In the last two posts, I’ve presented an analysis of the makeup of executive leadership teams in the FTSE 100, then suggested some new roles that might help CEOs defend their cash cows as they commoditise and are affected by potential substitutes. In this post I’ll suggest some new perspectives that will enable CEOs to go on the offensive, to shape new markets and win within them. The best defence, as the adage goes, is a good offense. This is obviously complete rubbish, but it sounds great, so I’m going to give it air time. It’s also true in my mind that the majority of the roles that we need relate to shaping and building the future business. Let’s cover them in that order. We need to understand the environment in order to effect change within it. This suggests to me that we need to have someone in every decision who has a distinct mandate to seek to map out what could happen in the future in more specific terms than ‘change will happen’. One could see this role as a Chief E...
Thoughts on strategy in a Digital Economy