Continued from Synopsis of Full Stack Leadership – Upcoming book from PM Power – Post I
Leading Business
Let us look at the values, principles and practices of leading business.
The values of Leading Business are given here:
| Dimension | Value | What the value does |
| Leading Business | Innovation | This gives you competitive advantage, it energizes your associates, it keeps your stakeholders happy, it helps you grab opportunities and grow, and thus guides you in leading business |
| Customer and Market focus | This gives you sustained success; it gives you high reputation, and again competitive advantage | |
| Organization brand/value | It helps you build a strong foundation; a positive work environment; engaged stakeholders; leaders with business acumen; and attract top talent and be competitive | |
| Social responsibility | This gives you enhanced brand value, helps you attract great talent, gives you cost savings; and drives innovation |
The principles of Leading business are the following:
(The labels against the principles B01, B02, BP01, BP02 etc. are the identifiers given in the book)
| Value | Principle | How the principle drives the value |
| Innovation | B02: Breaking of tradition / finding trailblazing ideas | By making for the challenging of the status quo and creating new solutions, these new ideas can create substantial value for customers, markets, and society |
| B05: Experimentation and learning | By creating and achieving breakthroughs when individuals, teams, and organizational units are allowed to experiment and learn from their failures | |
| B10: Risk appetite | The higher the risk appetite, the higher the chance of success of innovation (or maybe failure). By taking risks, but by managing and mitigating them an organization can innovate, and succeed and grow | |
| B09: Looking out for opportunities | Acquiring startups and products not only helps in creating new markets and in diversification into new areas, and also in incorporating new technologies into existing products, which helps in market dominance | |
| B17: No active inertia | By overcoming complacence of people settling in in the current way of doing business and bringing in fresh thinking in the way of doing things. |
| Value | Principle | How the principle drives the value |
| Customer and Market Focus | B04: Customer value | By consistently delivering value, providing ongoing benefits and improvements to customers, organizations can foster stronger customer relationships, increase loyalty, and drive long-term success. |
| B01: Listening to the voice of the customer | By being a valuable insight and data point that helps an organization chart their strategy and course | |
| B14: Stakeholder buy-in | By securing the support and commitment, as early as possible, from some of the key people who are needed for the venture to succeed. | |
| B16: Trust pipes | By having an open communication channel with stakeholders and providing reliable, transparent, empathetic, and ethical communication in both directions. |
| Value | Principle | How the principle drives the value |
| Organization brand/value | B07: Capability and capacity | By ensuring that any project or venture can be implemented in the best possible way ensuring efficiency, effectiveness and competitive advantage |
| B11: Business acumen | By ensuring that leaders make excellent and original decisions since they have financial acumen, technical expertise and are steeped in nonlinear thinking | |
| B06: Data driven culture | By ensuring the making of decisions on strategy, investment and growth based on hard data and data analysis, rather than based on hunches | |
| B03: Unique brand | By creating a leading position for the organization in the product market, in the hiring market, and also in the financial market and helping the market remember you, and therefore be loyal to you | |
| B15: Organic and Inorganic growth | By ensuring newer products and technologies, better market penetration, more customers, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures and partnerships | |
| B18: Performance-oriented culture | By fostering an environment where everyone is committed to achieving the highest levels of excellence and where the work of associates is measured against clear and defined performance metrics |
| Value | Principle | How the principle drives the value |
| Social responsibility | B08: Diverse and inclusive environment | By empowering people from different cultures and beliefs, religions, physical and mental abilities, genders, social backgrounds, age groups, sexual preferences and orientations, and outlooks on life. |
| B12: Advancing social and economic conditions | By implementing strategies and policies that address issues such as poverty, inequality, pollution, and lack of access to essential services of communities | |
| B13: Sustainability | By ensuring that we leave behind a livable world |
Here are the practices that enable the principles of Leading Business
Practices of Principle B01: Listening to the voice of the customer (Value: Customer and Market focus)
| BP01: Engage customers in the business ecosystem | BP02: Formalize continuous engagement with customers |
Practices of Principle B02: Breaking tradition / finding trailblazing ideas (Value: Innovation)
