Lead with passion & tell it like it is – Reflections from the Strategy& Signature event
Jenna Hakkarainen
I had the pleasure of hosting the annual Strategy& Signature event in the beginning of June at Hotel Maria for our clients. This year the event provided strategy and transformation leaders with an interesting opportunity to discuss the topic of ‘Value creation, transformations and turnarounds’ with our guest speakers: Roger Flynn, a recognised CEO and experienced transformation leader with a track record from companies such as Virgin, British Airways, Prudential and the BBC; Peter Gassmann, the Global Leader of Strategy&, and Juuso Laatikainen, the Practice Leader and Partner at Strategy& Finland.
Peter Gassmann shed light on the short-term challenges that companies need to navigate while capitalizing on long-term megatrends. His clear message was that companies need to shift their focus from short-term profits to marrying shorter-term gains with long-term value creation. The sustainability transformation is one of the central driving factors switching our outlook to the longer term – and GenAI is poised to bring the next significant boost in economic growth.
Interestingly, Chief Strategy Officers and CEOs may have differing views of company readiness to face the future challenges, as revealed by our recent Chief Strategy Officer Study shared by Peter Gassmann. While 80% of Chief Strategy Officers believe that their company is adequately prepared to face future challenges, only 40% of CEOs share this sentiment.
Roger Flynn provided comforting insights to the more hesitant CEOs: amazing results can be achieved if you are bold, brave and aligned.
By alignment, Roger referred to a prerequisite for a successful transformation – alignment of strategy, infrastructure, and culture with the company vision and mission. Focus should especially be on culture as it is the main reason that projects and change programmes fail.
Then there’s the matter of people. Roger claimed that a value-maximising turnaround can only be achieved if you have a sufficient number of your people backing your cause, preferably ‘the players’. Drawing on a popular Energy Investment Model, he described how in any given change situation, people tend to have either a positive or negative attitude towards change and either high or low energy. These four types of people are aptly named the players (positive attitude + high energy), the spectators (positive attitude + low energy), the walking dead (negative attitude + low energy), and the well poisoners (negative attitude + high energy). Successful change requires that at least a third of your people are players – and that you manage to either change the mindset of the people who fervently share their negative attitude or, if nothing else works, let them move on to find new adventures (and wells to poison) outside your company.
Roger shared an experience about the time when the CEO of BBC was fired and thousands of employees were crying outside the building with banners calling for reinstatement. This was because the staff all believed so passionately in the vision of the BBC and feared the loss of direction towards that vision with the CEO’s departure.
Inspired by the anecdote, I wanted to know more about the characteristics of a great leader. Reflecting on his experiences from many transformations and turnarounds, Roger explained that we are typically drawn to:
- Leaders with belief and passion in the business and vision/mission
- Leaders who seem to know the direction
- Leaders who tell it like it is; and
- Leaders who believe that employees can be amazing
Whether you aspire to drive ESG transformation or achieve a turnaround, all guest speakers emphasized the meaning of creating and sharing great narratives – stories that empower people to genuinely grasp what change can bring, and how they can play a part in it.
This event was full of stories – stories that will encourage us strategy and transformation leaders to take bolder action and successfully execute even more risky strategies for the future!
Hungry for more? Read Jenna’s blog about culture and check out our Chief Strategy Officer Study 2023.
