CEOs must be Messge-Ready, Visible and Transparent

IBM's Midmarket CEO Study "...found that many leaders anticipate greater complexities in the future and many feel uncertain of their ability to manage it."  The study continued with this major point about today's CEO requirements:

"Successful companies have found that they must integrate customers into their core processes, adopt new channels to keep customers engaged, and make customer intimacy their top priority.

"The economic climate is drastically different than it was even a few short years ago. Understanding where to seize opportunities can make all the difference between success and failure. "

Implications for executive's today:

1.  Understand we are into new realities with respect to business strategies.  No longer can companies focus on short-term wealth creation at the expense of long-term wealth creation.
2.  The key to success today is closeness with customers with open two-way communications that is intimate, transparent, and connected.
3.  Executives who want to become CEOs must know how to get visibility in these channels, understanding how to connect with customers by being transparent, and be message-ready. 

Everything else is just fluff.