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This week's interview is with one of the business professors I like and respect the most.  He is Manfred Kets de Vries from INSEAD,  a rare breed, he is a practicing psychoanalyst and a business professor.  Manfred has focused on CEOs and C-Suite occupants for many years.

The last couple of years I have co-taught a course for our MBA on the Role of the CEO. This year with Dick Evans, Ex-CEO of Alcan and Paul Tellier, Ex-CEO of CN and Bombardier, two top tier CEOs.  Each week we have a CEO or two show up for class, Calin Rovinescu the CEO of Air Canada, Phillip Crawley the Publisher of the Globe and Mail, etc..  Typically we discuss their path to the CEO job, do a live mini-case and then kick around a theme for the evening, such as: Leading Transformational Change, Working with Boards or Handling Complexity.

The student's favourite article, bar none, is one by Manfred, "The Many Colors of Success: What do Executives Want Out of Life?", from Organizational Dynamics, 2009.  This always sets off a great debate. This is one evening that I run by myself, one night when Dick and Paul are not available. That evening's class is entitled:  Who'd Want To Be A CEO Anyway? Are You Nuts? What many of the students question is whether they are willing to pay the incredibly high price of being the CEO or a C-Suite executive in a major corporation.  Manfred has given quite a bit of thought and research time to look at the price of great success.  This generation is considerably less interested in the relatively single-minded focus that is often required to reach these heights, though there are still many young people who are willing to pay the price, just many fewer than in my generation...

-Article by Karl Moore

Read full interview transcript (or watch video): May 9, 2011