Description
Christo Nel explores the challenge of integrating three powerful facets of long term success – Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Stewardship.
Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Stewardhsip
Christo Nel
Christo Nel explores the challenge of integrating three powerful facets of long term
success – Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Stewardship.
The concept of leadership remains one that lends itself to many definitions which
can cause confusion. Peter Drucker defined it as the art of creative destruction.
Victor Vroome defines it as exercising non-coercive influence with conscious intent,
and in ways that serve the interests of all stakeholders. Nyenrode Business University
(Netherlands) has defined its core ethos and purpose as the development of
Leadership – Entrepreneurship – Stewardship, or LES, with entrepreneurship
focusing on the pursuit of continuous innovtion and change that enhances
sustainable performance and progress.
Together this traid shifts the focus on to “the leadership and stewardship of
sustainable change and innovation.” This belief heightens the need for “creative
destruction” that needs to be applied continuously to secure the future of
organisations for generations to come. One only has to look at Nokia who a scant few
years ago led the world in mobile telephone sales and now faces the threat of
redundancy to realise that they failed on all three fronts of the LES triad.
So, what is required to ensure that the ethos of LES is fulfilled? All too often
entrepreneurship is viewed as the creation of new organisations, while stewardship
is viewed as the domain of environmental concerns that are still somewhat
peripheral to organisational demands. Within organisations a great deal of
entreprenurship is the ability to implement continuous renewal and innovation;
while stewardship is the ability to secure long term existence. As illustrated by the
current crisis at Nokia, a major challenge is to ensure the fulfillment of leadership,
entrepreneurship and stewardship.
A golden triangle of basic rules define the challenge of fulfilling all three facets of LES.
First, sustainable innovation is dependent upon the commitment and drive of people
at the most senior levels of an organisation. They need to consistently explore and
immerse themselves in situations which ensure they are aware of the possible micro
and macro shifts that may have an impact on their organisations. They then need to
use this to create and pose the critical questions to every level fo the organisation to
drive sustainable change. This includes shifts in socio-economic contexts. Second,
they need to develop the commitment of people at every level to innovation. Third,
it is necessary to pursue three levels of innovation, namely: products and services;
operations; and business models. Especially the latter is of prime importance and
generally not valued adequately.
Innovation in the area of products and services remains perhaps the most important
dimension, but without adequate focus on innovation in operations and business
models the organisation becomes unsustainable. It has become fashionable to talk
about creating an organisation of leaders. It is increasingly important to ask the
question, “How do we create organisations where people at every level are
passionate about the long term endurance of the organisation, and hence contribute
to continuous innovation at every level?” The moment we adopt this approach it
opens up a wealth of new possibilities.
Too many managers complain that more operational workers and middle managers
do not show enough initiative. Instead rather ask, “What is the nature of innovation
we desire from every level?” One of the most urgent requirements of leadership is to
pose the type of questions that unleash the knowledge and creative capabilities of
people at every elvel. Some examples illustrate this often pent up and unrealised
potential:
The MD of a manufacturing company asks truck drivers and packers in the
warehouse, “What is necessary to reduce truck loading and turnaround times from
90 minutes to 50 minutes?” As is to be expected there is initial resistance and claims
that it cannot be done. The MD persists. He shows how it would contribute to
securing the organisation’s long term viability and agrees that both truck drivers and
packers will share in the efficiency gains for the first year. Three months later truck
turnaround time is down to 45 minutes with no compromises to safety
requirements.
The general manager of a information services firm convenes a workshop for people
from information technology, sales, product development, and five major clients.
She poses the question, “How could we use our wealth of information about our
clients to develop and offer a next generation of breakthrough services?” Six months
later a new division of high quality information services is launched and three years
later it is the highest contributor to margins.
And then there is Steve Jobs. Not too long before his death he responds to a
question on how he has sustained such a remarkable track record of innovation. He
responds that he explores the areas outside the known and conventional, and there,
in the murky boundaries between disciplines he starts to see new possibilities. An
Apple employee however adds that Jobs had a remarkable ability to recognise
people with real talent and to give them opportunities to live out their dreams.
It is when we bring LES to life that we tap into the natural desire for people to be
creative and feel a sense of larger purpose. From truck drivers to scientists,
supervisors to billionaires, the triad of leadership, entrepreneurship and stewardship
has become the core differentiator for organisations. Who knows, with Apple’s
shares dropping more than 25% in less than a year we may soon be asking which of
the three LES elements were underdeveloped.
doc_175961652.pdf
Christo Nel explores the challenge of integrating three powerful facets of long term success – Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Stewardship.
Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Stewardhsip
Christo Nel
Christo Nel explores the challenge of integrating three powerful facets of long term
success – Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Stewardship.
The concept of leadership remains one that lends itself to many definitions which
can cause confusion. Peter Drucker defined it as the art of creative destruction.
Victor Vroome defines it as exercising non-coercive influence with conscious intent,
and in ways that serve the interests of all stakeholders. Nyenrode Business University
(Netherlands) has defined its core ethos and purpose as the development of
Leadership – Entrepreneurship – Stewardship, or LES, with entrepreneurship
focusing on the pursuit of continuous innovtion and change that enhances
sustainable performance and progress.
Together this traid shifts the focus on to “the leadership and stewardship of
sustainable change and innovation.” This belief heightens the need for “creative
destruction” that needs to be applied continuously to secure the future of
organisations for generations to come. One only has to look at Nokia who a scant few
years ago led the world in mobile telephone sales and now faces the threat of
redundancy to realise that they failed on all three fronts of the LES triad.
So, what is required to ensure that the ethos of LES is fulfilled? All too often
entrepreneurship is viewed as the creation of new organisations, while stewardship
is viewed as the domain of environmental concerns that are still somewhat
peripheral to organisational demands. Within organisations a great deal of
entreprenurship is the ability to implement continuous renewal and innovation;
while stewardship is the ability to secure long term existence. As illustrated by the
current crisis at Nokia, a major challenge is to ensure the fulfillment of leadership,
entrepreneurship and stewardship.
A golden triangle of basic rules define the challenge of fulfilling all three facets of LES.
First, sustainable innovation is dependent upon the commitment and drive of people
at the most senior levels of an organisation. They need to consistently explore and
immerse themselves in situations which ensure they are aware of the possible micro
and macro shifts that may have an impact on their organisations. They then need to
use this to create and pose the critical questions to every level fo the organisation to
drive sustainable change. This includes shifts in socio-economic contexts. Second,
they need to develop the commitment of people at every level to innovation. Third,
it is necessary to pursue three levels of innovation, namely: products and services;
operations; and business models. Especially the latter is of prime importance and
generally not valued adequately.
Innovation in the area of products and services remains perhaps the most important
dimension, but without adequate focus on innovation in operations and business
models the organisation becomes unsustainable. It has become fashionable to talk
about creating an organisation of leaders. It is increasingly important to ask the
question, “How do we create organisations where people at every level are
passionate about the long term endurance of the organisation, and hence contribute
to continuous innovation at every level?” The moment we adopt this approach it
opens up a wealth of new possibilities.
Too many managers complain that more operational workers and middle managers
do not show enough initiative. Instead rather ask, “What is the nature of innovation
we desire from every level?” One of the most urgent requirements of leadership is to
pose the type of questions that unleash the knowledge and creative capabilities of
people at every elvel. Some examples illustrate this often pent up and unrealised
potential:
The MD of a manufacturing company asks truck drivers and packers in the
warehouse, “What is necessary to reduce truck loading and turnaround times from
90 minutes to 50 minutes?” As is to be expected there is initial resistance and claims
that it cannot be done. The MD persists. He shows how it would contribute to
securing the organisation’s long term viability and agrees that both truck drivers and
packers will share in the efficiency gains for the first year. Three months later truck
turnaround time is down to 45 minutes with no compromises to safety
requirements.
The general manager of a information services firm convenes a workshop for people
from information technology, sales, product development, and five major clients.
She poses the question, “How could we use our wealth of information about our
clients to develop and offer a next generation of breakthrough services?” Six months
later a new division of high quality information services is launched and three years
later it is the highest contributor to margins.
And then there is Steve Jobs. Not too long before his death he responds to a
question on how he has sustained such a remarkable track record of innovation. He
responds that he explores the areas outside the known and conventional, and there,
in the murky boundaries between disciplines he starts to see new possibilities. An
Apple employee however adds that Jobs had a remarkable ability to recognise
people with real talent and to give them opportunities to live out their dreams.
It is when we bring LES to life that we tap into the natural desire for people to be
creative and feel a sense of larger purpose. From truck drivers to scientists,
supervisors to billionaires, the triad of leadership, entrepreneurship and stewardship
has become the core differentiator for organisations. Who knows, with Apple’s
shares dropping more than 25% in less than a year we may soon be asking which of
the three LES elements were underdeveloped.
doc_175961652.pdf