Archive for the ‘Innovation’ Category

Are Entrepreneurs the Most Ambitious Career-Builders of All?

The Wall Street Journal’s “These Entrepreneurs Make Mark Zuckerberg Look Ancient” recounts the surging demand to develop entrepreneurial skills in the prepubescent set, an offshoot of the growing fever to make it big, younger and vente toboggan gonflable faster than ever. In this roaring app economy, startups have created the new must-have capabilities for big businesses, as entrepreneurs define the new fast track to success and wealth. Ambitious career-builders take notice.

Why care, if you’re not an entrepreneur? Read entire post on The Wharton Magazine site.

 

The Case for Thinking Differently about Consultants

Pricey engagements too often disappoint

Your client wants to accomplish an aggressive list of priorities. As a consultant, your job is to help them create the right change that will make a substantial difference. But that’s not what usually happens.

Pricey consulting gigs too often disappoint. Acquisitions hobble companies when their leaders are unable resolve conflicting views. Transformation, initially the goal, becomes a debacle as mid and lower levels watch the big ideas crumble. Unfortunately the human side of change and growth is hugely neglected, including the biases and faulty assumptions of leaders and their advisors.

In 1995, John Kotter, Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at Harvard, published research showing that only 30% of business change initiatives succeed. McKinsey’s survey of executives in 2008 showed that the number of successful change programs was still 30%, and several years ago, two of its consultants pointed to “The Inconvenient Truth About Change Management: Why it isn’t working and what to do about it.”

With this record as a backdrop, I was fascinated with the commentary about Duff McDonald’s new book on McKinsey. The author explores “the remarkable… disconnect between the advice McKinsey offers and the ultimate results.” The list of bad advice is startling. So are observers too quick to blame a company for a failed initiative or strategy, as though the vente toboggan aquatique gonflable data, facts and logic behind a strategy or deal tell the entire story? A client’s inability to convince others to act on a final plan is just one of many factors that fuel bad outcomes.

A consultancy needs to keep ahead of change and make the most of a client’s strengths while bringing forth fresh ideas, new behaviors and insights. They should be engaged to add value and do what the company can’t do alone. Their advice should help the client avoid the missteps that lead to bad decisions and botch implementations. I’d push expectations even higher: consultants need to inspire innovative, but “doable” recommendations and plans.

Broad-based innovation is one of the most important drivers of growth today. But it won’t happen unless clients are able to think differently and honestly about their businesses, their M.O. and their leadership. Companies can’t lock into a model for success when the environment is radically changing, or the consumer is moving to a different place. A consultant that gets the client to reimagine or invigorate a business, even to include ideas that were once off the table, has a valuable and much needed skill set.

What makes these consultants uniquely effective?

They ask the right questions, for example: Are the big ideas big enough, and supported by the right data? Are clients so afraid of risk that they are overlooking some of the most promising opportunities of the century? Are they stuck in their own story? Are they afraid to deal with the currents and truths that are blocking results?

They listen, ask, and then listen more. In the creating strategy and the solutions, they look for the missing pieces, connect the dots, and spot connections that create new options. They are able to present alternatives, backed by facts and logic, in a way that the client will hear and engage. They suggest ways to leverage emerging trends and needs, even if the client is inclined to stay the course.

They encourage clients to develop new collaborative efforts inside and out – to save development time and create the discipline to invest in their own ideas with greater confidence. They understand how connections beyond stakeholders can open doors and spark new partnerships.

They seek information and opinions from a wide group that goes beyond the “inner circle” of top executives and cuts across generations and levels.

They think broadly even if the client doesn’t; they know that in a complex, unpredictable world, no one problem can be considered or solved in isolation. While a client asks for a study that targets a single function, product, or problem, context matters. Casting a wider net catches the critical insights and the intriguing ideas beyond the client’s usual line of vision.

They view each business from all relevant perspectives, which means taking a global view, looking outward considering critical constituents, competitive activity, customers, and technology, as well as inward including infrastructure, capabilities and capacity.

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My research shows that innovative business leaders know that actions designed to make their current businesses marginally better aren’t enough in today’s markets. They understand the importance of speed and creating a strong sense of urgency. They have a “ruthless” focus on people and their cultures that is hardly typical today. These leaders need consultants who can think big but create proposals that work. I’ll continue to explore this new breed of consultant in a future blog.

