‘He had to change’: How Diageo CEO Tim Salt became human and why his business is super-engaged

Fiona Smith Columnist

‘He had to change’: How Diageo CEO Tim Salt became human and why his business is super-engaged

Published 08 November 2013 07:39, Updated 08 November 2013 07:40

Diageo chief executive Tim Salt had an ‘ugly way’ of operating during his years at Pepsico but says he has left it behind him. Photo: Michel O’Sullivan

When the managing director of drinks company Diageo says he used to be too competitive, he’s not kidding. In fact, it is the first thing his former boss at Lion Nathan, Gordon Cairns, recalls about Tim Salt. “He was very internally competitive,” says Cairns, a director of Westpac Banking Corporation and Origin Energy, and former CEO of Lion Nathan, where Salt worked in the 1990s. “He also didn’t take feedback very well,” Cairns says, raising his eyebrows for effect. “He had to change or he would never have been successful at Lion Nathan.” When Salt joined the beverage and food company (now known as Lion), he was a young gun who had absorbed the dog-eat-dog culture of Pepsico over six years in the US and Australia. Pepsico is a “very intensely competitive organisation”, says Salt, who had been marketing director of international cola. Read more of this post

Performance Reviews: Why Bother? “The best kind of performance review is no performance review”

Performance Reviews: Why Bother?

By Claire Suddath November 07, 2013

When Peter Gross, an editor in the financial services industry in Virginia, walked into his 2008 yearend performance review, he was feeling pretty good. “I knew I’d get dinged on some nebulous things like ‘initiative’ and ‘enthusiasm,’ ” he says. “But on the measurable stuff, I’d exceeded all my goals.” So he was taken aback when, on a scale from one to five, his manager gave him mostly twos and threes. “I remember there was one thing I was supposed to do 30 times over the course of year, and I’d done it 49 times, but I still only got ‘meets expectations,’ ” he recalls. Every year after that, Gross worried for weeks leading up to his annual review. “I was a mess,” he says. “I’d be up stress-eating until 2:30 in the morning, and of course the actual day was nerve-racking.” Read more of this post

Startups: Misadventures in Spending

Startups: Misadventures in Spending

A Look at Some of the Pitfalls of Allocating Capital

Nov. 6, 2013 3:42 p.m. ET

Raising capital is a challenge for most startups. But those who do so successfully then face the dilemma of figuring out how to best allocate the funds. With the temptations of plush office spaces, perks and high salaries, a startup’s so-called “seed” funds can quickly disappear. Founders have to decide which part of their business would benefit the most from added money. This week on The Accelerators, a Wall Street Journal blog on the challenges of starting and growing a business, a group of experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists shared their views on the pitfalls of poorly allocating startup capital. Edited excerpts: Read more of this post

A former television personality who founded a successful cosmetics brand, Yue-sai Kan deploys her sizable homes in Shanghai, Beijing and New York for large-scale entertaining

Yue-sai Kan’s Real-Estate Empire

The former television personality has homes in Shanghai, Beijing and New York

‘In Beijing, traffic is a disaster, so central location is a must,’ Ms. Kan says of selecting her three bedroom, 3,983-square-foot, Beijing apartment. She says she’s spent less than 10 nights here since its purchase and renovation.Mick Ryan for The Wall Street Journal

MINA CHOI

Nov. 7, 2013 7:43 p.m. ET

Owning multiple homes across several continents might be a challenge for many. Yue-sai Kan sees it as a necessity. Known in China as a bridge between the East and the West, Ms. Kan is a former television personality and a businesswoman who founded Yue-sai Cosmetics in China, now part of L’Oréal. As the owner of the Miss Universe China franchise, a popular contest, Ms. Kan is often in the spotlight, and she entertains her guests and friends frequently at home—whether it’s the one in Shanghai, Beijing or New York. She also has an apartment on Copacabana beach in Rio; one in Brisbane, Australia; one in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, and one she co-owns with her sister in Rome, near the Spanish Steps. Read more of this post

Chinese joke of the day: A young man went to seek for advice from a Zen master, complaining that he was rich but unhappy

Updated: Friday November 8, 2013 MYT 6:50:53 AM

Let’s phrase it, we all want riches

BY THO XIN YI

A new phrase which pokes fun at the Beverly Hillbillies of China has gone viral, but many actually yearn to befriend the wealthy.

THE Chinese Netizens are a creative lot. This is proven through a variety of Internet catchphrases and expressions that dominate the social media every now and then. When a new phrase is introduced, it goes viral overnight, and people would start using it to relate to their everyday experiences. The memes could have been inspired by a conversation in the television drama series, a quote in a news story, a line from a song or could be simply made up. Entertainment aside, the catchphrases are often used to poke fun at the current affairs in China. The latest phrase is tuhao. Tu denotes earth or uncouth and hao means grandeur. The term tuhao can be interpreted as the “nouveau riche” or Beverly Hillbillies of China. Generally, it is used within a sarcastic context to describe the new rich people who are wealthy but lack sophisticated style. According to Baidu, the Chinese equivalent of Wikipedia, tuhao is not a new word. It has appeared in texts which date back to the Song and Qing Dynasties and used to describe the rich and the powerful or landlords who exploit the poor.

Tuhao recently became famous through a joke on the Internet: A young man went to seek for advice from a Zen master, complaining that he was rich but unhappy. The Zen master asked, “How do you define rich?” The man replied, “I have an eight-figure bank savings and three apartments in Wudaokou (a place in Beijing). Am I wealthy?” The master then extended his hand without uttering a word, and this gesture was interpreted by the young man as advice to be grateful and give back for what he has gained. But the master explained, “No, tuhao, let’s be friends.”

His response implies that even a Zen master, who is supposed to live a simple, non-materialistic life, is eager to be associated with the rich. The joke explains a social phenomenon in China, where people yearn to befriend the rich in the hope of benefiting from the relationship, even though they might secretly despise them out of jealousy. Read more of this post

Singapore Prime Minister’s Office Website Hacked After Lee Warns

Singapore Prime Minister’s Office Website Hacked After Lee Warns

Singapore authorities are investigating a breach of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s website last night, one day after he said he would track down a group that announced plans to hack government online portals. The page for searches on the website of the Prime Minister’s Office was “compromised” at 11:17 p.m. yesterday, the country’s phone and Internet regulator said in an e-mailed statement today. Read more of this post