On the grand scheme of things in business from the 1990s...

The 1990s offered a few things to us. The roller-coaster ride in the stock market and the tech bubble (that bursts in 2001). And in business, there was the legion of business super-leaders, who had this grand vision of all things conglomerate-style. There was the Sandy Weill and his rise with Travelers Group to the building of bloated Citigroup. There was Jack Welch and his run in GE. There was the big shift of focus in IBM with Lou Gerstner. Of course we can't miss the big blow-ups like the failed marriage between AOL and Time Warner led by Stephen Case. The list goes on and on.

It's hard to see through all the hoopla in the heat of the moment. With hindsight almost a decade later now, we have the benefit to see which one works (rarely) and which one doesn't (mostly all of them).

In a way, I almost feel sorry for the "second generation" CEO's who are to be gatekeepers of those grand schemes, only to struggle to get them to work. There is Dick Parsons, and Jeff Immelt, and Chuck Prince, of course, who was just ousted from Citigroup for the big blow-up in the subprime market. The only thing that they have in common is that, they all fail to ignite growth in stock price since they came to power.

Some, like Jeff Immelt, have more admirable vision to move the behemoth of GE to new direction (but it's too bloated to move any faster that it could). Some simply strut along with the same old "grand vision," like Chuck Prince, when they were handed with the rein. But mostly, they all go to show that the grand scheme from the elder (and now retired) CEO's by simply growing the companies with serial M&A in order to facilitate cross-sell simply doesn't work, no matter how you slice and dice it. When the times are good, when the market is flush with money, the party goes on...until the music stops, and we can see who's left standing with no place to sit. Those elders are lucky bastards to have exited the stage, or else they'll be left standing with no pants on.