{"id":2116,"date":"2013-12-30T12:36:01","date_gmt":"2013-12-30T18:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kbicblog.com\/blog\/construction-recruiter\/?p=2116"},"modified":"2013-12-30T12:36:01","modified_gmt":"2013-12-30T18:36:01","slug":"american-express-ceo-kenneth-chenault-valuing-eq-over-iq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kbicblog.com\/construction-recruiter\/blog\/american-express-ceo-kenneth-chenault-valuing-eq-over-iq\/","title":{"rendered":"American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault: Valuing EQ over IQ"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ken-Chenault-1024x440\"<\/a>When Kenneth Chenault first came to American Express more than 30 years ago as a young executive just off a two-and-a-half year consulting stint at Bain & Company, he looked around and saw an opportunity in the corporation\u2019s struggling merchandising group. The person overseeing that group and the rest of Travel Related Services at the time was Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., who later went on to become CEO of RJR Nabisco and then IBM.<\/p>\n

Gerstner advised Chenault against getting involved with the offshoot business selling jewelry, stereo equipment and other odds and ends by direct mail to American Express customers. In fact, said Gerstner, he was ready to shut the whole enterprise down.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Do not take this job,\u2019 Lou told me over and over,\u201d Chenault, now the chairman and CEO of American Express, said during a recent Wharton Leadership Lecture. \u201dBut I said, \u2018Lou, I want to take on a challenge.\u2019 I never shied away from taking a risk, and I felt this was the way I should go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy view is often to take on the assignments that no one else wants, particularly early on in a career.\u201d \u2013Kenneth Chenault<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Chenault started work, he looked around for what he called \u201cthe best and the brightest\u201d available to him at American Express. He realized that because the division was a neglected part of the corporation, he would get experience in all aspects of that business, \u201csomething they would never have let some 33-year-old just out of the consulting business do otherwise. My view is often to take on the assignments that no one else wants, particularly early on in a career. Everyone wants to be in the glamorous part of a business. I wanted to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the two years that Chenault ran merchant services, it went from an albatross to a profit center, its revenues more than tripling from $150 million to $500 million. Gerstner finally insisted Chenault join the credit card side of the corporation, and a leadership star was born. \u201cLeadership takes many forms, but one thing that is most important is to realize that change is inevitable, especially in the age we live in now, and that you always have to be adaptable to change,\u201d noted Chenault.<\/p>\n

He emphasized that American Express itself was hardly a glamorous company when it started in 1850. It was the original company Henry Wells, William G. Fargo and John Butterfield founded to move freight. \u201cMoving freight [was] not a business with a lot of glamour,\u201d he said. \u201cBut they instituted core values that we still hold 163 years later in our day-to-day operations \u2014 integrity and customer commitment\u2026. It is pretty extraordinary that a freight company founded in 1850 established a brand that remains relevant in 2013 in the digital age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chenault took over as CEO in 2001 after a series of jobs that he held for 20 years at the company. It was unusual for an African American to reach the top of an American corporation, but Chenault has never felt his race either qualified him for a position or prevented him from getting it. He said he just had confidence in himself as a leader and went about his work methodically, never back-biting and always seeking advice even from executives who might have been competitors.<\/p>\n

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