With New Realities, Come New Rules in Business

The New Normal has morphed to include consequential elements of a “stable disequilibrium.” Be sure to stay close to the market realities and understand the probable scenarios, says Mohammed El-Erian, CEO of PIMCO, who coined the idea of the New Normal following the Financial Crisis of 2008.

Stable disequilibrium sounds pretty heavy to me, and thinking about the consequences of continuing disequilibrium is an unsettling thought. But there is a new reality in managing investments and businesses.

PIMCO’s CEO warns that to navigate with any success in the current environment, investors need to shift away from conventional views, solutions vente parcours obstacle gonflable and practices; they must deal with outdated assumptions, strategies and benchmarks. Every business leader needs to take this warning seriously.

The New Rules

Amid economic uncertainty and an environment of transformative change, expect to see an acceleration of non-traditional business strategies, career moves, and innovative ecosystems. Success requires speed, collaboration, innovation, engagement, and a business culture that motivates everyone. While six percent of the U.S. workforce was categorized as freelance in 1990, the number is now 20 to 30 percent.

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We’ll see less focus on Ivy League degrees, and more attention to personal capabilities and passions, and doing “good.” And despite populist talk about corporate greed and heavily compensated CEOs, there will be a greater appreciation for the leaders and leadership throughout the private sector. Well-defined career ladders and rigid hierarchies are becoming passé. In just a few years, your businesses or products could be dramatically different requiring different mindsets, skills and relationships.

This flexibility and forward thinking were rare 10 years ago. The CEO of a Fortune 10 company told me that he was deeply concerned that his marketing heads were promoting a woman in marketing research into a coveted position in marketing. The decision shattered a long-standing intentional division between two silos – the geeks in research and marketing strategists/business leaders with P&L responsibility. Now with a chance to cross the line, this new leader would be a contender for president of a major operating division, if successful.

It’s a very risky move, he said. But his discomfort was more about the woman’s age than her capability to do the job or her femininity. She was already 37, and in an up-or-out company, how could she compete with men in comparable jobs who were five to seven years her junior? “While it might be an altruistic decision, our management is doing her a disservice.”

Well the research geek adjusted to her new environment and performed extremely well. Of course this should be a silly conversation today. The thinking and rules are different; many of the conventions and biases of “yester-year” are no longer relevant. But too many businesses are still relying on outmoded assumptions, solutions and practices. Their strategies – business, human capital or otherwise – aren’t worth their investment in the graphics used to showcase their grand plans.

Then there’s the issue of doing good. It’s so important that Havas’ CEO David Jones says, “If you don’t have honorable motivations for doing good, at least do it to avoid getting taken down, because at a time when social media has broken down any last walls between brands and corporations and consumers, bad practices have nowhere to hide. So the new rules for marketing, he said, are the same as the rules for social media: transparency, authenticity and speed.”

Today we need and expect a flexible, more open CEO. The old stereotypes and mental models are getting creaky and creepy. The story of David Karp, CEO of Tumblr is one example. Karp never graduated from high school, yet alone Harvard – dropping out “to live his passion, which was all things computers,” says his mother. Now thanks to the Tumblr/Yahoo deal, he’s almost a billionaire. Another refreshing insight: Karp is an introvert, and doesn’t try to hide it. But it’s conventional wisdom that most leaders are extraverts.

Focused, innovative organizations are not built around pep talks and spin. When people are skeptical or disengaged, they often feel powerless. They are probably operating outside the circle where decisions are made; constrained or underutilized because of the rules or culture. Disengaged employees can also be on autopilot, getting the work done – with little insight into why, what’s involved, and afraid to suggest an alternative or to ask, “Is this approach the best way forward?”

Your teams are more likely to “lean into the business” when they feel ownership for decisions, future strategies and plans. Ask yourself if the optics of leadership are helping or hurting morale in your business. We’ve seen skeptical, even dysfunctional, organizations rebound quickly once employees and managers have access to critical information and are able to engage in an honest dialogue with members of the leadership team.

 

A Shoutout to Dave Cote

Unified, innovating and thriving, Honeywell is riding some of the biggest global trends thanks to its unconventional, forward-thinking leader.

Dave Cote, chairman and CEO of Honeywell, is one of the best leaders in business, running one of the best-managed companies. In 2002, he was recruited to vente jeux gonflables spearhead a major turnaround of a dysfunctional, hobbled organization. None of the three CEOs in the four years before him could fix it; on Wall Street, there were no believers. Read more on the Wharton Magazine site.

