Some years in the past, after an extended profession in magazines, I spotted I wanted to reinvent myself professionally and entered an unfamiliar work world in Large Retail. Like all new arrival, I needed to be taught to slot in. My greatest problem was understanding how C Suite leadership works: why some resolution makers are extra inherently related, with a greater deal with on the place retail is headed and never simply the place it has been. So I studied quarterly earnings transcripts, a free crash course in how leaders suppose, in addition to many basic enterprise books, which most of the time contained highfalutin concepts higher in idea than apply. After which I discovered Geeks and Geezers: How Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders.
Written by Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas, the guide was revealed by Harvard Enterprise Faculty Press in 2002. What potential worth might a guide on management revealed at that second have in the present day? Many modern readers would seemingly stumble over the guide’s title, extremely objectionable (if not outright offensive) by present heated requirements. And what insights would possibly we probably glean from a guide that appeared when Google was solely 4 years previous and Mark Zuckerberg was ending highschool – a second when many people believed the digital revolution was going to resolve all of our issues?
Filled with sensible, operative perception, Geeks and Geezers gives a lucid evaluation of the similarities and variations between leaders. Its classes could also be extra related than ever in in the present day’s tumultuous retail setting.
Map vs. Compass Management
The co-authors posit that whereas analog-oriented “geezers” depend on maps, the extra revolutionary digital-savvy “geeks” require solely a compass. These navigational metaphors are apt, given how a lot company America loves referring to enterprise shifts as “journeys.”
A easy and efficient technique to consider management concepts and actions, this pragmatic idea helps me swiftly classify what kind of govt I’m employed to help: A map chief adheres to well-worn roads and may solely go the place others have gone earlier than. They comply with predetermined routes, and good luck altering their thoughts, even on the earliest stage when an concept seems problematic on paper. When coping with that sort of chief, I simply do the most effective I can with what’s in entrance of me, saving my options to help the group charged with executing the technique, flaws and all.
Geeks characterize compass management, and as soon as they will decide the final route tradition goes, they’re prepared to discover a path of their very own making, even when the terrain is unfamiliar. Engaged on their strategic decks is extra collaboratively productive as a result of these leaders are attuned to the chances and uncertainty of discovery, making them versatile about attain their vacation spot.
With the apparent caveat that firm issues are by no means single rooted, I’ve a number of examples of map/compass management points that I witnessed first-hand.
Navigating Large Retail
Working for a newly appointed compass CEO at an iconic preppy American attire firm the place the map-style predecessor couldn’t let go and remained on the board was like watching two automobiles attempting to park in the identical spot, immobilizing site visitors on all sides and blocking progress. I additionally watched an American big-box mattress and tub establishment declare chapter as a result of the “turnaround” CEO, more than likely employed as a result of the board mistook him for a compass when he was actually a map, was not able to a producing a technique to focus on that firm’s particular prospects. As a substitute, he mechanically applied the merchandise ways that had been profitable in his former place at a rival retailer, driving customers away and crashing a 50-year-old firm in lower than three years.
There are additionally examples the place I’ve not been behind the scenes, however noticed and utilized the Map-Compass idea strictly from the surface.
In February 2020, below the compass management CEO, the primary employed from outdoors the corporate, L.L. Bean showed up on the catwalk for the first time at New York’s Fashion Week in collaboration with Todd Snyder. A century-old utilitarian heritage model assembly the affect of a designer identified for his relaxed, trendy manner with basic American menswear turned perform into trend: clever and related. And in Covid-bound October 2020, when the outside held a particular attract, the identical CEO made a restricted part of branded gear obtainable on a third-party web site (Zappos), which heritage retailers have been loath to do on the time.
The Hybrid Very best
To me, retail map leaders are any executives with no regard or respect for the continuing client tradition shifts on this risky new age, simply evidenced by missteps like tone-deaf advertising and marketing emails that plead, “Spend extra to avoid wasting extra.” In monetary name transcripts, they inevitably blame waning numbers on the economic system—irresponsible in an election yr—or blame their prospects—as if, one way or the other, we aren’t procuring sufficient. Their regressive mindset and knowledge blindness is much more obvious when in comparison with the visionary assertion made by Uniglo founder and CEO Tadashi Yanai throughout his year-end earnings call, when the forecast was an 18% progress: “Individuals need to scale back surplus issues and frills and stay merely in their very own manner.” Compass. Large time.
My favourite instance is a map and compass hybrid: CeraVe skin care ads, that includes the deadpan actor, Michael Cera. What may need been a run-of-the mill celeb endorsement (map) grew to become a intelligent, comedic put down (compass), with the corporate reassuring us that regardless of what he would possibly declare, Cera isn’t the founding father of CeraVe, strengthened on their web site with an X-ed out portrait of the actor, alongside this message: “Developed with Dermatologists. Not Michael Cera. He’s not a dermatologist.” I’ve by no means labored with the compass leaders who stated sure to that concept, however I might have cherished to be within the room for that dialogue.