Asked whether the speed of changing markets and of stock values distracts the dotCEO from pursuing the company's vision, both Rosensweig and Galli agreed that they hold to their companies' vision through its constant reiteration to employees as well as their own vigilance. Dogs, also reputed to live a year in one-seventh the time, leave us all too soon. So have many new CEOs. But business is business, and the Youth Culture smacked headlong into last April's reality check. The Knot CEO David Liu relies on seasoned staff, with a CFO recruited from Random House and a COO from Bertelsmann.
Successful business is about pattern recognition.
With business wisdom on your staff, you might live to see 50. Survivors are hybrids. DotCEOs must mutate quickly. The panel agreed, it's adapt or die. It's a blend of go-go, energizing innovation with monthly, disciplined, methodical reviewing of results.