CompanyStats

IHS
  • HQ: Englewood, CO
  • 2008 Revenues: $844 million
  • Employees: 3,800
  • Global: 20 countries
  • Fortune 500: N.A.

CEOExtra

IHS CEO Jerre Stead has a business career that spans four and half decades, but he will always remember his first job. “I was in college running a survey crew,” he says. “I was 20 years old and had 37 people working for me.” Stead says he works 16 to 18 hours a day — and always has — but modern technology has vastly improved his efficiency as a CEO. “I get 10 times as many things accomplished than I did 30 years ago,” he says. “We’re in more than 60 countries,” he says of IHS, “and I can communicate with my colleagues every day whether it’s by phone, e-mail or video conference.” When he travels overseas, Stead says, technology allows him to immediately get on a local mobile network. “I can get, or find someone to help me get, anything I need to make the right decision, and I can do it in the same day,” he says. “It’s amazing.”

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How does the CEO role compare today with years past?

I find my job more rewarding than ever,” says Jerre Stead, chairman and CEO of IHS Inc. (IHS), a global industry-specific information and insight firm based in Englewood, Colo. Stead — who’s held the top spot at seven publicly traded companies in his nearly 45-year business career — is quick to note, however, that these days he’s more the exception than the rule.

“What we’re required to do as CEOs — take care of customers, hire and promote the best people, create shareholder value — has not changed. We’re just doing it in a very difficult environment.”

IHS, which reported $844 million in 2008 sales, says its clients include 420 global Fortune 500 companies. Stead regularly travels the world speaking with CEOs about the challenges and issues facing their industries. What has he been hearing lately? “More frustration, more of a feeling of being attacked and challenged on a daily basis,” he says. “In all my years, I’ve never heard this level of dissatisfaction.”

Yet Stead is firm in his belief that despite the global economic crisis and its attendant pressures on corporate leaders, the CEO role hasn’t changed. “What we’re required to do as CEOs — take care of customers, hire and promote the best people, create shareholder value — has not changed,” he says. “We’re just doing it in a very difficult environment.”

Stead adds that he doesn’t put more time into being CEO today than he had in the past, but he does believe he’s working smarter: “My ability to get important things done more quickly because of technology is what makes the job so much more fun.”