A Strategy Expert vs. a CEO

Yesterday, I started sharing with you Raka's?story. As you read this, realize this career stagnation will happen and the most important thing you can do is acknowledge it and confront it. Some clients pursue EMBAs but all this does is push the stagnation forward. Yet it will still come.

Raka is a coaching client we worked with who experienced stagnation in her career and needed help.?If you missed the beginning, you can find?part 1?here. Part 2 is below...

... When she joined the coaching program about a year after this had happened, she wanted to ask us what she could do to show her colleagues the value of strategy to the company and ways to become a better strategist.

Through a series of conversations, we?flipped the question around. We?wanted to show her that she's not the best strategist in the company. Second, we?wanted to show her that she needs to think carefully about whether strategy formulation is the skill the next CEO needs. And third, we?wanted her to ask herself whether she is the best person to be CEO.

We gave her an example about Formula One racing. The example of Formula One racing goes like this. Mercedes Benz is dominating Formula One. Now there is a guy called Hamilton. Not Linda Hamilton, she is fighting terminators. Not George Hamilton, he is getting a tan and Alexander Hamilton found Federal Reserve and he is dead. Oh yes, it’s Lewis Hamilton. Lewis Hamilton is a former?Formula One world champion.

Imagine if I said to him, “Lewis, you’re winning Formula One, so you obviously know what you're doing, but I'm a management consultant, so I’m going to help you develop a strategy to be better at Formula One." I’m going to use the typical strategy approach that all readers?would know if they’ve read?The Strategy Journal?and followed?Insider?programs.?"The first thing I'm going to do is a top-down analysis. I'm going to interview everyone: you, competitors like Ferrari, past winners, and we're going to find out different things you can do to win more races. Next, I’ll do case studies of past winners. Then I'm going to do a top-down financial analysis to find out where there are gaps. Where are we slow, where are the costs, where are the investments going.”

We will do focus interviews, benchmarks, case studies, and top-down financial analysis. I’ll analyze all of the data I can get access to from all of the races. I look at data that even Lewis Hamilton's team doesn’t have access to. Maybe Ferrari is nice to me, and they give me access to their data because they will find it useful if I share some of my findings with them. I then have a workshop with Lewis Hamilton and his team and point out things they haven’t seen before.

For example, maybe Ferrari is using a slightly different technique to change the wheels when the car comes into the pit stop, and they shave off 1/10th of a second because of it. Now, 1/10 of a second is a lot when it comes to racing. The other thing I realize is that the way one of the teams, maybe the Red Bull Sauber team, jumps into their cars is a little bit different, which means they shave off 1/5 of a second.

I also realize the Ferrari team starts their engines in a different way. Even though Lewis Hamilton is now winning, I come up with a list of things he and the Mercedes Formula One team can do differently to be faster based on the way they organize themselves and where they make the investments to be faster. I give Lewis Hamilton and his team this big presentation and say to him, “Lewis, you're going to win” and he wins.

Now, can I say I'm a better driver than Lewis Hamilton? That would be absurd for me to say that because I analyzed it and came up with a better strategy, I'm a better driver than Lewis Hamilton. Of course, I'm not a better driver than him. I've never been in a Formula One sports car. But I may be?the best?advisor?to Lewis Hamilton.

Not to keep this email too long, I will finish Raka's story in the next post ...?

Why not have a big life.

Kris

CEO, FIRMSconsulting.com & StrategyTraining.com

P.S.?Reignite?YOUR career:?We are co-designing with our clients a group coaching program tentatively called?The?MasterPlan Coaching Program. The program is based on the work we have done with senior clients to reignite their careers. The program is still being designed but?the limited seats are already being allocated, and here are some details on what we are planning:

We are putting together a small cohort of?group coaching clients with whom we will work over a half a year journey. The planned focus areas of the program:

• More clarity on the Massive Transformation Purpose (MTP aka vision)
• Develop a MasterPlan / the critical path for your career and life?
• Start a guided implementation of your MasterPlan
• Half a year challenge towards the result YOU want to accomplish, with milestones and accountability
• Identifying the skills gaps. For example,?leadership skills, problem-solving skills, networking, communication skills, etc. Prepare a plan to close the skills gap?
• Help you understand and break down limiting beliefs,?limited mindsets, old patterns, and bad habits that may be holding you stuck
• Dealing with personal circumstances and how to have a balance between career/business growth and personal life/taking?care of your health/family/community
• Positioning you as a leader within your organization
• A support system and an opportunity to establish a life-long network, and potentially friendships with other accomplished professionals in your peer group
• Accountability partners to ensure enough support and accountability?

It's a rare?opportunity for elevation in position, getting consistent guidance and support on your journey, gaining clarity on the vision, learning from other accomplished professionals, and building a life-long network, and potential friendships.

This is a pilot program and your opportunity to co-design it with us and the rest of the group to be the transformative program YOU need at this point in your career and life. This may be the ONLY time we ever offer this program.

We are aiming to start this program in March and filling in the?remaining?seats now.?If you are inclined to embark on this journey with us?email [email protected].?

Here are descriptions of this program from our clients?...

• It's a group of people that want to create some very large change in their life. They either do know what it is or don't know what it is. They don't want to waste tons of time doing that. There's a bunch of learnings that are out there and coaching that can help them avoid making the wrong moves for them. And then once they are somewhat clear on where they want to head towards, of course, there'll be nuances they go about learning, helping them avoid the pitfalls that often they would have fallen?into along that change.
• It's not going to be a program for too junior of a person... Looking at our career?as if it's four quarters of a sports game.?And starting at the age 25 to 35,?that's the first quarter. And age 35 to 45,?that's the second quarter. 45 is halftime...?and 55 is the end of the 3rd quarter and 65 is game over. Now, that sounds a little harsh, but just looking over 10-year spans,?this is probably a program for somebody who's approaching that halftime. Still has third quarter, fourth quarter. How we can use the experience gained from the first half of the game?to be able to really create a high magnitude impact in the 3rd and 4th quarters of the game.
• A way to get structure, encouragement, and action towards your big life's goals.

P.S.S. If you would like to join the Why Not Have a Big Life LinkedIn group, you can do so here.