1. An Analysis of
Leadership Derailments
Why Do Leaders Derail?
T. T. Durai Muammar al-Gaddafi Léo Apotheker
Presented By
Kaleeswaran Sudarsan (G1001065F)
Lim Zi Kai (G1102504H)
Venkataramanujam Kannan (G1101791L)
Zinmar Myint (G1101798A)

2. Agenda
 Literature Review
 Derailment Factors for the study
 Research Methodology
 Analysis on T. T. Durai
 Analysis on Muammar Gaddafi
 Analysis on Léo Apotheker
 Conclusion

3. Literature Review
 All contribution factors resulted from the research
study such as George & McLean (2007), Stark &
Flaherty (2010) and “Why Global Leaders Succeed
and Fail”, 2011) fall under Four “themes” by Velsor
& Leslie (1995) ~
1. Problems with Interpersonal Relationships
2. Failure to Meet Business Objectives
3. Failure to Build and Lead a Team
4. Inability to Change or Adapt during a Transition

4. Derailment Factors for the study
1. Problems with Interpersonal Relationships
– Imposterism
– Avoiding Responsibility
– Overly Emotional
– Being Egotistic
– Possessing Negativity
1. Failure to Meet Business Objectives
– Acclamation Oriented
– Self-centered and Impulsive
1. Failure to Build and Lead a Team
– Practicing Lonesome
– Lack of Willingness to Listen
– Lack of Trust
1. Inability to Change or Adapt during a Transition
– Lack of Learning and Observation
– Presenting Poor Judgement

5. Research Methodology
 Qualitative Methodology
 Data Collection
– background and historical data of each leader are collected
from ~
• the existing literature (including academic journals and books) and
secondary data from reliable reports
• other types of sources such as news, interview articles and leaders’
speeches for content analysis

6. T. T. Durai

7. T.T Durai - Raise
 Born on 22 April 1948
 Studied at Raffles Institution
 A volunteer in NKF for more than 20 years
 Position held:
– Honorary Secretary to the Executive Committee
– Honorary Secretary of the General Council
 1992 – Appointed CEO of NKF

8. T.T Durai – Accomplishments
 Led NKF through:
– Transformation and conferment as IPC in 1995
– Incorporation as a company limited by guarantee
– Placed under MOH’s Health Endowment Fund
– Income grew from S$71.9m to S$108.7m in 2004
– Reserves grew from S$143.1m to S$240.6m
– Expanded from dialysis to include organ donation advocacy and
preventive health
– Cancer and paediatric patients on top of renal disease
– Establishment of 2 subsidiaries in 1995 (the NKFS International Pte
Ltd and the Asian Children’s Medical Fund Ltd )

9. T.T Durai – Derailment
 Ineffective governance from Board of Directors & Executive
Committee
 Result: Durai being given absolute power in NKF
 Derailment characteristics began to show:
– Egoistic
– Self-centered & impulsive
– Exhibiting poor judgments

10. T.T Durai – Derailment
 Egoistic
– Prefers to fly first class
– Using company cars for personal use
– Charging maintenance and taxes of personal Mercedes-Benz 200 to
NKF
– Openly commented during trial that as the CEO, he was entitled to
use the company’s cars as and when he wanted
 Self-centered & Impulsive
– Furnishing his new office in Kim Keat Road HQ with a gold-plated
tap as well as a glass-panelled shower and a pricey German toilet bowl

11. T.T Durai – Derailment
 Exhibiting Poor Judgments
– Sued SPH and senior writer Ms Susan Long for article “The NKF:
Controversially ahead of its time?”
– Dropped suit when he realized that he accidentally revealed some
discriminating details
• His salary: S$600,000 per annum
– Result:
• Durai’s downfall and derailment as the leader of NKF
• Huge media storm and an investigation into NKF
– Durai and Board of Directors resigned on 16 July 2005
– Jailed for 3 months and repayment of S$4m back to new NKF

12. Muammar al-Gaddafi

13. A Short Story of Gaddafi
 1942 - Born in a Bedouin tent
 1961 - Entered the military college in the city of Benghazi
 1969 - Staged a coup to seize control of Libya, ousting King
Idris.
 Though his Arab nationalist rhetoric and socialist-style
policies gained support in the early days of his rule
 In his last decade Reached rapprochement with Western
leaders, and Libya became a key provider of oil to Europe
 Corruption, Military Interference in Africa, and several
human rights abuses turned much of the Libyan population
against him
 2011 - Qaddafi was killed in his hometown of Surt

