The New Breed

It would have been natural for Jeffrey Immelt to reflexively embrace the strategies of his predecessor, storied über-CEO Jack Welch, who built GE into one of the world's most profitable companies. But Immelt, 48, quickly went his own way, imposing new long-term strategies. When scandal erupted over Welch's perk-laden send-off, Immelt responded by taking a lead role in corporate reform. For starters, he put more independent directors on the board and got rid of stock options as part of his pay. "We know we are studied," he says. "We feel we have a responsibility. A good reputation is very important." --By Daniel Kadlec

Ed Breen
TYCO

In his 2 1/2-year push to reform Tyco, Ed Breen has pulled off feats that would have made lesser CEOs quake in their wing tips. He persuaded the entire board of directors of the disgraced company to resign, fired almost all its top corporate managers and faced down an $11 billion debt when he had no cash to spare. But there is one thing he is unwilling to do: celebrate. Tyco has finished its first solidly profitable year since its notorious former CEO, Dennis Kozlowski, turned the little-known industrial conglomerate into shorthand for greed. But Breen is not planning any parties (toga or otherwise). "If we lost our focus, that would be terrible," he says.

Instead, Breen is watching his work take root and flower. He has consolidated purchasing, beefed up auditing and started regular meetings on strategy, operations and training — basic discipline that the old Tyco lacked. "We're still in the early innings," Breen says. The company may yet face shareholder lawsuits, but this year Tyco has clearly come back. Its stock has risen 25% since January, and in this fiscal year Tyco has generated $4.8 billion in cash and $2.9 billion in profits while slashing its debt by $4.4 billion. Another sign of confidence: in June, Breen launched Tyco's first ad campaign since the scandal. With so much cash on hand, Breen is in the enviable position of figuring out how to spend it. Next year he plans to raise Tyco's dividend and make at least one acquisition in health care or electronics. Wary of anything that looks like hubris, Breen shrugs off his role as poster boy for corporate housecleaning but admits, "It feels good to be at a great company." --By Jyoti Thottam

Sinan Al-Shabibi
CENTRAL BANK OF IRAQ

Central bankers are a risk-averse tribe. But Sinan al-Shabibi risks his life every time he drives to his office in downtown Baghdad. Government officials are killed or kidnapped every day by insurgents who see them as traitors for cooperating with the American "occupiers." "If I told you that sort of thing doesn't worry me, I would not be telling the truth," says al-Shabibi, 63. "[The insurgents] make my job more, shall we say, interesting?" Since he took over as central-bank governor a year ago, al-Shabibi, a former economist at the Geneva-based U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, has given the bank's employees a crash course in 21st century finance. He has made the bank switch from typewriters and calculators to computers, introduced it to newfangled financial instruments like currency auctions and replaced the country's bank notes so that Iraqis no longer have to carry Saddam Hussein's mug in their wallet. Not bad for a man who had never worked at a central bank. And despite the ongoing war, al-Shabibi has held the Iraqi currency, the dinar, firm at about 1,450 to the U.S. dollar. "We have all kinds of instability here already," al-Shabibi says. "We can't afford to add economic instability to the mix." --By Aparisim Ghosh/Baghdad

Serge Weinberg
PINAULT-PRINTEMPS-REDOUTE

Is Serge Weinberg a genius or a madman? That question is riveting the gossipy fashion industry and investors in Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR), the $20 billion French company that Weinberg has been transforming over the past decade into a European retail and luxury-goods powerhouse. Three years ago, the CEO won a fierce battle to acquire iconic fashion group Gucci for $9 billion. Then, earlier this year, he allowed Gucci's creative director, Tom Ford, and its chief executive, Domenico De Sole, to walk out the door after the collapse of talks to renew their contracts. Weinberg tapped Robert Polet, a Dutch consumer-goods executive who is an ice cream expert but has no fashion experience, to take over.

The fashionistas are shocked, shocked. But Weinberg adamantly defends his strategy. "A brand is much more important than the designer," he insists. It's a controversial thesis, and whether he's right won't be clear for months. But Weinberg is used to taking gambles. A graduate of France's élite Ecole Nationale d'Administration, he gave up a safe career in government to become an investment banker before moving to PPR in 1992. At the time, the firm was a messy grab bag of French-focused industrial and retail companies. Weinberg masterminded the shift to luxury. "The demonstration needs to be made that several brands can really flourish in a multibrand group," he says. He plans to be the man who proves it. --By Peter Gumbel/Paris