NOMINEE: Franklin D. Roosevelt
NOMINATED BY: Andy Grove, chairman of Intel
A great enterprise encountered severe and prolonged difficulties.
Employees were laid off, factories shuttered; morale and
confidence were at an incredible low. A new CEO took over. He
started working on a turnaround. He took dramatic steps. First,
he included all workers in a program that allowed them to
participate in the future success of the enterprise. This gave
hope and started to lift morale. Then the CEO forged an alliance
with a challenger, and together they beat their worst opponent.
Meanwhile, he started a major proprietary development program
that made his enterprise different from the other members of the
alliance.
He pursued this high-risk, energetic strategy, which allowed the
enterprise to emerge as the global trendsetter and leader, even
as he suffered from a debilitating illness. The enterprise? The
U.S. The CEO? Franklin Delano Roosevelt, my nominee for Person of
the Century for dealing with the mega-challenges of our age--the
Great Depression, Nazism and communism--and for setting the stage
for lasting U.S. leadership of our world. --Andy Grove
Read the TIME 100 profile of Franklin Roosevelt
|
|
|