| BP03: Have a business model for innovation | BP04: Show benefits to upstream and downstream stakeholders |
| BP05: Invest in growth as early as possible | BP06: Encourage innovation and creativity among associates |
Practices of Principle B03: Unique brand (Value: Organization brand/value)
| BP07: Create customer segmentation and unique requirements mapping | BP08: Create a strong brand identity and consistent brand messaging |
| BP09: Deploy stakeholders as brand ambassadors | BP10: Ensure service excellence and customer satisfaction |
Practices of Principle B04: Customer value (Value: Customer and Market focus)
| BP10: Identify the value proposition for each customer and segment | BP12: Prioritize work based on ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’. |
| BP13: Ensure there are no wastes of omission and commission |
Practices of Principle B05: Experimentation and learning (Value: Innovation)
| BP14: Make innovation a part of the organizational vision | BP15: Encourage a culture for experimentation and risk-taking |
| BP16: Have formal and informal mechanisms to share learning inside and outside | BP17: Build diverse and inclusive teams with people with different perspectives |
Practices of Principle B06: Data-driven culture (Value: Organization brand/value)
| BP18: Create a data plan and invest in avenues for getting reliable, high-quality data from various sources | BP19: Constantly analyze data and identify trends towards ongoing learning and improvement |
| BP20: Integrate data into all aspects of operations | BP21: Invest in people with big-data and AI skills |
Practices of Principle B07: Capability and capacity (Value: Organization brand/value)
| BP16: Have formal and informal mechanisms to share learning inside and outside | BP22: Have a formal mechanism to manage talent |
| BP23: Learn to adapt to change and manage change |
Practices of Principle B08: Diverse and inclusive environment (Value: Social responsibility)
| BP17: Build diverse and inclusive teams with people with different perspectives | BP24: Foster a culture of respecting diversity and inclusiveness |
| BP25: Ensure diversity among all stakeholders |
Practices of Principle B09: Looking out for opportunities (Value: Innovation)
| BP26: Have a formal mechanism to look out for, plan and assess acquisition opportunities |
Practices of Principle B10: Risk appetite (Value: Innovation)
| BP15: Have formal and informal mechanisms to share learning inside and outside | BP27: Maintain a risk-reward framework/matrix |
| BP28: Invest in diversification, insurance |
Practices of Principle B11: Business acumen (Value: Organization brand/value)
| BP29: Financial acumen/literacy | BP30: Technical proficiency |
| BP31: Nonlinear thinking |
Practices of Principle B12: Advancing social and economic conditions (Value: Social responsibility)
| BP32: Incorporate Corporate Social Responsibility in your business model | BP33: Support local economies and social needs of communities |
Practices of Principle B13: Sustainability (Value: Social responsibility)
| BP34: Support environmental initiatives inside and outside | BP32: Incorporate Corporate Social Responsibility in your business model |
Practices of Principle B14: Stakeholder buy-in (Value: Customer and Market focus)
| BP35: Identify and engage stakeholders regularly | BP36: Align interests of stakeholders to organizational ventures |
| BP37: Create an effective governance mechanism for ventures |
Practices of Principle B15: Organic and inorganic growth (Value: Organization brand/value)
| BP38: Optimize or develop models of operations and business to support organic and inorganic growth | BP39: Continuous allocation of funds into enabling organic growth |
| BP40: Continuous allocation of funds into enabling inorganic growth and strategic allocation of funds to grow inorganically |
Practices of Principle B16: Trust pipes (Value: Customer and Market focus)
| BP35: Identify and engage stakeholders regularly | BP41: Establish, implement, and maintain formal policies for stakeholder communications and support |
| BP01: Engage customers in the business ecosystem |
Practices of Principle B17: No active inertia (Value: Innovation)
| BP16: Have formal and informal mechanisms to share learning inside and outside | BP42: Foster a culture of critical thinking |
| BP43: Constantly review, and change technology, strategy, processes, practices, stakeholder relationships, and values to align with changes in the environment | BP23: Learn to adapt to change |
Practices of Principle B18: Performance-oriented culture (Value: Organization brand/value)
| BP44: Create and implement effective performance metrics | BP45: Focus on continuous improvement |
| BP46: Create a positive work environment |
Continued in Synopsis of Full Stack Leadership – Upcoming book from PM Power – Post III- Leading Execution
Note:
The following posts together give a complete summary of the new book from PM Power – Full Stack Leadership
- Background and introduction to the book – 1
- Background and introduction to the book – 2
- Background and introduction to the book – 3
- Synopsis of the book – Introduction
- Synopsis of the book – Leading Business
- Synopsis of the book – Leading Execution
- Synopsis of the book – Leading Self
- Synopsis of the book – AI
