Home » Opinion » Book review
Oversexed CEOs and the bottom line
By Ni Tao |
May 29, 2010, Saturday
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FOLLY can bring an abrupt downward twist to one's reputation, as education entrepreneur Song Shanmu recently found out. His fall from the pinnacle of power has been dramatized by a rape scandal.
The 46-year-old founder of Sunmoon Lifelong Education Group, a private training institution that teaches foreign languages and computer courses, has been detained on charges of raping a female intern at his office on May 3.
Song had long been surrounded by the glowing aura of self-made magnate before media broke the alleged rape case. As more details emerged of his mistreatment of employees, such as making arbitrary salary cuts and taking photos of nude female workers whom he assaulted, a question arises: what made this man, once an adored symbol of rags-to-riches success, so despicable?
The answer can be found, in part, in the words of Song's victims -- he suffers from impotence. His apparent sexual inferiority complex may have driven him to "conquer all the women whom he cannot sexually satisfy," according to a female victim quoted on May 22 by the Chengdu Evening News.
There are probably many Songs everywhere, but when the venerable name of Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, also appears in this cohort of womanizers, another question arises: why haven't these CEOs mellowed as testosterone levels decline with declining age?
According to Christopher Byron, testosterone levels actually don't fall in oversexed and headline-hugging CEOs. In his book "Testosterone Inc," Byron gossips about some celebrity American CEOs' insatiable lust for material comforts and sex -- and the consequences of their urges for the companies they headed.
"The task of channeling male energy into socially useful activity remains, as ever, one of civilization's core challenges," Byron says.
We may find Byron's observation a bit disturbing, but the behavior of some distinguished CEOs is indeed disgusting. Take Welch, who spent lavishly on women and wine and let GE pick up the tab. His extramarital affair with a female editor at the Harvard Business Review was directly responsible for his second divorce.
Welch and his spendthrift fellow CEOs, as the author observes, share something in common: a miserable childhood under stern parents.
They mostly grew up in penny-pinching single parent families, often bossed around by their mothers in their teens. As adults, their urge to take back lost masculinity led to domineering management style, Byron argues.
Byron's book is more a voyeuristic account than a piece of useful investigative reporting. While the title "Testosterone Inc" and the tales are intriguing, his analysis of CEOs' "debaucheries" is built upon anecdotes and therefore is questionable, to say the least.
But Byron does make an insightful observation that the general social trends over the past two decades have played a role in turning some CEOs into unrestrained thrill seekers.
In the 1990s, when risk taking, once seen as foolhardy, became a laudable quality demanded of capable leaders in a deregulated, fast-growing market, traditional values like modesty and discretion were readily cast aside for quick profits.
Which reminds me of the Rong family in China. Dubbed a "red capitalist" and China's first Communist tycoon, Rong Yiren, the late founder of China International Trust and Investment Co, felt comfortable living in a modest apartment with his wife in 1998, according to business columnist Wu Xiaobo.
His son Rong Zhijian, who stepped down as chairman of Citic Pacific Ltd last year over US$2 billion in bad currency bets, inherited none of his father's thrift and modesty.
The decline of the noble clan essentially has more to do with the "tug of earthly desires of mammon" that few men, even the son of such a wise and distinguished father, can resist.
The 46-year-old founder of Sunmoon Lifelong Education Group, a private training institution that teaches foreign languages and computer courses, has been detained on charges of raping a female intern at his office on May 3.
Song had long been surrounded by the glowing aura of self-made magnate before media broke the alleged rape case. As more details emerged of his mistreatment of employees, such as making arbitrary salary cuts and taking photos of nude female workers whom he assaulted, a question arises: what made this man, once an adored symbol of rags-to-riches success, so despicable?
The answer can be found, in part, in the words of Song's victims -- he suffers from impotence. His apparent sexual inferiority complex may have driven him to "conquer all the women whom he cannot sexually satisfy," according to a female victim quoted on May 22 by the Chengdu Evening News.
There are probably many Songs everywhere, but when the venerable name of Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, also appears in this cohort of womanizers, another question arises: why haven't these CEOs mellowed as testosterone levels decline with declining age?
According to Christopher Byron, testosterone levels actually don't fall in oversexed and headline-hugging CEOs. In his book "Testosterone Inc," Byron gossips about some celebrity American CEOs' insatiable lust for material comforts and sex -- and the consequences of their urges for the companies they headed.
"The task of channeling male energy into socially useful activity remains, as ever, one of civilization's core challenges," Byron says.
We may find Byron's observation a bit disturbing, but the behavior of some distinguished CEOs is indeed disgusting. Take Welch, who spent lavishly on women and wine and let GE pick up the tab. His extramarital affair with a female editor at the Harvard Business Review was directly responsible for his second divorce.
Welch and his spendthrift fellow CEOs, as the author observes, share something in common: a miserable childhood under stern parents.
They mostly grew up in penny-pinching single parent families, often bossed around by their mothers in their teens. As adults, their urge to take back lost masculinity led to domineering management style, Byron argues.
Byron's book is more a voyeuristic account than a piece of useful investigative reporting. While the title "Testosterone Inc" and the tales are intriguing, his analysis of CEOs' "debaucheries" is built upon anecdotes and therefore is questionable, to say the least.
But Byron does make an insightful observation that the general social trends over the past two decades have played a role in turning some CEOs into unrestrained thrill seekers.
In the 1990s, when risk taking, once seen as foolhardy, became a laudable quality demanded of capable leaders in a deregulated, fast-growing market, traditional values like modesty and discretion were readily cast aside for quick profits.
Which reminds me of the Rong family in China. Dubbed a "red capitalist" and China's first Communist tycoon, Rong Yiren, the late founder of China International Trust and Investment Co, felt comfortable living in a modest apartment with his wife in 1998, according to business columnist Wu Xiaobo.
His son Rong Zhijian, who stepped down as chairman of Citic Pacific Ltd last year over US$2 billion in bad currency bets, inherited none of his father's thrift and modesty.
The decline of the noble clan essentially has more to do with the "tug of earthly desires of mammon" that few men, even the son of such a wise and distinguished father, can resist.
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