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Recently,
I came across a short
piece where a Wharton
professor offered an
opinion: “Companies
need CEOs who are
philosophers”. The
reason he gave was
that it helped the CEO
understand what the
customers wanted. To
me, that sounded like
Marketing 101
revisited. That said,
the logic might not
have made sense but
the basic assertion
did.
As
the man who shapes the
strategic planning
process, a CEO is key
to the future success
of the business. Shorn
of jargon, underlying
any successful
strategy formulation
exercise are three
basic questions:
-
What
is the business?
-
What
will it be?
-
What
should it be?
To
formulate an effective
strategy, one needs to
answer these questions
well, especially the
last one. This, in
turn, demands a deep
understanding of how
things work. And the
knowledge of why they
work the way they do.
This
requires being able to
look beyond the
surface of everyday organizational,
marketplace and
competitive existence
[See ‘A
Satisficing Solution’
-
Are You
Treating the Cause, or the Symptoms to
solve your organization's crises?
,
Businessworld, Jan 24]. This breadth
and depth of understanding can come only
from reflection. To rephrase what the
Professor said, what companies need to be
successful beyond today are Reflective
CEOs.
Reflection
involves disengaging
oneself from the
hurly-burly of
everyday crises and
taking stock of the
situation. Some things
will have gone right.
In the case of these,
it requires trying to
understand why they
did. It is equally
important to make
sense of the ones that
didn’t. There will
be many things
happening in the
marketplace and the organization.
Reflection helps the
CEO understand the
implication and,
equally importantly,
the relative
criticality of each.
Doing this exercise
regularly is likely to
lead to a far better
quality of both the
execution and
direction-setting by
him.
You
may point out, quite
naturally, that a CEO
above all is supposed
to be a man of action
-- a man who gets
things done. If he
starts reflecting,
when will he focus on
the execution? And
finally, is this just
another new fad?!
Not
so. As I see it, it
has its roots in a
2,500-year-old
tradition; that of the
soldier-philosopher. A
soldier is a doer, by
definition. But a
soldier who is also a
thinker is invariably
the most successful
one. Thinking-soldiers
in the position of a
general had a great
impact on their time.
In the case of a few,
they have exerted an
influence across ages.
Sun Tzu is an
excellent example.
Miyamoto Musashi (who
also wrote The Book of
Five Rings, a Japanese
classic on strategy)
is another. A more
recent example is that
of Carl Von Clausewitz,
whose On War had a
deep influence on
western strategic
thought, and history.
Socrates, considered
the father of western
philosophy, was a
soldier before he
invented the
discipline of
Philosophy. So was
Rene Descartes (when
you think
‘Cartesian’, think
of him).
The
reason why these men
were able to attain
that level of
understanding was
largely due to the
insights they
developed as soldiers;
as doers. What they
learned on the
battlefield helped
them develop a better
perspective of the
world. Interestingly,
none of them theorized
for the sake of theorizing,
but used their
understanding to
create ideas (and
things) that could be
used. And that was
possible only because
they themselves had
done a fair amount of
doing; they knew what
that involves.
The
same holds true for
the modern-day
warriors in the
trenches of the
business battlefield.
Here too, the truly
successful ones
invariably are those
who not only fight
battles successfully,
but focus equally on
winning the war. Above
all, they understand
which battle is worth
fighting.
Thinking
and doing are as
important for the CEO
as they are for the
General. The first is
about strategy, the
second about
execution. Both are
two sides of the same
coin. If one is about
the hardware, the
other is about the
software. On its own,
each has limited
utility. But taken
together they form a
complementary,
formidable whole.
Let
me share a recent
conversation with a
leader who has had a
long and extremely
successful career. For
more than three
decades, he has
remained in the same
industry, and that too
in one organization.
He started at the
bottom as a trainee
and is at the top
today. He mentioned
that he was recently
approached to take the
top-job at another
highly regarded firm
in a different,
unrelated sector. What
surprised him was that
his lack of experience
of that sector was not
considered to be a
disqualification. When
he asked for the
reason, the response
was a simple: “You
understand
business”. His
ability to get things
done was never in
doubt, but he
possesses something
far more important, an
ability to reflect. He
might not agree with
me on this – he
being a modest person
– but for me, it was
a compliment to his
unique capacity to
think far beyond what
his company needs to
do to be successful
today. About the needs
of tomorrow, and the
day after. The way it
needs to be for an
effective leader.
Doing
is about action;
thinking about
reflection. A key
issue that comes up is
about developing an
effective balance
between the two. Too
much of either can
cause problems. If the
CEO starts
‘boiling-the-ocean’
thinking, execution
suffers. On the other
hand, action to the
exclusion of
reflection often leads
to a myopic strategy.
Needless
to say, balancing the
two calls for a
certain degree of
objectivity. The
pressures on CEOs
further exacerbate
this tension. In the
course of my work as a
consultant, I always
see one of my key
responsibilities as
helping the CEO
achieve that balance.
If he is
implementation-oriented,
I try and offer a
perspective beyond the
immediate. On the
other hand, if
analysis dominates,
the focus turns to
providing a view
linked to immediate
concerns. The
advantage of being an
outsider to the organization
is that it helps
provide a far more
objective perspective.
Executives
today are too busy
handling the
day-to-day crises to
afford the luxury of
putting their feet up
and ‘reflect’. The
practice of reflection
is not easy and
requires a fair amount
of effort. But the
gains are equally
rewarding. In my
experience of working
with executives and
assisting them in
strengthening their
reflecting abilities,
the ones who have
persisted in
developing the habit
of reflection have
invariably experienced
a dramatic increase in
personal
effectiveness.
Reflection
helps a CEO look
beyond what he sees.
Beyond today.
Reflection also helps
him do things better
today. Like I said
earlier, the
successful business
warrior uses
reflection as a means
to know which battle
is worth fighting. But
most importantly, it
helps him understand
how the next war will
need to be fought; to
make sure that too is
won.
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