During 2020, digital transformation initiatives helped businesses to stay afloat when the world was plunged into challenging and uncharted territory. 2021 is a time for businesses to build on what they put in place in order to thrive rather than simply survive. We touched on technology in our Essential Leadership Requirements for 2021, but felt it was worth highlighting some of the key artificial intelligence (AI) and workplace technologies that leaders are prioritising this year and exploring how they will impact our working lives. Here is what you need to know about AI and tech’s potential in the working world in 2021:
The AI Imperative
We have spent the past several years discussing ‘the future of work’ and the ways that technology will eventually shake up the workplace. But the fact of the matter is, developments such as COVID and constant global innovation have accelerated the timeline, and the future has now arrived. Going forward, the future we have been predicting and planning for will start to be accepted as the norm. The time has come to sink or swim, adapt or accept defeat.
At this point, the benefits of AI, Cloud, and other disruptive technologies have been discussed at length. It should no longer seem unfathomable that AI will touch every aspect of our lives in due course. We interact with it on a daily basis without even realising or thinking twice about it. The tech already lives in our phones, our smart speakers, our email, our social media feeds, our streaming platforms, and our online shopping baskets. It may already be embedded in features of the software you use at work or will likely be introduced soon.
Better Technology, Bigger Possibilities, and Buy-in Challenges
We can expect to see an even greater acceleration in the advancement and intelligence performed by technology during 2021.
What this means is that work will become ‘smarter’ as businesses adopt new technology to help enhance their practices, speed up their processes, gain in-depth insights into the needs of their customers, discover patterns, reveal anomalies, and make predictions and decisions. Given the advancement of AI and machine learning in the past year, and the developments still to come in the year ahead, AI is increasingly becoming a key driver of organisational performance. The organisations who are leading the pack in adoption are already reaping massive benefits in productivity, efficiency, cost and resource saving, and competitive advantage.
We have become a bit spoilt for choice when it comes to available tools and vendors. The benefit of this is that regardless of an organisation’s challenges or goals, there is likely to be a solution readily available to help. With automation able to handle the routinised and data-driven functions of the business, human staff are freed up from the mundane aspects of their role and able to focus on more meaningful work. They will also have more time to focus on the creative or strategic functions that technology cannot yet perform, this being a huge benefit for businesses which need to drive more innovation.
However, even though AI will reshape rather than replace most professional roles, there will almost certainly be discomfort or pushback from staff as their jobs change. Some may cling to the status quo and reject AI’s assistance, or feel threatened. The key here is for business leaders to offer their staff adequate support and preparation throughout the transformation process. This will likely involve offering retraining or upskilling opportunities to help staff develop future-ready skills and adjust to the evolving needs of the business. It is also crucial for leaders to serve as champions of change within their organisation. By increasing their own understanding of new technologies, business leaders can better address staff concerns, which helps to inspire confidence in the future of the organisation and its leadership.
Changing Expectations
2020 was a massive turning point when it came to our level of comfort with using digital interactions in our daily lives. Customers’ priorities and expectations have shifted after a year of living through a pandemic. Businesses closed their physical doors due to restrictions, so their customers flocked to their websites. As a result, there is a greater focus on providing effective, differentiated digital experiences than ever before.
We do not know how long the current restrictions will last, but as we look ahead to when life returns to some semblance of normalcy, it is likely that customers will no longer be satisfied with distinctly physical or digital experiences. Instead, business leaders need to prepare to offer their customers a blend of the best of both. AI can be used to offer customers a personalised experience that transitions seamlessly between the digital and physical environments, when allowed. Expect forward-thinking leaders to begin planning for this over the next several months.
Customer needs, behaviours, and expectations shift quickly and often. It is crucial for business leaders to stay on top of these trends in order to provide the experiences their customers expect and the products and services that will best meet their changing needs. It can be hard to keep track of these shifts, but AI tools make it easier track changes as they happen and gain deeper insight into their customer base. This will prove critical to business leaders as they try to move their organisation forward post-pandemic, and it is a benefit which leaders should factor in when considering adopting AI.
