Leading change, skill over style

When is the best time to lead change? Since the only constant is change, the answer is: anytime. Regardless of whether the company is lucky or proud, change must be at the top of the work agenda.

Naturally, companies whose sales, market share or profits are declining are more in need of change.

However, even when business is going well, business leaders still need to lead the change in their business to continue their success, or more specifically, to develop the next generation of leaders.

Businesses that have been high achievers for years need to be most cautious. Success also comes with danger, because success hides problems that, if not addressed in time, create greater difficulties in the future.

However, it is also a well-known fact that two-thirds of changes fail. Many managers therefore ask: So, what leadership style drives the third of successful changes?

The question itself is wrong. The experiences of the three leaders below demonstrate that leadership skills are more important than leadership styles, especially in times of change.

The leadership styles of the three CEOs are very different — either belligerent, restrained, suave, or offensive.

But their similarities are more telling than their differences. These CEOs relied on the following skills to lead change: establishing a vision, communicating, setting ambitious but achievable goals, keeping the organization focused on business fundamentals, an extroverted perspective, and ensuring that the corporate culture adapts to the change, if the corporate culture If you don't adapt to change, reform the culture.

Zander: The Culture of Reform

At the paradisiacally glamorous Ritz-Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, Ed Zander was giving a difficult presentation to a group of financial analysts while his audience Makes his speech even more difficult. Sand was the COO of Sun Microsystems at the time. Instead of sympathy, the audience defied him as he analyzed the increasingly difficult business environment. "When did you resign?" one of them asked.

Sander, known for being stubborn, replied, "I'll leave if I have any more questions like this." A few minutes later, he kept his promise and left the venue.

A few months later, Sander left Sun to take over as Motorola's CEO. Many observers believe that Sander is just out of the wolf's den and into the tiger's den.

Motorola at the time was the face of the wrong business. Motorola was once the leader in the mobile phone market and a pioneer in many breakthrough technologies such as walkie-talkies, semiconductors and wireless phones.

However, Motorola lost its market leadership by failing to capitalize on the rapid growth of the late 20th and early 21st century. Until 2003, Motorola's performance still showed that it had not learned to read the market correctly: it again missed the opportunity of rising demand for color-screen phones and camera phones.

"Three or four years ago, people couldn't believe that Motorola would be a stable company," concluded market analyst Sean M. Greely.

In January 2004, Sander's first day as CEO of Motorola came to an end. Sitting in his office, he felt the pressure of the company's previous failures and all the problems that led to them. He moved from sunny Silicon Valley to Chicago, and it took a while to adjust to the new environment.

In an interview, Sand said his lavishly, conservatively furnished office appeared to be the embodiment of Motorola's culture of privilege and hierarchy, and his mission was to destroy that culture—a task he seemed unable to take on. "I just remember the dark, cold nights outside the window, it was daunting," he recalls. "I didn't know anyone. I didn't know who to trust and who to not trust; who was my own and who wasn't."

Time jump to two years later. Those cold, dark days are now a distant memory, replaced by the bright light of success and today's roaring applause from cynic market analysts a few years ago: Sander was named "CEO of the Year."

Today's Motorola has become a shining example of doing things right under Sander's leadership. In particular, Sander demonstrated his skills for leading change: injecting new business practices to refocus employees on customers; rooting out bureaucracy and integrating business units to restructure the business; and overhauling outdated corporate cultures. In addition, Motorola has developed a hit product that represents its revival, the extremely popular Razr phone.

Now, Motorola's benefits are as sharp as their sharp phones. For the first time in nearly 10 years, Motorola has controlled more than 20% of the global mobile phone market. Motorola's annual revenue rose more than 36 percent between Sander's first day in office and the end of last year. Net income increased more than 4 times over the same period.

Admittedly, some cost-cutting measures implemented by Sander's predecessor, Christopher Galvin, also contributed to the increase in profits. In addition, the previous management team has also done a lot of restructuring. Galvin has cut the company's 150,000-strong workforce to 90,000. Finally, Sander has also benefited from a worldwide surge in mobile phone sales.

