Experience great: From guru-centric development to practicing great leadership at your company

Enterprise Simulation Methodology

A leading technology company found themselves at a critical juncture. They had made it to $2B in revenue through a very successful innovation with coupled services, and realized that they had years of growth ahead by running “business as usual.” However, at some point, perhaps five-to-seven years into the future, if they didn’t diversify and provide their customers with a broader suite of technology and services, they would reach market saturation and growth would stall.A new CEO was appointed, acquisitions were made, and the company crafted a broader vision. Products now had to evolve from point solutions to suites of offerings, go-to-market strategies had to evolve, and sales conversations with customers needed to change.During the path to $2B, the senior leaders and members of the executive team operated very successfully in siloed businesses and functions, pushing decision-making low into the organization. Clear metrics for success and healthy competition between silos propelled the company forward. Moving forward, in order to broaden customers’ understanding of the company (from a technology partner to a trusted advisor) and grow from $2B to $6B, a lot needed to change.For the CEO and Head of Talent, the immediate challenge became, “What is the most efficient way to equip the executive team and the top 500 leaders to pivot the company and lead the next phase of growth?” They considered all-company memos, global roadshows with the executive team, offsite working sessions with the C-suite, new metrics and accountability. Ultimately, they did all, but even still, they needed to ignite understanding and passion among senior leaders to bring the energy critical to lead the change, resist the temptation of fear, and build the cross-company relationships key to success.Creating a two-day simulation experience, the C-suite engaged all 500 leaders, enabled them to assume the role of the CEO, and allowed them to practice running the entire company for three years into the future. Inundated with customer, technology, and competitive trends, the leaders felt shareholder value creation pressures as well as employee engagement and culture realities. As the teams wrestled with the tensions and tradeoffs in evolving the company and running the core and new businesses at the same time, the leaders matured—they matured in their understanding of why the company had to change and what it meant for them.And by strengthening their command of both business models, they were better positioned to lead teams with authenticity, passion and empathy, while finding the right speed and timing of their team’s evolution to best support the company’s goals.

The Impact?

Six months later, the question on the all-company employee survey, “I understand and believe in the company’s vision and my role in making it happen,” moved from the lowest scoring metric to one of the highest. At the time, the COO said, “When I was told a simulation would be the key alignment vehicle for our top 500 leaders I was skeptical. The custom business simulation accurately modeled our business challenges and anticipated our future evolution. The experience allowed our top 500 leaders to not just see the new strategy, but to practice making our strategy and vision a reality. The experience got leaders from different organizations with disparate points of view to work together and understand the real trade-offs and friction points, and provided the ‘big picture’ view we needed.” The company later achieved its growth target with the mix of “old” and “new” revenue it was looking to balance.

Sources

[1] Schultz, Howard, Onward: How Starbucks Fought For Its Life Without Losing Its Soul, New York: Rodale Books, 2011.[2] Pierre Gurdjian, Thomas Halbeisen, and Kevin Lane, “Why Leadership-Development Programs Fail”, McKinsey & Company, January 2014.[3] Gladwell, Malcolm, Outliers: The Story of Success, New York: Little Brown and Company Hachette Book Group, 2008.[4] Kedges, Kristi, “If You Think Leadership Development is a Waste of Time, You May Be Right”, Forbes, 23 September 2014.