Author Talks: What separates the best CEOs from the rest?

Summary

このビデオスクリプトは、世界最大2000社のトップ1000社のCEOの中から優れたリーダーシップを示す200人のCEOを選び、彼らの成功と経験を研究するプロジェクトを紹介しています。彼らは業界を変える大胆な戦略を展開し、持続可能な成長を実現させる力を持っていると語っています。また、CEOの役割は外部との関係管理、戦略立案、チームの統率など多岐にわたり、非常に複雑で重要なポジションであると強調されています。このプロジェクトは、リーダーシップに関する普遍的な教訓を提供し、さまざまな状況に応用できると同時に、リーダーシップの意義と影響力を広範な読者に対して示唆しています。

Takeaways

• 🚀 CEOの役割は多面的なもので、リソースの再配分、文化的運転、実行力の強化など、異なる視点から捉えられています。
• 🌟 優れたCEOとは、業績だけでなく、倫理行動、社会環境への影響、そして後継者の計画性など多岐にわたる能力を持つ人々です。
• 🔍 研究では、グローバル2000社のトップ1000社を対象に、6年以上在任し、業績を評価基準とした2400人以上のCEOを調査しました。
• 📊 優れたCEOを特定するために、業績、倫理、社会環境への影響、そして後継者計画性などを考慮した146名のCEOを選出しました。
• 🌈 CEOの多様性は重要で、性別、人種、地域の多様性を持った200名のCEOを対象に研究を拡大しました。
• 🗣️ 67名の優れたCEOから得たインタビューデータを分析し、彼らの考え方やアプローチに共通点を見つけ出しました。
• 💡 CEOは組織全体を統合し、内外の利益関係者とコミュニケーションを取る重要な役割を果たしています。
• 🛠️ 優れたCEOは自己管理を重視し、ビジョン、戦略、リソース配分に基づく方針を設定し、実行に移します。
• 🏋️‍♂️ CEOは大胆さと革新を持ち、状況に応じて適切なリスクを計りつつも挑戦的なアプローチを取ります。
• 🌐 CEOは外部要因にも影響される一方で、それらを有利に活用し、成長と変化の機会を創出します。
• 📚 この研究は、リーダーシップの基礎原則を提唱し、さまざまなリーダーシップの場面に応用できる普遍的な教訓を提供しています。

Q & A

「次のCEO」とはどのような人物を指すのでしょうか？

「次のCEO」とは、現在のポジションから2〜3年以内にCEOに就任する可能性がある潜在的な候補者を指します。

CEOの役割について異なる3人のゲストCEOがどのように説明しましたか？

第一のゲストCEOはリソースの再配分と事業の選択について話しました。第二のゲストCEOは組織文化の構築と人材配置について話しました。第三のゲストCEOは実行力とパフォーマンス管理について語りました。

研究を始めるにあたり、どのような基準で優れたCEOを選択しましたか？

2000年以降に世界最大の2000社の中で上位1000社のCEOを6年以上務めていた人を選び、彼らの業績、倫理行動、社会環境への影響、交代計画などを基準にしました。

