{"id":5333,"date":"2023-02-11T10:45:33","date_gmt":"2023-02-11T10:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/leadership-roles_013122-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-09-11T11:29:22","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T11:29:22","slug":"leadership-roles_021123","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/leadership-roles_021123\/","title":{"rendered":"Redefining leadership roles is critical to be an effective Autonomous Enterprise"},"content":{"rendered":"
In our recent post discussing \u201cThe Six Principles of the Autonomous Enterprise<\/a>,\u201d we touched on all the key behaviors and technologies that must come together as smart leadership continuously seeks to refine the data it needs, in real-time, to be successful.\u00a0 We need to delve much deeper into the roles, traits, and responsibilities enterprise leaders must<\/em> develop if autonomous enterprises are going to be effective in their emerging ecosystems:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A strong governance capability has the talent, tech infrastructure, automation, and AI to deliver the data that will drive success with minimal manual interventions that impede progress and speed. The ultimate goal of an autonomous enterprise allows us humans to remove ourselves<\/em> from some parts of the system so that we can make continuous improvements to the ecosystem as a whole.<\/p>\n Ultimately this is about machines making decisions where we previously had humans and removing humans from loops that don\u2019t need humans anymore. Leadership must understand the data they need to be successful and assemble and govern the right system to deliver success.\u00a0 Hence great governance is about maximizing the ability of talent to understand and access data, make rapid decisions based on that data and have a seamless infrastructure that houses that centralized data, and embed an effective risk management framework.\u00a0 Bringing together those processes and interactions with trusted and scalable automation frees humans from slowing down decisions and operating effectively in fast-changing ecosystems.<\/p>\n What are the leadership roles needed to understand the data they need? How can we build the right internal teams and external partnerships to support an autonomous enterprise? And how can we design smart governance to manage key decisions faster with some degree of confidence? It really boils down to breaking down internal silos and designing leadership roles to drive better decisions and support talent.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Click to Enlarge<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n The Chief Executive Officer:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span> The CEO should be the leader who drives the infinite mindset<\/em> across the organization. He\/she must continuously define the purpose of the organization and relentlessly drive a fearless collaborative culture that values stakeholder value beyond shareholder value.\u00a0 As a leader, it\u2019s so easy to obsess with operational functions of the business during times of disruption or distress – in this case, a global pandemic \u2013 that it can create knee-jerk, often short-term decisions that could inherently damage your long-term vision, your business\u2019 culture and your raison d’\u00eatre<\/em>.\u00a0 With no defined time horizon, no clearly-defined rules, and with players that may enter and exit at any time, the primary objective of an infinite game is quite simply to keep playing<\/em>. The goal for businesses is to have the will and resources to stay in the game<\/em> through thick and thin.\u00a0 And none more so that the current unpredictable and challenging business environment.<\/p>\n Having lived and worked through four recessions, I personally understand the rapid change in leadership mindset that can occur when a firm goes from peacetime and growth to one of survival and all-out war.\u00a0 According to author Simon Sinek<\/a>, people look to leadership to serve and protect, to \u201cset up their organizations to succeed beyond their lifetimes.\u201d But in the modern landscape, most organizations place an unbalanced focus on near-term results that may ultimately prove to be self-defeating, like casting aside your umbrella in a storm because you haven\u2019t been getting wet. In short, business is no finite endeavor. This pandemic lays plain for all to see the game we are really playing.<\/p>\n The CEO is the ultimate collaborator, forcing the change that is needed and balancing the desires of the various stakeholders (the board, key clients, key partners, the employees).\u00a0 His\/her\/their team to make this happen, must be responsible for the full gamut of their customers, employees, and partners, working with a transformational wizard to bring together the process and technology with the real innovation ingredient:\u00a0 the people.\u00a0 Taking people out of routine work that should be automated or digitized and refocusing them on responsibilities that require real innovation and cultural affinity is so valuable.<\/p>\n Chief Transformation Officer:<\/strong> \u00a0<\/span>Any transformation leader worth their salt must be able to drill an autonomous mindset into their teams and work out a plan to implement the right technologies to form the baseline to break down silos and centralize critical data.<\/p>\n This leader must link front to back office and ensure processes run smoothly across functions to deliver the data\/outcomes the organization needs.\u00a0 This should ideally be someone who understands the challenges of enterprise operations and how to align them with the market-facing\/client-impact areas of the firm.