Leaders are increasingly engaging in fierce competition over their companies’ very identities.
At risk is their ability to successfully manage their relationships with customers, investors, partners, employees and others due to the rapidly changing context for global business.
The appearance and empowerment of new stakeholders, the emergence of a “flat world,” and the digital revolution have created radically democratized access to information and unprecedented transparency, making the quality of an organization’s products and services apparent to all customers and prospects.
Additionally, corporate citizenship, environmental behavior and how companies treat their employees are visible across the company and to potential applicants and public interest groups.
This presents leaders with a daunting challenge … . and an opportunity.
A survey of CEOs commissioned by the Arthur W. Page Society examined the drivers and implications of these shifts and proposes a set of strategic options for leaders to help them respond to these realities.
To seize the opportunity at hand, leaders and their organizations need to engage in fully interactive ways. Most importantly, companies must be grounded in a sure sense of why it exists, what it stands for and what differentiates it in the marketplace. Those principles, beliefs, mission, purpose and value proposition must be expressed in consistent corporate behavior and action.
Authenticity is the coin of the realm for successful companies and for those who lead them.
Of all the challenges facing organizations, perhaps the most fundamental are those surrounding the issue of trust – at the level of the employee, the company and the broader societal level.
With accelerated levels of transparency and increasing dependence on global partners to get work done, leaders have far less operational control than ever before, but still have the ultimate responsibility for results. Fulfilling that responsibility will require imagination, courage, innovation, shared values and trust.
To successfully adapt to the new business and societal context will require new forms of leadership to tackle these corporate challenges:
The post originally appeared in a somewhat different form on OCTanner.com
