Search results

Given the dynamic uncertainty of markets and the painful consequences of wrong choices, we need to adopt a realistic perspective on how to develop the next generation of leaders to respond to these and other dilemmas.

At the simplest level, good leadership is determined by who we are, what we do and how we do it. I contend that practice is essential: that leadership skills and competencies improve with experimentation, applied experience, critical self-evaluation and refinement. 10;

In sum, leadership is a journey of discovery. Leaders become competent only through deliberate practice, seeking feedback, engaging in humble reflection and remaining open to change.

Learning how to lead in radically different situations in a volatile era is not a challenge that a model can resolve.

Our current leadership models fail to offer useful, practicable guidance. Every good leader must makes choices based on a combination of factors, including his or her perception of organizational priorities, interpretation of the landscape and composition of stakeholders

The author addresses the looming question in the digital era: Can long-established firms adopt an existential mindset that enables them to survive and prosper?

Disruptors take advantage of significant changes in the traditional value drivers in an existing market. The success of long-established companies often inhibits innovation, and most mature organizations struggle to excel.

Greater reliance on controlled experiments can mitigate the failures of innovation based primarily on focus group research.

Competitors can be transformed into collaborators in many parts of the value chain, and alliances are outperforming the more conventional business development approaches.

The author’s powerful message: Today’s leaders must adopt a new mindset in which bureaucracy is repudiated and responsiveness and adaptability are rewarded.

With this interview of W.R. Goodwin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Johns‐Manville, Planning Review initiates a series of articles designed to elicit the opinion of top management on the effectiveness of planning and the proper direction for the state of the art. In simple terms the question is, “How are planning and the planning process viewed from the CEO's office?” Dr. Goodwin was chosen to be the first CEO interviewed because he is one of those rare chief executives who was promoted to top management after a stint as chief planner. Obviously, he is well acquainted with the methodology of planning, the various ways it can be utilized by a corporation, and its potentials. Other executives interviewed in the series will be selected on the basis of their professional experience with planning before their promotions. In this first interview, the interviewers — Robert J. Allio, President of NASCP, and Robert Randall, contributing editor to Planning Review — attempted to make the session informal and more a conversation than an interrogation. For this reason, specific and detailed questions about the Johns‐Manville planning cycle and organizational structure were omitted. Instead, the time spent with Dr. Goodwin gave Planning Review an invaluable chance to learn about his attitude toward planning. Planning Review would like to take this occasion to thank Dr. Goodwin for being so generous with his time. To condense the hour and a half of insight he so cheerfully gave the interviews, the editors have blue‐penciled extensively. In addition, much of the responsibility for the interview's organization rests with the editors. Interestingly, although the interviewers provided Dr. Goodwin with a list of questions in advance, these never became a central part of the discussion. Chief executives tend to answer questions they raise themselves.

Even when global players are increasingly dominating an industry, smaller competitors can win in local markets by paying attention to the different needs and expectations of their customers. The top‐down standardization of strategy adopted by many multinational consumer product companies can fail badly if these differences are ignored. Consumer needs and desires are not necessarily consistent across different market segments. Competitors can often exploit these differences to great advantage, particularly if some core competencies, like distribution or market intelligence, can be brought to bear. The old adage “Think global, act local” still applies in many industries. This SuÄrez Company beer case study demonstrates the impact that local market knowledge and positioning can have on a product’s success. Nimble local or regional players may dethrone even the largest of multi‐national or global competitors who often fail to recognize or embrace cultural differences and unique market conditions. These same multinationals may derive global benefits by re‐integrating local market experience into their broader positioning, as Coors is doing now.

The author believes it is possible to select a better strategy for improving leadership effectiveness. His hypothesis: although leadership cannot be taught, paradoxically, leadership can be learned.

The playbook for developing potential leaders comprises these three elements: Establish a leadership identity and persona. Acquire relevant leadership knowledge and skills. Practice acts of leadership.

We preach the need for moral leaders, but in pursuit of maximizing shareholder returns and stock option bonuses for CEOs society embraces rogues and celebrates robber barons who successfully elbow their way ahead of the pack!

Whatever other personal traits the leader may possess, the one absolute prerequisite is the judicious exercise of power – specifically, the power to change the way followers think and behave.

Success leadership ultimately depends on the ability to communicate, to tell a story that explains the proposed corporate vector and inspires the followers to sign on for the adventure.

The article guides the process for each aspiring leader to develop his or her own unique approach to leading.

Executives and managers can deepen theirunderstanding of leadership by mining three sources: the burgeoning archives of contemporary leadership theory and practice, case histories of leaders and leadership and the classic writings of literature, history and philosophy.

More managers must learn to be leaders, and the best way to make it happen is to avoid the clichés, the leadership training marketing hype, the platitudes and the pseudo-scholarly research and take charge of your own leadership journey.

The core of the do-it-yourself approach is to learn to lead by doing. Mastering the role of a leader is a challenge that, like mastering any craft, requires continual practice.

The article is an antidote to leadership training marketing hype. Instead of buying dubious advice, potential leaders can seize the opportunity to be creative, to discover a personal approach to leading that fits the time and place and is compatible with their own persona, values and beliefs.

Ask an expert to describe an innovation system that enables companies to successfully advance valuable technologies that fit their current business model – and those that do not fit it.

Strategy & Leadership interviewed Henry Chesbrough author of Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology (Harvard Business School Press, 2003). His book is based on numerous research projects he conducted.

He developed an open innovation model based on the observation that great inventions can come from both inside and outside the company and should then be commercialized both using the current business model and with alternative business models.

Case studies are needed. Tools are needed for bringing the customer into the open innovation process.

Corporate leaders should review and consider the open innovation model as one approach in their search for new growth businesses.

Open innovation is a radical approach to business growth that is being pioneered by a number of cutting edge firms.

Findings by leadership researcher Robert J. Thomas suggest that organizations reconsider what they know about how successful leaders actually learn. In an interview Thomas aims to explain what he means by crucible experiences and how leaders learn from them.

The paper takes the form of an interview with leadership researcher Robert J. Thomas.

Thomas believes that organizations can develop more leaders by helping promising employees learn from experience, especially situations he calls “crucibles.” Potential leaders, he says, must then develop and apply a personal learning strategy, and they must practice as they perform. Aspiring leaders must learn from experience, develop and apply a personal learning strategy, and practice their craft as they perform it. The five criteria for experience‐based leadership development are presented.

Thomas found that leaders benefit from difficult experiences that transform their attitudes or behavior. These tests – crucible experiences – can and often do provide rich opportunities to learn leadership lessons and learning perspectives that last a lifetime.

Thomas describes the methods of Toyota and Boeing (with its Waypoint program), two corporate exemplars of experience‐based leader development. These programs prepare people to extract learning from experience. They understand that people have to be supported while they're engaged in experienced‐based learning.