, successful CEOs “aren’t necessarily the world’s number one” in managing those responsibilities, “but they’re world-class at integrating of those responsibilities simultaneously.”
Want to start sharpening up your skills in embracing CEO excellence? The authors serve up seven pages of focusing worksheets in the book’s first appendix. Too busy already trying for CEO excellence to read the book? Download an excellent PDF summary here.
Management insight from the best-seller of the ages
What was a surprising, first-time book on the CEO summer list? As the Fortune editor revealed: “the Bible, which hasn’t showed up in past surveys, but that may be a sign of the times. Divine guidance is needed.”
In contrast to an age where numbers of church attendance are dwindling, CEOs have discovered the rich truths of how to build leadership character and strength, as well as the origins of human foibles and faults that can bring down any modern organization.
The Bible, as many have found, offers rock-solid advice for positive management and character development. The book of Proverbs alone serves up hundreds of short pieces of on-target advice on how to successfully conduct business and personal life.
The ancient words of the Bible include many instances of human behavior that have not changed much over the course of centuries. Reading it can enable CEOs to learn from the mistakes of others rather than through painful personal experience.
In an age of frigid polarization, the Bible tells us across the ages: “Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self-control than to conquer a city” (Proverbs 16:32, New Living Translation). And how about “whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them” (Matthew 7:13, English Standard Version)
Reflecting modern authors like Simon Sinek on personal traits of success, the Bible noted more that thousand years ago: “Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.”
It records critical standards for personal achievement: “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” (Proverbs 4:23, New Living Translation)
The famous beatitudes attributed to Jesus Christ make for positive behavioral change, pointing people to higher inspiring principles of conduct – many that will transcend this human life.
The most-printed and widely available book (or collection of books) in human history, the Bible offers priceless advice and insight. The Bible records that human life is most valuable, and that individual people have a purpose that transcends everyday problems and challenges. Many modern-day authors like John C. Maxwell have chronicled leadership principles from the Bible. As contemporary secular researchers have eloquently confirmed, an inordinate focus on materialism and financial gain carries with it numerous painful outcomes, many of which were outlined by biblical authors thousands of years ago.
New food for thought?
Three widely disparate books on critical topics – all worth a read and perhaps even a closer look. What books made your high-impact reading list in 2023?
By Michael Snyder, Managing Principal, MEK.