Leaders and their impact on strategy and innovation

Last week saw us host the annual Gerard Daniels Spring Networking Event at The Ritz hotel in London. We were joined by guest speaker Adam Parr, the former Chief Executive of Williams Formula One.

The topic of wider debate was the role of leaders in strategy and innovation. Historically, for many industries, business success hinged on operational excellence. Optimising for efficiency and perfection, businesses recruited for expertise. Traditionally, our talent was assessed against the requirements of a known world where business models typically stood the test of time.

Today, things are not as certain. Businesses face growing challenges to their longevity, with the average lifespan of a company decreasing from 62 years to 17 over the last 50 years. Business success now hinges on how quickly the organisation can respond to changing markets, competitors and customer needs. Leaders and their teams must now be able to deliver both operational effectiveness and innovation.

Businesses often use the word ‘strategy’ without necessarily understanding what it actually means. Having just completed his PhD, Adam was able to explain how aspects of his research relating to strategy have been redefined throughout history. The word ‘strategy’ was initially used in a military context, with the best leaders being able to articulate and then implement the means to defeat their opponents. Being able to cast aside disruption and to some extent emotion, the better leaders are able to fully focus on their end-goal and define the most successful path to reach their objectives. This may not make them the most popular of individuals, but they will be successful and their results will show this.

How does strategy impact innovation? There is a perception perhaps that lends to the thought that by having a well-defined strategy this can stifle innovation across an organisation and not allow people to go beyond their usual ways of thinking. However, it was argued that by creating boundaries for people to operate within forms ‘safe harbours’. This allows individuals/teams to work safely and securely in the knowledge that they have the relevant resources and required support, regardless of whether the innovation is successful. Failure is not something to fear, but something to learn from.

Given how language has changed, there will be a number of ways people will use to describe what strategy really means. But what this discussion showed is that a good strategy is one that is clearly defined, is iterative by nature, robust against disruption and allows teams and individuals the freedom to work within boundaries that allow them to be successful without the fear of failure.