研究を通じて発見された優れたCEOの特徴は何ですか？

優れたCEOは大胆さを持っており、状況や業界に関係なく、ビジョンを持っており、自己のポートフォリオを高成長ビジネスにシフトさせることを考えています。

CEOの役割が持つ6つの次元とは何ですか？

6つの次元とは、方向の設定、組織の整列、リーダーの動員、取締役との対話、関係者の管理、自己管理です。

CEOが持つべき基本的な姿勢として何が挙げられますか？

CEOは大胆であり、ビジョンを持っており、状況に応じて適切な戦略を展開する必要があります。

研究において、CEOの業績を評価する際に重要な要素は何ですか？

業績の評価では、株主に対する超出総利益の創出、業界の他の企業と比較した業績、倫理的な行動、社会環境への影響などが重要です。

CEOが持つべきスキルの中で、最も重要なスキルは何ですか？

最も重要なスキルは、ビジョンを持つことと、状況に応じて適切な戦略を展開することです。また、組織全体を動員し、リーダーシップを発揮することも重要です。

CEOとして成功するためには、どのようなマインドセットが必要ですか？

成功するためには、大胆さと自己管理能力が重要です。また、変化する環境に適応し、常に学び続ける姿勢を持つことが求められます。

CEOがリーダーシップを発揮する上で、最も重要な要素は何ですか？

リーダーシップを発揮する上で重要な要素は、ビジョンの設定、戦略の策定、リソースの配分、そしてチームの動員です。

CEOとして優れた業績を残すためには、どのようなアプローチをとるべきですか？

優れた業績を残すためには、業界のトレンドを理解し、それを利用してポートフォリオを適切に管理し、常に成長を目指すアプローチをとるべきです。

Outlines

00:00

😲 CEOの役割を探求する旅の始まり

ビデオ脚本では、次期CEO候補者たちが集まって議論する場面から物語が始まります。彼らは3日間、CEOの役割について学び、様々なゲストCEOから話を聞くことによって、その職務について深く理解を深めます。最初のゲストCEOはリソースの再配分とビジネスの選択について話しましたが、次のゲストは組織文化や人材配置に重点を置いた対照的なものでした。これにより、議論はCEOの役割に対する多様な見解に焦点を当てました。また、脚本ではリーダーシップに関する多くの書籍が存在するにもかかわらず、優れたCEOを定義する決定的な書籍が見つからないという事実にも触れています。その発見から、研究の旅が始まり、優れたCEOとどのように区別されるかを探求することにしました。

05:02

🔍 優れたCEOを特定するための研究方法

研究は、「グローバル2000」として知られる世界最大の2000社から始め、そのうち1000社を対象に、21世紀にCEOとして6年以上務めた約2400人を特定しました。彼らのうち、業績を同業他社と比較し、余剰総利益を創出していたものを選び出し、倫理行動、社会環境への影響、交代計画なども考慮して、最終的に146人の優れたCEOを選びました。しかし、そのリストは男性、白人、アメリカ中心的なものに偏っており、将来のCEOの多様性とは一致していませんでした。そこで、1000社を超える企業や民間企業、非営利組織も含めた多様なバックグラウンドを持つ200人のCEOを対象にしました。65人以上のインタビューを行い、彼らの考え方と経験を掘り下げ、定量データも分析することで、洞察を得る方法を決定しました。

10:04

🏆 優れたCEOの物語とその意義

脚本では、アスリートの記録を持つアッシュトン・イートンのように、多くの人々には知られていないが実際には優れた成績を残した人々がいることを例に挙げています。同様に、有名ではないが優れた成績を残したCEOたちもおり、彼らの物語を伝えることが重要だと述べています。多くの優れたCEOは、自分が就任したときにはプレイブックがなく、多くのことを自分で考え、創造しなければならなかったと語っています。彼らはその経験を共有し、他の人々が学ぶことができるような資源を提供したいという願望を持っています。インタビューを通じて、彼らのユニークなストーリーと、リーダーシップの普遍的な教訓が明らかになります。

15:07

💰 優れたCEOの経済的影響

この段落では、優れたCEOたちが経済に与える影響について語られています。彼らは任期内に同業他社と比較して5兆ドル以上の価値を創出しており、日本のGDPに匹敵する規模です。彼らの役割は経済に貢献するだけでなく、社会や環境にも大きな影響を与えると強調されています。さらに、CEOは外部の利益関係者との関係を管理し、顧客、投資家、規制当局、一般大衆の期待に応える必要があります。そのような多面的な役割を果たすために、CEOは大胆さと視野の広さが必要です。

20:07

🛠️ CEOの役割の複雑性と未来

CEOの役割はますます複雑になり、外部の利益関係者との関係管理を含む多面的な要求が高まっています。過去40年間で変化し、未来もさらに重要な役割を果たすでしょう。CEOは内部と外部の両方の要因をバランスさせ、組織全体を動かす能力を持ち、さまざまなグループをまとめる必要があります。また、彼らはシステム全体を見据えた視点を持つことが求められています。この段落では、CEOの役割が未来においても重要であって、新しい技術や世界情勢の変化に適応し、リーダーシップの基本原則を適用し続ける必要があると強調されています。

