Failed Bailout Needs Leadership 'Dream Team'

Build a team of management 'virtuosos' to guide historic change

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following the
stunning defeat of the proposed $700 billion bailout, the nation needs a
"virtuoso team" of leaders to guide the overhaul of the US financial system, a
group much like the scientists of the Manhattan Project or the policy experts
who crafted the Marshall Plan, according to Andrew Boynton, dean of Boston
College'sCarroll School of Management.

The failure of Congress to unite behind the proposed $700 billion bailout
means a dramatic new approach is required to bolster confidence in the
country's financial institutions and regulatory structure, said Boynton,
co-author with Bill Fischer of the book Virtuoso Teams (Prentice Hall, 2005).
Enacting the most significant economic reform since the Great Depression
demands a team of business superstars.

"We're talking about changing the rules of the game about how the US financial
system works," says Boynton. "That job needs a team of superstars unleashed on
this single mission and unafraid to consider ideas and potential solutions
without regard to politics, clashing market philosophies or Wall Street
cliques. That's what a virtuoso team can do."

Policy makers have sought out a few virtuosos already. Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson has enlisted the help of his former Goldman Sachs colleague
Edward Forst, now Harvard's executive vice president. PIMCO's chief investment
officer Bill Gross has offered to manage the job. U.S. Sen. Ken Conrad
(D-North Dakota) said he was taking counsel from Berkshire Hathaway's Warren
Buffett.

The Fed's Benjamin Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson make the
team. According to Boynton, the list of virtuosos could include:
-- Charles I. Clough Jr., founder and CEO, Clough Capital Partners -
"When he was at Merrill Lynch, he was one of the few to call it
before the bubble burst."
-- E. Gerald Corrigan, managing director, Goldman Sachs - "His
bank's survival reflects a shrewd understanding of
securities."
-- Bill Gross, chief investment officer at PIMCO - "Bill's grasp
on the bond market is second to none."
-- Stanford's Chip Heath, co-author of the best-seller Make It Stick -
"What this team needs is someone who can make this plan
'stick' with people from Wall Street to Main Street."
-- Boston College Prof. Ed Kane - "There's no clearer voice on
the need for real accountability than my guy."
-- Fidelity Investment's Peter Lynch - "One of the most
highly-respected minds in market analysis."
-- Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy - "Rescued Xerox, could help rescue the rest
of us."
-- Fordham's Fr. Paul McNelis, SJ - "A leading Jesuit economist
to give policy a needed focus on social justice."
-- Walker Todd, American Institute for Economic Research - "He's
focused on foreclosure solutions that help homeowners and lenders."
-- Former Fed Chairman Paul A. Volcker - "Huge credibility spans
Manhattan to Washington."

Virtuoso teams have changed industries and history. Time pressure and world
war drove the Manhattan Project scientists in the race to build the atomic
bomb. The Whiz Kids - a team of 10 US Air Force officers recruited in 1946 -
resuscitated Ford Motor Co. More recently, Microsoft's XBox team did the
unthinkable by creating a game console that struck immediately at the market
dominance of competitor Sony's PlayStation 2.

A virtuoso team is:
-- Assembled specifically for creating big change.
-- Composed of individual superstars, or virtuosos, in each position.
-- Led in a fundamentally different way from a normal team in order to
yield maximum contributions from each member.
-- Includes members who are ready for a career-defining moment.
-- Built for a single mandate, not to function indefinitely.

"The critical task right now is to assemble our virtuosos - even if it costs
money. Get the best," says Boynton. "They need the best team and a conduit to
the best ideas out there. The last thing they can afford to do is hunker down
surrounded only by people they're comfortable with."

SOURCE Boston College

Ed Hayward of Boston College Office of Public Affairs, +1-617-552-4826, cell:
+1-617-922-8024, ed.hayward@bc.edu