Adam Kingl

There has been plenty of literature and discussion on ‘how to manage Gen Ys’. If their paradigms of work and ‘how to be led’ are indeed very different to those of their managers of earlier generations, then surely how Gen Ys will lead their organisations in the near future will look and feel new. Therefore, the nature of work and leadership is about to change in fundamental ways.

 We often hear about innovation in the context of inventing new products or services. One of the innovation levers of senior executives, one which can be even more powerful in transforming business success, is reinventing one’s business model. While the implications of strategic innovation can be profound, the process of identifying the industry-disruptive idea that reinventing one’s business can be very simple and approachable – it’s a matter of having different and better conversations. We will explore how to do so.

Over the last century, business has modernised it almost every way except for how it organises, leads, coordinates and motivates its people. Yes, those organisations who have innovated their act of management are celebrated as pioneers and leaders in their respective industries. It is possible for every business to develop a formal method for reinventing its management, just as it has done for products and processes for decades. Management breakthroughs can deliver incredibly powerful competitive advantages that are more sustainable and of a larger scale than any other creative act.

In company life, we are returning, on a several-hundred-year cycle, to the pre-eminence of humanity at the centre of what it means to lead. ‘Focusing on humanity’ implies recalling what followers notice first in their leaders – their behaviours. Then, we have to ask if those behaviours provide clarity, inspiration, engagement, coherence and enable creativity. The Renaissance was a flowering not only of the arts but of commerce, and the interdependency of those two forces. Are we in the midst of a new Renaissance of leadership that is asking us what it means to be human?

From Shareholders to Stakeholders in August 2019, Chief Executives from the Business Roundtable, including those from Apple and JPMorgan Chase, argued that companies should no longer advance only the interests of shareholders. The shift comes at a moment of increasing distress in the corporate world amidst global discontent over income inequality, sustainability and substandard quality of work-life. Business as usual is no longer acceptable. Though this shift seems unique, history shows us that capitalism has evolved numerous times over the centuries. At this inflection point, what can businesses do to survive and thrive, and who are the bellwethers to listen to within our organisations?