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Saturday, March 11, 2006
Batuhan: Strategy and leadership continuity
By Allas S. B. Batuhan
Foreign Exchange
THE implementation of strategy is by definition a long-term undertaking and commitment. It is the fulfillment of an organization’s vision of itself in the future. It requires continuous attention and focus to ensure the attainment of specific time-phased goals that an organization has set as its measures of success.
It is no secret that business empires were not built overnight but over a period of time, during which the successful selection and execution of the correct strategic options was the key element. Take the case of Microsoft’s current dominance of the global information technology (IT) industry.
None of its successes in the market came by accident. Its very first breakthrough came when Bill Gates and Paul Allen decided that the operating system they were developing for personal computers was to be a “universal” solution that would be used by every PC, and not one that was going to be exclusive. This was in sharp contrast to Apple’s choice of keeping its own O/S tied to its Macintosh brand of computers.
The result is as we see it today, with practically every PC produced using a Microsoft product instead of one from Apple. The latter continue with their own, but only on their brand of machines. How big Microsoft is today compared to Apple, although both started at about the same time, is instructive in terms of the value of correct strategy selection.
Another factor not to be underestimated in terms of Microsoft’s success is the continuity of its leadership, with the iconic Bill Gates personally running the organization and stamping his own brand of creativity and innovation in its corporate ethos.
In contrast, Apple underwent a series of top management changes with mixed results. Today, its founder Steve Jobs is back at the helm, and the company has found renewed success again with the pioneering Ipod, which has since become the new lifestyle “revolution.”
Call it coincidental, but Jobs’ return to the top job (pardon the pun) revitalized Apple’s image, making it once again a hip company to patronize as well as work for. In turn, this new-found enthusiasm fueled internal creativity, turning out creations like the Ipod and newer and more imaginative iterations if its personal computer products.
That strategic selection and leadership continuity should be intimately linked should come as no surprise. After all, who best to see a strategy come to fruition than the person who thought it up in the first place?
And yet, it is a fact of life in many organizations that reliance on a single individual can be a recipe for disaster. Referring back to Apple again, when Jobs first left the company (or rather was forced to leave the company many years back), it never really found the stability and energy it needed until he came back, in triumph, only a few years ago.
While there is no doubt that leadership continuity is critical, it is also equally crucial that it is not dependent on a single individual; but rather on a continuing vision that can be passed on like the Olympic torch, from an outgoing leader to the incoming one, without interruption and without ever being extinguished.
Because like the Olympic flame — which, if it ever gets extinguished along the way, needs to be renewed again from its source in the ancient city of Olympia — changes in leadership that are not guided by a single unchanging vision will result only in the discontinuity of the strategy’s implementation. This will cause confusion in the organization, which will worsen with every change and make the group lose its way in the process.
(allan.batuhan@pzcussons.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 11, 2006 issue)
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