A Case for Vision, Fearlessly

I have been working for months with a top level executive who has been redefining his strategic challenge in the context of the last 10 years on Wall Street - what he feels he has and has not achieved. He wanted to reset the bar for himself and the organization he heads, personally, professionally and globally. And he has set out to do so in a visionary way.
Now he must convince the organization above and below him that this is the way to go - at least for the next four years.
 Along comes the most extreme crisis in financial markets in his lifetime - a perfect storm of collapsing asset values, weakened balance sheet and challenged business models. How should he handle this confluence - of ambition for the organization, and himself - with conditions that incite fear amid uncertainty, as well as greed amid perceived scarcity? If the pie is to shrink - as it surely must in the near term - how is he to get other leaders in the organization to step up and work together more productively and collaboratively than they ever have? If REAL change - a transformation and restructuring partly demanded by adverse markets - must be their response, how can they define and deliver this optimally?
Presumably this challenge faces many leaders in many organizations in 2008, not just on Wall Street. Let's assume we know we must restructure in the face of collapsing budgets. How to do that in a way that does not sell out the future for the present, nor backslide to old or timeworn practices that must be replaced by new ways of operating?
This requires clear intention, conviction about the path forward, and commitment to follow it.
We have evidence that short-term thinking amid profitable times has too often failed to build foundation for the future. What about short-term thinking in UNprofitable times? Won't that produce even worse results for the medium to longer term? The danger is that companies will fight to survive to see tomorrow, only to discover on the day after they have either eaten their seed corn or failed to plant for the next harvest, whether in human resources or technical capability or investing in markets for the more distant future.
These challenges can be addressed by conducting the right strategic conversations at the right levels of the organization - top down, bottom up and side to side. Executives and managers must:

• Clarify strategic intention (often scenarios help here, provided a vision has been set);

• Define the sacred (profitability is only one index);

• Understand the commitment (experience and talent are just two dimensions of required organizational capability); and,

• Act to be, where leadership by example is a sine qua non.

I find myself working hard with my client to identify and address the many dimensions of the challenge, some transparent and some opaque. In the perfect storm you must determine what is the next right thing to do, and then you must do it right. Much of this is in the content of your plan and how you communicate it. You must make sure your vessel is ready to go the distance, and your crew with it. This means you have thought about the risks, the range of uncertainty, and the actions that ensure the present AND the future. Failing to acknowledge the darkest possible scenario now - a real depression? - would be foolish. But in such times of stress strategic advantage is to be gained by thinking fearlessly about the future and bringing along the people in your organization needed to help create it.

Comments

[Deborah]

Spot on! Eric- why don't you work in the government?!!

[Doug Arthur]

Good stuff..particularly relevant as I sit on 3 Boards which depend -to some extent- on discretionary spending, endowment income and charitable giving...very pertinent thoughts....

[John]

Knowing about this particular initiative, it is indeed bold and inspiring. For the first time ever, it feels like we're actually trying to shape what will be rather than be a victim of what is.

[Jeffrey Lemkin]

Great concept, Eric – very clarifying and, to my mind, spot on!! “We love this and want to do more, more more, NOW” is typically the rallying call when times are fat, when times are lean, “We hate this and want to fix it now, now, now” rings through the halls. Couldn’t agree more – love how you put it. Do you suppose this type of response could be something we’re hard-wired for as people? From an evolutionary standpoint, when there’s something terrible happening to a killer ape on the African plains, that ape wants to get away from (fix) that problem really fast – or, potentially – die. And, when lounging around in a glade where the pickin’s are easy, the powerful urge would certainly be to just stay there and enjoy the fruits as much as possible.