Thursday, July 25, 2013

Engaging Leadership of DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman


Ellen Kullman characterizes herself as Chief Cheerleader, Chief Questioner, and Chief Listener at DuPont.  She comes across as confident, earnest, and open in this engaging interview with Forbes:


As CEO, Ellen [Kullman] has championed market-driven science to drive innovation across the company’s businesses. Under her leadership, decision making has moved closer to customers around the world, resulting in greater partnering, collaboration, and solutions attuned to local needs.
That is among the things mentioned in her DuPont biograpy:  Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer.  It resonates well with the people-oriented leadership she portrayed in her Forbes interview.  But as Jim Collins and Gallup have found in their research, it is precisely this sort of leadership that drives results.

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Case in point:  In the four-and-a-half years of Ellen Kullman's tenure as CEO, DuPont has steadily raised market confidence in its future, as the following graph from Market Watch shows:

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What's more, Forbes noted recently:
Kullman led the 211-year old chemical giant DuPont through a huge first quarter with net profits more than doubling. Add to that $3.35 billion in revenue vs. $1.49 billion from last year and a buyback program for $1 billion of its shares to boost shareholder value.
The relationship between engaging leadership and sustained results is a complex one, but is clearly a causal one.  Kullman proves it!

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