Chapter 12 Ditching Command and Control
Top CEOs believe that the current leadership model of many traditional Western “command-and-control” businesses is destined to fail because the challenges we describe in Part I will be too overwhelming for the structure to survive.
Our research found that top chief executives believe that they must organize their businesses more organically. In the next decade many successful companies will replace command and control with more fluid and fast-moving cell-like organizations. We describe how a chief executive provides business leadership at the nucleus of the cell by giving greater freedom to act to much more decentralized operations, while still policing performance.
Our interviews also showed that most CEOs are better business leaders than personal leaders – they are generally comfortable with strategy and formulating operational plans, but are rarely good at lifting an organization, injecting pace or fresh energy. We give examples of the new leadership qualities required to maintain the faster-moving, more entrepreneurial and energetic businesses of the future.
Individual CEOs will not have all the answers and skills; even if they did, they would not have the personal bandwidth to follow up on every action required. Top chief executives will require a small team of confidants (between three to five people) at the center of the business. These extremely talented global players will have the skills required and the appetite and values to sustain a world-class company. We give some guidance on how to pull together this new fellowship of the CEO and how to get it to work in practice.
Extracted from The Secrets of CEOs, © Steve Tappin and Andy Cave, 2008
