Leaders In London

Here’s WPP CEO Martin Sorrell’s seven vital things to keep on top of, which he shared with us at Leaders in London 2007. Keep them top of mind as you plan your 2008.
Seven Vital Issues to keep on top of

1. Globalisation: Used to be called ‘Americanisation’. It was an American world. Not any more. The wealth has shifted from the West to the North, East and South. Two-thirds of our global advertising work used to come from clients in the North-East corner of the US. That’s completely changed.

2. Overcapacity: Ford can produce 18 million trucks and cars. The world can only consume 16 million. So, where will shortages come from? Not capital, not products, but people. Intangibles (‘soft stuff’) make the difference. Of WPP’s $12 billion investment a year, $8 bn goes into people. People are your critical difference.

3. The Web: It disintermediates. It steals good people who want to work in fast-moving, small, network-like organizations, not lumbering big hierarchies.

4. Distribution: The power of retailers grows and grows. 50% of Tesco’s floorspace is outside the UK. The only way manufacturers can respond to retailers using buying power to push their prices down is through innovation. You can’t punish failure. Encourage success by allowing people to fail.

5. Corporate Social Responsibility: I wouldn’t have included this as essential three years ago. It is now. Buffett, Gates, Branson giving billions to good causes; the Murdochs embracing carbon neutrality; Gore’s Nobel Prize – They have embedded CSR in the CEO’s mind.

6. Structure: Greater centralisation of power to the core. Paradoxically, greater distribution of power also to the edge, the country managers. That puts the squeeze on the middle – regional managers. Global and local leadership is the future.

7. Internal communications: The big challenge is explaining strategic and structural changes internally and carrying people with you. The waste we see is the inability of people to work together.

And who to fear in 2008?
“In 1997 Michael Eisner was asked ‘Who do you most fear?’ He said the PhDs in Silicon Valley experimenting in a garage. Ask me now and I’d say the same, but probably moreso in Beijing and Bangalore than Silicon Valley.” - Martin Sorrell, speaking at Leaders in London 2007

Phil Dourado

of The Leadership Hub

on behalf of www.LeadersinLondon.com

Drip, drip…apparently that’s the way we learn, according to two leadership researchers, David Rock & Jeffrey Schwartz. In that spirit, we’ll continue to pick out and regularly drip into this blog drops of inspiration from Leaders in London 2007, to help you reflect on and put into practice what you learnt at the summit. This week, three different perspectives on The Vision Thing*. Which do you feel is most important in your role as a leader (if any)?

Ben Zander on Vision

“Vision has to be for everybody. If someone says ‘What about me?’ it’s not a vision. Having a compelling vision means you are not led by a person, but by the vision. Our vision at the Boston Philharmonic is ‘Passionate music-making without boundaries.’ Every conversation we have is run by that vision.”

Michael Porter on Vision

“I wish we could all agree to stop using ‘vision and mission’. ‘Strategy as vision’ is one of the flawed concepts of strategy. Strategy is about creating superior value for the customer.”

Oasis on Vision

OK, they weren’t actually at Leaders in London. But, as other speakers continued to emphasise ’shared vision’ and the need for leaders to get a strong sense of where employees want to go and then commit to helping them get there…It made me think the old notion of a visionary leader who SETS a vision that others buy into and follow is flawed.

Individual employees have their own vision of how they want their life to be, where they want to go, the kind of organisation they want to hitch their wagon to as a fellow traveller. Oasis (that’s the rock band - keep up!) put it this way: “You can’t give me the dreams that are mine anyway.”

If you want a more highbrow reference, Bob Geldof gave it to us last year at Leaders in London 2006: “Lord Byron put it this way: ‘It is when we think we lead that we are most led’.”

So, what do you think? Is the old “Follow me! I have the most compelling vision!” approach to leadership completely outdated? (I have to say ‘Yes’ myself). Zander and Oasis seem to emphasise common, shared vision, that a leader taps into and articulates clearly, rather than creates.

Porter seems to say stop focussing on vision and mission as they are a distraction. What do you think? Add a comment if you want to help us clarify this crucial area of ‘leadership and vision’.

Phil Dourado

of The Leadership Hub

on behalf of www.LeadersinLondon.com

*”The vision thing”: That was the dismissive comment on leadership vision that George Bush Snr came out with a few years back, you may remember, which led to commentators unkindly suggesting that the then President didn’t have one.