Dear C.E.O.: Write Your Own Obituary

The draft obituary Bloomberg accidentally published last Wednesday surely came to the attention of its subject, the still-very-much-alive Steve Jobs. Hopefully, it also caught the eye of a lot of other C.E.O.'s.

Some corporate bosses already knew that virtually all death reports of public figures are prepared in advance and then updated with a prescribed regularity. But most probably did not.

So, yes, if you run a big company, then big news organizations have already written your story. And consequently, if you suddenly collapse from hypothermia in the Davos snow, or if you slip on an errant dab of mango smoothie while making a regular-guy appearance in the employee cafeteria, all those reporters simply have to fill in the blanks and push the button, as if your life was a corporate Mad-Lib.

Thus, you might want to give some real thought to what that story would say, because the exercise will give you a very good indication of what your legacy will be after you are long dead and your grandson's conniving second wife is trying to get her hands on the trust.

And it's not just personal; it's business. Yes, the term "legacy management" is usually whispered in the hallways to deride vanity-driven executive decisions that ultimately prove counterproductive for the company. But the reality is that companies usually benefit when their CEOs actively manage their personal legacies, as long as they do so wisely.

Unfortunately, a lot of legacy management tactics are void of wisdom, and those unhealthy efforts generally fall in one of four categories.

1. Stretching the numbers. Ever notice how the first quarterly earnings report after a long-serving C.E.O. retires seems to offer a big negative surprise? That's because the new guy is wisely resetting the bar by executing a one-time house-cleaning of all the little financial liabilities that have accumulated over the years.



2. Overstaying. Some bosses can't resist hanging around after their optimal sell-by date has expired. Sometimes that's motivated by the desire to stick around to see a critical initiative come through the pipeline. More often, it's usually driven by the fact that the boss simply can't imagine no longer being the boss.



3. "Correcting" history. Some bosses, particularly those who have somehow been publicly damaged, waste time and effort trying have past events re-interpreted. It never works. Even if the original interpretation was dead wrong, history is almost impossible to rewrite, and thus savvy C.E.O.'s will quickly reset their sights on adding a new chapter that will correct their overall story. Bob Nardelli, for instance, could have argued himself as orange as an apron that he got a raw deal at Home Depot, but he was savvy enough to know that the only way to reset his professional legacy was to take on a whole new challenge.



4. Buying love. What if your performance has earned you the label of moron or scoundrel? Give your money to a charity, and put your name on it. The most telling example of the futility of this tactic was Alfred Nobel's attempt to change his legacy by funding a prize for great works. So, instead of going down in history as the "merchant of death" characterized in his famously premature obituary, he instead endures as "the guy who gave money away to change his obituary."

But done right, legacy management can actually be good for the business, often motivating C.E.O.'s who don't like their current legacy to consider what would truly be required to improve it. Healthy legacy-management actions also come in one of four categories.

1. Taking big risks. Even when trapped inside a business model that is incrementally disintegrating quarter-by-quarter, making a big strategic bet to change that model usually requires substantial courage. But the fear of having that incremental decline attached to your personal headstone often overcomes the fear of taking a big strategic risk. It might even prompt you to turn your flagging niche computer icon into The iPod Company.



2. Going "From/To." Here's a healthy question: How is the company different from the one you inherited? Lou Gerstner's tenure at I.B.M., for example, is generally characterized as having led the transformation of a technology hardware company from the brink insolvency to a profitable, competitive existence as a technology/services leader.



3. Leaving before you need to. What's easier to do? Time the performance of the business with your mandatory retirement date, or time your retirement date with the strong performance of the business? While that may seem selfishly opportunistic, it actually allows your successor to bring forward the next generation of ideas while there is still wind in the sails. At PepsiCo, Roger Enrico left earlier than expected, and then his successor, Steve Reinemund did the same five years later. Having spent many years on the Red side of the Cola Wars, Jack Flack would argue that those two fast-forwards have been critical to the Blue team's happy roll of the past decade, as each incoming generation of management has brought a new approach before it was needed.



4. Doing something more important. Let's say you're the richest guy on the planet, but not a lot of people seem to appreciate you very much. As noted, giving away a bunch of your money probably won't help, and might even backfire. But what if you get off the corporate train and focus your world-conquering abilities on things the world actually wants conquered?

Well, it could end up being downright healthy.