Category: Leadership

Rebels who look ridiculous

December 6, 2009 11:50 pm by Lucy Kellaway

Last month, Sir Martin Sorrell was interviewed on FT.com and was asked variously about the world economy, China and the future of the media. As I watched the video of this successful businessman earnestly holding forth, another, more urgent question formed in my mind. Poking out from under the sleeve of his elegant charcoal suit and crisp white double cuff was a tatty piece of pale blue string, knotted with its ends dangling.

I reached for my BlackBerry and fired off the following message to him: “Much enjoyed your interview … Just wondered: what was that blue thing on your wrist?”

In a trice the reply came back. “Relic of my new year in Bahia,” he said. He explained that he had made three wishes for each of the three knots and that only when the string dropped off would they come true.

The remainder of the article can be read here. Please post comments below.

Posted in Corporate culture, Creativity, Leadership, Management | Permalink

Another new boss for GM

December 2, 2009 11:49 am by Stefan Stern

So, the replacement CEO at General Motors, Fritz Henderson, has himself now been ousted. If we all purchased new vehicles as often as GM has replaced CEOs in recent months the auto industry would have a lot less to worry about.

Continuity and change: this is the trade-off which leaders have to manage. Clearly at the moment GM needs more of the latter than the former. But we risk over-emphasising the impact a single leader can have. Change has to be brought about by the leadership team and by senior management generally. It is not just down to one person. Knifing a CEO gives us a story to gossip about but does not change the fundamental challenge at the company.

After Mr Henderson’s decision to sell GM’s Opel subsidiary was reversed by his board he was probably doomed. But his fellow board members would be mistaken in believing that they will rapidly make things better by putting a new person in at the top. The challenge remains the same. Difficult decisions still have to be made. There are no quick personnel-related fixes available.

Paradoxically, bringing about successful change means understanding the value of continuity.

Posted in Corporate culture, Hard times, Leadership, Management, Strategy/ops | Permalink

A question all leaders should ask themselves

December 1, 2009 12:44 am by Stefan Stern

Four hundred feet above the ground, rock-climbing in the Eldorado Canyon near Boulder, Colorado, the teenage Jim Collins was seconds away from death. The knot in his rope had come loose, he was slipping out of his harness and his hands were tiring.

“I was very lucky because there was an old piton (metal peg) in the crack right in front of me … I could clip a sling in the piton, grab the rope and tie it … Had I been 10ft above it or 10ft below it at the same moment it would have been a different story … I would have died. And I remember that. It’s just so seared in my brain.”

He’s not kidding. That much was clear sitting across the table from Collins – one of the most intense people I have ever met – in London a couple of weeks ago. Think of it: the co-author of Built to Last and author of Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall was very nearly lost to us before he had got started.

The remainder of this article can be read here. Please post comments below.

Posted in Leadership, Management | Permalink

Biz Stone in 140 characters or less

November 27, 2009 11:27 am by Ravi Mattu

We’ve launched a new section today called 20 questions, in which we talk to leading businesspeople in rapid-fire form. First up: Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter who answers, of course, in 140 characters or less. Definitely worth a read. And keep an eye out for next week’s executive: Guy Hands.

Posted in Communication, Innovation/tech, Leadership, Management | Permalink

Actors who create drama of business

November 4, 2009 1:09 am by Luke Johnson

What motivates high achievers? Is it money, status or power? Perhaps it is none of these. Perhaps the strongest urge is simply the overwhelming desire to escape boredom.

Unquestionably, the executive suite embraces melodrama with more enthusiasm than any other activity. Making sales, hiring new staff, generating a profit are all very well – but what really excites the boardroom is corporate intrigue. After all, even in business, the key players are not robots but humans, impelled by emotions and irrational dreams of glory or revenge. Life in many ways is but a brief play, or possibly a tragedy, and most of us are acting some imagined role or another half the time anyway.

The actual stuff that makes most companies function is mundane: producing and delivering the goods every day, efficiently and at a decent margin, can be deadly dull. So the favourite form of escapism in most organisations is to conspire and manipulate with and against colleagues like the cast in some low-budget thriller. It is a tendency that is especially pronounced among the leadership class; after all, lots of them are exhibitionists with outsized egos and a thirst for the limelight.

The remainder of this article can be read here. Please post comments below.

Posted in Career/skills, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Management | Permalink

Fabio Capello on the management of fear

October 23, 2009 5:59 pm by Ravi Mattu

England football manager Fabio Capello has had a remarkably successful career in Italy, Spain and now as manager of England (ok, he hasn’t won anything yet, but they have qualified for the World Cup). Sports analogies are used too often in the world of management speak (even for a sportsfan like me) but according to an article in the Guardian about his presentation at the Global Sports Summit in London, Capello reveals a couple of interesting truths.

