C-E-Know-How

By Andrea Sachs

It seems as though every CEO in America has found his or her Inner Writer. The pioneer was Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca, whose 1984 memoir, Iacocca, was a smash hit with 7 million copies in print. Then came GE CEO Jack Welch, who received $7 million for his 2001 tell-all, Jack: Straight from the Gut. Of course, there are motivations for writing a book besides money: the earnest desire to pass along lessons learned, the urge to settle a few scores, not to mention ego. This month brings three new CEO tomes that span the spectrum of management styles from California New Age to pinstripe M.B.A. As different as they are, these corporate chiefs all worry about similar issues--making better products, weathering economic downturns, motivating employees--albeit in their own vocabularies.

Chip Conley, the founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, which operates 40 boutique hotels and other properties, exemplifies San Francisco smarts in Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow. Conley's company was almost wiped out by the post-9/11 downturn. But the theories of renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow provided "mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," says Conley, a Stanford M.B.A. (In miniature: Maslow believed that as their basic needs are met, human beings and companies are able to strive for higher goals.) Despite a few New Age-y concepts like "karmic capitalism" and a tendency to throw around phrases like "self-actualization," which will prove a little woo-woo for some readers, anyone who has ever been a wage slave will warm to Conley's compassion.

Anyone who's ever eaten fast food, on the other hand, will warm to David Novak. The head of Yum! Brands, the largest restaurant chain in the world (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut), has written a feel-good memoir called The Education of an Accidental CEO. The son of an itinerant government surveyor, Novak attributes his corporate dexterity to having lived in 32 trailer parks by seventh grade. Although he leads a company with nearly 1 million employees, there is a gee-whiz quality to his writing: "We had a blast at Pizza Hut. It is so much fun and so gratifying to turn a company around." It's easy to see why Novak did so well at a place called Yum!

The most buttoned-down of the bunch is James Kilts, a former CEO of Gillette, Nabisco and Kraft and author of Doing What Matters. Befitting his lengthy resume, which includes teaching at the University of Chicago's business school, Kilts has written a dense, complex book intended for others at the top. His description of starting a job says it all: "Your first day of a new job should be like the first hours of the D-Day landing by the Allies during World War II." In Kilts' book, nonexecutive employees are casts of thousands, not individuals. Kilts bluntly declares, "Continuous dissatisfaction must characterize the leader, which results in continuous improvement."

Ironically, when tackling the subject of recognizing people for good work, the three very different CEOs all fall back on corny ploys. Joie de Vivre's Conley quotes philosopher William James: "The deepest hunger in humans is the desire to be appreciated." He says he has given away "dozens and dozens of copies" of the children's book The Little Engine That Could to his employees. Writes Conley: "The fact that a room attendant is given this book personally by the company's CEO, with a customized inscription inside, makes the recognition all the sweeter." Likewise, Kilts believes in the power of the executive touch: "Small things--a hamburger at a fast-food restaurant, a hot dog at a roadside stand or a meeting at your home--can create a lifelong remembrance." But Novak is the sappiest. At the helm of KFC, he carried around floppy rubber chickens in his briefcase, so he could give them out and surprise a deserving employee. Novak would then autograph the chicken and hand the befuddled employee a crisp hundred-dollar bill. Which brings up the obvious: no stunt or roadside chat says "Thank you" quite as well as cash.

Will this current crop of CEO authors achieve publishing immortality, earning their place on the shelf between Iacocca and Welch? Well, if there are copies left over, they can always hand them out with the rubber chickens.