No Middle Ground for Change

Corporate executives can either take ownership of emerging trends or risk irrelevancy.

Driving innovation and change is no longer optional. Do you know how to do it? In real life, you scramble to manage the day-to-day much less create the next vente aire de jeux gonflable big thing. Fortunately, creating change is a competency. It’s complex—involving mindsets, skill sets, culture, partnerships and collaboration—and it can be mastered.

Read entire post on Wharton Magazine Online.

 

NEWS

Great journalism at Univision, Exciting Breakthroughs at BMW, NFL Quarterbacks Master “Gibberish.” Plus The New Ruthless is featured in the fall issue of the Wharton Magazine.

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Univision’s “tell it like it is” reporting:  Their news and special programs are so worthwhile, many analysts believe they should be translated for Americans who don’t speak Spanish. Bloggers report that in separate pre-election candidate interviews, co-moderator Jorge Ramos asked President Obama some of the toughest questions of his campaign. Univision is also cited for its serious investigative reporting on Fast & Furious.

Getting to Iconic:  From Ultimate to Iconic in 60 Seconds asserts that BMW wants iconic; that could be the single best strategy to thrive vente parc aquatique gonflable today. Now the car maker is ready to move laser lighting from the lab onto the road – a decision that will transform headlamps and completely open up the possibilities of front-end design.

Change at the NFL: Technology continues to change the fans’ experience and the way the game is played. With new TV audio (starting guards or centers are required to wear a mic), the world and the defense can hear the chatter clearly. The result: quarterbacks now speak gibberish to camouflage the plays.

The substance behind charisma: LaserBeam’s Sharon Terry explores the importance of charisma and suggests how to keep the sizzle in your message in The Charisma Debate.

Reinventing Leadership: Change looms over the corner office and every cranny of the business. That’s why I wrote The New Ruthless – about the leaders who are changing mindsets and agendas in modern businesses and building dynamic companies.

What Makes a Formidable Innovator?

Does an unstoppable innovation company simply sell ahead-of-the-herd products that give customers exactly what they want? No doubt, Apple is one of the most innovative companies of the century. Their superior products command premium prices from the stickiest customers imaginable. But head-of-the-curve products regularly appear in the market, only to be one or several-hit wonders.

So what makes a company a formidable innovator capable of transforming industries and consumer behavior? I can think of several things, largely invisible to the naked eye.

1.  A company’s strategy successfully moves the business and consumer to another place and gets people to think and act differently.

Steve Jobs made Apple great by moving beyond computers and deciding that Apple would sell the public something they didn’t know they wanted. The parc gonflable innovative thinking behind the new devices allowed Apple to invent new markets and up-end industries.

The combined iPod, phone and Internet connector called the iPhone changed consumer behavior and captured the attention of the business world. I remember watching the traders on CNBC’s Fast Money ridicule the new phone on its launch day, 2007.  These same market strategists soon became believers.

Then with the iPad, Apple penetrated the barriers of established markets, including stodgy law firms and financial institutions. This newest device intrigued the business world by engaging entirely new consumer segments, educators, the medical community, Gen Y – even the parents of children with severe forms of autism (see 60 Minutes). Consumers discovered they could do things they never did before, and marketers jumped to make digital media part of their consumer and in-store strategies.

Bloomberg Businessweek said in late March, “The iPad was at once familiar [to iPhone users] and radically new to consumers – an instant hit.” It was a huge game-changer. Tech observers predict that the tablet could overcome the PC “as consumer tech’s center of gravity” as competitors rushed to redefine their offerings, add features, and create new partnerships.

Apple proves it’s a formidable innovator every time its products strengthen or build the capabilities and competencies of consumers, businesses and universities. Its specialists have worked with prominent media companies to develop marketing innovations to support their franchises. Independent developers (a burgeoning industry) have created over 600,000 apps for the iPhone (plus another 500,000 for Android phones). “Boundary-less” has moved beyond theory to the real world as silos, language barriers and technical hurdles are torn away.

2.  The business’ culture bolsters and sustains innovation.

So-called innovative companies are everywhere, though many can’t sustain their markets and ultimately go away or play a diminished role. The business culture needs to drive innovation if a company wants to be a formidable innovator – and that starts with the mindset and behaviors of the business’ leaders. Apple came up with the iPod, not Sony.

