John Donahoe never had the strengths required to lead a design-focused organization like Nike. His technical strengths were not what was needed at a consumer-oriented product innovator. This matters as a lesson for you to get clear on your organization’s core focus – design, production, delivery/distribution, or service – and then choose senior executives with the talent, knowledge, skills, experience, and, if required, craft-level caring and sensibilities to drive that focus.
Donahoe’s issue was always there for anyone to see. He was strong on e-commerce and supply chain, but “wasn’t seen as an innovator and marketer, key qualities in a company that combines performance and style.”
Analysts were not surprised. As the Financial Times reported, “Wall Street analysts had openly questioned whether a former consultant and tech executive such as Donahoe was the right leader for Nike, a legacy consumer brand.” They went on to say, “Donahoe was seen as falling short in product innovation and developing newer, cooler shoes.”
When Donahoe was named, I thought he had a mission-crippling executive onboarding issue in the former CEO’s sticking around as Executive Chair. My concern was that that made it extremely tempting for Donahoe’s direct reports to go directly to their former boss on big issues, managing around him. He got through that, but was unable to be the chief enabler Nike’s innovators needed.
Core Focus
Every organization designs, produces, sells and markets, delivers/distributes, and services. The most successful over time focus on design, production, delivery, or service and align their values, organization, operations, and CEO around that.
Design-focused organizations need chief enablers, leading with providing principle-based freeing support to relatively independent designers.
Production-focused organizations need chief enforcers, leading with policies and a hierarchical command and control approach driving stability and consistency.
Delivery or distribution-focused organizations need chief enrollers, pulling in people across the matrix and ecosystem to work interdependently with shared responsibilities.
Service-focused organizations need chief experience officers, leading flexible, decentralized organizations with guided accountability.
CEOs own direction and culture. They have to breathe the mission, vision, and strategy from every pore. Their personal, individual character has to epitomize the collective character or culture of the organization. Everything communicates. Everything they say and do and don’t say and don’t do get scrutinized by everyone.
Design-focused CEOs have to talk about the power of design and designers.
Production-focused CEOs have to preach the power of discipline and consistency.
Delivery or distribution-focused CEOs need to think and talk in ways that make others want to join the crusade.
Service-focused CEOs must think, eat, breath, sleep and talk customer-first always.
Strengths
In general, strengths are made up of a combination of innate talent, learned knowledge, practiced skills, hard-won experience tying it all together, and, at the highest, best level, craft-level caring and sensibilities absorbed from apprenticeships with masters over time.
Design-focused CEOs will need empathy, futuristic, and ideation talents. They will need to have learned about and practiced concept-design and product development. They will need experience leading innovation-focused teams, and, perhaps have apprenticed with master designers.
Production-focused CEOs will need discipline, focus, and responsibility talents. They will need to have learned about and practiced production on the shop floor. They will need experience leading production-focused teams, and, perhaps have apprenticed with master producers.
Delivery or distribution-focused CEOs will need arranger, includer, and connectedness talents. They will need to have learned about and practiced collaborative work. They will need experience leading complex matrices across disparate organizations, and, perhaps have apprenticed with master collaborators.
Service-focused CEOs will need adaptability, empathy, and individualization talents. They will need to have learned about and practiced customer service. They will need experience leading service-focused teams, and, perhaps have apprenticed with masters of customer or guest experience.
Business basics, values, and strengths always apply. Just like every organization has to sell and market and every organization should have values of integrity and respect in one form or another, all CEOs need to own the vision, values and culture and be able to lead strategic, organizational, and operational processes.
But the point is that different organizations have different core focuses, different third values, and require CEOs with different strengths depending upon that core focus. No. You don’t have to get someone from the same industry. You have to get someone with the right strengths. And, if you’re the rising CEO, make sure your strengths line up with your new organization’s core focus before you accept the job.
John Hall
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