14. Gaddafi – Derailment
 Need for Power
o Continued his one-man rule atop a system that purported to delegate
power to “people’s committees,”
o Lack of Learning and Observation
o He claimed to have relinquished power in 1977. Never happened
 Self-centered and Impulsive
o A leaked US diplomatic cable claimed that the Libyan economy was
"a kleptocracy in which the government – either the Gaddafi family
itself or its close political allies – has a direct stake in anything worth
buying, selling or owning".
o Gaddafi's relatives adopting lavish lifestyles, including luxurious
homes, Hollywood film investments, and private parties with
American pop stars

15. Gaddafi – Derailment
 Failure to build and lead a Team
o Libyan officials say the anomalies in the state's finances revealed in
the document were the result of complex accounting rules, delays in
settling bills and poor communication between government
departments
 Practicing Lonesome
o Libyan officials say the anomalies in the state's finances revealed in
the document were the result of complex accounting rules, delays in
settling bills and poor communication between government
departments not by money being misused or stolen.
Leader Derailing

16. Gaddafi – Derailment
 Lack of Trust
o On behalf of the Jamahiriya, met with political activists, journalists
and media figures and warned them that they would be held
responsible if they disturbed the peace created chaos in Libya
 Poor Judgement
o Encouraging Split in Nigeria. Praising Split in India in 1947
Leader Derailing

17. Léo Apotheker

18. Leo Apotheker - Raise
 Born on 18 Sep 1953
 Studied B.A. Economics at Hebrew University, Israel
 Fluent in five of these languages English, German, Hebrew,
French, and Dutch.
 Served over 20 years with SAP
 Held operations and management positions at several
organizations Altex GmbH, S.W.I.F.T. McCormack & Dodge
Europe, and ABP Partners
 Appreciated by France government through awarding the
French Légion d’honneur for his contribution to the French
economy.
 Joined CEO and President of HP on Nov 2010

19. Leo Apotheker – Accomplishments
 Led SAP into one of the world's leading providers of
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) provider software
through:
– In 1995, he served as Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SAP
Belgium and SAP France and also served as President of SAP South
West Europe
– In 2002 he served as Executive Board Member and also President of
Global Customer Solutions and Operations and also Head of North
America SAP Operations for over 6 years
– He also served as Co and Deputy CEO of SAP, later on promoted as
CEO of SAP in 2009
 Gained a strong reputation as an intelligent business
strategist of thinking leader and an excellent executive of
customer affairs linked technology progress
 Founding President and Chief Operating Officer of the
leading European enterprise capital ECsoft BV

20. Leo Apotheker – Derailment
 SAP Administrative Board attained an agreement not to
extend his contract as an Executive Board Member
 Result: Stepped down as Chief Executive Officer and resigned
from SAP on February 2010
 Derailment characteristics began to show:
- Lack of Learning and Observation
- Failure to Build and Lead a Team
- Failure to Meet Business Objectives

21. Leo Apotheker – Derailment
 Lack of Learning and Observation
– Upon joining HP announced a great deal of launching WebOS
enabled touchpad competitor product of Apple ipad
- WebOS enabled tablets and phones sales didn’t go well on market
- Stopped the WebOS experiment globally, Enormous investment waste
– Emphasised and showed more interests about increasing demand of
cloud computing and software’s of higher margin business
– Didn’t focussed more on expanding of consumer business with new
technologies
 Failure to Build and Lead a Team
– In April 2011, Leo Apotheker has sent a note to the Executives about
the warning of HP’s business performance for 3rd quarter
– The strategy change, information leaks and earnings disclosure
through his leadership resulted in laying down

22. Leo Apotheker – Derailment
 Failure to Meet Business Objectives
– As almost 25% of Hewlett Packard stocks fallen on August 2011
– Result: On September 2011, HP Executive board members have
decided to renew leadership with the fellow board member by
replacing Leo Apotheker as CEO to take gain of market prospects and
execute the winning strategies.
– Hitches with Leo Apotheker were about lack of implementation and
communication it wasn't on the lack of vision as he focussed towards
the high margin earning enterprise business software

23. Conclusion
Imposterism Avoiding Overly Being Egotistic
Responsibility Emotional
Possessing Acclamation Self-centered & Practicing
Negativity Oriented Impulsive Lonesome
Lack of Lack of Trust Lack of Presenting Poor
Willingness to Learning & Judgment
Listen Observation