SA's Top Executives 2013 Jack Hammer | Page 11

Boards choose leaders who look, sound and act like them. Leaders choose adjutants who look, sound and act like them. Risks are rarely taken, and “experiments” left for where the potential damage of a false move will be limited. Under such risk-averse circumstances, how can transformation be achieved? How can the hiring decisions of a century ago be shaken up for a new millennium and a new global landscape? How can this be achieved without throwing caution to the wind and while maintaining board and shareholder confidence? There is a narrow view of what defines leadership and the hesitance to change hamstrings progress. It is not about an unwillingness to change. It is about unwillingness to take risk.