25:07

🌟 CEOの教訓はリーダーシップへの普遍的な洞察

最後の段落では、CEOの教訓がリーダーシップの普遍的な洞察であると示唆されています。CEOはビジョン、戦略、リソースの割り当てを設定し、それに基づいて組織を動かす必要があります。これらの原則は、リーダーシップの役割に関係なく適用可能であり、個人の人生における目標設定やリソースの管理にも関連しています。また、CEOはゲームの枠組みを変え、新しい可能性を探求する意欲を持ち、リーダーシップの枠組みを広げることができます。この物語は、リーダーシップの喜びと意義、高いパフォーマンスのチームを作ることの重要性について学ぶことができる貴重な機会を提供しています。

Keywords

💡CEO

CEOとは、Chief Executive Officerの略で、企業の最高経営責任者を指します。ビデオでは、CEOの役割とその重要性が強調されており、彼らがどのように企業を導くかについて議論されています。たとえば、ビデオでは「next up ceos」や「excellent ceos」という言葉が使われており、将来のCEO候補者や優れたCEOたちが企業の成功にどのように貢献しているかを探求しています。

💡リソース再配置

リソース再配置とは、企業が持っている資源を最も効果的に使用するために、異なるビジネス分野やプロジェクトに再割り当てるプロセスです。ビデオでは、最初のゲストCEOがこの概念に焦点を当て、ビジネスの在り方を決定する上で重要な役割を果たしていると語っています。

💡カルチャー

カルチャーは、企業内で共有される価値観、信念、行動規範の集まりです。ビデオでは、2番目のゲストCEOがカルチャーを顕著にし、それを駆動力としており、それが企業の成功に寄与していると強調しています。

💡実行力

実行力とは、計画や戦略を実行し、結果を出す能力です。ビデオの3番目のゲストCEOは、実行力とパフォーマンス管理について語り、それがCEOの役割の核心にあると示唆しています。

💡優れたリーダーシップ

優れたリーダーシップとは、人々を導き、インスピレーションを与え、チームを結束させる能力です。ビデオでは、優れたCEOと他のCEOを区別する要因としてリーダーシップの重要性が語られており、それは企業の成功に直接的に寄与すると示唆されています。

💡グローバル2000

グローバル2000とは、Forbesが発表する世界最大の2000社の企業のリストです。ビデオでは、研究のためにこれらの企業の中から優れたCEOを特定する基準として使用されています。

💡業績

業績とは、企業が持続可能な利益を生み出し、市場での評価を高める能力です。ビデオでは、業績がCEOの優秀さの重要な指標として挙げられており、それはCEOが持続可能な成功をもたらす能力を示すとされています。

💡倫理的行動

倫理的行動とは、企業が社会的責任を負い、環境への影響を最小限に抑えながら行動する能力です。ビデオでは、倫理的行動が優れたCEOの特性の一つとして挙げられており、それが企業の長期的な成功と社会的信認性を築く上で重要な役割を果たしていると語られています。

💡多様性

多様性とは、異なるバックグラウンド、意見、文化を持つ人々が組織に参加し、その多様性を取り入れることです。ビデオでは、研究チームがCEOの候補者リストを多様性のあるものにするために努力したと述べており、それが未来のCEOのプロフィールを反映するためだと強調しています。

💡戦略的ポートフォリオの移行

戦略的ポートフォリオの移行とは、企業が成長のある分野に焦点を当て、新しいビジネス分野にシフトするプロセスです。ビデオでは、優れたCEOたちが持続可能な成長を実現するために、彼らのポートフォリオを戦略的に移行する例が紹介されています。

Highlights

Next Up CEOs are individuals two to three years away from taking on the CEO role.

Three-day sessions expose potential CEOs to the realities of being a CEO with guest speakers.

Different guest CEOs provided varying perspectives on the role and responsibilities of a CEO.

The lack of a definitive answer on the CEO role sparked the idea for a research project.

The research aimed to identify what distinguishes the best CEOs from the rest.

The study focused on the top 1000 global companies and CEOs with at least six years of tenure.

Performance criteria included excess total shareholder return and ethical conduct.

The final list of 200 CEOs was diverse in industry, gender, race, and included both for-profit and non-profit leaders.

65 in-depth interviews were conducted with these CEOs to understand their mindset and approach.

The research combined qualitative interviews with quantitative data analysis.

Many of the interviewed CEOs expressed a desire for such a resource when they started their roles.