Smarter Strategy
Every industry has its leaders and its laggards, but most businesses today fall somewhere in the middle. These organisations and their leadership most likely understand that the world of work is evolving and that they need to adapt in order to survive. But as we start 2021, most of these organisations are still struggling with where to begin.
While having many vendors and tools in the market means that businesses have plenty of options, the drawback is that it can be difficult to know who to turn to. Conversely, with so many shiny tools available, it can be tempting to adopt whatever sounds the best or makes the most promises as opposed to the most effective tool for solving the problems at hand.
That is why it is so crucial for leaders to have a strategy in place. This should be the starting point for all digital transformation processes. Businesses undoubtedly have many challenges to overcome this year, but the specifics of those problems and the outcomes you are looking to achieve need to be identified first and foremost.
We have spoken in previous years of there needing to be a greater emphasis on having tech savvy executives in the C-suite to drive the change process, and we expect to see this accelerate in 2021. The shift of technology being the responsibility of the CIO or CTO will also continue to decline as more ownership needs to be held across many levels. Given that the impacts of new technology will touch every aspect of the organisation, it is crucial that the entire board understands the impacts, benefits, risks, and so on. Whether it is the CEO or CTO who leads the change, there needs to be a team of empowered and well-informed executive leaders driving the development of the strategy. It will be the responsibility of this team to define, expand, and shape the vision through effective collaborations with the workforce that creates alignment and buy-in throughout the organisation. Having the right skills, displaying the right behaviours and understanding how and what each person and process contributes is critical.
Investing in the future of work
Last year opened our eyes to just how much more beneficial and impactful technology can be in the workplace to remain competitive, increase employee experience and customer satisfaction. This year, leaders need to further expand their thinking to focus on how AI and technology can be used to help them get ahead rather than just stay afloat. Upskilling or retraining can help leaders deepen their understanding of AI while also developing the right skills to help inform the strategy and implement it.
It will also be vitally important for leaders to understand how AI and disruptive technology are impacting businesses across their industry and other sector, as well as learning how this technology is being regulated, and what the major trends are globally*.
Attending AI courses or programmes such as the Rialto AI Leaders Programme is a great way for executives to improve their relationship with AI, deepen their understanding of it, keep up with trends, and gain actionable insights that can then be applied to their business. They can then take the insights, skills, and knowledge gained back to their boardroom to create a strategy that leverages AI to its full potential.
As many executives begin to come to grips with AI, we expect 2021 to see greater investment, shifts in priorities, a bigger focus on digital skills, and smarter and more tech-driven strategies. Just as the idea of returning to a five-day in-office work week may seem old-fashioned to many of us now, we expect that by the end of this year, we will feel the same about not using artificial intelligence in our day-to-day practice. The fact of the matter is that the time has now come to sink or swim, and those who swim safely to shore after the major waves of the pandemic have died down will most definitely be those who leveraged AI to chart their path forward.
Reflecting on the events of 2020 feels more like gazing back at a decade rather than a single year. At the start of the year, our biggest concerns surrounded Brexit. But then COVID-19 happened, and completely disrupted all areas of our day-to-day life. The pandemic we originally hoped would be a distant memory by now continues to be the top issue affecting our personal, professional, social, mental, and physical circumstances. Furthermore, Brexit implications are back on the table as we face the ‘moment of truth’ on trade talks, which could make or break a deal being finally agreed.
Unfortunately, these challenges will not suddenly evaporate once the clock strikes midnight and we enter 2021. It is therefore important that we reflect back critically on the events of this past year to identify what worked and what did not in order to better prepare for what comes next.
