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It
was the best of times, it was the purple of times.
In a time when all have become too accustomed to
waiting for leadership from the political sector,
others are stepping forward. Writing like the
dickens, consider a tale of two regions -- Phoenix
and Fairfax, two speakers -- a CEO and a former CEO
-- and two audiences -- the W. P. Carey School’s
Economic Club and the Northern Virginia Technology
Council (NVTC). But there is only one message --
executive leadership is more critical now than ever
to the growth of companies, communities, states and
nations.
"Leadership
and management are not the same," former
Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina told the NVTC
banquet in mid-November in Tysons Corner.
"Management achieves great results within
visible constraints of the present, but leadership
means changing the order of things. Change is the
essence of leadership."
Business
development, community development and leadership
development are the answers to increasingly complex
global competitive pressures, according to Bank of
America Chairman, CEO and President Kenneth Lewis.
And so Lewis challenged Greater Phoenix earlier this
month to develop a culture that enables leaders from
across economic sectors to work together.
Executive
leadership is both an individual and a collective
thing. If it cannot come from broad-based business
groups, which by definition may be conflicted as the
membership broadens and interests become more
complex, executive leadership must come from
individuals who join together in whatever form
needed to be effective.
A
little background is in order. Carly Fiorina spent
years with companies in Northern Virginia, including
AT&T and Lucent, before heading to California to
take charge of HP, a legendary technology pioneer
that, incidentally, had missed its earnings
estimates for nine straight quarters. From 1999 to
2005, a time that includes the then- controversial,
now seemingly wise, merger with Compaq, she made
tough choices (also the title of her best-selling
book) that both turned the company around and turned
a board of directors against her.
Now
back as resident of Greater Northern Virginia,
Fiorina is a board member at MIT, at former AOL CEO
Steve Case’s Revolution Health Group and at
Herndon-centered CyberTrust. Who
will ever doubt again the value of a dual major in
medieval history and philosophy?
Kenneth Lewis left
his home state of Mississippi to earn a degree in
finance from Georgia State University, then went to
work in 1969 for North Carolina National Bank. There
over the years he learned to swallow other banks
whole, including what had been Virginia National
Bank, Sovran and NationsBank. Finally, he acquired
the Bank of America and brought it home to
headquarter in Charlotte, far away from its Bank of
Italy roots in San Francisco. Now that’s changing
the order of things.
"It
is always a leader’s job to see the future and
push change," Fiorina continued before a
ballroom full of technology executives. "If a
decision-maker waits to act until everyone else sees
the need, it’s too late.
"That’s
why for business the leading indicators are more
important than lagging ones, such as profit and
earnings statements, that reflect decisions already
made," the former CEO suggested. "Customer
satisfaction, the rate of innovation and the
diversity of the management team are leading
indicators. Diversity can mean it is harder to get
consensus, but the decisions are all the better for
having fully explored all the options."
Bank
of America’s Lewis channels on the same wave
length. His company has learned to leverage
diversity -- across markets, revenue streams,
geographies and people -- to mitigate risk. In the
jargon of modern business, he’s pushed his company
to centralize and automate for investors, but
decentralize and integrate for clients.
Bank
of America, for example, is putting up $750 billion
over ten years to develop historically under-served
neighborhoods around the United States to promote
home ownership, develop community services and spur
small business creation. But rapid economic growth,
Lewis told his Arizona State University audience,
can make community leadership both more difficult
and necessary as economic growth transcends
political boundaries.
As
for those global challenges, the Bank of American
executive is optimistic that American companies and
America, itself, can compete. Yes, international
companies seeking to open new research and
development labs now prefer China to the U.S. by a
margin of 60 to 40 percent. Yes, last year’s
federal budget cut R&D funding in 21 of 25
areas. But Lewis suggested that the United States
remember it starts from a dominant position -- call
it executive leadership -- and that its education
and R&D infrastructure are still the best in the
world. When the U.S. and U.S. companies decide to
lead, in other words, they have the capability to
lead.
Both
Arizona and Virginia can end up benefiting from the
same advice: Aggressively market those core
advantages that differentiate the economies of each.
"Digital, mobile, virtual, personal ,"
said Fiorina, "That’s the immediate
future." Check.
Building
a culture of operational excellence -- efficiency,
accuracy, cycle times, customer satisfaction --
added Lewis, gets you there. Check.
"Communities
grow and thrive most efficiently when all residents
have a sense of community, security, and opportunity
that enables them to pour their energy into
productive work," Lewis concluded in Phoenix.
Check.
"We
always want to be a place where people want to come
and to stay and to make a difference," Fiorina
concluded in Fairfax. Check.
Considered
together, it’s not a bad executive checklist for
making government work, too.
--
November 20, 2006
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