Tag Archives: Responsive

What is Agile Leadership? Five Perspectives

Situation: The environment continually becomes more complex for leaders. Not only must leaders perform classic roles, but they must also deal with increased uncertainty and change. How do you build a new leadership paradigm to address ongoing change? What is agile leadership?

Advice from the CEOs:

There are three challenges facing leaders today.

  • First, given that change is constant, what does the next likely settling point look like in your environment? How is this different from past settling points? Everything starts with your people. Once you determine the likely next settling point, conduct a capability inventory with your leadership team to determine whether you have the right people to handle the new reality. Can current members be trained to take on the new challenges? Do you need to add new talent and capacity?
  • Second, are your processes limiting or enhancing your flexibility? Do current processes encourage adaptability, cross-functional connection and communication. If not how will you change them? Deconstruct and reconstruct all critical processes to make them more agile, responsive and adaptable to current and future needs.
  • Third, how are you linking desired outcomes with rewards and incentives within the company? Growth in the past may have focused on building up infrastructure – adding more people and capacity. Now, knowledge management focused on tools and processes is required to make people more effective. Individualized assessment and reward structures have become an obstacle and have to be shifted to emphasize the importance of collaborative versus individualized performance.
  • Agile leadership and management focuses on reaching outside the boundaries of your own company. To deliver differentiated value suppliers and customers must be included in the exercise. It is necessary to reinvent engagement with suppliers and customers so that they are part of the collaboration.
  • The agile paradigm focuses on the unspoken needs of suppliers and customers. This takes the conversation beyond the transaction and includes quality, on-time delivery, and other differentiators that are mutually important. This can include competing for your competitors’ suppliers by being a better customer!

Thanks to Jorge Titinger, CEO of Verigy, Inc. for his contribution to this article.

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What are the Key Strategic Components of a Marketing Plan? Five Points

Situation: A CEO has decided that his top opportunities are to increase visibility and gain market share. As he focuses on these opportunities what are the areas on which he should focus as he builds his plan? What are the key strategic components of an effective marketing program?

Advice:

  • The best marketing plans don’t start with your company, product or service, They start with a focus on your customers and the benefits you can deliver to them.
  • The first step is to identify who your customers are. This can be challenging in B2B businesses. For example, for a company offering outplacement solutions, there are several possible customers: the HR department at the company seeking outplacement services; the CFO at these companies; the HR department at companies seeking good candidates; and the individuals who are going through outplacement and seeking new positions. Each of these audiences has different objectives, priorities and approaches. To succeed, the company needs to connect to each of them where they are and be prepared to offer effective solutions.
  • Once you have identified your target customers, the next step is to develop messaging and message delivery systems that capture and maintain their attention. The messaging must express a differentiation that is easy to grasp – something that clearly sets you apart from your competition.  In technology marketing, Apple’s Super Bowl commercial, with its man-versus-machine contrast, is one of the most famous examples of this.
  • Your campaign must consistently touch your potential customer base. Research suggests that this requires a minimum of 4-5 touches to effectively gain customer attention and to communicate your message.
  • Accompanying the messaging and the increased visibility that you seek, you must have an effective way to respond promptly and directly to customer interest or inquiries. Rapid and responsive follow-up are critical to success.

Thanks to Sanjay Sathe of Rise Smart for his contribution to this article.

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How Do You Change the Culture of a Company? Five Points

Situation: A newly hired CEO finds that the company is struggling. Employees are not responsive to customer queries. Calls aren’t being returned on a timely basis. Employees are reactive instead of proactive. There is a “just getting by” mentality. How do you change the culture of a company?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The CEO is the culture of the company.
    • Bring the company together – show them the numbers. Let them know what’s going on. Ask for their help after sharing information.
    • Bring a vision for the company – what it can be – and put it on the table.
    • Daily, walk around with a cup of coffee. Talk to people. Ask questions and encourage their input.
  • The CEO must set the vision / mission for the company and be the evangelist supporting this vision.
    • Until this is done, employees have no reason to change.
    • It is critical to build a strong culture that people want to be a part of.
    • Culture change may require replacement of some of the staff – over time.
  • The cultural problems that are being described are symptomatic of a deeper problem.
    • The current situation grew from the values of the founder. The founder hired people who supported his vision. Fortunately, he hired people who created much of the unique value that is in the company today. Something was being done right. The challenge is to shift the culture without losing that value.
  • Consider “divisionalizing” the company.
    • Create an R&D division under the Founder / CTO. This will give him his own sandbox and may enable the company to save what was being done right.
    • At the same time, protect the rest of the company from day-to-day interference.
    • Dividing the company into divisions under strong leaders can help to shield the rest of the company from the source of the issues.
  • Another CEO was in the same place that is being described. He had a vision that he thought was shared by the company. In reality there was none. Establishing a vision and enlisting the company in the vision takes work. The CEO as evangelist must continually repeat the message of the vision.
  • Change in a manufacturing environment starts from the floor. Get the operators and technicians involved in the process of changing the culture. Look for “secret champions” who are responsive to these efforts. Create teams (with the secret champions as leaders or key players) and let them champion improvements.

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