Where We Started
At the start of this year, we published a blog outlining some of our predictions for what CEOs may need to prioritise in 2020. COVID then happened, and suddenly those priorities shifted. Consequently, some of what we predicted was put on the back burner. For example, we predicted that organisations would focus on seeking out the right talent, but instead the focus was on supporting existing staff and helping them adapt to changing working conditions.
Digital transformation was on the list of priorities for many organisations at the start of 2020 but may not have been a top item. Many businesses were still in the exploratory phases, while a few were still completely resistant to change. The pandemic left these businesses with no choice but accelerate and adopt new technology. We witnessed a steep rise in remote work models, which required a heavier reliance on Cloud technology and software such as Zoom, Teams, and Slack, to name just a few. Many organisations were not ready to make this jump at the start of the year and had to quickly undergo the transformation process with little lead time for strategic planning.
Where We Stand
But not every trend or prediction was put aside. Some simply took a different shape than anticipated. In our 2020 predictions, we discussed the importance of an organisation’s “innovation effectiveness,” or its ability to identify new opportunities, determine which of these to pursue, and adjust business processes to act on them. This was a key element for success this year, as some businesses needed to get creative in order to stay afloat during lockdown restrictions. For example, some pubs and restaurants pivoted to meal kits and takeaway pints to prevent inventory waste and generate revenue under lockdown restrictions.
As predicted, there was a focus on businesses being ‘a force for good’ this year, but not in the way we expected. Millennials and Generation Z are some of the most socially conscious consumers and employees we have seen in decades, and these young people want to work for and support organisations that champion social causes and possess strong values. 2020 was a pivotal moment for many organisations in this respect. Some came under fire for their lack of compassion and poor treatment of staff amid the emotional and financial hardships of the pandemic. Global social unrest required many businesses to take a public stance on issues such as inequality and race relations. Some organisations faced backlash and were called out for hypocrisy if their actions did not match up with their words. 2020 was a true test of how authentically leaders and businesses live out their CSR and proved how essential it is for organisations to be honest, transparent, and consistent when striving to truly be a force for good.
The applies also to trust, which proved more important this year than initially predicted. We identified building trust as one of the biggest challenges many CEOs would face in 2020, and stated that they must work hard to achieve trustworthiness with honest and transparent behaviours and actions that make people want to follow them. This prediction was correct, as leaders had to guide their organisations through uncertainty and disruption as well as new working conditions. Managers and C-suite executives were looked to as a stabilising force, and how they handled this duty had major impacts on their staff loyalty and confidence levels regarding both the organisation and its leadership.
What Lies Ahead
As stated, the 2020 challenges will not magically disappear when the new year begins. It is likely that we are going to feel the impacts of 2020 well into 2021. But hopefully, leaders will accelerate learning in order to move forward stronger and smarter. So, looking ahead, here are our predictions for five key trends we might see in 2021:
- Tech to thrive rather than survive: This year, digital transformation was primarily driven by a need to keep business afloat amid lockdown restrictions. As a result, tech has become so integral to our day-to-day operations that it is unfathomable we will revert once things return to normal. Expect to see many businesses taking the next step in their transformation journey to adopt more tools aimed at creating efficiency, better experiences, and competitive advantage.
- Welcome to the experience age: This next phase of digital transformation will be driven by the changes in customer behaviour that arose from the pandemic. Just as businesses became more reliant on technology, so did consumers. Customers have come to expect high-quality virtual experiences throughout the customer journey. This will require a higher focus on convenience, speed, and customer service. Expect to see businesses invest in their CX in 2021. It is likely that we will see investments in automation and AI to help boost efficiency and personalisation in the sales pipeline.
- Upskilling for competitive advantage: Those businesses that want to stay ahead have realised that they will need to continue to accelerate the adoption of AI and automation, whilst also investing in the upskilling of their talent. There is a slight risk that some organisations may become over eager when it comes to new technology, and either over automate or over digitise too quickly. By that we mean adoption without involving or communicating to all relevant stakeholders. This struggle may also largely be due to a lack of deep understanding of new tools and their functions or benefits. It will be essential for business leaders and the workforce to further develop their digital skills in order to better understand the available converging technologies so that they can make more informed decisions about which vendors, tools, or strategies will work best for their specific challenges.
