Five Levels of CEO Media Hell

Easily predicted, the departure of Gary Forsee brought the Sprint Nextel boss to full completion of the five levels of CEO hell.

As with most paths in life, the further you go down it, the harder it is to turn back. Each of the five levels manifests themselves with its own story archetype, and we've seen obvious examples of all five in the past few days.

5. The Hero Stumbles. This story comes when an accomplished business hero makes a glaring mistake or simply finds his business straining beyond the limits of its long-time business model. The current Economist puts Saint Meg Whitman in that box, questioning the wisdom of her Skype and PayPal deals. Such pieces are obliged to raise the question of whether the original visionary is still the right person to run the business in these oh-so-different days.

"Her main job as boss, she said, is to put 'the right person in the right job at the right time'. She emphasised the word 'time', since a manager who was right a few years ago may no longer be today. It is a lesson her own bosses, on eBay's board, will doubtless soon be reviewing."

Whitman's status: Rock-solid. It will take at least one more seriously bad deal before any grumbles get serious.

4. Is He Winning? Often written just before the first anniversary of the CEO's arrival, this story usually examines the progress made by a change agent who was brought into shake some new life into the joint. Monday's page-one WSJ story from Randall Smith on Merrill Lynch's Stan O'Neal looks at the CEO's attempt to transform the bank's traditionally comfy environment into a more competitive culture, noting that O'Neal has irritated some by grabbing Merrill by the scruff of the neck. While Merrill flacks undoubtedly didn't like the story, it certainly beats the alternative story that the Journal would have been obliged to write if O'Neal had not moved so boldly -- "CEO fails to assert strong leadership at sagging institution."

O'Neal's status: Strong, but not invulnerable. If Merrill can turn decent results while avoiding any disasters (at least those not also made by all the other big banks), then he's golden. But if Merrill stumps its toe on its own, look for those whose feelings have been hurt to come out the long knives.

3. Against the Wind. This story makes it clear that the boss is losing, which is a very different thing than "not winning yet." The headline of Eric Dash and Landon Thomas Jr's story in Sunday's NYT sums up the current state of Citigroup CEO Charles Prince -- "Man in Citi's Hot Seat." Such strugglers often have a symbolic mistake stapled to their foreheads, and the Times piece notes Prince's.

"Peers and colleagues decline to comment about Mr. Prince, out of what they describe as respect for his intellect and sympathy for the daunting challenges he faces. But they also say his recent overly bullish proclamations on the markets betray a ham-handed public relations touch that sets him apart from some other Fortune 500 chief executives. In July, he said that Citigroup would keep dancing until the music of the buyout boom stopped, and that comment has been roundly derided."

Prince's Status: Shaky. Attending affectionately to the long-time autocrat would be advisable.

2. On the Ropes This story usually manifests chatter that has been escalating for months among investors, analysts, employees and competitors. But by putting that chatter in print, the story gives a whole new sense of severity to the situation. Recent speculations about Lucent-Alcatel boss Patricia Russo were actually triggered by board decree that she produce an emergency restructuring plan in a month, a move the directors then said was "misinterpreted" as a threat. The board then issued the corporate equivalent of a kiss from Don Corleone -- the vote of confidence.

Russo's Status: Not good. But perhaps because they enjoy torture, the French move a bit more slowly with these things.

1. Dead Man Walking. When the corporate flacks, who are typically the staunchest of the palace guard, refuse to comment instead of denying the fragility of their CEO's job, then the game is over.

Forsee's Status: Oops... Jack Flack should have moved on this when he first saw the obvious.