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CULTIVATING “INTREPRENEURIAL” THINKING IS A NEW IMPERATIVE. Gone are the days when large, long-established companies could count on deeply ingrained processes vetted over time to carry them into the future. Yet that is exactly what most large organizations do, noted Michael Arena, chief talent officer at General Motors. “We grow up these enormous entities, we lock them in, we structure them, we build processes, rigor and procedures,” he said. “And then ultimately, we cannot respond when the market dictates it.” (For more from Michael Arena, see page 72.) Hoping to maintain a competitive edge with incremental improvements is a dangerous game these days, agreed Alan Masarek, CEO of Vonage. “Leaders used to be able to see a competitive threat 10 years out, but today you can’t see where it will come from. It could be three guys and a dog that give you a competitive problem. So we just have to run these companies in a more agile, innovative way.” The concept of continual innovation works for Sydney Finkelstein, professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business and author of Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent. “To create a company whose entire purpose is to survive is not exactly an exciting idea,” he said. “I think a more powerful metaphor is ‘built to change.’” Finkelstein noted that leaders who excel at developing talent—superbosses—are those who seek out ways to energize, motivate and unleash the creativity of employees. Kadri sees encouraging millennial employees to pilot new ideas as a way to evolve. “The millennials want to take risks and we need that,” she said. “We need to adapt. It’s up to us to unlearn and relearn and adapt to them rather than the other way around.” Yet, encouraging innovation, and the risks it invariably entails, can be difficult for companies like P&G, noted CEO David Taylor, who added that
freeing employees to think and act like entrepreneurs represents a huge shift for a $76 billion global company. Once a process is well-established, a company—and, by extension, its employees—loses the capacity for change, behavior Taylor likens to that of a circus elephant. “Sometimes a chained elephant will fight the chain for a while, but then, if you cut the chain, he will still stay within that circle,” he explains. “If you have processes that encumber people for an extended period of time, then when you change the process they’re like that elephant— nothing changes.” To overcome the self-imposed confinement P&G was exhibiting when Taylor took the helm a year ago, he began traveling the globe to work directly with people on the front lines in the markets P&G serves. Visiting more than 20 countries in 12 months, Taylor spent time in the company’s plants and with junior employees out in the field. “When I fly to Russia, all the
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people between me and the junior person I meet with in the plant won’t be there—that’s the best way to get a real feel for the business, through the tone and directness of the individuals,” he said. “Part of what leaders have to do is not get overwhelmed by their title and experience and instead recognize that those closest to the consumer and the plants have the insights you need to really make the best decisions.” A 36-year veteran of the company, Taylor is convinced that it’s only by proactively nudging employees to question and challenge existing processes and share their ideas freely that a large company like P&G can become more agile and innovative. “We ask people, ‘If you owned the company what would you do?’” he explained. “‘If you started this business across the street, would you do things this way?’ As a leader you have to create the environment that gives people the courage to step out and make the future different than the past.”