- Remote work is here to stay: Even with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, it is unclear when UK businesses will receive the all-clear to return to the office. However, recent data suggests that remote work will continue in some form even after the pandemic ends. Employees like the flexibility of remote work models, and business leaders are enticed by the reduced overhead costs. Expect fully remote and hybrid working models to become common practice for many organisations moving forward, which requires new models and communication styles to maintain engagement and innovation from all levels.
- Emphasis on empathy: 2020 has left leaders, staff, and customers mentally and emotionally exhausted. There was widespread stress, anxiety about the future, and hardship. Some became ill or lost loved ones. Remote work was efficient but required adjustment, and lockdown restrictions felt very isolating at times. Managers and C-suite execs had to lead with compassion while also navigating these issues themselves and having to take responsibility for difficult business decisions. However, the hardships of this year brought out the human side of business and emphasised the importance of strong human connection, shared experience, and empathy. This cannot and should not be left behind in the new year. The leaders and organisations who take a people-first approach will benefit from increased customer loyalty and stronger staff morale, making these organisations more resilient when faced with further obstacles.
Though 2020 was difficult, it provided many valuable lessons for leaders looking to come back stronger in 2021. It is important not to dwell on the difficulties of the past 12 months, but to instead derive an understanding of what worked and did not. That way, we can drive business forward instead of remaining stuck in the past.
We at Rialto wish you all a very happy Christmas and New Year break and look forward to sharing more of our insights with you in 2021.
If asked to summarise 2020 in a word, the list would surely include answers such as uncertain, disruptive, chaotic, transformative, unsettling, and challenging.
At the start of this year, we never could have predicted the situation we currently find ourselves in. Up until March 2020, it was business as usual. There was optimism that initial decisions on Brexit had been made, and business leaders felt that they could spend the rest of the year focusing on business transformation and growth strategies. But then COVID-19 rapidly spread across the world and we were all forced to quickly shift the way we work, interact, network, and lead.
To help leaders better understand the business challenges of this year and equip them to thrive in the aftermath, Rialto has continued to embark on our research project in which we invite participants to discuss the future capabilities and skillsets they think will be important based on their experiences of current and future trends. The research feeds into the Rialto Accelerated Leadership Index (RALI), which enables leaders to benchmark their capabilities and skillsets. Approximately 350 leaders have contributed to this year’s research update.
Many businesses moved their staff from the office to remote working formats, some for the very first time. Business leaders needed to quickly adapt their approaches to accommodate the change in both their team’s and customers’ circumstances. Whether facing a downturn or growth, the new remote working situation highlighted the need for empathetic, authentic leaders with the customer and employee experience holding equal focus and sitting at the heart of everything.
Many leaders saw the importance of putting people first this year, especially their employees. In fact, the treatment of staff during this time soon defined what type of employer these organisations are. Widely, we saw employee loyalty and motivation maintained. Customers behaved similarly, remaining loyal to their favourite brands and returning as repeat customers.
The common themes arising from this year’s findings is the need for all leaders to be more collaborative, flexible and agile. It has also been suggested that leaders will need to become an exemplar requiring a range of capabilities and skillsets that can be switched on and off, enabling them to react to what is happening around them.
What follows are five of the key leadership capabilities that are being sought after to ensure leaders—and their organisations—are fully fit for the future. Rialto will continue to feedback findings on a regular basis as we continue to see changes in these predictions across our projects and many dialogues.
1. Adapt to Overcome Any and All Challenges
Our 2019 report identified the importance of developing the three As of agility,
adaptability and acumen. The challenges of this year made this an even more essential task for business leaders, especially the first A: agility.