In 2005, Motorola took the market by storm with the RAZR, but couldn’t duplicate its success in a quickly changing market. They stopped innovating following the sudden death of CMO Geoffrey Frost, [called the father of the RAZR and an iconic marketer], and failed to invest in the next big wave of groundbreaking consumer devices. CEO Ed Zander is said to have abandoned Frost’s mission and his distinct culture for growth in which the marketing and technical development teams thrived.

That hasn’t happened to Apple – not yet. CEO Tim Cook acknowledges that Innovation is their focus and their culture fuels it. For Cook, his company’s culture is “so unique and special” that he’s committed to work hard and keep it that way.

3.  Leaders have big ambitions for change even when their markets look challenged or sleepy.

There are leaders who can find a different angle, a way to create a more unique customer experience, to rethink what’s possible amid the most entrenched or difficult environments. Look at Kohler and Ikea, for example, when each was confronted with the Great Recession.

In 2008, Kohler moved quickly to counter a declining U.S. market – they cut production at domestic factories by 30% to build the export business and altered the product line to capture the Chinese market, especially the top end. A priority product was the Numi, a robotic toilet that sells for $6,400 to consumers who are obviously looking for more than utility in a plumbing fixture. Expensive but luxurious, the consumer enjoys leg-warming porcelain, music, special lighting, motion detectors and three bidets. In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that half the revenues came from China.

But Ikea took a different course – to restructure the way the business is run with the goal of continuing to improve the lives of customers while giving them lower prices each year. Managers would separate good and bad costs and use every cost reduction to build up the essentials of the business or turn the savings back to the customer in lower prices. The results were noteworthy –10% top line annual growth and stable margins in a severely challenged economy.

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A formidable innovator commands admiration, respect and wonder in the marketplace – formidable means a powerful contender, but not always the biggest. These companies sustain their position over long periods of time. At the opposite end of the innovation continuum is what John Bell, former CEO of Jacobs Suchard, calls the Hustlers: companies that make incremental changes – tweak after tweak, easy to copy.

Figure out what’s right for your business. But weigh the costs and benefits of the path you choose.

BMW

From "Ultimate" to "Iconic" in 60 Seconds?

Talk about drive.

In its ad push for 2012, BMW is trying to accelerate its image beyond the “ultimate” in “ultimate driving machine.” The company wants to sell car buyers (and investors, employees and the public) on the idea that one of the world’s top brands means more than you think, and more than a road experience.

As a loyal Bimmer driver, I’m ready to believe. And as I look around me, I see that Bimmer fanatics are ready to genuflect.

But believe what? What car brand needs to promise—and deliver—more than great engineering, speed, safety, major fun factor—not to mention the status medallion?

As a leadership and strategy consultant, here’s my answer:  BMW wants iconic. I haven’t seen them use the word, but I rank “let’s get to iconic”—ambition plus execution—as the single best strategy to survive and thrive right now. And I read iconic when they say: There’s nothing like owning a BMW. Or when Ian Robertson, BMW’s sales and marketing chief, talks about transforming the automotive retail experience or setting new standards for dynamic performance.

We know iconic when we see it: the Beatles, the Oreo, and the U.S. Constitution. 

It means creating and keeping a reputation that’s near bulletproof. And it means capturing the market with product after product (or service or invention) that proves it. An iconic company isn’t just “Best in Class.” It defines best in class before others even start looking for it.

If that was never easy, it’s harder now. It’s the rare company—or CEO—that can settle into a Blue Chip slot in the DJ 30 and assume a lifetime membership. The Dow 30 might not even be the club you want to join these days. In this economy, old icons (Kodak) and new (Avon, RIM) can be booted off anybody’s short list in no time.

That’s why my first advice to leaders, even those who are already thinking big and innovative, is to sit down and unpack the idea of iconic, then apply it where it counts, inside the organization and what you and your organization do on the outside with consumers, investors, policy makers, the community and people who have no obvious stake in your business.

Meanwhile, check out this CNBC documentary on BMW.

Let me know, what company now strikes you as iconic?

It Never Hurts to Ask Everyone

What do a business author, a financial journalist, a medical illustrator, and a software architect have in common? If I said advice on innovation, would it surprise you?

