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Sarbanes Oxley : Governance : Thought Leader
Today’s CEO: A Jack of Which Trades?
How CEOs Should Determine Which Leadership Roles to Assume
By
Alan Brache
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Alan Brache
Vice President, Client Solution Design
Kepner-Tregoe
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The CEO of any organization – large or small, public or private, profit or non-profit – cannot and should not do it all, but too often, today’s CEOs attempt to wear too many hats. CEOs must recognize where – based on their capabilities and their organization’s needs – they should focus their most precious commodity: their time, said Alan P. Brache, Vice President, Client Solution Design, at Kepner-Tregoe Inc. (KT), an international consulting and training services firm.
A CEO’s most fundamental challenges are: knowing himself/herself well enough to correctly identify the roles that – based on capability, bandwidth, preference, and the number of hours in a day – he/she should play; and, ensuring that the other roles that are critical to the organization’s success are played by other members of the executive team. These challenges, according to Brache, require CEOs to examine the roles their organization requires, and what they must retain.
According to KT, the eight primary CEO roles include:
1) Visionary – Generators of big, new ideas. While most often the idea is a unique and breakthrough product or service, it also could be a lucrative and previously unidentified or untapped market or a novel business model to penetrate an existing product/market space.
2) Strategist – Strategy involves identifying the products/services to offer, selecting the markets to serve, determining appropriate product/market emphasis, and building competitive advantages in the chosen field of battle. It involves selecting or creating the strongest business models and may involve identifying acquisitions and alliance partners.
3) Implementer – Implementer CEOs’ forte is ensuring operational excellence. They install effective, streamlined processes and the systems and structures to support them. They develop appropriate metrics/goals and ensure that the organization achieves them. This role is not limited to cost reduction. Implementers may focus as much or more attention on customer satisfaction, safety, personnel practices, and regulatory compliance.
4) Motivator – Motivators excel at, and spend disproportionate time on, people needs and issues. Supported by their human resources executives, their expertise is in building an executive team, energizing/mobilizing/empowering, and creating a culture that attracts and retains the best and brightest.
5) Rainmaker – Rainmaker CEOs are the “salespersons-in-chief.” They have mastered the art of establishing high-level prospect/customer relationships and landing the big orders. Rainmaker CEOs spend a lot of time with the head of sales, who sees that the mechanics of the sales process (e.g., pricing, proposal-writing, contract administration) are managed. When considering this role, the CEO’s key question is, “Do I have a unique talent in this area or is it merely a preferred activity that could also be carried out by others?”
6) Marketer – Marketer CEOs are the organization’s face to current and potential customers. They embody and are frequently seen as synonymous with the brand. Marketer CEOs play a role nobody else can play. They spend a large portion of their time giving speeches, being interviewed by the media, and perhaps appearing in advertisements.
7) Dealmaker – Dealmaker CEOs focus on acquisitions, alliances, and licenses. While they are frequently Strategists, this role focuses on finding partners and negotiating business arrangements, often complex and unique, that are in the best interests of the shareholders.
8) Ambassador – Ambassador CEOs – like Marketers – focus on stakeholders outside the organization. They satisfy investors, feed Wall Street analysts, persuade lawmakers, educate and impact regulators, and meet the needs of outside board members. They often serve as “lobbyists-in-chief” and are in the public eye.
When determining which roles a CEO should assume, a CEO should ask, “What is my competitive advantage?” noted Brache. In other words, what high-priority contribution can I make better than anyone else that my organization has or could acquire? There are four steps a CEO can follow to determine his/her best roles within an organization:
1) Identify and set priorities on the roles that are most critical to organizational success, given the marketplace, competitive landscape, and the maturity of the industry and company.
2) Given the organizational needs and their personal capabilities, identify the primary role that they are best suited to play.
3) Identify their secondary and – only if skills and time allow – tertiary role.
4) Identify the individuals who will play the required roles not played by the CEO. Ensure that all organizational needs are being met by assigning relevant roles to key executives.
“Organizations rise or fall due to a number of variables, however, none is more important than the roles played by the CEO,” Brache adds. “In some cases, a CEO adds the most value by playing just one role at a world-class level.”
Alan Brache
Vice President, Client Solution Design
Kepner-Tregoe
Alan P. Brache focuses on strategy formulation/ implementation and customized applications of Kepner-Tregoe’s operational improvement processes.
His internal responsibilities include contributing to the positioning of the company and developing the capabilities of its consultants in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Japan.
From 1978 to 1986, Mr. Brache served in a number of positions with Kepner-Tregoe, including Product Manager, Technical Director of the Strategy Group, and Vice President of Product Development. He rejoined the company in 1997.
During his eleven-year absence from Kepner-Tregoe, Mr. Brache co-founded and was a partner in The Rummler-Brache Group, a consulting and training company that specializes in helping companies implement their strategies through the design and management of business processes, organization structures, measurement systems, and human performance environments. He rotated in and out of the CEO role and had ongoing responsibilities for marketing, product development, and managing the company’s operations outside of the United States.
Mr. Brache has addressed groups of business executives in 22 countries. He co-authored Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space on the Organization Chart, the book that launched the process improvement revolution and introduced the first set of tools for comprehensively managing an organization as an integrated system.
More recently, he is the author of How Organizations Work: Taking A Holistic Approach to Organization Health, which enables readers to diagnose each of the variables that influences their organizations’ performance. He has published articles in 25 business magazines.
Mr. Brache graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He resides in Southwestern Missouri.
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