No one could have predicted the massive amount of change and the obstacles this year would present. Many business leaders were forced to think on their feet and quickly adapt their mindset, management style, work practices, and plans in order to lead through these circumstances. Doing so effectively required agility in every possible area.
Working from home, lockdown restrictions, and widespread illness compromised the mental health and wellbeing of employees throughout 2020, and their leaders had to become more emotionally agile as a result. Leaders had to help their teams overcome these heavy burdens while also navigating these emotional challenges themselves. Customer relationships needed to be managed with additional care, consideration, and delicacy. The most effective leaders led with empathy, sensitivity, openness, and compassion this year and will need to keep this same level of emotional intelligence and agility moving forward.
Tough decisions also needed to be made, causing many organisations to change course and quickly adapt. It was a true test in risk, operational and decision-making agility as some leaders may have needed to navigate their team through new working conditions, cutbacks, difficult market conditions and an increasingly urgent need for digital transformation.
After this year’s tests of agility, leaders will need to think critically about which business and operating models will bring success moving forward and feel confident enough to shift focus to these areas. This will require adaptability and a lack of complacency. It is important to seek out continuous learning opportunities in order to stay current and allow for quick pivots to new models or technologies that may help advance the business.
2. Start an Open Dialogue
Communication and engagement challenges are presenting themselves and the two are becoming intermixed as traditional hierarchical structures break down and we see leadership positions shifting hands to Generation X and millennials. These younger leaders are bringing in fresh ideas and different approaches, with the latter of the two groups more heavily focused on experience than some of their predecessors. Additionally, the older members of Generation Z are beginning to enter the workforce and bringing their own set of expectations to internal operations.
Externally, leaders must also navigate communications with some of the most socially conscious consumers seen in decades. Today’s consumers care about the causes the businesses they buy from support, how they treat their staff, their environmental impacts, the fairness of their supply chains, and more. Clearly communicating stances can prove massively beneficial for building or improving customer loyalty, whereas vagueness or dishonesty can put customers off for life. Today’s consumers are also the most tech savvy we have ever seen and have come to expect a certain level of personalisation or ‘wow factor’ in their experiences. Engaging these customers both in person and online has become a critically important challenge for many business leaders to navigate.
Communication and engagement proved especially difficult this year as business operations shifted virtually, as did buying and servicing in many cases. Leaders will need to work hard to unite teams working remotely long term in order to maintain morale and productivity, while also encouraging impact on the team and individual levels. It is likely that many businesses will face tough market conditions well into the new year. Generating customer loyalty through strong engagement and experiences will be key.
Leaders need to show clarity of thought, honesty, and humility when communicating to engage both their staff and their customers. Creating an open dialogue between staff of all levels allows employees to feel more involved and engaged with their teammates, role, and leadership. Leaders who are able to communicate and engage successfully will possess strong storytelling abilities while also being able to provide clear, succinct, and relatable messages for all of their audiences.
3. Become a Digital Champion
This year was a pivotal moment for business 4.0 and digital transformation. Leaders and organisations who had been resisting change or slow to transform were forced to adapt suddenly and quickly in order to continue conducting business amid the lockdowns. Instead of regressing backwards, businesses and their leaders are more likely to continue on the path that they have started down towards digital transformation.
It should have become clear by now that technology is the way forward for all businesses, regardless of size or industry. Leaders should work to understand the impacts of converging technologies on their sector, clients, organisation, and job function, as well as the increasing rate at which they are going to be used. This does not require the leader to become a tech expert but may require some upskilling in order to build up confidence, understanding, and relevant capabilities. This will help leaders to make more informed decisions when selecting tools or methodologies, as well as helping to generate buy-in within the organisation.
Leaders who act confidently inspire confidence, and this will help to quell the fears of any resistant staff. Instead of resisting, leaders should embrace the idea of transformation to become advocates and champions of change within their organisation.
