Mark of a leader: "I dont know". Lessons in Humility and feet to the ground from Apple, Nokia and Infosys 20 billion pipe dream
What is the Mark of a True leader, I believe the acknowledgement that he does not know it all sets apart a great leader from a pretend CEO. When you see the CEO proclaiming a great future without looking at ground realities, you get a feeling of abdication of common sense and humility.?There is an immense need for a leader at companies particularly tech companies that they do not know the whole story of their companies business. It keeps these leaders in a feet to the ground status, rather than in their own bubble. One case of feet to the ground leadership is Steve Jobs in 1999 when Apple was on the verge of Bankruptcy. And two cases of leaders in their own bubble which come to my mind are Nokia and Infosys. While Nokia mobile business was also a Kodak revisited, Infosys was a case of "no touch to reality" leadership. The CEO at Nokia knew exactly what had to be done and how he was going to achieve it. The leader at Infosys had no understanding on how the outsourcing market worked and proclaimed a 20 billion target by 2020, which was then changed to an aspirational target. Infosys was at a revenue figure of 18.55 Billion USD in 2023. The point to note is that if the CEOs were humble, and in touch with reality on the ground and to accept the fact that they did not know the whole picture, it would have been easier for them to draw a coherent plan which worked. The fact that they portrayed that they knew it all meant the company was in trouble. While the leader who said that he did not know it all meant that he was in an exploratory phase with feet to the ground. Particularly for Tech companies, when you have a leader that does not know it all, you know the company has a future compared to a leader of a company who knows it all.
Lets take the feet to the ground leadership at Apple first, In 1999 Apple was on the verge of Bankruptcy and Steve Jobs had now returned as the Apple CEO. There was an unsolicited advise from Michael Dell when he was asked at a Press conference on what advise he had for Steve Jobs at Apple. Michael Dell said that "The best thing to do for Apple, was to shut down and return the money back to the shareholders " . But Steve Jobs had been through many failures and had feet to the ground. He had launched the "Think Different " campaign at Apple in 1997 to 2002 setting a trend for apple to do some soulsearching on itself. That resulted in the iPod which was a success.
We now look at companies with Leaders who knew it all. We look at Nokia and Infosys, Both these companies were at the top of their game in their existing business models. When the model seemed threatened, they had new leaders to set things right. The challenge however is when the new leaders have no understanding of the ground reality and have abdicated their common sense and humility.?The best mantra for a Leader in this position is "I Dont know,?I have no clue of how the Market is going to turn out, but I will keep my eyes and ears open to understand". This gives the leader the mindset to get different view points. The problem arises when the leader thinks without keeping his eyes and ears open that they know exactly what to do..
Lets look at the leaders who knew exactly what to do and where they would take their company.
Nokia
CEO Stephen Elop with his burning Oil platform memo.?At the time of the memo (Feb 2011) he seemed to sound like a confident CEO, who knew exactly what to do, to take Nokia out of the troubles they were facing.? He said jump from this burning platform, but he did not know what to do after that.
11th February 2011 was the Burning Platform Memo and 2nd September 2013 Nokia was sold to Microsoft.?2 years and 7 months was all it took for Stephen Elops strategy to unravel.?The trouble was He knew it all.?He knew exactly how Nokia would take on Apple and Google.
The issue at Nokia was that they did not understand Apples attack mode, Apple had attacked Nokias VBE model (Short for Value Model, Business Model and Ecosystem). A VBE model has been used by companies to dominate a market for the last 200 years. A description of what VBE models is is explained here.https://youtu.be/2f5FXiRkAuc?si=JtZ84HkjUFh7abbr This required for Nokia to understand how it could respond to Apples threat. The problem was that Apple attacked Nokia with a Value Business and Ecosystem model and Nokia was trying to retaliate with a traditional response. Pl see the video for a clearer description on what happened to Nokia. https://youtu.be/sXiKeSmpLlQ The rest is History when an Iconic Finnish company went bankrupt. The next company where the CEO knew it all was Infosys.
Infosys 2020 : A target or a ....
领英推荐
.... Pipe Dream.
The second CEO who came to my mind was Vishal Sikka of Infosys who made a statement that Infosys had a goal to be a 20 Billion company by 2020. Clearly a growth oriented CEO who knew exactly how the IT outsourcing market would turn out.In 2014 Infosys had a revenue of 8.25 Billion USD and was supposed to be 20 Billion in just 6 years. A clear breakup of 20 billion (18.5 billion organic and 1.5 billion through acquisitions). Out of 18.5 billion 2 billion was to come from Digital services and 16.5 from traditional services. The maths didn’t add up.??Infosys needs to grow at an annual compounded growth rate of 14.8%, as against 7.44% growth rate from its revenue in 2016-17, to get to $16.5 billion. Infosys revenue in 2021 was 13.56 BUSD a far cry from 20 billion which Vishal was supposed to achieve by 2020. Infosys revenue in 2023 was 18.55 BUSD. So it is still to achieve the Target of 20Billion in 2024.
Below is a time line, of the 20 billion strategy: Read the news item from 2015 where it appears as the leader setting new directions to the article in 2017 of a leader for whom reality has caught up. The tone of the articles changed from ambition in 2015 to hope in 2016 to Sounds a wrong target in April 2017 to Vishal Sikka needs advise in June 2017. Mr Sikka resigned from Infosys in August 2017
Vishal Sikka?was the CEO of Infosys from (June 2014 to August 2017) to go from "we will be a 20 billion company" to?we having dropped its 20 billion target and having an advisory board advising Sikka.
Well my point though is what should be the mindset of a CEO to overcome troubles facing his company? The CEO of a company who has a mindset of "I dont Know" is better placed with feet to the ground to deal with the issues facing the company than a CEO with the mindset of he knows it all. The know it all CEO traps himself in a bubble of his own making setting the company up for disaster. Also in Infosys's case, any observer like me who was in front end sales of IT services would know, that 20 billion is smoke and mirrors without a strategy in place.?I feel more sorry for the countless Employees who are affected by the I know it all CEOs.?They have to dance to the tune knowing well that they are just making a show.
In Infosys case, and the Nokia case, if the CEO had a mind set of "I dont know" , it would have forced the CEO to explore ground realities and the outcome would be different.
I place my bets on the CEO with the mindset of “I DONT KNOW".
Nicely put, Abhijeet Kelkar. Admitting "I don't know" demonstrates humility and authenticity, opening the door for collaborative problem-solving. It shows a commitment to continuous learning and growth.