However, Sander undoubtedly made the most of these opportunities.

Without needing to restructure the company at scale, Sander spent the first few months of his tenure on customers and employees, ensuring that employees were customer-centric. “I spend a lot of time on the ground with customers and making sure our people understand that customer satisfaction comes first,” Sand said.

Pat Canavan, who has worked at Motorola for 25 years and advised the board of directors on corporate governance, said, "Sand brings three things to Motorola. First, we have to come together and work together. Second, It's all about the customer. Third, the best decisions come from active debate."

In other words, Sander ensures that the fundamentals of management are executed. To help employees achieve customer satisfaction goals, he breaks down the barriers that separate employees from top management. He encourages employees to come up with their own ideas and builds the confidence to debate with management for ideas to be implemented. To encourage managers to be open to ideas that might improve the company's bottom line, he tied managers' bonuses to the success of the company as a whole.

Sand also broke down the barriers that kept departments separate from each other. Motorola's diverse businesses include mobile handsets, wireless networking, automotive technology, government services and home entertainment equipment. These business units can no longer go their separate ways like independent kingdoms. The breaking down of internal barriers simplifies the product development process and shortens the time to market.

When it comes to products, there's nothing better to represent the brand-new Motorola than the Fantastic Phone. Some market analysts even believe that Sander's most sensible move is to make the Fengli Motorola's flagship product, accompanied by large-scale advertising. Fengli's victory is also due to a rare oversight by market leader Nokia: Nokia's failure to acknowledge the market's trend toward thin and light foldable phones. To date, Motorola has sold more than 50 million Fengli phones.

However, Sander's biggest sales job is inside sales—how to get Motorola's executives and employees to embrace the new culture.

The old Motorola culture gave execs very generous stipends that protected their interests. And the morale of the company's employees is low. Sander overhauled both aspects of the company's culture. He would interrupt managers' presentations and ask them to get straight to the point. He would stop employees in the aisle to talk to them. For someone who confesses that he is shy and introverted, these actions are not easy.

One can look through Sander's personality to see someone who just wants to sell a product and make things work. Now, observers say, Motorola, like their CEO, has shown a determination to win and a willingness to work hard to win.

“Sander is an example of leadership that represents focus, execution, and vision,” said Patricia Sueltz, a former colleague of Sander and now CEO of SurfControl PLC.

Despite his achievements, Sander must face remaining challenges. These challenges show that in addition to the constant change, there are also harsh words directed at him. The words of James Schrager, a professor at the University of Chicago, reflect some analysts' perceptions of Sander: "Is Sander finally having a good luck, or is it more than luck? Whether he can successfully launch a series of Good luck, but a product worthy of its name?"

Lafley: Control Change, Control Ambition First

When AG Lafley finally reached the top after nearly three decades of hard work and took over as CEO of Procter & Gamble, he almost There is no time to celebrate. In fact, there is little to celebrate.

Procter & Gamble is one of the world's largest and most famous consumer goods companies, with operations in nearly 80 countries and more than 98,000 employees. Procter & Gamble has been doing so well for years that it surprised some when it got into trouble in the late 1990s.

P&G's bane was largely the company's mistake of ignoring core products like Ivory soap, Pampers diapers, Crest toothpaste and Tide laundry detergent. Some people say that P&G's problems are typical of large companies - how do you keep such a large company going? Since 1940, P&G has doubled its growth every ten years, and many have said that such rapid growth will inevitably slow one day.

For whatever reason, by the early 2000s, P&G's stock price continued to tumble and low-margin alerts escalated, so much so that CEO Durk Jager had to step down and be replaced by Lafley.

The personality of the new P&G leader has little in common with the strong, belligerent image of the traditional corporate savior. This personality style is more like a description of Jagger, the former CEO of P&G. Jager pushed P&G to launch multiple products at the same time, hoping to find the next multibillion-dollar brand.

