Effective management of increasing complexity in the markets and business operations will require improved creative leadership capabilities at all levels to create effective and efficient organizations that are responsive to highly dynamic market conditions.
Corporate CEO’s are increasingly identifying the future of their businesses as one of uncertainty and volatility where their primary challenge is going to be the management of complexity. A recent study by IBM found that more than half of the CEO’s surveyed thought this was a key issue and doubted that they had the ability to manage this expected rise in complexity.
This increase in complexity is being driven by the fast paced dynamics of the global marketplace, particularly in the developing markets, which invariably translates to the same dynamics in local markets as global suppliers flow down the impacts through contracts and orders. It is also being driven in part by changes in regulation at home and overseas, much of which has been introduced in response to the recent global credit crunch and economic recession.
Key to effective management of these high levels of complexity and successful response to volatile and uncertain markets is going to be creativity and this starts with Creative Leadership. These leaders not only understand complexity issues in their business and how to manage them but also how to leverage complexity to create innovation and deliver fast paced flexible performance.
Creative leaders are more likely to challenge the status quo and make significant changes to business models to achieve strategic objectives; present or past business models may have been good but they need to be regularly challenged to ensure they are still fit for purpose. They are also more likely to exhibit more original thinking and generate more radical ideas to foster innovations as well as ensuring better internal and external communications to inform and focus these activities.
Many organizations have tribal cultures and exhibit internal protective behaviours that create barriers to change and slow responsiveness and flexibility, inhibiting the organizations ability to thrive in the fast paced modern business climate. Creative Leaders challenge these issues and drive forward changes to organizational cultures together with recognition and reward systems that break down these barriers and create dynamic businesses that thrive and serve customers better through improved interaction and understanding
Truly effective Creative Leaders embrace the need for change and can revolutionise their businesses, however they are not anarchists and they blend the need for change with pragmatism and in depth understanding of their environment to effectively manage the risks involved with creativity.
Innovation remains the key to strong economic growth for corporations of any size and so needs to be a integral part of any future looking strategy. However, simply having a ‘gut’ feeling about the need and expressing a desire from the top for more innovation is not enough. It needs strong leadership and real commitment from the CEO down to the business unit managers and that commitment needs to be tangible and regularly refreshed. At the top of the organization, the leadership team needs to fully understand what innovation means within the context of their organization and markets; both in terms of what the innovation needs to produce and how the organization needs to achieve it. Only by building this level of understanding will they be able to articulate the vision, formulate and implement the correct strategy and create the inspiration that will lead to success.