A brick-wall of a leader, a hard-line character, one who is inexorable and believes in little practical approach to setting targets is not a real contender for being voted a 'great' leader. Who is? He who is willing to compromise on his decisions, adjusts to situations, is kind to his followers, pays heed to (rather, respects) in-house warning and critics outside, and in the real sense, fits into the ‘participative’ or ‘delegative’ jacket – one that Kurt Lewin made famous in 1939. So you think. Good morning. World War II is long over. And the world of capitalism has undergone a sea change. Truth is – an uncompromising, bad leader of yesterday, is a great leader today. Call him the bad, great leader!
Born in Brazil to Lebanese parents, this individual didn’t know a word in Japanese when he was given the charge of rescuing one of Japan’s biggest auto companies. For him, the Japanese tradition-bound environment was wilderness. “The company wanted results, but it didn’t want change. Every idea I had was resisted. The Japanese people would propose something else to avoid my decisions,” he once said. From his schooling days at Beirut, he was known to be a person addicted to have matters his way. He did just that at the company. He closed down factories in a country where they are considered a religious place. He fired people in a culture that encouraged lifelong employment. He altered the hierarchical structure which till then was built on the oldest guy being promoted first. "Every single thing went against their values. It was a complete clash with the culture. I had a lot of criticism,” he recalls. Discussing his attitude, a 2012 McKinsey paper states: "He rewired the company’s culture. Sceptics pronounced his efforts doomed.” When he took over, the company had lost money for seven years. He fixed the bleed and got the company into the black in just a year. Today, the company is Japan’s fourth largest company (with $119.2 billion in revenues in FY2011), bigger even than Honda Motors, and well on track to capture 10% of the world’s auto market by 2016. Call him the straight-faced Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Japan’s Nissan Motors. “Leaders of tomorrow are going to have to be incredibly secure and sure of themselves,” says he. He was inflexible. Many at Nissan hated him for that. But today, he has become a comic book hero in Japan – and he still doesn't know fluent Japanese!
Another automaker, another CEO. When he joined the company in September 2006, it was drenched in losses and labour issues, losing $1,400 per vehicle sold. He was totally new to the world of cars. But, he was resultoriented. Then, the company was known to be a maker of gas-guzzling pick-up trucks. He did everything that would have made the company’s founder roll in his grave. The CEO forced his company’s R&D team to line up fuel-efficient hatchbacks, even went ahead to pledge the company’s assets and sell its iconic brands. On his first day at office, he questioned his engineers where the Taurus brand had disappeared. “We killed it. We made a couple that looked like a football. They didn’t sell very well,” answered one. Imagine the CEO's reply: “What do you mean, you killed it? You’ve got until tomorrow to find a vehicle to put the Taurus name on because that’s why I’m here!” He had no proof to substantiate his demand. But he wasn’t to change his decision. He’s a shame to the clan of 'kind, compromising' leadership preaching monks. Even today, he forces his decisions on his employees, only because he believes he is right. Today, every employee in the company’s America office walks around with a card that has goals printed on one side. When quizzed on why the compulsory badge, he said, “I wrote it. It’s what I believe in.” When he walked in, the company was in a mess. In two years leading to FY2008, it lost $27.5 billion. In the next three years, it earned $29.5 billion! And its m-cap is up by 220% since he walked into Ford. The unbending leader? Alan Mulally.
A decade and half back, he was the biggest symbol of failure in America. Today, he is adored. In the early days of his stint as CEO at the company, he realised that a certain supplier wasn’t doing quick work with spare parts supply. He demanded speed. The shipper refused saying that it did not have to! He was referring to a contract that the company had signed with the supplier. What did the metal-headed leader do? He broke the contract, despite his purchase manager warning him that this would invite a lawsuit. The CEO’s response: “Just tell them if they fu@# with us, they’ll never get another fu@#in’ dime from this company, ever.” A legal notice did arrive. But his decision stayed and a new supplier was hired! “I can push my employees further than they thought possible, and I won’t rush any product out the door without it being perfect,” said the CEO. You might have heard of how a CEO once fired an employee because she entered the wrong elevator and was asked about her job description which didn’t amuse him. It was him – Steve Jobs. And for you dear reader, if you feel that being single-minded and so inflexible earns no love from employees, jump off. Jobs called his employees “sh!theads” when they didn’t live up to his expectations. But they loved him. One employee who worked in the Mac development team while explaining about how Jobs would abuse anyone who compromised on what he believed was the right thing said, “I consider myself the absolute luckiest person in the world to have worked with him.”
Sometimes, being resolute means being illogical with setting targets for your team, displeasing your employees, firing a handful, altering culture, disappointing your customers, terrorising your shareholders et al. But when you read on the how great CEOs managed successful turnarounds like IBM’s Sam Palmisano, Continental Airlines’ Gordon Bethune, Ericsson’s Carl-Henric Svanberg, Sprint’s Dan Hesse, Marvel’s Peter Cuneo, Merck’s Richard Clark, you sense one common flavour. That these stars believed in what they thought was the right medicine for cure – being uncompromising. All of them fired employees, cut down supply, forced changes on products that they thought best and didn't bend in to demands of insiders or outsiders.
Decide, and don’t compromise on your decisions or demands. You didn’t become the CEO because the board & shareholders assumed your thoughts were wrong. And that is true for leading a start-up, a company in trouble or a well-established firm to growth. Be obstinately uncompromising!