CEOs have a significant impact, influencing 70 million people and creating $5 trillion more value than their peers.

The role of a CEO is becoming increasingly complex and important, requiring a bold approach.

The study identified six dimensions of the CEO role that have become more complex over time.

Great CEOs are bold and can be so regardless of context or industry.

The research aimed to provide timeless lessons rather than just timely advice.

The insights from the study can be applied to leadership roles beyond the CEO context.

The study emphasizes the importance of setting direction, aligning and mobilizing, and managing stakeholders.

CEOs must manage both external and internal expectations and integrate external shocks into their strategies.

The research highlights the importance of CEOs having a bold vision and making bold moves.

The study found that excellent CEOs think differently about trends and opportunities.

The research provides a framework for understanding the CEO role and improving the odds of success.

Transcripts

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

maybe just to set the scene

we get what we call next up ceos or

potential next up ceos so someone who

would be you know two three years out

from the role maybe even sooner

and we have a group of these next up

ceos come together and this particular

one was in maryland

and we essentially have three days with

them where we expose them to what is

being a ceo like and there's a lot of

ceo guest speakers as part of that so

we were all three faculty at one of

these sessions and we had three guest

ceos

and one of the questions that vic asks

is well

tell me what

what do you how do you describe the role

of a ceo

and the first ceo the first night talked

a lot about

resource reallocation and what

businesses are we in and not in and

there was such conviction and such

such eloquence

that everyone walked out of that room

and said like

wow the veil has been lifted that's

awesome i i get it

until the next morning

and another ceo guest speaker comes

and vic asks the same question

and you hear it's all about being a

cheerleader driving the culture getting

talent in the right place

and it's with such conviction and

eloquence that you're kind of like yeah

that's what the role is

the third ceo

just happened to be at this retreat who

closed the retreat

talked all about execution and

performance management and operating

rhythm and all the kind of like how do

you drive execution in our drive we're

kind of debriefing as you would on what

went well what didn't go well and i

forgot who brought it up but it was sort

of like

you know that question that you asked

vic um

i gotta be honest if i left that session

and like literally looked at the

transcript which had three totally

different answers on what is important

in the ceo role

and then we just did a quick

well how do you describe it when you're

counseling a ceo

and

our answers were a little bit different

put it that way and we thought to

ourselves okay

we do do a lot of co counseling

we have heard a lot of ceo speak there

should be a definitive answer out there

mckinsey and company should be able to

share with the world what is that role

and what more than just what's the role

what really distinguishes

the best from the rest

and that became kind of an idea that

captured our imagination and so we're

not just going to have a an instruction

manual that says here's how to play

guitar

we're going to say here's how you become

eddie van halen and jeff beck and eric

clapton as opposed to a weekend

guitarist so that set us off on our

journey i don't know if you'd add i i

mean the only other thing i would say is

when you actually look out there in the

world

you see a lot of books written about

leadership and many many excellent books

written about leadership

you'll find a lot of books written by

individual ceos on their journey but we

were unable to find that definitive book

written about

what really defines an excellent ceo and

to be honest

coming out of that journey in that car

it wasn't clear to us that we could

quickly articulate it

uh which is why we thought let's do the

deep research let's get get into the

minds of great ceos let's really pull

that out and really see if there's there

there and we're delighted that there was

that there there

there is there there and i think it's so

interesting that it came out of this

session which is for next generation

ceos right because when i think about

the book

and what we're hoping to to help and and

bring into the conversation it is to

demystify the role right they had come

to that session genuinely wanting to

learn

and the fact that there wasn't you know

a single answer

i think pulling it together is not only

helpful for individuals but for for

folks looking ahead looking to their

next leadership role the fact that there

are some clues and we can look and see

okay i could imagine being that one day

and yes it's an extraordinary role with

a lot of responsibility

but it's a role that you can learn and

it's a role that you can you can

experience and live into as opposed to

just being sort of a secret club right

that you either are in or not in i also

would say that i think that there are

some

valuable lessons in all of this for

someone who may not eventually become a

ceo

you know

and it's at its core it is a book about

leadership it's just taking a very

unique

lens on leadership which is the ceo

leadership role but

many of those lessons are very

translatable into many many other works

of life from a leadership world

[Music]