Lafley's personality is diametrically opposed to Jager's, closer to a quiet, reserved, reserved scholarly style. He graduated from Hamilton College (Hamilton College) with a history major and initially planned a career as a professor. He earned a Ph.D. in Medieval and Renaissance History at the University of Virginia before serving in the U.S. Navy. During this time he found himself enjoying managing the grocery store. Lafley later said he fell in love with merchandising and enrolled at Harvard Business School to study business management.

At the age of 30, Lafley was named assistant brand manager for Joy detergent, one of P&G's strongest brands, after earning an MBA. At one point he wanted to study history, but he became a change leader in writing business history.

For Lafley, elements of successful change include a laser-like focus on the company's best brands, such as Crest, Pampers and Tide, and disciplined execution to rein in the giant's ambitions.

Lafley also took key measures such as slowing down new product development, stabilizing corporate culture and cutting costs to bring the company back to profitability, a media report said. “He realized that the most urgent thing was to get P&G back on its solid growth pillars, rather than busy building new ones. So he skillfully refocused P&G on the big brands driving P&G earnings, including Pampers, Tide and Crest."

One of Lafley's initial decisions leading the change was to admit that P&G was too big to change suddenly. That meant reining in the giant's ambitions, making tough choices and focusing on promoting a few brands.

In a speech, Lafley said, "We embraced change. Instead of trying to resist change, we chose to lead change. We started to choose -- explicitly choose what P&G will do and not do. After that, we made a series of choices, especially those that required a change in behavior to get better results.”

Lafley agrees with Lawrence Bossidy that “the key to transformation is good execution.” According to marketing expert Dale Wolf, Lafley is good at choosing strategic priorities with principle. “These are difficult choices, and no one wants to take responsibility for them because it means killing unfulfilled dreams, such as closing a product line, an office, or a factory. Admit that you can’t do it well. Something feels like a failure. But the CEO has to make these tough decisions, or the company's resources will go to waste."

Another key element of P&G's successful turnaround was Lafley's insistence on never over-promising . Lafley promises only achievable, realistic goals. He took great pains to communicate with his employees in very simple, almost kindergarten-level language, clearing the mental barriers and allowing them to focus on what matters, which is problem-solving. "Their day-to-day tasks are too complicated to find time to stop and think about it. I want my managers to think hard and consciously about which culture will win, what capabilities we need, etc."

In order to develop managers The ability to make difficult decisions independently, Lafley used leadership skills such as listening and coaching.

"Most importantly, I didn't choose an attack strategy. I kept the core of the P&G culture and pulled everyone in the same direction as me. I asked them to be part of the change, not ordered them."

In coaching , While pulling the staff forward, he strives to maintain the greatest patience. His predecessor, Jager, admitted he was too hasty in reforming at P&G. "My concern is that I'm asking P&G to change beyond the company's understanding, ability, and commitment, because that creates problems. I'm acting as a catalyst for change, an encourager, and a change management coach." Lafley Say.

However, the speed of P&G's transformation left onlookers jaw-dropping. It took Lafley just over two years to refocus P&G on its core brands like Tide, Crest, Vicks and Pampers, slowing new product development and stabilizing the corporate culture , and most importantly, reducing costs to get P&G back on track to profitability.

Lafley is busy rebuilding P&G without forgetting to nurture the next generation of P&G leaders. He is said to be hands-on in this matter. P&G has a system for selecting future CEOs. P&G's talent development system includes the names and detailed background information of more than 3,000 senior executives, and is used to select the right person for the right position. P&G sees this leadership development system as one of its hard-to-replicate competitive advantages.

In recognition of its success in transforming P&G, CNBC/Wall Street Journal presented Lafley with the "Overall Executive Leadership" award.

Today, Lafley still insists that "P&G's assets are our people and our brand." Many managers will say this, but it is often a frivolous word. Yet, from the would-be professor's mouth, the words are a mantra in business history.

Seidenberg: Take Risks, Communicate Carefully

Some leaders of change like Sand and Lafley are widely admired, while others are treated just the opposite. Seidenberg (Ivan Seidenberg) belongs to the latter. Because of his background and penchant for taking big risks, he always provokes a furious reaction from his critics.

