At a recent Rutgers Business School CEO Lecture series event, Eric Tveter, chief executive of UPC Cablecom, and Rutgers MBA ’97, offered the crowd of students his unique take on leadership.
When, in 2009, the 55-year-old executive was tapped to turn around the fortunes of UPC Cablecom, a Swiss cable company, Tveter said that the five C’s of management – communication, culture, commitment, collaboration and customer – guided his efforts to bring the company back on track.
“Commitment is doing what you say you’re going to do,” he said. “We set realistic goals. We under promised and over delivered.” For Tveter, an American taking the helm of a troubled company in Switzerland where the public has a natural tendency to be skeptical, commitment proved to be particularly vital. “You’re not known by the commitments you make,” he added. “You’re known by the commitments you keep.”
Tveter also highlighted that success was about giving as much as having and that a leader’s friends and teams had to be chosen with the same care.
On a small white board, Tveter drew two triangles – one upside down on the other – and wrote three words: “Balance work – life.” “Keeping this in perfect balance,” he said, “requires a lot of thinking.”
To an audience of students, alumni and would-be business leaders, Tveter’s exercise reinforced the idea that the climb into the corner office requires values as much as vision.
Tveter is among a group of alumni who have returned as speakers in the CEO Lecture series. Others include Avon Chief Executive Sheri McCoy, Gregory Weaver, who heads Deloitte & Touche, and Gary Cohen, a top executive at medical device-maker BD.