\u00a0 Forget the old GBS head \/ shared services head role, as this just has repeatedly failed to get out of the transactional back-office world and the \u201cfinance factory\u201d. This person must oversee both technology and operations, understand the value of automation and AI, be able to design and implement change programs and work closely with the employee experience leader to eliminate the back office mindset from antiquated business functions into one that is aligned with the direction of the business.<\/p>\n Chief Customer Experience Officer:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span> This is the leader who lives and breathes the world of the customers and obsesses with how to engage <\/em>them as effectively as possible \u2013 right across the entire customer life-cycle – both with talented humans and autonomously where humans are not necessary.\u00a0 Ideally is someone who understands how to design customer interfaces, how to service customer needs leveraging both<\/em> digital tools and physical support, and ensuring the entire employee base is unified around (and incentivized on) driving customer impact.\u00a0 In addition, the CCXO must ensure the marketing mindset is to communicate with the customer, educate the customer, and develop specific programs that have a real impact on driving customer engagement and business growth.<\/p>\n Chief Employee Experience Officer<\/strong>:<\/span>\u00a0 Forget transactional HR, the employee experience leader is the person responsible for making the company a great, energizing place to work, where staff of all backgrounds, ages, experience levels cultures are energized by the values and desired outcomes of the firm. The CEXO must drive trust across managers and staff to embrace autonomous technologies and craft roles that maximize human interactions.\u00a0 Noone wants to be stuck in zombie roles in this environment where ambitious leaders demand value from their talent, delighting customers, colleagues and key partners.\u00a0 Never has there been a time when people skills are more important, supported by trusted and robust technologies and data infrastructures.<\/p>\n This individual must be the person who can manage the expectations of the board, the CEO, and the shareholders to create a company culture and values that everyone believes in.\u00a0 Moreover, the CEXO must be intimately involved in the creation and execution of training programs across the firm to attract talent who want to work for a company that will develop them, as well as establishing a culture and values they can identify with.\u00a0 This should ideally be a strong leader with broad experience in the business and staff development, who knows what it takes to be successful, and who understands how to motivate people beyond pure compensation.\u00a0 The best leaders today are also great people managers \u2013 and the CEXO role must be at the core of the business leadership, not some ancillary executive painting lip service and not having any real impact.<\/p>\n Chief Partner Experience Officer:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span> As the OneEcosystem environment evolves, the need to collaborate with entities with common objectives across the entire customer value chain has never been so prominent.\u00a0 Partners are no longer just <\/em>your suppliers. Suppliers are essential partners in delivering your goods\/services. Still, the OneEcosystem looks at partners more holistically \u2013 partners in the ecosystem involved in providing the customer experience across the entire customer lifecycle.<\/p>\n An autonomous enterprise needs to function autonomously both internally and externally. Essentially, the OneOffice and OneEcosystem are effective when processes and interactions require fewer manual interventions and data can be accessed in centralized repositories.\u00a0It requires leadership to have the ability to continuously refine the data it needs in real-time to be successful right across both internal and external ecosystems and the CPXO is the leader to drive this mindset into practice.<\/p>\n It is not enough to provide a high-level description of the key roles that will govern an autonomous ecosystem \u2013 enterprises must codify the responsibilities of each one of them to ensure transparency when measuring their effectiveness.<\/p>\n As highlighted below, adherence to each principle of the Autonomous Enterprise comes with different responsibility levels across the leadership roles.<\/p>\n We believe the CEO should ultimately be accountable for understanding data needed for success. Thinking about data as an “ecosystem builder” requires a mindset and cultural change – if the CEO does not show the way, nobody will. The CEO’s mandate is to lead the way and be directly accountable for the overall performance of transitioning into a data-driven enterprise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Click to Enlarge<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\nA robust governance system embedded across all decision touchpoints guides the effectiveness of your autonomous enterprise<\/span><\/h3>\n
These are the roles \u2013 and leadership traits \u2013 that will optimize the value from autonomous enterprise models<\/span><\/h3>\n
In the age of transparency, these roles must be codified to ensure accountability<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
The Bottom-line:\u00a0 The old way of running businesses is fast eroding as we rethink what constitutes success and ambition.\u00a0 Bring on autonomous principles to drive the next wave of innovation<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n