IN THE LEAD
Denise Morrison, Campbell Soup Company, and Michael Arrington, Techcrunch Douglas Conant, former CEO of Campbell Soup Company, met Denise Morrison in 1995 when he was CEO of Nabisco and she cold called him looking for a job. He found in Morrison a kindred spirit in terms of leadership style and hired her: she later followed him to Campbell in 2003--and into the company's top executive seat eight years later. Like Conant, Morrison is a strong proponent of empowerment and employee engagement She has been referred to as tough on the issues but tender on people. Morrison is known to be patient and supportive, even though she can make difficult operational decisions without letting her emotions cloud her judgment. Compare Morrison's approach to that of Michael Arrington, founder of Techcrunch, the company that publishes the influential blog of the same name. Arrington started the blog because he enjoys the research and writing, and he admits he isn't very good at the 'peo- ple managernent" part of his job. "It's hard to be a coach and a player at the same time Arrington says. Plus. Im moody' Arrington says his style is to bust down doors and clean up the mess later. Recognizing his weak point in being a manager of people, Arrington hired Heather Harde as CEo of the company, which enabled Techcrunch to grow and allowed Arrington to focus on what he was best at doing. Both Arrington and Harde have since left the company after public clashes with Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post.