Open Leadership to Execute Innovative Turn Around

I did get opportunity to participate the “Predictive Analytics” seminar in San Francisco this week, is it the latest technology crystal ball to bring us the new insight, especially the economy has just been through the Great Recession in our life time: many great companies disappeared forever such as Circuit City and Lehman Brother; and many named brands got tarnished and acquired by others such as SUN Microsystems and Merrill Lynch.

Mr. Jim Colin’s latest book “How the Mighty Fall” may clarify the reasons to cause those Giants fall; To inspire the economy recovery, let’s also share some turn around stories to discuss the futuristic leadership in the new decade.

1.Game Changer’s Courage

Mr. Barack Obama became the first black President in US history; the media titian Oparah Winfrey makes significant impact beyond the entertainment industry; Steve Job changes the business models in the multiple industries and keeps making splash in Silicon Valley, they are definitely the game changers; not only in main street, we desperately need more game changers in Wall Street and all those troubled legacy industries such as airline, auto, bank., etc, since they are the infrastructure backbone of modern society.

2.Entrepreneurial Innovation

The government in Japan invited Kazuo Inamori , a Japanese entrepreneur and the founder of Kyocera Corporation and KDDI Corporation (two Fortune 500 companies) to become the CEO of JAL Airline, when it enters bankruptcy protection on January 19, 2010, and lead the air carrier through its restructuring. Mr. Kazuo Inamori is the perfect role model with the entrepreneurial innovation, persistence and enriched life and business philosophy.

3.Cross-Industrial Fresh Eyes

Mr. Idris Jal led the state-controlled carries Malaysia Airlines from the brink of bankruptcy to record breaking profits, brand it the “five-star value carries”, Mr. Idris never worked in airline before he took a leadership to turn around the troubled airline.

It’s the other impressive turn around story: beyond the knowledge, the open mind, the fresh eyes, the big gut, and the warm heart, those are critical leadership charisma to instill the passion, stimulate the hope and make a difference.

4.Cross-Cultural Creativity

Mr. Carlos Ghosn is a Brazilian born businessman of Lebanese origin, he is the current CEO and President of Renault of France and Nissan of Japan, he is largely credited with turning around Nissan. As an outsider in charge of one of Japan's largest companies, Ghosn has been extremely successful

Mr. Carlos’s multiple cultural background provides him the unique insight about the corporation culture and purpose, he is a true global leader with competitive accent.

5.Unconventional Thinker’s Common Sense

The Futuristic leaders will focus on asking the right questions instead of just crafting the old-style answers; The futuristic leaders will be the systematic thinkers with global perspective, engineering logic and artist’s imagination; they should be natural communicators with cross-culture, cross-industrial, cross-functional understanding.

The latest technologies such as: Cloud, BI or BPM are the power to bring up the efficiency; But it’s still the human, the open-minded new leaders inspire the effectiveness, nurture the change cultures, and make the positive influences.

Mr. Lee Iacocca, the legendary turn around master in auto industry defined the 9 C's of Leadership: Curiosity, Creative, Communicate, Character, Courage, Conviction, Charisma, Competent and Common Sense in his book “Where have all the Leaders Gone”. Those qualities are still the best leadership criteria fit in 21 century with broader, deeper insight in the latest multi-polar global landscape.