Executive Summary:

 • An organisation with a succession plan should have the capacity to ease a new manager into the role. • The soft skills and the associated people skills are those that need early focus. 

• A new manager has to learn how to be selfish by treating their time as a valuable currency; trading the currency at pre-arranged times as much as possible.

 • A new manager needs a business plan and vision of where the team is heading. • Team members need to own their own plans and are accountable.

 • Reward and recognize individuals and the team. 

The oft. neglected step in an organisation’s succession planning is an adequate preparation program for a new manager. There is a lot written about the importance of leadership and the differences between a manager and a leader. However, a reasonable and challenging first step is for an individual contributor to step up and manage a team. 

The typical characteristics of the individual contributor in their previous life are quite often one of a high performing individual and a rising star with relative independence. However, the transition to manager is contrasting in many ways. I have seen this cause much stress and consternation, and so I want to share some of the coaching points to help you ease their pain, minimize the “crash and burn” outcome as a possibility and help set them up for success in as short a period as possible.

2.1 Tightly coupled with Strategy and Values – High-Performance Sales Culture 

Executive Summary:

 • Setting up the sales culture involves the provision of a CRM, sales training and KPI dashboards.

 • The focus should be on sales process automation and effective use of sales time.

 • Referring to the strategic plan: be clear about what you are selling and what is not being sold. 

• Early communication and buy-in with sales leaders are essential. • Sales territories belong to the company, not the sales professional. 

• Conduct regular performance reviews: sales members, territories and client. In business, there are few things more energizing than stepping onto a sales floor, which has an audible buzz and a clear sense of purpose. Contemporary sales models involve increasing levels of remote working conditions and digital communication. An accomplished leader can still generate great teamwork and a focused sales effort through regular online team meetings, conference calls, a focused CRM data entry strategy and 1:1 phone reviews.

Arun is a seasoned senior executive and business leader, Arun has over four decades of working experience in banking, financial services, consulting and corporate governance. He is well regarded and recognized for his skills in Strategy Development and Execution, Change Management, Operational, Credit and Financial Markets Risk Management, Regulatory Compliance, Profit Centre and Balance Sheet Management, Team Leadership and Talent Management. 

During his successful career, he has held major responsibilities and spearheaded multidimensional roles with National Australia Bank and ANZ Bank in Australia, the Middle East, Japan, North Asia, South Asia and London.

Most recently he has been the General Manager North Asia and Hong Kong CEO for National Australia Bank where he was responsible for all aspects of the Bank’s business in North Asia including operations in Japan, China and Hong Kong. 

Before this, he was the CEO Japan ANZ Bank, where he was responsible for repositioning a 40 year plus business including changing the business model to create value by identifying and capitalising on cross border trade and investment flows. 

Currently, he is transitioning to an advisory role in Judo Bank, which is a challenger financial institution in startup mode and with a focus on SME finance.

The following questions were tackled in this episode:

Stop. 

Sit. 

Close your eyes. 

Focus on your breathing. 

Now visualize what your business looks like in 3 ~5 years. What will you be doing? What will be your business legacy? How will you measure the progress? Will you still be the owner? What is your strategic plan? Are you growing the business for the experience, challenge and reward of growing and managing a larger business?

When I ask a lot of my clients to give me the 3 ~ 5-year outlook, they find this one of the most difficult things to do. Quite often, they have not thought about it. If they have thought about it, they have not thought through the critical milestones. 

There is a myriad of mid-term planning documents available on the web. All of them have very fancy diagrams, arrows and aspirational ways of achieving the strategic plan. 

Without clear goals and a plan, human nature usually dictates that you will eventually become fatigued with the day to day challenge of running a business. Some business partners I work with have been successfully run their business for nearly eight years. As the fatigue starts to set in, they wonder what the point is or what is in store for them and the business.

Executive Summary: 

• Without clear goals and a plan, you will eventually become fatigued with the day to day challenge of running a business. 

• Taking time to visualise and put in your own words what you are passionate about can be very energizing and produce a clear and aligned purpose.

 • “Achievable” means available skills, financial resources and market positioning.

For more than 15 years the European futurist Gerd Leonhard has been writing about the impact of technology on humans. He has challenged businesses to look into the future and spend more time strategising with an open mind about the impending changes to the technology landscape and how best to adapt. Leonhard’s approach has always been a proactive, positive endeavour with a problem-solving process that sets organisations up in a prepared way and ready for adaptation. 

