一家成功的企業有可能犯的最大錯誤是什么？
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????Leadership Insider是一個在線社區，那些最具思想和影響力的商界人物在此回答關于職業發展和領導力的問題。今天的問題是：保持公司成功的最好辦法是什么？回答者是波士頓咨詢公司首席執行官李瑞麒。 ????空降到一家面臨生死存亡的公司中擔任首席執行官，堪稱一種英勇之舉。盡管扭轉局勢絕不是一個人的表演，但首席執行官的魄力和決心總會在此時凸現出來。他們為此獲得交口稱贊，登上雜志封面。 ????那些在一切看起來很好的情況下勇于變革的首席執行官，盡管可能不會贏得滿堂喝彩，但他們同樣令人印象深刻。我相信，這樣的舉措至少需要同等的領導力、韌勁和遠見。這些改變看起來可能不像是生死關頭奇跡般的力挽狂瀾——直到你意識到保持變革的渴望是多么困難，自滿的滋生又將帶來何種危險。想象一位新任首席執行官走進一家成功公司。這樣的公司通常擁有強健的資產負債表、良好的聲譽、顯赫的市場地位——幾乎沒有什么變革的動力。 ????這樣的公司可能會十分自信。員工們覺得自己就是成功的楷模，是最優秀的人才。一些高管幾十年來一直獲得巨大的肯定。根深蒂固的行為模式持續不斷地獲得獎賞。公司內部逐漸產生了豎井心理，員工越來越多，辦公室政治愈演愈烈。這種情況下通常聽不到自我批評的聲音。畢竟，這么多年來一直非常成功，干嘛還那么嚴厲呢？ ????不過，自信和自滿只有一線之隔。那些曾經強大的公司也會陷入衰退期，有時這種衰退來得甚至十分突然。實際上，上市公司的預期壽命已經變得前所未有的短暫。那么，一家成功公司的領袖怎么才能在危機到來前重新找準方向，給公司帶來新活力呢？每個人面對的情況都不同，不過那些成功者有以下幾個共同點： ????面對現實 ????波士頓咨詢公司一位前合伙人曾為前通用電氣董事長兼首席執行官杰克·韋爾奇工作過。在他看來，韋爾奇最重要的品質就在于他會迫使自己的領導團隊應對真實的世界，而不是他們所希望的世界。使用合適的衡量標準，提出挑戰性問題，跟蹤新產品或方案的后續反饋，這些都是讓強大的企業走出固有舒適區的方式。 ????建立“現在是緊要關頭”的理念 ????馬丁·路德·金曾經在完全不同的語境中說過這句話，不過這個比喻很恰當。強大的公司總會找到各種理由來避免不合適的改變。步伐和精力要同時跟進。競爭格局的變化速度前所未有，因此領導者需要制定議程，定好基調。 ????避免“熟手”帶來的錯誤安全感 ????在一個匯聚新任首席執行官們的研討會上，百事公司總裁兼首席執行官盧英德把這個觀點作為她的第一堂課。那些“熟手”高管只是在維持過去，而不是在創造未來。想要帶領公司順利前進，首席執行官就需要質疑他們的領導，要成為變革的推動者。許多事情會以意想不到的方式出現。我看著那些懷疑論者蛻變成為變革浪潮中的真正優勝者。隨著時間的推移，容忍那些只愿維持現狀的員工，即便他們的工作做得很好，也可能會給公司其他人帶來消極的信號。 ????應對組織僵化 ????許多成功的機構都會面臨兩個挑戰。第一，層級太多，各級控制權有限，所以會不可避免地出現反應遲緩、流程繁復等情況。領導者遠離業務，需要花更長時間來決策，而表現出色的員工感覺自己被過度管理，沒有足夠的權力。第二，隨著個人成功的重要性逐漸超越團隊成功，尤其在公司的跨部門項目中，合作關系往往會惡化。給公司的結構瘦身，建立促進正確行為和溝通的環境，可以迅速提升公司的活力和效率。 ????為了讓這些改變持續下去，公司領袖需要贏得許多利益相關者——員工、顧客、投資者和越來越多的監管部門——全心全意的支持，讓他們意識到為什么改變現狀是值得的。這不只是為了避免公司的衰退，而是建立一種自強不息的正確理念，激勵人們去探索和表現，讓整個公司以更快的速度前進，更具適應性，更加靈活。 ????那些讓成功的公司產生變革的領袖很少能登上震撼的新聞報道，不過他們能帶來巨大的價值。以兩位前任首席執行官為例：家得寶的弗蘭克·布萊克和百時美施貴寶的蘭貝托·安德烈奧蒂。他們都接手了一家強大的公司，卻仍然努力重新找準方向，強化公司的市場地位。在他們的任期內，公司的股東價值增加了約2000億美元。（財富中文網） ????譯者：嚴匡正 ????審校：任文科 |
????The Leadership Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question: What’s the best way to keep your company successful? is written by Rich Lesser, CEO of the Boston Consulting Group. ????There’s something heroic about a CEO who parachutes into a company that’s facing an existential threat. While such turnarounds are never really a one-person show, it’s the CEO’s boldness and resolve that invariably stand out. They get the credit and the cover story. ????But just as impressive, if not as celebrated, is the CEO who upends the status quo when all is (seemingly) well. Such efforts, I believe, require at least as much leadership, tenacity, and vision. They may not seem as miraculous or necessary as a change-or-die turnaround—until you consider how hard it is to instill a hunger for change, and what’s on the line when complacency sets in. Picture the new CEO walking into a historically successful company. This CEO often inherits an organization with an excellent balance sheet, a good reputation, strong market positions—and almost no appetite for broad change. ????These organizations tend to be highly self-confident. They are convinced they have the winning model and the best people. Senior executives have received tremendous affirmation, sometimes over decades. Ingrained patterns of behavior have been rewarded over and over again. Internally, silos get built, staffing levels grow, and politics intensify. Self-criticism is often muted. With so much success for so long, what’s the point of being too harsh, anyway? ????But the borderline between confidence and complacency is thin. Over and