Diebold’s New Executive Suite

Unlike a typical chief executive officer, Diebold CEO Andy Mattes can’t just stroll down the hall at his company’s headquarters in Canton, Ohio, to confer with his top executives over coffee. That’s because many don’t work there. His chief strategist works and lives 2,100 miles away in San Jose; his chief marketing officer is in Boston. Since taking the helm of the big maker of ATMs two years ago, Mattes has replaced about 60 percent of Diebold’s top 100 executives—with two-thirds of them stationed full time far from the head office.

For Mattes, building a virtual management team is crucial to Diebold’s turnaround. The company’s sales and profits had been declining for several years before his arrival, and his predecessor left after a foreign bribery scandal. To restore credibility and growth, Mattes knew he had to expand Diebold’s software and services business so the company could offer banks and other customers more than hardware.