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Winning in a Global World: Douglas Oberhleman
The New Calculus of Value Creation: Doug Conant, Kurt Schneider, Murray Martin
Performing while Transforming: Abhi Talwalkar, Bill Nuti, Mark Dorman
How U.S. Companies Can Lead in the New Global Economy: David Novak, Nick Akins, Chris Kearney
Building a Capability for Breakthrough Innovation
What’s Next for Governance?
Performing while Transforming: Three CEOs offer simple strategies for growing your business in an interconnected world.
Trim Your Team
“First, you need a strategic blueprint, a three- to five-year blueprint that both you and your board have the conviction to stick to, come rain or shine or snow. Second, you need alignment at the top and to keep the top incredibly small. You can never get to zero with inside politics—even a family of four has politics—but you can get closer with a small team. When our market cap dropped $1.5 billion a quarter after we did a $4 billion merger, investors were ready to kill me. The board was asking me why we had done it and employees were saying, ‘Sheesh, we were doing really well before you bought that other company.’ But the management team allowed me to stick with that conviction, and we stuck through it. Third, you need organizational transparency and engagement.”
Abhi Talwalkar, President & CEO, LSI
Listen and Engage
“One of the greatest misconceptions about bigger company CEOs is that we’re more command-and-control-oriented people. I think the best are good listeners who go out and seek out learnings, not just from their own people but from their networks. I have what I call a kitchen cabinet—people outside who I go to regularly for opinions, but I also ask my people. [With] engagement comes genuine inclusion. Pride of authorship factors into engagement. When people feel like they’ve authored the plan with you, the execution level will go up incredibly. The social contract is also important, not just compensation but things like training, development, benefits and the office environment.”
Bill Nuti, Chairman, President and CEO, NCR
Dig Deeper
“To create the right culture, particularly as you’re transforming, you need transparency, which means all of your leaders should be comfortable with you speaking to everyone in the organization. I hold fireside chats, which are skip-level meetings. They’re about understanding in the business [of] what’s going well and what’s not, so you can work on that stuff. Not only should your leaders be comfortable with it, they should actually encourage it. They should want people to speak to the CEO. They should want them to bring things up to show the success and share some of the challenges, so that it’s out in the open and we can solve it together.”
Mark Dorman, CEO, Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, North America