Leadership is “to serve"

For Alan Mulally, the outgoing Ford CEO, “to serve” is the philosophy, and the way to lead. He successfully used this Mantra during his 8 year tenure as the first person of Ford. He took over when the company was saddled with tremendous loss, turnaround it and raised the profit bars applying the Servant-Leadership Model. His turnaround philosophy is a valuable lesson for leaders to be.

I give below his historic action as explained by him in brief:

Starting his job with a “home improvement loan” he implemented 4 key elements initially:

·         Focus on serving all markets;

·         Commit to a complete family (of product);

·         Quality, efficiency and

·         Work together to scale and leverage.

The bracket around the profit means to him that “you do not have any idea what you are doing and that is not the purpose of business.” these are the two thoughts that should be there in everybody’s mind he emphasizes.  “Always have a can-do attitude.”

 

He started a “Business Plan Review (BPR)” to achieve his “one ford” goal. “One Ford” plan drives the business to get PGA, Profitable Growth for All, meaning that every year we increase the profits and cash flow. BPR was organized every Thursday, where everyone was asked on the team to share where they were and where the issues lay. Out of that came the priorities and they were together on that.  He claims with pride that BPR (business plan review) is both an execution-driven mechanism and also a strategic tool. He constantly focused on adhering to the vision of Henry Ford: “open the highways to all mankind” by looking at risks and the opportunities, the business environment, the strategy, the plan, areas that need attention at every BPR meetings.

When asked how he decides on the options that have the most chance to succeed—gut or data? He replies: “Talk to everybody you possibly can and you will get a consensus. Talk to everybody that is investing because it's their money.”

With BPR strategy he proclaims it just takes, “about two nanoseconds, because we have been working on it for the whole year. It is that adaptive.”

On motivating for innovations his comments were: “Our brand promise says we will offer a complete range that's best-in-class in terms of quality, environment-friendly, safe, smart and offers the very best value. This is the all-time motivator for innovation. Innovations just don't happen by asking people to innovate but by making sure innovation has a purpose. You are doing something that is going to make life better or easier, more worthwhile.” He admits that it is a challenge for companies to use less resources and less time than competition. 

While nurturing him his parents taught “that to serve is to live and if you find your passion in serving, then that is the most satisfying thing in the world.” He continues, “I always loved serving and I liked doing a real good job for people, taking care of them, helping them.”

To the query as to how he managed your time, energy and the inner equilibrium, his answer was thus: “The more you include everybody the less you have to worry. You have a process to come together, where everybody knows everything. You switch over from this model of thinking where you have to tell people what to do because you know everything, to a servant-leadership model. So you move to a model where you have all kinds of energy, you have wonderful emotional resilience plus you have consistency of purpose. That's an important thing in all our lives.” 

His message to the young leaders: “Serving is the most important thing in business. Money is the output of serving these customers. If you do not do that, you are not going to grow.”

P.S: Lesson for life: Include everybody, the less you have to worry. Serve all.

Source:  Corporate Dossier, June 27-July 3, 2014

Leadership and Learning

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." ......John F Kennedy.
Alwin Tofler says: " Tommorrow's illiterate people will be not the ones who haven't learnt to read, but rather the ones who have not learned how to learn."

Beginning the article with these wise words of the Great thinkers the author Jean Francois Manzoni explains his 25 years of research on leadership as follows:

Why should leaders be life long learners?

• Modern world is complex and ambiguous;
• Volatile and uncertain;
• Therefore leaders need to develop new responses and capabilities; to integgrate the knowledge in to their behavior..

How can leaders do it:

• firstly, identifying a need for improvement;
• secondly, to achieve an initial competence in the new skills; the author emphasis that this requires a tremedous amount of attention, practice and persistence;
• finally the leader must reach a new competence that is unconscious.

The reader draws an analogy of riding a bycicle.

The author points out the following obstacles for life long learning of leaders:

• executives sometimes confuse understanding a concept with implementing it; knowin something doesnot guarantee that you can implement;
• excecutives underinvest in developing a more granular understanding of a concept. If you want the knowledge to be in your head and usable you muyst take notes an review them regularly;
• If you want to behave different from a habitual response and consistenly with a new objective you need to intercept the habitual response before it is produced. 

Source: Jean Francois Manzoni "How leaders need to be life long learners too," 
                Economic Times, 24th June,    2014

“On Fear and Failure”

I give below the words of wisdom stated by Dr. Ed Catmull, Co founder PixarAnimation.:

Dr. Ed Catmull views problems as a scientist not as a manager. He says: “I came to believe that most companies were trying to do the right thing. But in focusing on doing this right they were missing out on a deeper problem--- how human emotions form barriers and fears that get in the ways,” He realized that most companies were trying to do the right thing, but in focusing on doing this right thing, they were missing out on a deeper problem---how human emotions form barriers and fears that get in the ways. He realized that most companies were so focused on competition that they did not introspect deep enough on the other destructive forces that were at work. His abstract but philosophical approach suggested, “You have to work through the problem and not go around it. Facing inwards is a different experience from when you face the outside world, but until you experience it, you won’t know it,” thus drawing an analogy to meditation.

He points out that companies need to introspect occasionally and integrate it with how they act towards the outside world. He states that the act of management is a creative art. He remarks: “The trick to solve a lot of problem lies in understanding the blocks and barriers that are based on human emotions. While we can address these, it also means that problem never completely goes away because human nature is always there.”

Fear of failure normally stops people from engaging or speaking up in discussions. Failure tends to be viewed through 2 contradictory lenses:

·     Most leaders agree that their failures and mistakes have provided some of their biggest learning and eventual success;

·         There will be opponents who will bludgeon (to hit or knock you down) you for failing.

Leaders need to accept that people have real fears about their responsibilities and the consequences of executing their job. 

Pixarstrategy: BrainTrust : The rationale is: People don’t want to embarrass themselves or other people, and they tend to naturally defer to those with more authority and experience . Brain trust is about the dynamics in the room and removing the authority, discussing things with candor (fair/impartial).

Another conflict most organizations face is the power struggle between different departments; each department has a different agenda and it needs to be respected but the leader must realize that if one department wins, it is detrimental to the organization greater good. It is not true that balance is achieved from yogic state; instead it is people who can adapt to the realities of this changing environment who are good at balance.

Before Catmull started working with Steve Jobs he asked Jobs who was known to be stubborn—how things got resolved when people disagreed with him. Jobs gave a simple answer: I take the time to explain it better so they understand the way it should be.

(P.S.: Good strategy of Jobs to get your idea through, we could also follow it in any relationship: keep explaining until one is convinced that the other or you are right.)

Source: Corporate Dossier, June 20-26, 2014

InMobiu Success story

Hi friends....I recently read an article in TOI, about Richard Branson and Naveen Tewari, CEO of InMobi..(http://www.inmobi.com/company/management/).....
I was so curious to understand what Richard a dynamic global entrepreneur found in this presentation to be shared. I realized there are many ground lessons to be learnt from InMobi CEO.
For those of you who want to become entrepreneurs this is a must watch....I am sharing ...take tips .....all the best to the budding entrepreneurs...

http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/8-tips-to-evolve-a-start-up-into-a-successful-company