January 3, 2011
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Harvard Business Review Blogs)
Before 2010 is dumped into the dustbin of history — and it was a year when cleaning up after disasters was not just a metaphor — it's worth finding the gems among the trash.
Apple, Facebook, Twitter, IBM, PepsiCo, P&G, Stonyfield Farm, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and former British politicians provided me with occasions for pointing to business strategy and leadership lessons, good and bad, that shouldn't be forgotten. Here are my top five lessons from last year's blogs that can be carried confidently into the new year.
1. Surprises are the new normal. Resilience is the new skill. Back-up plans are strategic assets. Volcanic ash, generally not on any company's worst case scenario list, disrupted air traffic for several weeks. ("Surprise!) As BP proved, minimizing crisis doesn't cut it, and failure to communicate honestly is the biggest mistake. Kanter's Law still holds — that everything can look like a failure in the middle. The number of things that can hold things up has burgeoned, especially when politics are involved; Chinese regulators are the latest deal-delayers, this time for the NSN-Motorola deal. It helps to have leaders who are Energizers, a favorite idea from 2009, because their positive spirit can keep things moving.
2. Innovation takes courage and the willingness to be out in front rather than following the herd. Speaking of herds, while sacred cows can hold companies back if there is no courage to challenge orthodoxy, cows proved to be a better set of celebrity endorsers than Tiger Woods for Stonyfield Farms and their yogurt marketing. The creativity to produce innovation can involve a great deal of improvisation rather than sticking to a fixed script. It also takes dedication. Perhaps some entrepreneurs have a passionate desire to prove something.
3. Straight-line careers are over-rated. Zig-zags might better serve companies and leaders. When change is ubiquitous, stepping outside of familiar territories — whether fields, geographies, or industries — can provide important new insights and perspectives, particularly for emerging opportunities. Veer, soar, and return to the home base triumphant, as Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed. But that doesn't mean that leaders can parachute in from one setting to another and expect to be effective. Jobs took a pause and learned a few new consumer entertainment tricks. It is a good idea to take learning pauses to prepare for next steps.
4. Openness and inclusion should be the new standards. As the movie Inside Job argues about the banking crisis, closed circles of elites can reinforce dysfunctional behavior when there are interlocking financial interests and self-dealing relationships. Including people from formerly excluded groups might add perspectives that surface problems earlier or discourage throwing caution to the wind. Power goes to the connectors, a 2009 lesson. Connectors bring new ideas and information across groups, a very important role when the best new opportunities lie in emerging markets unfamiliar to those. Thus, the leadership ranks must be globally diverse. But though women are proving themselves as CEOs, challenges of inclusion remain.
5. Forget privacy, especially if you're a leader. Leaders are always on. Microphones and video cameras are always on, too, as former British prime minister Gordon Brown found to his peril. Xerox CEO Ursula Burns received better coaching her predecessor, Anne Mulcahy, and provides a positive model. But other CEOs weren't so fortunate. As former HP CEO Mark Hurd learned, small lapses can trip up leaders, even smart ones producing financial results, if they do not have a base of support. In the digital age, the spotlight is always, and the erosion of privacy affects everyone, a 2009 lesson that looms larger every day.
2010 will soon seem like ancient history, but these lessons will endure. Especially because 2011 is certain to bring surprises that will require still more innovation and even more open leadership.
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