Practically Radical, William C. Taylor’s latest book, is a wonderful thought provoker, full of stories of companies and their leaders who take a novel approach to improve profits and create new enterprises. One of Taylor’s main concepts addresses the idea of engaging customers and in some cases any interested persons for ideas for new products, solutions to business and technical problems and even product design. Although companies are constantly receiving feedback from customers, Taylor encourages readers to reach beyond customers – and well beyond the responsible employee group – to track, value and encourage participation from the human race.

This is very reminiscent of the data presented by financial journalist James Surowiecki in The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations. Surowiecki asserts that ideas submitted by a wide range of people are better and more innovative than those of a single individual or an ongoing committee.

Software architect Blaise Aguera y Arcas illustrates the power of collective intelligence in his demo of the Photosynth project. Photosynth technology takes Flicker photographs, which include partial images (e.g., of a structure or landscape) submitted by anyone, anywhere and intelligently combines the partial images of a subject (e.g., the Eiffel Tower) to create a perfect image of the complete structure for all to use and enjoy. This convergence of independent images to create a whole may lead to new discoveries, connections or historical revelations drawn from the wider audience that the picture now reaches. See the TED Talk, Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos Photosynth.

In the same vein, in the well-known TED talk, David Bolinsky Animates a Cell, Bolinsky, a medical illustrator and animator, explains that he took on a project for Harvard to animate a cell in an enlarged movie format to unveil the amazing activity that goes on in these complex metropolises called our cells. “Cells work to help our bodies – huge entities that they will never see – function properly,” he says.

If we think of each individual as a cell, we can extend that thought to say that each of us is ultimately working to make this world function better, even if we don’t realize the part we play. As in the Photosynth project, the contributors don’t necessarily know about the end product that’s being created. This concept is proven in Taylor’s Practically Radical. Over and over, he provides instances where contributors, unrelated to the business’ reward system, offer profitable ideas for improvements.

4 Ways to Get to Your Best Solutions

So how can your business achieve benefit from the arguably infinite number of ideas in the collective intelligence? Here are 4 ideas:

1.  Expand the decision process and encourage diverse opinions when developing your business vision, strategies and product plans.

2.  Create a structured system to evaluate options and put ideas into action.

3.  Restructure your reward and recognition systems: no leader or business unit should feel it has to come up with the answer alone. To assess performance, focus on business results (instead of the source of innovation) to encourage everyone to accept others’ ideas.

4.  Develop a recognition program for submitting ideas so business units seek a wide range of ideas and encourage active participation.

The best strategies and initiatives are developed with extensive input and participation, tapping into the intelligence of many. As I advise clients, it never hurts to ask everyone.

Sharon Terry, Director of Strategic Initiatives at LaserBeam Consulting, helps executives unleash their own and their business’ full potential, allowing them to amaze their customers, leapfrog competitors and grow rapidly.

The New Ruthless

How Today's CEOs Make it Happen

Few CEOs today would admit to being “ruthless,” let alone brag about it. But plenty of chief executives at major companies big and small are still operating like the old-school, holding power close, and playing to a tight group of constituents.

The classically “ruthless” leader is a take-no-prisoner competitor, a damn-the-torpedoes deal-maker, a scorched-earth cost-cutter, a crony capitalist, maybe even a push-the-ethical-envelope negotiator. With all that power in his hands, he leads from the top by saying “Get it done.”

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If this sounds like you, stop now. When success requires innovation, speed, collaboration, flexibility and a business culture that motivates everyone, the old command and control approach to getting things done doesn’t work and may even be dangerous. Former Pfizer chief Jeffrey Kindler’s taste for confrontational interrogation—rather than careful listening and constructive dialogue—didn’t help him fill his company’s drug pipeline. Carol Bartz’s bluster and proclamations couldn’t turn Yahoo around or satisfy investors.

True, no business leader can fail to be tough, or decisive, or gutsy. But those who keep the top jobs and build dynamic, growing companies—Laura Desmond of Starcom/MediaVest, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, Irene Rosenfeld of Kraft—practice a different kind of “ruthless” from those who fall away or watch their careers and companies implode. These new leaders demonstrate passion for transformation, insisting that they and their companies be ruthlessly open to change.

I have become an advocate of the “new ruthless.” Here’s what it looks like:

Ruthless Honesty
Be ruthlessly honest—especially with yourself—and expect your team to do the same. When the world moved more slowly, it wasn’t as costly to waste time dancing around a topic or calling for another round of meetings. Today, you need an uninhibited exchange of ideas to get to the right answers, and candid feedback from all corners to avoid missing a change or making the wrong move. When I hear a leadership team, in private, trash parts of their company’s business strategy or predict disaster for a new initiative, and I don’t see them raise their criticisms with the CEO, I know there is a problem. If you want positive change, you need the unvarnished facts.