we did want to put real rigor into

how do we go about and figure out how to

separate you know who is the best so we

can talk about the best versus the rest

and what we said is look this is

something we're going to focus on let's

start with the 2 000 largest companies

in the world there's a list called the

global 2000 it's put out by forbes it's

the largest company in the world the

biggest most complex most global

companies

and we said let's take the top 1 000 of

those

and let's ask the question how many

people have been ceos of one of these

global 1000 companies this century

turns out there's been about 2 400 ceos

then we said

okay how about

tenure and how that should matter so we

we looked at ceos who had six years of

tenure or more

as the ceo of one of these 1000 largest

companies because we wanted people to

have to live with the decisions they

made and show some sustainability and

some confidence from their boards and

their shareholders

that brought us down to just under a

thousand ceos

who had led these companies for over six

years during their tenure

we then did a performance cut because

that's obviously going to be important

cut on the equation we said who created

excess total return return to

shareholder versus their peers so this

is taking out the effect of well we're

in a different industry it's a slower

growth industry it's that brought us

down to about 500 ceos

we then did a

another calling on it's not all about

financial performance it's about ethical

conduct it's about your

social environmental impact it's about

your succession planning and do you have

a plan in place or if you're a retired

ceo how did that transition go and how

much performance sustained afterwards

you go from there we got to 146 ceos

that we said

you know they're not the only ones who

are great necessarily but we believe

these are among the best in the world

this century

and the problem was we looked at that

list and we said it's heavily skewed

towards a certain profile it happens to

be male it happens to be white it's

somewhat u.s centric

and that's not the future profile of

ceos because it's not a diverse enough

group

so what we did is we we didn't lower our

bar on any of those things on

performance or conduct or anything of

that nature but we did look outside the

1000 largest companies

and we said we need to get diversity of

industries we need to get diversity of

gender we need to get diversity of race

and we ended up pulling in a number of

companies some of these were private

companies some of these were

not-for-profit companies like health

systems for example

and we ended up building back to 200

just because that was a nice clean

number and it gave us you know we added

back 30 more women 40 more people of

color so we felt like we had a good mix

and we had a good industry mix

and then we thought okay

200 people that's a lot of people to

interview

and so we said well let's just apply the

statistics and it's a 95 confidence

level we'll say do at least 65. so we

did 65 interviews

and we ended up having quite a good

response to our outreach and we had so

we technically did 67 in the end we

had people we couldn't turn away who

wanted to be part of the project

and we augmented that with a lot of you

know quantitative data too so it wasn't

just the interviews we were basing

things on we were also mining a huge

database of performance we put those

together to kind of come up with the

insights and it was just a joy to spend

you know two three hours interviewing

these truly amazing ceos um

asking about nothing but you know how do

you think about the role and really

getting into their mindsets

the one the one other piece i would add

is

this topic

with these excellent ceos

clearly resonated uh now i would say

a third of them

were retired two-thirds of them were

still active we did not reach out to old

200 i think if we'd reached out to old

200 we'd have we'd have had yeses from

about 150 people so

and and

we really only went out with them and

said here's why we're doing this here's

what we're looking to capture here's the

basis on which we were asking you in

terms of the

the criteria we had uh will you do this

and it really was not

difficult to get them to yes but the

topic

of cu excellence

you guys are trying to do this in a very

structured and thoughtful way actually

resonated with them and many of them

opened up their calendars they saw

something in the topic and they really

engaged in these conversations we were

quite thoughtful in trying to say what

are the lessons learned that are going

to be broadly applicable right so there

are some founders in the book we have

reed hastings there at netflix we also

have some family owned business leaders

we have a select few we were careful to

make sure that the founder-led co didn't

dominate because as we sat back we said

well when you're the founder and the ceo

you probably have more degrees of

freedom than a typical ceo would have

right you typically have ownership

control you know the your relationship

with the board is quite different than a

you know a typical ceo

and so we wanted to make sure we didn't

skew so much towards founders that for

the vast majority of ceos who are not

they can still do the things that we say

in the book and so we we have you know

select views in there but we wanted to

make sure it didn't dominate

but there's a book to be written on

founders ceo absolutely

absolutely founder ceos family of

business ceos there's a whole bunch

there excellence part two right there go

absolutely

[Music]

