Dickens said, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” In the view of Joseph Badalak Jr., a professor at Harvard Business School, we are in a dynamic, exciting, cruel, and... In the market of charm, temptation, danger and even shock. Traditional business theorems, laws, and paradigms are experiencing creative destruction. Uncertainty has become a sign of the times. Business leaders and innovative entrepreneurs have to face the "great struggle" every day to find direction in the jungle of uncertainty.
Hu Yanli
In "The Great Struggle: Responsible Leadership in an Uncertain Era", Badalak raised five key questions about leadership in an uncertain era: I Have you really mastered the basic principles? Who am I responsible for? How do I make key decisions? Do we have the right core values? Why did I choose this life? It seems like a simple and easy problem, but it is often ignored by people in their daily work. "Struggle" itself is not a pleasant word. It makes people see hardship and hard work. However, it is undeniable that in an era where changes are everywhere, any company may be hit by a wave of the market at any time. In the era of "yesterday's flowers", "struggle" has become a new normal. How to "struggle" methodically, "struggle" properly, and achieve a lasting career through constant struggle can be called "the struggle" mentioned in this book. The great struggle”.
There is an interesting question in the book, that is, who should the leaders of the enterprise be responsible for? Are you responsible for the long-term goals of corporate development, or are you responsible for the corporate shareholders and board of directors? Or are customers, employees, and partners responsible? If the ownership of the company does not change in the short term, if the company does not change ownership soon, all the above-mentioned problems are responsible for the fact that all rivers come from the same source and all rivers flow into the sea. The ultimate goal is to achieve corporate value and promote The enterprise continues to develop.
However, it should be noted that today, when corporate ownership changes frequently and corporate managers and managers frequently change jobs, instead of empty talk about being responsible for others and the company, it is better to replace it with a more realistic concept of being responsible for the market and Take responsibility for your own career. A corporate executive's performance in the past market, professional quality and career vision will be the label of his life and the basis for finding the next job opportunity or innovation and entrepreneurship. Taking responsibility for one's own actions and showing one's vision and abilities in the market are the primary goals of a professional manager and business leader. As Badalak said, in an era of change, what really determines executive compensation is not his current boss, nor the board of directors, but the comprehensive force of the market.
In the past era, business leaders relied on a thorough set of processes to make decisions. They took system analysis and corporate strength as the core, integrated market factors, and made decision-making judgments. Today, although leaders have more massive data sources and more advanced data analysis methods, decision-making is still difficult and more like a "gamble" full of technology. ”
The author points out that “beliefs may cause leaders to be blind to reality, but reality will remove the falsehood and retain the trueness of beliefs.” In this era, there are no once-and-for-all decisions. After leaders determine the general direction of enterprise development, they must make “constant "Evolutionary Commitment", that is, after leaders and core teams determine the long-term goals of the enterprise, they move in a specific direction in a flexible and open way, carefully plan every step to be taken, and then based on the specific challenges encountered during execution. Problem, adjust the pace. In short, the company's big decisions must keep up with the pulse of the times, while small decisions must respond to market fluctuations. If a company wants to continue to develop, it cannot just be a "pig taking off on the trend", but must be a success. A goshawk that can fly in the wind and fight in the sky.