It is very easy to mess up as the CEO. You, as the CEO, are the person in charge with great deal of authority and responsibility to make things happen. The board looks at you for results, investors look for better dividends and rising valuation, and the team looks at you for inspiring leadership and vision. The industry and the media track your action and statements.
Career wise, you have been on a high growth trajectory. You have worked with great brands and are now a recognized brand in yourself. Still, there comes a time – when it seems as if you have messed up. Some mess up can just be taken as a part of normal existence and day-to-day business. Some turn into an embarrassing PR crisis, while others can throw your career reputation and your business’s future out of gear. It might even lead to shaken confidence of the board and the investors & your exit.
Past performance may not always predict the future. There are people who have done wonders in one business and badly messed up in another one. This is true for professional as well as entrepreneur CEOs, who have built a company from scratch and failed to steer the same at some point of time. It happens!
Is it about poor “Decision Making”?
Though some big ticket decisions are backed by the board’s approval, a CEO needs to take most of the crucial business decisions amidst lot of uncertainty. Add to it, the component of risk taking and the need to go against a lot of established practices. When you look at the number of variables involved in any decision scenario, especially in cases of a large corporate, there is always a good possibility of things going wrong.
Some of the important decisions you need to make are: decision on products, markets, customers, people, investments, capacity creation, capacity expansions, way forward considering regulatory norms and government policies, changes in global economy that are going to impact the business, etc.
Every decision has lots of variables, in forms of assumptions, projections, perceptions, provisions, and predictions, built into them. In such scenarios, you can never be sure of the outcomes. It’s a leap of faith. Any decision can back fire & the buck stops with you!
Is it about lack of innovation? That’s what they say when giants fall. A culture of innovation that keeps a tab on the need of customers, markets and future is important. As a CEO, you still need to decide on the priorities keeping in view the cash flows and availability of funds, the potential of an idea or a product.
Is it about execution? Well execution is important and integral, but that’s there when you have a definite way forward in front of you. Even the execution aspect has decision making built into it at every stage.
It all comes to the need for effective “Decision Making” as a business, as a business leader.
Three simple pointers, for re-enforcing the need for effective decision making and the need to build a strong decision support backend, as a priority for business leaders.
-
-
Ensure that your decisions are well supported by most appropriate information and a capable team that facilitates decision making & supports execution. This includes the research, analysis, business intelligence, consumer insights, market research & anything else that adds value. There still would be a need to look beyond the quality data & decision support and thrive on hunches and spontaneous optimism that enables hunger for risk taking – that’s where your experience and understanding has to add value.
-
Stay involved with your business, your people and your customers. It’s important that you never have your eyes and ears on a shutdown mode and that you personally have a feel and understanding of your market. Staying involved is about having a pulse on the business, which helps you walk towards your organisation’s vision.
-
Keep arrogance at bay. Don’t allow it to influence your decisions. You are a great guy and a highly accomplished business leader. However, it’s important to be open to new ideas, suggestions – you need a learning orientation.
-
And well, despite everything that you do, at some point or the other, things may not go as planned. Be prepared for the scenario. Next thing you need to do is stand up, find a suitable ground, start walking again, and leverage your learning from the past before you start running.
© Praveen Mishra – 2012 – 2018. Minor editing and updates on 4th August 2018.
Praveen is the Founder & Principal Consultant of KHEdge, a boutique HR & Business Process Advisory firm. Over last 15 years he has advised & worked with promoters, founders, business leaders, HR leaders in areas of - Business Strategy, HR Strategy, Organisation Design etc.
1 comment for “Did you mess up as the CEO?”