That’s a topic I discuss in The Corporate Blogging Book in a chapter devoted to CEO bloggers. It’s also the topic of an article in today”s Toronto Globe and Mail. It quotes Jim Estill, CEO of Synnex Canada, who started blogging soon after his company was acquired by Synnex and he was made top officer of the combined operation. (Synnex is a billion dollar wholesaler of computer equipment). He was concerned that many of his new employees didn’t know much about him. The solution? A blog.
Jim’s blog is called Time Leadership and, while it chronicles his general “philosophies and musings” (his words) it focuses – more specifically – on his interest in time. Here’s a typical entry:
I am an impatient person. I believe success in business has a lot to do
with sense of urgency. The company or person who can do it now and do
it faster usually wins. One of my favourite quotes is by Thomas Edison:
“Great things come to those who hustle while they wait”. One Jim Estill
quote is “sense of urgency wins”. I try to instill that in everyone.Of course as I was contemplating my New Years resolutions, I almost added that this was a good year for me to be more zen. Content in the moment. Able to be calm even if things are moving slowly.
– Jim Estill (Jan. 4, 2006)
The takeaway here is that Jim likes to write, he writes well and he has something to say. AND that – cleverly – he has assigned himself a niche topic that fits in well with the qualities needed to be an effective CEO (efficient and productive use of time).
Not all CEOs can or want to write. Nor do many other executives. But if you’ve got it, why not flaunt it… in a public blog. You’ll get media attention, search engine attention and a continued ripple effect of exposure.
Jim told Globe and Mail reporter Grant Robertson that he spends about 20 minutes per blog entry, three or four times a week. “A third of the readers are employees, a third are customers and 5 or
10 per cent are vendors. The rest are self development junkies —
people who have seen me speak or who are aspiring entrepreneurs,” he told the Globe and Mail.
P.S. Full disclosure, I also was quoted several times in the article: CEO blogs: the new company ‘water cooler.’