CEO nicknames often are born of job cuts. When I covered the steel industry for the Journal in the early '90s, AK Steel CEO Thomas Graham was still known as the " Smiling Barracuda" because of the cuts he'd made running U.S. Steel. Jack Welch was called " Neutron Jack." And who can forget "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap ?
These days there's " Drastic" Dave Lewis. He got the nickname after making decisive moves as an executive at Unilever, where he spent nearly three decades. It's a playbook, which involves more than slashing head count, that he used to pull British retailer Tesco out of a serious slump. And he's now turning to it at Diageo , the beverage maker he now leads. Lewis unveiled his plan yesterday to save $1 billion over the next few years through a restructuring that includes job cuts.
He declined to reveal how many jobs Diageo has cut and will ultimately lose, the Journal reported. But the company said it has already booked $752 million out of the $1.2 billion in planned restructuring costs for its fiscal year that ended in June, while last year's expenses included severance costs of more than $500 million.
Lewis told investors about the $1 billion in savings: "The intention is that we are going to invest that back into advancing some innovation, selectively improving our competitiveness and, indeed, protecting...underlying profitability."
What's interesting is that you can see pieces of Lewis's leadership playbook if you look back at his career. He explained during a speech in 2017 that there were "four very simple lessons" to turn around or change a company.
Practice "brutal objectivity, " which he called "the easiest to say and the hardest to do." He said that "a business that finds itself in trouble finds it very difficult to objectively face into the fact of why it's in that position."
Craft a competitive strategy. Identify a maximum of three "differentiating competencies in your business," he said. "What do you have to be better than anybody else at in order to drive that change and drive that turnaround?"
Develop followership. "Everybody talks about leadership...but actually the most important thing is followership," he said.
One way to do that is by developing a relatable purpose, he said in 2021 on a podcast. At Tesco, that was "to serve Britain's shoppers a little better each day," he said, which 96% of people across the company understood, felt motivated by, and saw the role they played in supporting it.
Make sure your improvements are lasting. "It's always possible to improve a business for a very short amount of time," he said in the speech. "The crucial thing is do they stay successful afterwards?"
Many of these rules surfaced yesterday. Brutal objectivity? "It's fair to say our North American business has been underperforming for quite a while. The growth of tequila covered up some of that. We now need to face into some of the realities," Lewis said.
A new purpose statement? "Crafting iconic drinks chosen for life's moments."
"The purpose and the way we set the magnetic north of the organization is massively important to me," said Lewis, who dedicated much of the day to strategic changes.
Investors welcomed Drastic Dave's plans -- shares rose nearly 5%.
Erle Norton
Managing Editor, C-Suite Content
Lila MacLellan contributed to this newsletter.
More Insights: Check out our podcast, Leaders, hosted by Alan Murray
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Number of the Day
That's how much layoffs are down this year so far, compared with the same period in 2025. "Hiring has also increased over last year by 25%, so while AI is shifting the labor market, it is not dismantling it," Andy Challenger, who tracks workplace data and trends, told the Journal.
About Us
CEO Brief is written and edited by a team from The WSJ Leadership Institute: Alan Murray, president; Erle Norton, C-Suite Content managing editor; and Lila MacLellan, CEO Brief editor.
The Leadership Institute aims to redefine executive leadership development and peer networking by leveraging the unparalleled trust and insights of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal to create exclusive, transformative experiences for industry leaders that help them navigate the ever-changing landscape. To learn more, read on here.
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