First, he says that when he took over England the quality of the players was very high in training but not in matches.

“I understood everything when they played Switzerland in the first match, the same players who played well in training played with fear, with no confidence, and I said this is a big problem of the mind,” he said. “Step by step, game after game, we have improved a lot.”

Continue reading: “Fabio Capello on the management of fear”

Posted in Communication, Creativity, Innovation/tech, Leadership, Management, Managing others, Strategy/ops | Permalink

The impressive leadership of Emilio Botín

October 21, 2009 11:18 am by Ravi Mattu

I highly recommend today’s analysis of Banco Santander and Emilio Botín, its executive chairman, a bank that has been able to thrive when its home market and so many of its rivals have suffered so brutally in the recession. Obviously, things can change quickly in the world of business, but their steady rise from a small bank founded in the northern Spanish city of Santander into one of the world’s largest.

From a management perspective, the really striking fact is how important leadership has been to the organisation – much of its success is down to Emilio Botín, its executive chairman – and the company’s cautious approach to risk management.

One story the piece didn’t go into detail was how the bank responded when its exposure to the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme was revealed. Rather than trying to cover it up, they were open about it and quickly offered compensation to their clients. Not only was this a good example of handling customer relations (apparently 70 per cent of its “Madoff” customers took up the offer) it was also a brilliant communications effort. This could have been a major stakeholder relations disaster for the bank, but by dealing with it in a forthright manner, it seems they were able to minimise as best they could the damage.

Posted in Brand management, Communication, Consumers, Leadership, Management | Permalink

Even prison managers sometimes fiddle

October 20, 2009 7:34 pm by Ravi Mattu

Dame Anne Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales, said today that a number of prison managers had moved out “difficult” inmates because they were worried that their presence would negatively impact their inspection.

It seemed especially farcical because, apparently, it would have had no impact if the prisoners had stayed.

“The presence of those prisoners wouldn’t have affected our inspectors assessment at all,” said Dame Anne.

“Sadly for the many staff and managers who had worked hard to improve the two prisons, their efforts will inevitably be overshadowed by these events,” she said.

“This is deplorable, not only because of the effects on individuals, but because of the underlying mind-set that prisoners are merely pieces to be moved around the board to meet performance targets or burnish the reputation of the prison.”

What really struck me about Dame Anne’s comments was her concern that this would have a damaging impact on moral for the staff and lower level managers, and provide a negative example to them.

Continue reading: “Even prison managers sometimes fiddle”

Posted in Career/skills, Leadership, Management, Managing others, Strategy/ops | Permalink

Failing to cope with change?

October 20, 2009 1:54 am by Stefan Stern

David Rubenstein, co-founder of Carlyle Group, the private equity firm, said last week that his industry ought to consider adopting a new name to describe what it does more accurately. How about “change capital”, he suggested. I am not sure that this is a good idea. If Mr Rubenstein thinks the word change will be less provocative than private equity, then he is likely to be disappointed.

Change is everywhere in business, and people tend not to be very happy about it. But it is not just nostalgia, or laziness, that causes the negative reaction. Change is rarely managed well.

What do managers get wrong about change? There is quite a long list. They underestimate how long it will take to get people to accept change. They fail to recognise how difficult it is to spread the message that change may be necessary or unavoidable. They do not understand what change feels like beyond the boardroom or the top management table. And, having finally got the organisation to accept the need for change, they forget to explain that the new direction or mission may change again, and possibly quite soon.

The remainder of this article can be read here. Please post comments below

Posted in Corporate culture, Leadership, Management, Managing others | Permalink

How does a manager explain this?

October 19, 2009 5:26 pm by Ravi Mattu

The news that Raj Rajarathnam, head of hedge fund Galleon, has been arrested for insider trading opens up all sorts of interesting issues. The use of wire taps to track white collar crime is reminiscent of tracking down mobsters, the Sri Lankan government’s claims that he had ties to Tamil separatists and Mr Rajarathnam’s motivation – in the book New Investment Superstars, he said: “After awhile, money is not the motivation. I want to win every time. Taking calculated risks gets my adrenaline pumping.” – and his prominent position in the philanthropic organisations in New York, and so on.

What struck me, is that he planned to be in the office this morning to explain this all to staff. Managers face all sorts of communication challenges and this surely has to be among the toughest, a delicate balance of trying to maintain a level of credibility as the company leader but also, presumably, trying to make sure the people in the business keep the business going, all against the background of a handcuffed Mr Rajaratnam being escorted by FBI agents on the front page of most major newspapers.

UPDATE: Ok, so I guess you simply protest your innocence.

Posted in Career/skills, Communication, Finance, Leadership, Management | Permalink