over, historically strong companies have slipped into periods of decline, sometimes precipitously. In fact, the life expectancy of public companies is shorter than ever. So how can the leader of a successful business reset the direction and re-energize the organization before a crisis hits? Every situation is different, but here are some elements that cut across many of those who succeed: ????Confront reality ????A former BCG partner who worked for Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of GE, told me that he thought Jack’s most important quality was that he forced his leadership to deal with the world as it is, not as they wished it to be. Using the right yard-sticks and benchmarks, asking challenging questions, and conducting follow up reviews on new products or initiatives are all examples of pushing strong organizations outside of their inherent comfort zones. ????Establish “the fierce urgency of now” ????Martin Luther King, Jr. said this in a completely different context, but the imagery is exactly right. Strong organizations find all sorts of reasons to avoid uncomfortable change. Pace and energy go together. With competitive landscapes being reshaped faster than ever, the leader needs to set the agenda and the tone. ????Avoid the false security of “a safe pair of hands” ????Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, shared this in a workshop with new CEOs as her number one lesson. Executives who are solely “a safe pair of hands” are there to preserve the past, not invent the future. To successfully lead their organizations forward, CEOs should challenge their leaders to become change drivers. Many will step up in unexpected ways. I’ve seen skeptics turn into true champions of change. But over time, tolerating those who simply want to preserve the status quo, even if they do their jobs well, sends debilitating signals to everyone else. ????Tackle organizational sclerosis ????Many successful organizations face two related challenges. First, they are hardwired to be slow and bureaucratic, with too many layers and too narrow spans of control. So leaders get distant from the business, decisions take longer, and strong performers feel over-managed and under-empowered. Second, collaboration often deteriorates as individual success begins to outweigh team success, particularly in activities that cross boundaries within the business. Designing organizations to be lean and creating an environment that fosters the right behaviors and interactions can provide a burst of energy and effectiveness. ????To make these changes stick, leaders will need to win the hearts and minds of a range of stakeholders—employees, customers, investors, and increasingly regulators—so they appreciate why it’s worth challenging the status quo. This isn’t just about staving off decline. It’s about creating a healthy sense of restlessness, motivating people to experiment and act differently, and getting the company, as a whole, to move at a much faster speed—to be more adaptive and agile. ????Leaders who turn around successful companies rarely create shocking headlines, but they can create massive value. Take two former CEOs, Frank Blake of Home Depot and Lamberto Andreotti of Bristol-Myers Squibb. Both inherited strong companies, and both still managed to reset the direction and strengthen their positions, adding around $200 billion of shareholder value between them in the process. |