Seidenberg is chairman of the board of directors of Verizon. In 2000, he was the joint CEO of Verizon at the beginning of its establishment, and has been the sole CEO of Verizon since April 2002.

Sedenberg has orchestrated several large-scale mergers that built his reputation as a risk-taker. He has served as CEO of NYNEX and Bell Atlantic, and has contributed to two large-scale mergers in the history of the communications industry, namely the merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX in 1997, and the merger of Bell Atlantic and General Telephone Electric (GTE) in 2000. The merger has reshaped the development process of the communication industry. Since then, Seidenberg has successfully transformed Verizon through Verizon's merger with MCI (announced in February 2005), and a mega-plan to pioneer broadband communications services to customers.

His business associates call him the Great Adventurer. At a time when many companies were lurking in a low profile due to a tumble in the telecommunications sector, Seidenberg launched a multibillion-dollar project to provide high-speed Internet service to much of the United States.

Seidenberg is one of the few well-known CEOs who truly rose from the bottom of society. He was born into a working-class family. His father was a refrigerator repairman. He himself started his career in communications 39 years ago as a cable splicer's assistant.

His difficult upbringing lives up to its name. He was wounded in the Vietnam War after enlisting in the army, and after returning home he took night classes to earn his college and MBA degrees. After working at the New York Telephone Company, he quickly rose from engineer to lobbyist to company president.

Over the course of a long struggle, Seidenberg proved his excellent interpersonal skills. One of his best techniques is said to be using his voice. It may sound odd, but that's exactly what many of his business associates say about him. "The way Seidenberg speaks makes you listen carefully," someone said of Seidenberg. "He speaks slowly, very deliberately, and pauses when he says key words, making people eager to hear the next one. Words."

Thomas E. Dooley, vice chairman of Viacom Inc. (Sedenberg is also on Viacom's board) said: "That was Seidenberg. He's really quiet and slow. I think that's because he's always thoughtful about what he's going to say."

At the meeting, Seidenberg showed his questioning skills: the questions were sharp, but Without being disconcerting and wanting to be defensive. His mates said he would go straight to the point of potential management problems, raising the issue without intimidating colleagues.

Seidenberg believes that change begins with a vision. "From day one, Verizon will be a leader in the communications industry," he declared when Verizon was founded. "We have more ways to impress customers, more money to drive growth and innovation, and more money than any company ever before. More investment in the technology of the future."

He made a big bet that high-speed Internet connections would play a major role in millions of homes and thousands of small businesses. He is convinced that being the first to offer fiber-optic network connectivity will set him apart from many telecom competitors.

His vision is firmly rooted in a viable business model. "One of the keys to surviving in a sluggish telecom market is to create economies of scale," one report said. "More customers means more revenue from services. This comes at a time when capital market tycoons are looking closely at their wallets. It is the foundation of survival. Few telecom managers know better than Denberg how to create economies of scale."

It is not easy to set a vision in a rapidly changing industry like telecommunications. Seidenberg relies on his own ability to determine the future direction of the industry. Ram Charan, a management consultant, best-selling author and adviser to Seidenberg, said the CEO has the ability to see unpredictable prospects from different angles.

Sedenberg said, "We're putting the entire digital world at the fingertips of our customers by providing a simple, easy-to-use service."

His views on employees and their contributions are equally simple. "What employees care about is whether we can give them the resources to help them serve their customers, grow their business, and pay them back when they do a good job," he said.

It's clear that Verizon employees do a great job. Verizon Wireless has an industry record number of new sign-ups, and they are the most loyal users in the industry.

Sedenberg's key leadership skills can be summed up as follows: "Vision is about fully understanding one's own value proposition, having the courage to take risks in a planned way, and using trusted colleagues to help form a mature perspective. , the next challenge is to execute and realize the vision."

The author Jet Magsaysay is the consultant of this magazine, translated by Hu Lingque.