Tuesday, April 7, 2009

CEO’s: How fast can you change?

Last week, NATO World Leaders met in London to discuss the global economy. Expectations were high as the world waits for the secret answers to the economic turn-around.

Some skeptics say, “But what did they do there?” The Leaders knew they accomplished a lot. When was the last time you led a meeting with 20 people from 20 countries whom you had never met and by the way, all speak different languages?

Reports say that after three days together, these world leaders only spent 8 hours in total in meetings. So what did they achieve in the eight hours?

~~Agreed to change the rules of regulation and compliance on capitalism

~~Agreed to develop an organization to serve as a watch-dog (not a regulator) against reckless investments
~~Agreed to regulation on Executive Pay that is deemed reckless and out of sync with average company pay. For example, CEO’s who earn 500 times their employee should only earn this if they created huge new markets and great wealth for an enterprise. This level of pay should not be earned just because of a job title. For example, the case of AIG where some Executives received high bonuses even though they were leading a failing organization – we’re glad most of them returned the dough.
~~Agreed to monitor tax haven products and level the playing field for tax shelters.
~~Agreed to give One Trillion Dollars to stimulate the global economy by selling gold reserves. Did you know One Trillion is 10 to the twelfth power - That is how big one trillion dollars is!!!

President Obama called for “unprecedented coordination” to make the changes occur. From all accounts, it looks like the success of the meetings did in fact achieve this.

Fareed Zakaria of CNN had a QA to address many of these questions and more.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/03/zakaria.g20/index.html

What they did not accomplish in this three-day meeting? Was a single answer to the global economic downturn problem or a clear architecture address? No...but they are well on their way through team work, open dialogue and a will to solve it together. Sound familiar?

Since metrics are paramount to any change management effort, we can analyze consumer confidence level scores and the “market” to understand the impact of decisions coming from this meeting. The market responded favorably last week and rallied up each day the leaders met. Obama’s approval rating is high as well. Clearly, people seek confident, optimistic leaders in these times.

So how does this apply to you?
A new brand story drives strategic change. In this example, Leaders from the top 20 nations are gathered to work together to improve lives, economic stability and revitalize the world, together. This IS THE strategic shift --20 nations coming together on global issues, fast.

Similarly, as markets shift and your organization finds a need to be nimbler to compete in this economy, what are you doing to collaborate on crafting a new and more relevant brand story for your firm.

1. When was the last time you accomplished all that in eight hours?

2. What three things should a leader do to collaborate and make critical change happen, fast?

3. What are the barriers to achieving real lasting beneficial change in your organization?

Any ideas?

Let us at Airlift know. Comment on our blog.
Or you can reach us at
srosen@airliftideas.com or call us at 312.492.7772.


Source: CNN International News

1 comment:

Debbi Glade said...

Great article Shelley. This really makes us think that no matter how HUGE our economic problems are in the US, there is a way to fix them. Desperation leads to creative planning and planning leads to taking action that will hopefully lead to resolve. We can all use this on a smaller scale in our own busineses.