Related to this but with a different approach; “The Future of Work” is one of the hottest topics being Googled these days. Of course, the work is closely linked to business and its evolution. We are all told on frequent occasions that AI is coming, and we should get ready for a dramatic change around what we do for a living and whether our businesses are going to be relevant places where we work. In “Future Fit” Andrea Clarke talks about the era of rapid change and the requirement for an “adaptable mindset”.

Executive Summary:

 • We are morphing into a new world which will allow companies, owners and employees to develop new skills, strategies, careers and markets. • Retraining is a way of life for most people.

 • When mapping out a foundation on which to Scale New Heights, give adequate attention to the differentiators but also the emerging technologies and the required key skills.

In a recent interview with a CEO and APAC country manager, I learned that she had a manager who visited the country regularly and spent a lot of 1:1 time with her. I asked the CEO if this was a threatening or micro-managing style. The response from the CEO was that, initially, she thought it would be like that, but in reality, she was learning a lot from her manager, he was a great leader and mentor. She had a lot of respect for him and appreciated the time with him. 

Many of us can recount the influential leaders we are experiencing or have experienced in our careers. The reason is that it does not happen many times for each of us and stands out as an event or period. Sadly, it sometimes does not happen at all. You will know when you have been led by an influential leader because you will regularly refer to the teachings, the mannerisms and the methodologies. You will adopt the best practices as your own but always remember how you came to learn them.

Executive summary:

 • One of the key characteristics of a great leader is a strong sense of the Mission, Vision and Strategy for the organisation. 

• A strategy map allows you to communicate the strategy in a consistent manner across the whole business.

 • You will know you have been a great teacher when you hear the common language (initiated by you) used in meetings at all levels; everyone is pulling in the one direction and supporting each other. 

• The strategy map provides a framework for the business reviews and ensures the company updates and priorities are relevant to the strategy.

Carlo’s diverse business experience has been with leading companies across FMCG, pharmaceutical, chemical, logistics, banking and government. Roles include sales & marketing, HR, and general management. He has also consulted and coached executives and held board appointments. Strategic business and organisation development are strong interests. 

He places great emphasis on the customer, team relationships, performance achievement and leadership. He has always coached leaders to challenge the status quo, think in practical ways, develop in-house talent, and to be a catalyst for opportunity and ideas in the organisation. 

Carlo has had leadership roles in the UK, Hong Kong and Australia.

Leveraging Strategy for Sustainable Business Results

A modest and quietly spoken CEO of a fast-growing FMCG I am working within SE Asia was recently bemoaning the fact that all functions in his business were not pulling in the same direction and this was starting to limit the business growth rate. It was clear from our discussion that this company has a clear Mission, Vision, Core Values and Strategy.

The problem seemed to be poor strategy alignment and the lack of a cascading strategy throughout the organisation. It is a common CEO lamentation globally but especially in the fast-growing SE Asia region where rapid growth is leading to many first-time management problems for young CEOs.

When a company is Scaling New Heights at a rapid pace, it is a challenge for the Board and the Executive Officers to ensure all the areas of the business are functioning efficiently. One reason is that rapid growth can take a lot of resources and, despite scaling, it means time for focus and strategy alignment is difficult or not deemed important.

Valuable Takeaways :

Warring factions? Your rationale for Strategy Invigoration and Alignment?

Consider the business challenge of a CEO for a fast-growing consumer business in South East Asia. Over the last five years, they have enjoyed a successful ride with impressive growth year on year that exceeded their company’s mid-term plan.

However, recently, they have found themselves with gaps in strategy alignment between the board and their leadership team. Their role has increasingly become one of peacekeeper rather than company visionary and leader. In this case, the problem lies in the absence of alignment between the direction the board wants to take the organization and the decision and priorities the leadership team prefers.

Valuable Takeaways :

Laying a Foundation - Leadership and Culture

Deciding on the company culture is the precursor for selecting and developing leaders. The process must be decided or owned by the CEO. It must project into the company values, talent acquisition, onboarding and compensation and benefits.

Many clients ask me how it is possible to Scale New Height with a sustainable business and grow market share. Of course, the answer is not simple, but a foundation piece is deciding on the components of the company culture.

As part of the required changes, a regular retort from the client is to ask about the outlying high performer. “…we have this high-level contributor, but they do not necessarily fit into the culture of the company…would you suggest letting them go?”

Valuable Takeaways :