Who is the 21st Century CEO?
He or she is the leader who is constantly thinking about tomorrow - not the next week, the next month, the next quarter or even the next year. The future these leaders envision is the one they choose to create; their tomorrow will be a business ‘lotus land’ that is poles apart from an unwelcomed future determined by their competition, a future that inevitably forces defensive reactivity. Proactivity is the secret to long-term success. Those who get to the future first, are the ones who win.
Apple has been adept at the vision game for a quarter of a century. More recently, Google saw an idyllic future in organizing the world’s information and making it readily assessable to the masses. Little more than a decade of web brilliance and we have an enterprise generating $38 billion in revenues. Steve Jobs and Larry Page took note of the environment in which their companies would operate but fretted little about it. A few nasty years of economic woe in America and Europe could not dampen Apple or Google’s growth. That’s because success for Page and Jobs hinged on the strategic choices they made – primarily which products and applications to bet on.
Looking to the next 10 years of the 21st century, there is no question that the business, social, political, economic and technological environment will be very different. Great CEOs will deal with the challenges of these ever-changing environments and continue to lead the march forward with compelling visions, insightful strategies and flawless execution. To be unaware of, or to discount changing environments would be a leadership mistake.
Prudent 21st century CEOs will not only stick-handle through the environment of the day; they will incisively pinpoint, and fervently leverage the critical success factors of the company and industry in which they operate. As with any other era, whether the year is 1998 or 1968, the range of personal attributes required to be a Chief Executive Officer must align with the type and state of that enterprise and industry. Peering into the future by a decade, I expect to see little change in the definition of leadership. How CEOs prioritize and exercise the principles of great leadership forever hinges on the needs and the conditions of the enterprise they lead.
For my next post, I will gaze into my crystal ball and prophesize the environments in which 21st century CEOs will operate.
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Aug '10
Re: Who is the 21st Century CEO?
I nominate Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Co. CEO. He engineered a stunning turnaround at Ford by redesigning their cars (have you seen the new Mustangs?), globalizing operations, cutting costs, improving quality and expanding its lineup. Their hybrids are a solid success. Ford earned $29.5 billion in the last three years after $30.1 billion in losses from 2006 through 2008.
May '10
Re: Who is the 21st Century CEO?
I do not wish to come across as rude but that's basically an impossibility. You look at Larry Page and the late Steve Jobs as CEOs, which is almost peripheral do what they really do (or in Jobs' case, did): They are inventors first.
Each new generation of truly great business people arise because they bring things into the market that didn't exist before. You could claim that Les Moonves is a good CEO because CBS is the number one television network but he's not anywhere near the greatness of William Paly who, with NBC's David Sarnoff, invented the business of network broadcasting.
Jobs and Page, like Edison and Ford before them, achieve their greatness by capitalizing on their ideas. Unless you can pinpoint the next great achievement you can not envision the environment in which they will operate. The next great 21st century CEO will invent their own environment.
Re: Who is the 21st Century CEO?
EJHill - I'm not suggesting that to be a successful CEO, you have to be a Steve Jobs or Larry Page. I'm also not suggesting that a CEO needs to think a decade into the future - 3 years is plenty. But you better have vision. All I'm saying is that I'm going to take a shot at the business environment 10 years from now. Sure, I'll likely be off the mark on more than one prediction. Makes for good conversation, no?
Aug '10
Re: Who is the 21st Century CEO?
Darn it! You mean the whole century has to have one CEO?
I though we like decentralization here ;-)
May '10
Re: Who is the 21st Century CEO?
Then let's set aside the journalistic hyperbole. To use the phrase "21st Century something-or-other" is to forecast something a lot further than the next three years.
Aug '10
Re: Who is the 21st Century CEO?
Forbes made a similar point about Apple and Google's success vs Nokia. The latter's fortunes have declined as they refused to engage in strategic partnerships, or make the big jump into new phone-based ecosystems.
The class warfare question "why do CEOs get paid so much to do so little?" comes up more often these days. These case studies are proof that having someone focus on large, strategic issues does have an oversized affect on a company's health and profits, even if matching compensation to performance isn't perfectly straightforward.
May '12
Re: Who is the 21st Century CEO?
Sometimes I feel that the more we think things are different, or have changed in the past decade, the more they are still the same as before. As you say, the same principles that held true before, still do, and of course there's no reason why they shouldn't. They are industry and technology independent.
One thing I would be worried about, is companies that are dependent on the individual attributes of Executives. They are like states that depend for their success on a benevolent dictator. When the dictator dies, things can change. At the start of a company, there's probably no way to avoid it. But this is one fundamental problem of "leadership" I have seen in too many companies; leaders lead too much and too much emphasis is placed on leaders. I wonder what exists out there in the academic literature on this.
Re: Who is the 21st Century CEO?
AIG - the best companies are always thinking CEO succession. I'm particularly impressed by the performance of Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart in this regard. Their people buy into the unique system and culture of these organizations; by the time the CEO is ready to step down, there are several choices to ascend the throne. 'New economy' companies in the early stages of their life cycles are less prepared for this.
May '12
Re: Who is the 21st Century CEO?
Yes, that's what I mean, essentially. In order to have this happen, however, the culture of the company itself has to drive leadership, rather than leadership driving down (which is also essentially what you said in your writeup) But few companies manage to do this, and the ones which do, typically are decentralized and self-replicating, a micro-cosmos of "competition".
But in such a company, how important really is "leadership"? The role of "leadership" becomes to provide the opportunity for the company culture to express itself, rather than pull it by the ear. The exceptional CEO, is really the exception.
Dec '11
Re: Who is the 21st Century CEO?
One century later, I would still nominate innovator Henry Ford for these ideas: $5 a day pay/discouragement of union activity/mass production.
Edited on June 20, 2012 at 1:28amMar '11
Re: Who is the 21st Century CEO?
This post offer me nothing constructive, only navel gazing material.
Pure pablum.