F
FRONT OF HOUSE
UP
TI
The
art of
leading
through
At our Future Talent Leaders’ Club event with
Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, we
considered four core questions for leaders.
How can we reinvent ourselves?
How can established business models reinvent themselves for the fourth
industrial revolution? To explore this, Dr Andrew White, Saïd Business School’s
associate dean for executive education, recounted an anecdote told to him
by the CEO of just such an organisation:
“For the past 35 years, it’s like I’ve been climbing a mountain,” said the CEO.
“That mountain represents my career, the company and the industry I’ve been a
part of. It’s as if I’m stood at the top, with every success, but we’re surrounded by
fog; I’ve no idea where to take us, it’s as if the ground is crumbling beneath me.”
White’s subsequent discussions with other business leaders revealed a consensus.
“what you do starts to be the thing that binds you up”
“When I told them this story, I found that bankers, leaders in retail, insurance, the music
industry… all would nod in agreement,” he said. “When you’ve got something that’s
established and successful, how do you reinvent it?” The more successful you are,
the more you find that what you do starts to become the thing that binds you up.”
To help leaders unlock conversations around reinvention, he suggested four
questions to pose to their organisations, followed by a further four to help launch
them on their change journey (see box, p22). “To learn, you have to become childlike,”
he added. “Start-ups can ask these questions, because they’re unconstrained by
their past. The world’s their oyster, they’re always learning. When you’re an adult
(or senior leader), it’s harder to say ‘I don’t know’, because social groups project
onto leaders a need for clarity, for certainty.”
20 //
Future Talent