Candor doesn’t exclude diplomacy or compassion. But without transparency and open communication, organizations are operating in the dark. Time and energy can be diverted into politicking, and the focus on business slips. A leader who is honest himself, and displays it, also signals that she or he is confident. That’s the right kind of tough in a world overwhelmed with information and choice.

Ruthless Focus
Jack Keenan has tripled revenues and profits in every business he worked for. He tells me his mantra is “ruthless focus.” Keenan is the founder and CEO of Grand Cru Consulting Ltd. in the U.K., former chief of the business now known as Diageo Plc. and former Kraft International chairman and CEO. First, he says, you do the hard strategic work and begin to set priorities. “You ought to be able to say, ‘these four or five things will achieve our aggressive growth strategies. We need to structure the business and align our resources to focus on these’.” While it may sound easy, Keenan’s approach requires difficult decisions, a keen eye on consumer and financial data, and commitment to get the strategies and execution right every time.

Ruthless focus does not mean a narrow focus, Keenan adds. Virtually all companies today need to think global and local simultaneously. As industries and technology strip away the usual boundaries, leaders have to be alert to everything—all the more reason to know where you are going and how to distinguish between a distraction and a crucial new development.

Ruthless Flexibility
Focus and flexibility are two sides of the same valuable coin. Being open to challenges, to what’s new or different, is essential to any company that wants to be competitive, let alone transformative. Consumers and employees, especially the younger generations of both, are used to rapid change and expect to be heard.

Leaders who are truly flexible, and reveal it, are able create a culture in which adaptability and openness are valued. That helps them attract and keep the best talent. They are successful only when they have leaders who think the same way about innovation, collaboration, and all the different forces that affect their business. Businesses that resist change often wait until they’re on the brink to take seriously how much has changed.

Those with long histories are particularly vulnerable—think Kodak— but so are much younger companies, such as BlackBerry maker RIM. Whatever the company’s history and success, ruthless flexibility demands that you not get stuck in your own story. Respect tradition only if it continues to work. “Scale and power do not give you a right to succeed in the future,” says Laura Desmond of StarCom/MediaVest. Becoming a dinosaur can happen overnight. When I see companies falter, it is often because their leaders are locked into a model for success even as it becomes obsolete.

Ruthless about People
The classically ruthless leader has little patience for the softer side of business. The new ruthless leader is an excellent partner and collaborator. He or she insists on having the best people and creating a culture that supports their mission. Finding the right person for every leadership job becomes a priority. These new leaders need to be at every level in every business unit if real growth is to happen.

The challenge to each individual is clear even in businesses and industries where the primary task is to see and anticipate trends. Last October, Advertising Age identified at least eight major CEO changes in the top agency networks within the prior 18 months because of the changing demands of the business. This turnover is especially significant since there are only “about a dozen big media networks in total.” The traditional CEO, once a rainmaker, is being replaced with business and digital strategists who can ride the trends, innovate and grow enduring companies.

And one of the best ways for CEOs to stay ahead is to move outside their usual circles of colleagues and stakeholders. To anticipate and respond to new opportunities and new risks, you need to be involved, informally and in partnerships, with smart people who may have no obvious stake in your business. Many CEOs are taking hands-on personal roles in responding to environmental, policy and social trends. In August, Starbuck’s Schultz, for example, got 140 CEOs to sign a petition threatening to withhold campaign contributions to incumbents until Washington put the people’s interests above politics. Schultz’s focus is creating jobs. He has received a groundswell of public support, is now in conversations with leaders such as Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy, and has elevated his role as a business leader.

As CEOs’ roles get more complex, they must share or delegate important or urgent missions. Leaders have to insist on hiring and supporting people who can go beyond the business’ normal field of vision, just as they do, and then create mutual trust and confidence with them. People need to see, hear, feel, and touch the CEO’s commitment to honesty, focus and flexibility, in concrete ways.

Powerful cultures and great results are all about the behavior of leaders. The leaders who succeed today are those who understand the new ruthless.

Roslyn Courtney, president and CEO of LaserBeam Consulting, works globally with top executives who believe that leadership and innovation are the forces that drive success in our rapidly changing environment.