you know if we asked

you for example or anyone viewing this

and said you know who's the greatest

athlete of all time

you'd probably get a list of you know

the michael jordans the serena williams

the you know tom brady's that's where

the usain bolt uh whoever it might be

and there's that these are iconic names

that almost everyone could retrieve

if you did the analytics on who is the

greatest athlete of all time you

probably get more to someone called

ashton eaton

most people haven't heard of ashton

eaton ashton eaton retired in 2017

as the decathlon world record holder

he won i believe

he set the record three times in the

decathlon during his career

he won four world championships

um

you know

he he was someone that

if you go all the way back to jim thorpe

and you think about the decathlon itself

you know when jim thorpe won in 1912 the

the king of sweden said

sir you are the greatest athlete in the

world right and now you have someone in

2017 who has sort of eclipsed all the

records set the records et cetera but no

one's hard on him

and why is that well he's not actually

the best at any one

event he's really good so he's i think

he was the 14th best long jumper he was

among the hundred fastest film it wasn't

number one

and

when we looked at our list of names

there was quite frankly some names that

you know we were loosely aware of these

names but not they just weren't the

iconic names that you think of the jeff

bezos the zuckerberg that you know these

these the musk the founder-led ceo

things so there's an element of

celebrity that people gravitate to

which you know analytically we were kind

of excited to be able to tell the story

of a whole block of amazing ashton eaton

types who otherwise their story might

not get as told you know often the big

names have already written the books and

and that's all available out there so

there's also a little bit of a how can

we make the wisdom of this group the

decathletes available rather than just

the sprinter who's been the best in the

world who we all know their name there

was clearly a view expressed by a number

of them that says

you know we came into this role and in

many ways they certainly had to kind of

figure it out

on their own right they

typically would lean on the former ceo

for advice they'd lean on a few board

members they'd lean on

maybe they have a

external counselor a banker a consultant

that they're that that they get some

input from uh they might have uh uh

other privileged relationships they get

some input from they may have gone on a

bit of a listening tour to two or three

other ceos but they were essentially

making up

uh the playbook right many of them got

it right by the way and many of these

excellent ceos did amazing things in

their year one right and they they they

were bold in their vision they were

they went out with exciting

direction they pushed the organization

in interesting and remarkable ways

but

they didn't have a playbook so there was

clearly a thirst for

yeah i would have loved to have seen

something like this so if i can

contribute to it absolutely and i do

think that they've all got a great story

to tell and they were eager to tell it

and everyone's a little bit different uh

so this

you know it was our job to kind of find

the commonalities but every story and

every one of these 67 stories was unique

was different there were different

things that worked well for one ceo

versus another i actually also think

they enjoyed it themselves right i think

for a number of them they don't have a

chance to catch their breath yeah and so

you could see the wheels turning that

maybe they hadn't had time to sit down

and say well what have i done right what

were the lessons learned and so i think

it was it was sort of energizing as well

as imparting wisdom i thought it was

amazing how when we went out for

endorsements after virtually everyone

that came back to us one of the lines in

the endorsement was i wish i had this

book when i took on the role

and i do think um

you know even greg case of aeon when he

heard about what we were trying to do

when we were proposing doing the

interview he said wow

systematic pattern recognition over a

period of time from people who have done

this successfully

that

that i know of doesn't exist and that

would be really helpful and gee i wish i

had that back in 2005 when i took the

company over

[Music]

