Get Out of a Jam with a Three-Phased Approach

Organizations get into a jam for a whole host of reasons. Some jams are externally induced, like a tragedy, a natural disaster or a huge market meltdown. Some are internally induced, thanks in part to stupid mistakes, sometimes from the “Bottleneck.” Where’s the Bottleneck? It’s at the top of the bottle, of course. Volkswagen’s brand is now in disarray over its seemingly fraudulent diesel emissions data. What a way to mess up a once-stellar record.

Good bye, former CEO Martin Winterkorn. Hello newly minted CEO Matthias Mueller. As an industry insider, Muller has been an Audi, Lamborghini and Porsche car guy for four decades. AS CEO, he guided the Porsche brand to further achievements. Domain expertise will serve him well if he deploys the fundamental steps to get VW out of this jam. He’s off to a good start. When he took over, he outlined his major goal--to recapture the credibility and trust that so quickly eroded due to this disclosure that VW lost its moral compass and faked its emission results. Now what? Many don’t trust an insider to repair what they consider a dysfunctional culture that perpetrated such a massive fraud.

Here's a tried and true three-phased approach to advance, It's the way forward:

• First, hatch a plan collaboratively that has the buy-in of all major constituents who need to execute that plan to accomplish that goal. I mean everyone…vendors, dealers and VW employees. He can’t do what needs to be done alone.
• Second, kick off the plan by completely aligning that team around its critical success factors to accomplish the key goal. There’s no room for any oar in the water rowing in a different direction...by even one degree. 
• Third, crisply and assertively execute the plan arrowed at the goal’s key focal point, with transparent communications to get and keep the firm on track in order to pull the plan off.

Mueller’s leadership can become legendary if he puts “the ABCs to Advance” in action. Or, he could go the way of ex-CEO Ron Johnson, who so badly botched JC Penney by not practicing these fundamentals.