| STRATEGIC ANALYSIS |
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| Company values on the CEO/GM agenda? |
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I am an active supporter and promoter of a company's social role, alongside the purpose of creating profit for its stockholders! The first thing is the idea that companies should be an ideal place for the growth and education of responsible and ethical people with a desire to have a positive impact in the communities they are part of.
I am talking about the workplace as well as other non related environments! This is the philosophy behind every conversation and business project we have with our clients in which I am personally involved.
In all of the meetings I had this year I discovered that more and more top managers have become serious about the value and importance of permanent education and they have a better understanding of the mechanics involved. They give more importance to values such as honesty, fair-play, respect, trust, solidarity and business processes aimed at sustainable performance.
Has this difficult time we are going through brought such things to the top of a GM/CEO 's agenda? Has it made those that were sceptical or minimized the importance of what is ultimately the foundation of a company second-guess themselves? Has it given them enough arguments to use values as a starting point for some of the difficult decisions they have to make? Has the idea of revitalizing the organisation through its values become an active, serious and personal responsibility for a GM or CEO?
My opinion is that for most managers the first 6 months of 2009 weren't enough in terms of turning their intentions and inquiries into strategic actions that require urgent implementing! I do see a lot of top managers with more patience when it comes to asking questions, listening and understanding how the company works! Any heart attack makes you more careful about your lifestyle: you want to understand it, you want to change the things that could provoke another one! It's a time when you find out what matters to you most and you place that at the centre of your priorities!
This is what I see happening today: truly responsible top managers are searching for business reasons they could use to place company values at centre stage! Some will find and transform management processes within the company others won't - and as such they will change nothing! I say it's still a huge step ahead!
Values and organizational culture have the force to generate flexible or rigid companies, adaptable or bearish ones. They can sustain a responsible and involved attitude or on the other hand they can provoke indifference! I think this year is an ideal one when it comes to placing healthy values at the very base of your company. A new page has been turned.
I wanted to find out how a few top managers (which are interested in this subject) responded to this particular set of events. I asked them the following question "Have
the first 6 months of 2009 been enough so that company values could gain the
attention of a GM/CEO among other strategic priorities?"
Markus Wirth, Country Manager
Holcim (Romania)
A strong brand is a promise delivered across all brand touch-points. Our values are the key mechanism for delivering our promises.
Holcim is one Group, delivering the same values to all our stakeholders, wherever you go. "Strength. Performance. Passion." have become since 2006 the global values of Holcim.
Our brand strategy builds on a shared set of values and related promise applicable to all Group companies. To build and sustain a premium brand requires delivering on our values through products, services, channels, communication and above all the competencies and behaviour of our people.
These values are essential ingredients for obtaining good results for the company and have always been a priority for us. They support our strategic directions and the alignment of all operations and employees.
Enhancing our values helps us:
• Build a better long term relationship with customers who will bring us more business
• Protect and enhance our reputation and level of support we receive in our communities
• Deliver on promises to all stakeholders, thus building more confidence and trust
In times of uncertainty we realize that these values are a real anchor which maintains the company on the right track and helps us see new opportunities. Crises are not a moment for companies to start or reshape their values, but it is a moment when the existence or absence of values is to be strongly felt.
One of the things that bring full satisfaction to a GM is seeing people who put a lot of passion, capability and effort to achieve their best results every day of the week. I think that every company success is based on its people and therefore it is very important that employees identify themselves with the company values and organizational culture. In Holcim, we made a great progress in living the company values but we also admit that we still have work to do in this area. We used the Human Synergistics methodology to identify our current organizational culture and we implemented the required actions in order to achieve the kind of culture we aim for. Periodically we conducted organizational studies to see exactly where we are and which the next steps we have to take are. The results of the Best Employers Romania survey this year (4th place) came as a confirmation of the engagement of our employees and proof that they feel and live the company values. We have also carried out dedicated training programs in order to develop the leadership competencies we require and encourage. All these actions will be continued aiming at becoming "employer of first choice".
As long as we build our company values as a bridge over the mix of generations we have in the company I am sure we will manage to get the needed stability over the turbulent waters of today. More senior people have definitely assimilated our values to a greater extent and they are now becoming role models to our junior people and to the coming generations.
We do not consider that special projects have to be developed in the company specifically for embedding values. Their integration is a daily activity done through people, systems and processes in place. Living the values achieves the vision and mission of our company and enhances our reputation in front of all our stakeholders. Embedding our values is a permanent activity in our company, it is about the way we do business.
Oliver W. Olson, Country Manager,
Romania, CEU Business School
(I frequently like to use analogies. So forgive me for this long one.)
When I think about the first six months of 2009, I picture hundreds of boats sitting still in the water with their sails dangling useless from the masts. All of these boats think that they are competing in a sailing race. But then they see a couple boats start to move forward! What is this! They have found another way to propel themselves. This is not fair. It must be against the rules somehow. By the time the other boats start looking for other means of propulsion, they have already lost the race.
Some boats entered this 'crisis' well prepared and had alternate means of propulsion from the start of the race. They were using their sails last year because that was the most efficient way to move forward given the windy conditions. Other boats saw them moving forward and thought that the sail was the key to the race. A few of these "sail only" boats will survive because they immediately started to send their sailors below-decks to start building a motor as soon as the wind stopped. But they will still be behind those boats that were already prepared.
Granted, for the "well prepared" boats, it is also a struggle. Perhaps it takes time to switch resources internally from wind-power to diesel-power. They were very likely not leading the race at the end of 2008 since the boat is heavier because of the additional forms of propulsion and fuel. But they will have the best chance of winning and will be almost guaranteed to at least finish the race (e.g. - survive 2009).
How do we convert this analogy back into lessons we can actually apply to our business? First of all, the first six months of 2009 have been a perfect opportunity for a CEO to assess the fundamental drivers of the business. Has it been a success because the company is well lead or simply because there has been so much liquidity in the economy that any business could survive? Has the CEO been leveraging his/her experience to prepare the company for the current crisis?
Second, a company's strategic focus must always remain one of the fundamentals of the company. In the analogy above, the sail or the motor was not the business. The business was to reach the finish line of the race. When the wind dies, the finish line still needs to be reached. The wind does not define the purpose of the race, it is just a variable. This crisis is just a variable. Customers are still looking for quality products at a fair price with good service.
So the answer is yes. The first six months of 2009 has definitely been enough time for a company to get the attention of the CEO in terms of strategic planning.
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Human Invest is a Premier League company in the arena of training and organizational development consultancy services, present on the Romanian market since 1998.
We are recognized for conceiving and implementing programs which offer managers an authentic experience towards improving their leadership performances, and thus we support companies in becoming more and more engaged in delivering excellent services for their clients.
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