we had a group of 20 ceos together

earlier today as part of a workshop and

you look around and just the statistics

would say

that among that group wow you know eight

of you are probably be considered

failing

when we get to that three year mark

our hope i mean the ceo role for as far

as it hard as it is

it's commensurately high impact in the

world about 70 million people who report

to the ceos

if you look at the 200 people we

identified we

we did the math on it and they create

in their during their tenure

they created 5 trillion more dollars of

value

than their peers

five trillion that's that's the gdp of

japan

and the third largest largest economy so

you think about just

contribution to economies contribution

to gdp societies it it's an important

role and then you add to that all of the

social all of the environmental aspects

that actually

are

under the remit of these large companies

and you say

if we can do anything to help move that

needle from two out of five to even 1.5

out of five that's great for society

that's great for humanity as a whole and

so i think our hope is that it does make

a dent how much of a dent who knows but

any dent it makes is is well worth

having put the time in i think a huge

part of the ceo role now is external

right so the days of just setting your

strategy and running your organization

and delivering for shareholders

that's only half the job right the the

demands being placed on ceos to both

manage external stakeholders and be

thoughtful about their expectations of

the company whether it's regulators

investors customers the public at large

that is part of the ceo role to think

that through

and you know if you think about the last

two years and the pandemic and all of

the external shocks happening there

ultimately it's the ceo who is the

integrator who has to think about how to

navigate those moments right so how do

you help the person in those shoes who

are looking across all of the trends

internally seeing what's happening in

the world

think ahead both of you know there's

this phrase having a microscope and a

telescope right they need to manage the

day-to-day and be thinking ahead and i

think it's the ceo role even that's more

important now than ever right as we

navigate all these twists and turns

that's what makes it such a challenging

role if you're going to move this needle

on being an excellent ceo

i think the one thing you would take

away right is regardless of context

regardless of circumstance regardless of

industry

all of that

there there is an aspect around great

ceos are bold uh great ceos are bold and

you can be bold regardless of context

right or you can be bold within that

context right you ask the question

around

can this help make ceos more successful

i would argue that if they're not bold

in that first year

you know

you know they're not going to move the

needle that is the crux that will

actually let you conquer any context

and let you conquer

any any uh uh any situation around

failing right that is your one safeguard

against failure in many ways a ceo in

any given context they're handed an

endowment from the previous ceo there's

a certain amount of r d that's happened

there's a certain talent base that's

there there's a certain debt leverage

that's there so there's you know you're

kind of saddled with some stuff when you

take it over there's also trends in an

industry or macroeconomic trends which

you may or may not but probably don't

have a ton of control over depending on

your company

and those do account for 55 percent of

what drives a company's performance so

if you pick a good industry to be a ceo

and it's growing you're naturally going

to do better

what is interesting though is 45

is under ceo's control and what we found

with these ceos who are truly excellent

they think about that 55 differently

than most they don't really think a lot

of that is out of their control

especially in this realm of boldness so

part of you know one of the big things

we learned is

ceos really thoughtfully migrate their

portfolio into high growth businesses so

just because you're you've come into an

industry that's low growth and has

certain trends first of all how do i

become an exceptional futurist and ride

these trends like a surfboard rather

than let them be waves that wash over me

and drown me

secondly how do i think about there's a

better beach to surf on and how do i

make my way towards that beach over time

so we saw chemicals companies become

life sciences companies we saw kind of

old energy companies between become

clean energy companies we saw

you know ajay banga gave us a great

example where it was like we thought of

ourselves as a payments company

and until we said wait a second only 20

of all transactions happen

electronically let's kill cash

it all of a sudden there's a completely

broader playing field that you're

thinking about so i do think they they

think of trends and they think of

endowment so to speak as not just what

i'm given but how do i

turn those into opportunity and that's

where the bold mindset comes in if you

have a bold mindset you think about

it might be a little bit of a risk but

i'm not risking the company and i can

actually

go and test and learn and really drive

something meaningful here so

[Music]

