LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

Speaking to executive and non-executive directors, it feels like every organisation is undergoing significant change, whether it relates to M&A, new technology or the need to improve productivity. What’s undeniable is that CEOs and senior leadership teams need to be adept at driving longer-term transformation while at the same time keeping a close eye on short-term performance.  

 

The topic was discussed at length at Criticaleye’s recent Growth Company Retreat, held in association with AlixPartners, Hitachi Solutions and Canaccord Genuity. The conversation focused on how leadership teams should align the whole organisation, not just the Board, around the underlying reasons for change.
   

 

Certainly, the chief executive acts as a natural figurehead and catalyst. As CEO of the listed industrial fastenings business Trifast, Iain Percival has overseen a phased transformation journey which has focused on sharpening strategic clarity and operational efficiency. “You have to align the team on the transformation journey and the different stages and the projects that we have to deliver. But ultimately, I'm accountable for the delivery of the transformation, and the performance as a result,” he said.  

 

While the CEO is the ultimate decision-maker, alignment around a particular transformation strategy requires alignment across the leadership team. For Billie O’Connor, CFO of luxury UK brand Mulberry, it’s about open discussion and trade-offs. She observed that results come when “the ExCo collaborate and challenge” each other and “leadership works together”. Once that starts to happen, she added that “we all then start to get less defensive”.  

 

Clear governance and accountability at Board level is another non-negotiable when it comes to transformation projects. Iain said: “There needs to be that discipline and rigour that you will have a project review meeting, that everybody will attend and there will be a risks log that you're going to talk through. There will be decisions that you need to make and being disciplined to ensure you deliver on that is critical to the success of a programme.” 

 

Clive De Silva, Partner and Managing Director at AlixPartners, said: “In order for a transformation to be successful, you have to anchor it back into what the strategy is, and what the strategic intent is. If it's not linked to that, then it's very hard to demonstrate value and demonstrate the effect post the delivery of that.”

 

So much of the talk around change at present revolves around technology and AI. Clive emphasised that successful adoption still relies on understanding some of the basic principles around transformation. “What works well is if you start off with the business problem and what you're trying to solve…,” he explained. “Once you've done that, then you can work out how the technology can help to enable that. Technology can be used as a tool to accelerate transformation, not necessarily a tool in its own right.” 

 

Jerzy Nagorski, Senior Relationship Manager at Criticaleye, noted: “With disruptive technologies like AI now driving a lot of conversations at Board level, it’s the job of the non-executives to ask probing questions to the executives, centring on the strategic reasons for the changes to be made, but also the potential threats to the business. 

 

“Equally, Boards can’t be so risk-averse that they hold an organisation back. It again comes back to the need for strategic alignment so that once a decision has been made, everyone is committed – agreement at the top is vital.” 

 

It doesn’t stop there, of course, as bringing the whole organisation along on the journey is an imperative. This inevitably involves numerous challenges because people feel threatened, insecure and also fatigued by change. Billie emphasised that “finding ways to get to all the team members on the project, at all levels, … [to] celebrate the success of what they're doing is important”. That consistent engagement and sense of momentum will “drive a lot more goodwill and therefore enable them to keep picking up the pace when it's needed”. 

 

Leading transformation is rarely simple, especially in growth businesses where the stretch on the senior leadership team is often more intense. Iain summarised by saying: “Yes, it's going to be painful. Yes, you're going to go through bumps. It won't be straightforward, but if the case for change has come from the business, you've got alignment on your goal and you've got the buy-in from the team, that will help deliver the results.”