Printable Biography of Michael Feiner

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The firm advises CEO's on how to muscle-build their organizations and upgrade the quality of their company's leadership.

He is also Professor of Management at Columbia Graduate School of Business where the course he created, High Performance Leadership, is consistently ranked by students as one of the school's best courses. He is also winner of the Best Teacher Award as selected by the graduating class of 2004.

From 1975 to 1995, he worked for Pepsi-Cola Company. In 1989 he was named Senior Vice President & Chief People Officer for Pepsi's beverage operations worldwide. Beyond building and leading an organization of 400 human resource professionals that gained a reputation as one of the most distinctive, innovative and prestigious in the world, he devoted much of his time to finding and developing high-potential leaders. At a time when Pepsi's operations comprised 70,000 employees in 150 countries, he advised, coached and counseled executives on how to enhance their leadership effectiveness. He is credited with upgrading Pepsi's performance standards and organizational excellence and is acknowledged as one of the key architects of Pepsi's distinctive culture, known for its openness, results orientation and assertive, "David vs. Goliath" style.

In 1993, he went on to become Chief People Officer for PepsiCo Europe. Based in London, he was responsible for building the management and organizational capability of all of PepsiCo's businesses across continental Europe.

Prior to PepsiCo, from 1966 to 1975, he was a successful executive at Trans World Airlines, becoming one of the youngest vice presidents in TWA history. As Vice President of Employee Relations & Training, he was responsible for all management and flight attendant training.

Feiner is internationally recognized for his intellectual integrity, broad-gauge leadership skills and expertise on people and organizational issues. He is considered by students in both Columbia's M.B.A. and executive programs, as well as by audiences at conferences, to be a passionate and spellbinding speaker.

Michael Feiner holds a B.S. degree from Boston University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. Mr. Feiner's book, "The Feiner Points of Leadership", was published by Warner Books in June, 2004. The Toronto Globe and Mail selected it as the "Best Business Book of 2004".

Programs:

Values-Based Leadership (90 Minutes):

We've all read in the past few years about ethical lapses at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Parmalat, HealthSouth, Skandia and AIG, to name just a few organizations where leaders have slid down a slippery slope. One lesson we can take from these examples is that acting on our values in the workplace requires skill as well as conviction, insight as well as courage, regardless of what level we are within the organization. This session challenges you to discover effective ways of dealing with moral dilemmas in the workplace, and explores questions including: How do you interact with others when you feel your personal values are threatened? What personal conflicts arise in situations that deal with ethical issues? How important is personal strategy and style to dealing with values-based situations?

Leading and Managing (1/2 day):

Leadership can be a daunting proposition. On the one hand, leaders need to communicate, motivate and inspire. On the other, leaders must navigate through the endless activities involving meetings, budgeting, customers, and operational performance. In this session Mike Feiner discusses these two very different sets of activities, clarifies the difference between leading and managing, and offers specifics on how to lead and motivate people to excel.

Secrets of High Performance Leadership (90 minutes):

Mike Feiner explains what accounts for the success of great leaders, using historical examples that prove dramatic and insightful. Yet he moves beyond the WHATs of successful leadership and provides pragmatic and hands-on solutions for HOW to lead and motivate people to achieve great results.

The Laws of Leadership (60 minutes):

There's no mistaking WHAT a great leader does. The real challenge is knowing HOW it's done. In a hands-on, plain-speaking, pragmatic style, Mike Feiner offers insightful laws covering everything from managing tough bosses and difficult subordinates, to leading uncooperative colleagues, to galvanizing fractious teams.

The Challenge of Leadership (60 minutes):

Getting an organization to operate at peak effectiveness is a huge leadership challenge. Mike Feiner explains why effective leadership is so difficult, and offers real hands-on, practical solutions on how to muscle-build a leadership culture that achieves extraordinary results.

Leading Change (60 minutes):

Leadership is all about producing change, so that an organization is adaptive to new competitors, new products, new customers, new markets, and new regulation. Yet impassioned speeches don't get employees to accept change. Leading change requires attention to lots of details, including those parts of the organization which are likely to be the most resistant. Mike Feiner explains how to go about planning and implementing a change effort that produces the desired results.

What HR is Really All About (60 minutes):

As Chief People Officer at Pepsi-Cola for 15 years, Mike Feiner built an HR organization that was heralded as one of the most influential, impactful and respected HR organizations in corporate America. In this session he explains what accounted for his organization's credibility, and describes what he believes is HR's overarching role.