i think the role of the ceo is only

getting more complex and more important

and some people have been surprised that

it was six dimensions isn't that a lot

and i do think some of those dimensions

might not have been there had we done

this book 40 years ago

but the complexity of the role the the

need to align and mobilize not just your

own organization your board your

external stakeholders these broad groups

at a pace unseen before when you think

about how quickly decisions are getting

made and industries are getting

transformed

if anything i worry it's become a

superhuman job right there's so much in

that one role to both

internal external present future all of

these lenses that they're wearing at

once

i think

the need to be able to think through a

whole system view and galvanize a whole

group around you to get this job done is

is only going to be more important going

forward to spin all these plates how can

you do that it's going to take a village

and it's a village that's led by the ceo

i might take a somewhat different lens

on it which is

perhaps with the exception of external

stakeholders where i think the demands

on a ceo relative to history have grown

over time i actually think many of these

lessons were always there right

and to that extent i believe they're

timeless and the world will change and

the world will get more complicated and

there'll be new trends and all of that

stuff will happen but i think some of

these lessons are timeless we were

actually quite purposeful

in trying to not be timely but be

timeless

to what vic has said and i go back to

the sailing analogy you know those

fundamental principles of sail trim boat

trim course made good all the jargon

around just how do you keep the boat in

balance how do you not go you know how

do you manage the wind how do you

those have been true since the first

sailing ships on the nile you know

however many thousand years ago

a lot has changed in the meantime though

we have you know the keel um but the

fundamentals haven't changed and we

purposefully

tried to stick to the fundamentals

and we believe the fundamentals apply to

upcoming challenges and what's going to

happen with crypto what's going to

happen with china chinese u.s relations

that's going to have real influence on

business what's going to happen with

return to work and how future of work

actually evolves re-skilling

you know all of these big challenges

supply chain resilience etc

ceos are going to have to set direction

they're gonna have to align

organizations they're gonna have to

mobilize leaders they're gonna have to

deal with boards they're gonna have to

manage stakeholders and they're gonna

have to manage themselves in ways that

are

excellent through all of those trends

and by the way in 20 years there's going

to be a whole new set of trends and 20

years ago there was a whole different

set of trends

and so i do i just would really endorse

what vic saying around we've tried to

keep it more towards

what's true versus what's new if you

will

[Music]

let's think about some of the aspects of

the role

so when it comes to setting direction

there's vision

strategy resource allocation

let's apply it to actually even someone

who's not in a leadership role

other than leading themselves

do you have a vision for where your life

is headed do you have a set of bold

moves you're taking to move towards that

vision and have you allocated your time

and energy and resources to support

those bold moves to take you towards

that vision

already those are interesting questions

for someone to face into if you're

leading a team those are interesting

questions for some to face into let me

come back to someone who's like leading

a scout troop i want to be the best

scout troop

in the city

and there's some measure for that right

well we would you know the learnings

from the best ceos would be like look

that's that's cool

but why wouldn't you reframe that to say

you want the scout troop to be the most

meaning-filled scout troop in the

country

what would that mean and is that a

better vision i don't know i mean maybe

it is maybe it isn't but it would prompt

you to say

wait just because i'm leading a scout

troop do i have to define within

the small arena that i'm taking over

because because one of the big insights

is

these ceos reframe the game they

actually just change the playing field

on which we're thinking about

so a lot of those questions are good

questions to ask and a lot of the

answers are

counter-intuitive in a sense that

they're just not naturally where you

would go we've taken the ceo excellence

lens

but it's

it's a book about many things in many

ways it's a book about leadership

broadly writ

it's certainly a book about how one

might excel in

life more broadly right you can pick out

all kinds of lessons from this

uh which i

which i think we all sincerely hope

people will will will look at if great

leaders can lead well maybe i can learn

something from this maybe i too can take

away some nugget some view some wisdom

that i i can apply in my life uh broadly

with i think equally important is

ceos have extraordinary influence on our

lives day to day right in the countries

in the communities that they serve in

and the the teams that they lead

and so i think for us all to understand

what is that role what does that look

like what does it mean to be a good one

and how do we collectively set these

roles up for success it's back to your

point earlier scott of we actually can't

afford for these folks to fail right

they they need to do well because they

have such an influence on on so much of

what we do and so i think it's just it's

a good contribution for all of us to

understand that role better so that we

can collectively improve the odds i also

think at the end of the day

we have written a damn good story

it is a interesting exciting read

regardless of which walk of life you're

in right i just think it's a damn good

story there's stories of grit and

resilience and hard work

what does it take to achieve

extraordinary things of real people

we've all had that experience of being

part of a peak performance

team or hopefully we have in some place

in our life right

these are ceos who have taken

one of the most complex contexts in

which to create high performance and

found a way to do it

those lessons

can be applied then into far less

complex situations

in highly relevant ways and i love what

larry kolp told us again larry cole

current ceo of ge former ceo of danaher

he said you know guys this role is fun

this role is fun because it feels like

when i was on my high school basketball

team we had a group together who were

running hard we had each other's backs

and it's it's fun

and i think the promise of a lot of

these learnings are how do you take all

the aspects of your leadership life

and get that magic that you know that

high school basketball team had that

it's actually fun to be part of it to me

that's a really exciting part about how

translatable all of this is into the

broader leadership arena if it applies

at the ceo role it probably applies in

most of the other contexts

[Music]

you