Is industry experience essential?

This age old chestnut often raises its head among my clients. Do you need industry experience to be an effective change leader?

 It makes me think of Adam Crozier now ringing changes at ITV. In 2000 he made a surprise move from Saatchi to the Football Association, where in addition to radically changing the FA’s structure, he redeveloped Wembley Stadium and appointed Sven, the first foreign manager of the English squad. His transformational credits at Royal Mail (good and bad) are oft cited too, and he’s switched sector again, this time to the media.

Does that mean sector skills are not that important – as long as you have a track record for delivering change?

I’ll be the first to admit it’s a hard question. A change manager is unlikely to get kudos or stakeholder credibility on a trading floor, if he has no experience of investment banking. No amount of change experience can counter the respect given for industry credibility in some environments.

 I’d also admit that my own company, whilst specialising in change and transformation, is still set up along sector lines, because most clients want people with experience, and recruiters need to know their industry sectors inside out.

However I can’t help feeling that there is a growing view that change is just change and its methodology can be applied to any sector.

I've seen this in action too. Recently a CEO of a large wealth management business looking to increase its digital online presence asked specifically for candidates who were not from a financial services background. He wanted a digital leader from a retail or media background who could provide a creative approach and bring knowledge from more digitally advanced businesses.

I believe that many IT and digital change managers are becoming industry inter-changeable. Someone who has implemented a shared service centre at a bank can probably replicate shared services in another sector. I’d say the same was true of leaders focussed on people-orientated change.

That brings me back to the FA and Royal Mail. The biggest transformation for both was in the structure and organisation, and a strong communicator (with employees and media alike) was as important as understanding change management principles.

Should companies be more open-minded about the track record of potential change managers? Of course they should, but within limits. You wouldn't ask your financial advisor to do a spot of babysitting or your business accountant to pick a venue for your Christmas party.

Likewise, there does come a point when leading change means you must understand the business, be it industry acronyms or regulatory requirements.

However, on occasion as with the CEO I mentioned, we are asked by clients to look for skills without business sector experience. In such instances, we spend a lot of time with clients making sure that we are both clear on the fundamentals of the change role we are recruiting. After all there is nothing worse for us or them than hiring the wrong person because the job spec played down essential requirements. 

It will be interesting to see how the role of business transformation and change leadership shapes up, particularly as some of the lines between industries continue to blur.

 Will sector requirements merge or will industries always have their own unique requirements? Will some disciplines like digital transformation become even more universal, while other areas become even more specific?

 I’d be interested to know what you think.

written by Barnaby Parker, CEO of Venquis, the Business Transformation recruiter. All feedback, comments, likes and connections are welcomed.