4. Deliver on Promises Efficiently
Since we first began conducting research for RALI, the ability to deliver results quickly has always featured in our findings. However, what we found this year is that the speed in which leaders must execute strategies, projects, and results has changed. It has become a matter of how leaders are able to organise and lead change initiatives across the organisation, and how quickly they can deliver on any promises made.
This acceleration towards even more rapid results could be attributed to a number of sources. As we previously mentioned, this year’s pandemic has required a high level of adaptability and quick thinking, all without a lot of time to work with. It could also be attributed to the increasingly digital world we live in, where everything is available at our fingertips with a few clicks. Whatever the source of this shift, it has meant that leaders need to be able to align strategic business initiatives and people to deliver results at speed.
It can be difficult to get a team on the same page, and staying on the same page in the fast-paced business world is even more of a challenge. Leaders have to respond to rapid changes in economic, market and customer demand. Having a formula to keep the team aligned and projects on track is more important than ever before.
The best leaders are recognising that the barriers to boldness and speed are less about technical limits and more about mindsets toward what is possible, what people are willing to do, the degree to which implicit or explicit policies that slow things down can be challenged, and bureaucratic chains of command. Heading into the new year, it will be essential for leaders to get clear on these roadblocks and work collaboratively with their teams in order to overcome them. That way, unnecessary delays and setbacks can be avoided and projects can progress quicker, allowing for that highly desired speed of results.
5. Become an Out-of-the-Box Thinker
Pandemics, wars, and other social crises often create new attitudes, needs, and behaviours in the workplace, the market, and society at large. We can anticipate these events to an extent but can rarely predict their impacts. For example, in February none of us would have anticipated the longevity, reach, or damage of the coronavirus pandemic. In these cases, leaders typically have to think on their feet to come up with solutions to unexpected problems.
These influential events highlight a need for greater imagination. When these circumstances arise, the most successful leaders are those with the capacity to create, evolve, and exploit mental models of things or situations that don’t yet exist. Imagination and creativity are key factors for seizing and shaping new futures for work. This creativity needs to be channelled for purpose and not executed on a whim. Strategic creativity requires time for reflection, curiosity, inquisition, experimentation, and optimism.
Imagination is arguably one of the hardest things to keep alive under pressure, yet it can bring about some excellent benefits for business leaders and their organisations. In recessions and downturns, 14% of companies outperform both historically and competitively because they invest in new growth areas. We found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations who were able to imagine came up with new business models that helped their businesses stay afloat or even excel, and they saw significant value as a result. For example, when the restaurants shut, many small restauranteurs and fruit and veg distributors reallocated the stock that would have supplied these eateries into meal boxes that were then delivered to households.
Individuals at all levels who are able to see creative ways around the problem when backed into a corner are the most effectively poised to thrive when future pandemics or disruptions occur.
Conclusion
Undoubtably, the skillsets highlighted here, especially agility and innovation, will continue to prove essential for years to come as businesses strive to overcome any long-term impacts of the pandemic and new challenges presented by Brexit.
The leaders who will be most successful at navigating the so-called ‘new normal’ in 2021 will have the ability to quickly pivot when unexpected obstacles arise but will still be able to maintain empathy and compassion in all of their dealings with staff and customers. These leaders will see challenges as opportunities to do things differently and will become champions for change in their organisation. 2020 has rapidly accelerated the wheels of widespread digital transformation, so leaders will need to seek out opportunities to better understand the impacts and benefits that new tech can bring their organisation. Communication will be key for these leaders when working to create buy in for new initiatives, maintaining morale, continuing to make an impact, and building customer loyalty.
Despite everything, it is still essential for leaders to continue investing in their own professionalism, development, and personal digital brand. Networking in the traditional sense was halted this past year and it is unclear when it might resume. There are still many opportunities for executives to connect with and expand their network virtually. The successful leader in 2021 will be entrepreneurial and take initiative to continue forging new relationships.
