Beyond 2020: Mobilising Enterprise

In part 2 of Beyond 2020, we consider what it means to mobilise enterprise to build the scale and sustainability needed to reboot growth, and help leaders turn their organisations into good corporate citizens.

Mobilising to build enterprises on the scale required to change our fundamental socio-economic condition needs sustained leadership that is, by definition, a team game because:

• The impact of our collective leadership must be to engage, motivate, and catalyse a generation (or two) to act in the service of creating a better future. After all, if we carry on doing what we are doing, we will carry on getting what we are getting. So, it follows that building sustainable enterprises will require us, collectively, to change what we do and the way we do it.
• The required outcomes cannot be delivered by individuals doing their own jobs well. They require collaboration between the public and private sectors; between suppliers, producers and customers; between those who have the ability to make things happen and those who have the power to stop them; between those whose collective skills, experience, knowledge, power and influence are required to get the results we want for our country, our society, our communities, our neighbours, our children and ourselves.

Many agencies subordinated their right of independent action to jointly deliver an outstanding experience for those who visited and participated in the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. Westminster Council’s CEO was one of many who were involved in years of planning and delivery. In his view, the result could not have been achieved without a clear commission for the team that was put in place; and sustained, effective team work to make it happen. On the few occasions when someone protected or promoted their own narrow interest rather then the overall one, the behaviour was dealt with quickly and effectively.

• Achieving the required outcomes will take a long time. People will run their own laps and then pass the baton to others. One generation will take over from another. This isn’t “job and finish” — it is a way of being.
• Building sustainable enterprises isn’t just for business men and women. Public servants and regulators must also participate in and help expedite the process for it to succeed — creating wealth and using it wisely is at the heart of public service too.

Each of us has to ask him/herself: should my organisation be part of such an agenda? Should I be part of it myself? Do I want to be? And, if your answers are affirmative, then how can you engage others in shaping that agenda and making it happen?

The MD of a credit card business is determined that it, and the sector of which it is a part, should help its customers build better lives. He has taken a sustained personal interest in mobilising his business to think and behave differently, such that it now holds itself responsible for helping sub-prime credit card customers restore their credit rating and thereby qualify for lower interest rates. This has involved taking some personal risks, including advocating, and winning support for, his approach with the foreign parent.

What Can I Do?
One of the principles of solution-focused coaching is that the client comes up with things he/she might do to help mobilise his/her own enterprise and others. As coaches, our role is to facilitate clients in that process. So what follows is intended to stimulate your thinking and action, rather than provide a blueprint or checklist.

• What is your mission in life? What will matter most to you when, in your healthy old age, you look back at who you have been, what you’ve done and whose lives you have touched? What regrets might you have, if any? How might all this inform your next step?
• Reflect on who you really are. How well do you connect your head, your heart and your moral compass? Is the version of “you” whom you most like and respect the one who speaks and acts most of the time you’re at work? If not, how can you bring the “best” you more fully into your job?
• Find a source of inspiration that lifts your spirits and raises your sights. Catch the mood and see where it takes you. Let your imagination take flight.
• If there is one thing you could do to make a difference, what would it be and for whom? How can you use your talents, resources and positions of influence and power to do that?
• How can your colleagues, friends, neighbours and family help you become the best you can be? How can you help them to do the same?

What Can Our Organisation Do?

• How good a corporate citizen is your organisation? How well does it fulfil its duty of care to the communities and societies of which it is a part?
• How does your organisation help support people in their quest for a better life through its day-to-day business? Can and should it do more?
• What is your organisation’s guiding philosophy, implicit or explicit? Does it inspire others and help give true meaning to what they do in its name? Is it fit for future purpose or past its “best by” date? What would be more compelling and motivational?
• Is your organisation doing enough to help create the sustainable prosperity that will enrich future generations? What else could it do?
• How does your organisation use its resources, power and influence to help mobilise enterprise and enable others to do so? In what respects is it, or can it become, a role model for others?

Questions Are Easy…..

…it is the answers that are difficult. Yet the tide of change that is already flowing strongly is likely to take all with it. For most organisations, the people that work for them and those who would like to, the choice is how to travel rather than whether to travel at all. Bon voyage et bon chance!

Come gather ‘round people Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you

Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times, they are a changin’

(Bob Dylan)

Be sure to check part 1 of the Beyond 2020 series, where we explore the big picture challenges faces enterprises in the current global climate, and consider how to redefine the enterprise as we know it to become a provider of sustainable growth and profitability.

About us: Praesta Partners is the UK’s premier firm of executive coaches, based in London but operating both nationally and globally. We coach senior leaders and executive teams in several hundred organisations in the private and public sectors, including FTSE 100 and 250 companies, private equity owned businesses, leading professional services firms and all areas of financial services.

All members of Praesta’s team had senior level business careers before becoming coaches. Thorough initial training, continual professional development and regular supervision are integral to how we work. As well as one to one coaching, we conduct team coaching and board effectiveness reviews.