October 09, 2008
New Gates Chief Brings Midwestern Values to His Job
While Jeffrey S. Raikes has been at his current job just a short time, the new chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation “is putting his stamp on the culture” of the organization, writes Patricia Sellers, editor-at-large for Fortune magazine.
On her blog for the publication, Postcards from the Pinnacles of Power, she writes that in “sessions with employees, he’s been talking about his 10 values and how he works them into his life and career. Value No. 1: work ethic. He grew up on a Nebraska corn farm, so it was up early and work hard.”
The other values include passion, diversity, humor, devotion to community, and conservative spending.
“He’s plainspoken, bordering on folksy, but the style seems to work with a foundation staff that’s all about saving the world,” writes Ms. Sellers, who says she got to know Mr. Raikes and his wife while writing a profile of Melinda Gates.
Despite her insight into the chief executive of America’s largest philanthropy, Ms. Sellers’s laudatory tone drew jeers from the anonymous author of Gates Keepers, a blog that is critical of the foundation.
“Here is a postcard fluff piece on Raikes, including bullet points on the values he says he lives by to illustrate how good he is. Actions will speak louder than words. Is ‘conservative spending’ a positive value at the foundation?” the writer asks.
(Read The Chronicle’s article about Mr. Raikes.)
What do you think? What questions do you have for Mr. Raikes? What will you look for to see if his tenure at the foundation is successful?
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Gates Keepers would like to point out that we were not directly criticising Jeff Raikes. The hagiographic article that we posted did not tell us enough about him for us to criticise him. Most people do not outline for journalists what their values are; they show their values through their actions.
Many of the bullet points are not values. Values are principles or standards of behaviour. Hard work, devotion to community and service, honesty, and integrity are values. A sense of humour, doing one’s best, and passion are attributes best judged by others. Conservative spending, education, promoting diversity not values but may be practices.
Raikes certainly will have to shovel a lot of manure at the Foundation. And in doing so he will exhibit his values through his approach to this work. Later we will make a decision on what value he brings there.
Gates Keepers
— Gates Keepers Oct 10, 07:24 AM #