Lawrence A. Bossidy
Former chairman, ex-CEO
Honeywell
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Bossidy was such a successful CEO that his company brought him back after he retired. Yet his writing may have attracted even more attention than his executive work.
His 45-year career in business began with General Electric, which he joined in 1957 as a trainee in the company's renowned financial training program. For the next 31 years, Bossidy rose through GE's ranks, including stints as chief operating officer of General Electric Credit (now GE Capital ) from 1979 to 1981, executive vice president and president of GE's Services and Materials Sector from 1981 to 1984, and vice chairman and executive officer of GE from 1984 to July 1991.
In 1991, AlliedSignal hired Bossidy as CEO and chairman. Under Bossidy, AlliedSignal reported 31 straight quarters of earnings-per-share growth of 13 percent or more and saw an eight-fold appreciation of the share price. He was was named CEO of the Year by Financial World magazine in 1994 and Chief Executive of the Year by CEO Magazine in 1998.
Honeywell International made Bossidy its chairman, following the merger of AlliedSignal and Honeywell in December 1999. He retired in April 2000, but Honeywell's board brought him back for a temporary stay as chairman and CEO just 15 months later to stabilize the company following General Electric's prolonged and unsuccessful attempt to acquire Honeywell. His second term included heavy cost cutting, dumping non-core businesses, and a $325 million writedown for an 11-year lawsuit and investments that went dead during the fourth quarter -- all moves designed to clear the table and leave a clean base for his successor, David M. Cote.
After finding Cote to lead Honeywell, Bossidy retired again earlier this year, shortly before the publication of the best-selling book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, co-written with Ram Charan. The book, designed to be a primer on hands-on leadership in today's business environment, generated some buzz for actually criticizing a few executives by name, including former Xerox boss Richard Thoman and Lucent's ex-CEO, Richard McGinn.
He graduated from Colgate University in 1957 with a bachelors degree in economics, and sits on the boards of JP MorganChase and Merck & Company. He was born in Pittsfield, Mass. Bossidy and his wife Nancy have nine children.
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