Versatile Amphibian

In my last post , I summarised the findings of my analysis of the composition of executive leadership teams in the FTSE 100, having first set out some basic principles for the role of that team in the present environment. You can find that content here. Today I’m going to start to look at possible roles on an ideal future ExCo, leading onto future essays on orthodox and unorthodox compositions and finally on the resulting impact those compositions will have on decision-making flows. To look at roles, we first need to think about the demands that the present environment is placing on leaders. The world has always been a complex place to do business in. The difference today is that we are far more aware of that complexity than we have been in previous generations and our ability to generate and suffer from change is exponentially greater than it has been before. We are also nearing the end of the latest techno-economic revolution – in information technology – which began in 1971...

One of the central themes of the book (I am going to mention “the book” a lot in the coming weeks and months!) is the form of leadership required to win in the current environment and how those leaders should make decisions.  Given the constraints of a sensibly-long book, I was only able explore certain aspects of the topic. One piece I removed because it felt too much like conjecture relates to the form of corporate executive teams. My incoming thesis is that in general executive management teams have the wrong skills and perspectives to effectively guide their organisations in times of uncertainty. This is a function of a number of things: A lack of clarity about the actual purpose of the executive team The wrong composition of the leadership team, resulting in an inappropriate mix of skills and perspectives The wrong type of executives being selected to participate in executive leadership Each of these is covered to an extent in ‘Art and Science…’ but over...