Читать книгу Accountable Leaders - Vince Molinaro - Страница 25

In the end, Sears is a story of a once-great company unable to keep up with the ravages of gut-wrenching change in its industry—referred to by many as the “retail apocalypse.” Sears joined hundreds of other companies facing similar struggles. Like Sears, many would be unable to adapt to the forces that have shifted the industry’s landscape.

Many industry analysts assert that the claims of a retail apocalypse are overblown. While some companies have struggled and have gone bankrupt, many others are thriving in an industry that continues to grow. These analysts blame the demise of individual companies on poor leadership, not some external apocalypse. For many leaders, the world can appear to change right before their eyes. However, that isn’t really the case. Signs of change and even opportunity do arise, but leaders don’t always see them. Alternatively, by the time they do, it is too late. This points to the need for leaders to be both externally and future-focused to understand the world in which they lead. However, in practice, I find the opposite to be true. Many leaders are too internally focused, stuck in old thinking patterns or are simply too arrogant, believing their past success will drive future success.

Consider the example that comes from Blockbuster and Netflix. In his book That Will Never Work, Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph recounts the story of a meeting with Blockbuster senior brass.¹¹ Netflix was struggling and in debt. After months of trying to get Blockbuster’s attention, they finally secured the ever-important meeting. Blockbuster could have bought Netflix for $50 million, but they chose not to. Blockbuster’s CEO, John Antioco, didn’t believe it was an idea worthy of consideration. You know how the story ended. Netflix went on to become widely successful. Blockbuster went bust.

As an accountable leader, leading in a time of significant change and even disruption requires you to understand what is happening in the world. How are CEOs currently thinking about the world in which they are leading? Let’s look at the findings from KPMG’s survey of nearly 1,300 global CEOs about their perspectives on leading their companies in today’s world.¹²

 Seventy-two percent of CEOs said that they believe the next three years will be more critical for their industry than the previous 50 years.

 Sixty-nine percent of CEOs are concerned about the number of mission- critical business priorities they need to tackle with no prior experience.

 Sixty-five percent worry about new entrants disrupting industry business models, and about half of the CEOs are concerned that their companies are not disrupting their own business models quickly enough.

As you look at some of these high-level findings, you might say they paint a grim picture. However, CEOs also expressed a high degree of optimism about their ability to succeed. As we will see later in this book, that attitude is vital for leaders during times of change and disruption. However, leaders will need more than a good dose of optimism because leading change is hard work.

For example, McKinsey found in their research that only 26 percent of senior executives surveyed believe their organizations’ efforts to transform are successful.¹³ Change and churn have always been a reality in the world of business. No surprise there—however, the pace of change is unrelenting today and is also affecting corporate longevity.

Research conducted by Innosight found that in 1965, corporations stayed on the S&P 500 Index for 33 years.¹⁴ By 1990, that number had drastically declined to 20 years, and it is forecast to shrink to 14 years by 2026. If that churn rate continues, they estimate that half of today’s S&P 500 companies will cease to exist in the next decade.

It’s not just companies experiencing churn. CEOs increasingly find themselves in the hot seat, and their shelf life is getting shorter and shorter. Heidrick and Struggles, a leading global search and leadership firm, found that the number of CEOs who exited from their organizations nearly tripled from 2001 to 2016.¹⁵

No matter where you look, the story is the same—the world in which leaders are leading is getting more challenging than ever. Leaders need to deeply appreciate the context in which they lead because it matters—I believe now more than ever.