If you run a company then you are probably burdened with a plethora of troubles. You have all sorts of headaches, problems and surprises to sort out every day. It is hard to stand back and focus on the big strategic issues – but that is exactly what you have to do. Here are a couple of thinking exercises to help you approach the challenge afresh.
- Imagine it is your first day. This method is recommended by Andy Grove, CEO of Intel. Imagine that tomorrow is your first day as CEO. The previous incumbent has been fired by the Board and it is your job to move in and sort things out. If you were starting from scratch what would you say to the staff? What vision and direction would you give them? Who would you hire and who would you fire? What projects would you prioritise or cancel? What would your primary focus be? If these things are critical for a new starter then surely they are critical for you. This thinking exercise encourages you to forget about the short-term problems, history and legacy issues – and to focus on the major strategic priorities instead.
- Imagine that you have been diagnosed with a very serious condition. The doctor has said that you must leave your job in two months and take retirement. What would you do? Who would you delegate tasks to? How would you transfer your day to day responsibilities? Plan your own exit and legacy. What are the key things to complete in the next two months? If you could do this and set the company on the right course then why not do it now and so free you to add value in some new and strategic way? This method was suggested by Oren Harari and Tom Peters. It will help you to delegate more, build a succession plan, focus on key issues and liberate your time for new ventures.
We tend to think that a CEO’s job is about execution – and it is. But it is also about thinking, imagining, envisioning and communicating. Take more time for these activities and you will be a better leader.
Paul Sloane
People will not follow an unenthusiastic leader. They will follow someone who has a vision and is passionate about it. Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela showed great passion for what they believed – it was what made them great leaders.
Google allows its people to spend one day a week on innovative ideas. Is this a wasteful luxury? No. It has led to remarkable innovations such as Google Earth, Froogle and Gmail. Genentech has a similar provision for its people. Most organizations could not afford to give up as much time as Google or Genentech but the same principle still applies – you have to create some slack time in which people can experiment. You do not get innovation for free – you have to allocate time, money and people.
In September 1999 Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM, read a line buried deep in a report which said that current quarter pressures had forced a business unit to cut costs by stopping efforts in a promising new area. Gerstner was incensed and wanted to find out how often this happened. He asked J. Bruce Herrald, IBM’s senior VP in charge of Strategy to find out. Herrald found a similar pattern in at least 22 other cases. IBM had plenty of new ideas but it had a remarkably hard time turning those ideas into businesses. IBM had produced many crucial inventions, such as the relational database and the router, then watched while others, such as Oracle and Cisco built huge companies around them.
The challenge with innovation is finding products and services that are easier to use, easier to maintain and more appealing to customers.
of the north of England and southern Scotland. He told a fascinating story about leading the business. In their first year of operation in 2004 they carried 13 million passengers. In 2008 it was 22 million and the number is still growing. During the same period they have significantly improved customer satisfaction.