Continuous learning will also be key for advancement. Business as we know it has changed, and the skillsets required have evolved alongside it. Successful leaders will understand this and refuse to become complacent, seeking out opportunities to stay current while keeping their eyes focused on the future.
We at Rialto look forward to sharing further insights and trends with you.
If you are interested in taking part in events such as our leadership dialogues and surveys, please contact press@rialtoconsultancy.com To find out more about the RALI, please visit www.ralionline.com
Despite optimism that a vaccine for Covid-19 is likely start to roll out in early 2021, if not sooner, remote working remains as the standard for business in 2020 and looks increasingly likely to be widespread in early 2021.
In countries like Australia Covid-19 cases recorded are close to zero and hybrid working is part of the new Covid-19 business norm across many organisations. Leaders have no choice but to learn how to overcome the challenges of operating and succeeding in this new way, in order to get the most from themselves and their teams to generate maximum impact.
Given these circumstances, how are individuals and teams continuing to make an impact, what does high performance look like? And how can organisations ensure they continue to grow and transform in an increasingly disruptive world?
Our Global Leaders Dialogue invites leaders across the C-suite to share and debate their most pressing leadership challenges.
The dynamic drawing each group of leaders together is a desire to explore perspectives on the Future of Work and to share and learn from peers in shaping leadership responses to the new normal.
The agenda for these dialogues is determined by participants who highlight topics at the top of their agenda. In this way each session is unique.
The latest Global Leaders Dialogue explored the topic of how to gain traction with customers in a virtual world. Interestingly the findings highlight how both leaders and the organisational working practices need to change to provide true alignment.
To read more soundbites from the latest dialogue, click the download button below.
Don’t let complacency stall your career
Between a global pandemic, a double-dip recession, ongoing digital transformation and more, navigating an executive career move is proving to be both more complex and riskier across every sector. The world is changing around us, presenting new challenges and opportunities every day.
Some executives who may have been resisting digital transformation have had to quickly pivot in order to stay operational and competitive. Meanwhile, those who have been pushing for change in their organisation may suddenly find that they now have the internal support and resources needed to achieve their vision after facing periods of pushback. Some executives will unfortunately be made redundant, while others may feel bogged down by an organisation that is deeply concerned with tightening the purse strings.
Research indicates that in today’s world, the average person has five careers throughout their life which rarely follow a linear direction, instead taking diagonal or horizontal routes. This has been a growing trend, as professionals no longer feel obligated to remain in unfulfilling roles and have an abundance of opportunities for reskilling and changing course. Sometimes, these changes happen due to a desire to pursue a passion or find a more satisfying role. Alternatively, executives may change direction as a means of self-preservation, finding a new path before being made obsolete by plateauing organisations, new technology, automation or other threats. Many executives will be feeling these pressures in the current digital-driven climate, as artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies reshape the business landscape.
With new challenges come new opportunities and dilemmas for professionals whose current situation no longer suits their career path, organisation, or industry. These professionals must decide whether to stick it out in their current career trajectory, or to twist and change course towards something new, fulfilling and future ready. But when faced with such a massive dilemma, how do you determine your next step?
Establish Your Priorities
Circumstances are not created equal, and every executive has their own set of personal and professional considerations. When deciding your next step, it is crucial that you understand your own individual circumstances. Perhaps you have fiscal or familial obligations that you need to fulfil. Maybe your hand has been forced due to changes to your role or within your company or industry. The factors driving you to change course will absolutely play into the decision-making process and should not be an afterthought.
The most important consideration to make involves your own personal and professional fulfilment. In our recent blog on developing a personal digital brand, we discussed the importance of determining your ‘Why’ when attempting to understand who you are as a professional. The same principles apply here. Having a clear idea of who you are professionally, what skillsets you’ve gained that will add value, what is important to you, and what goals you would like to achieve will help you assess whether or not you are receiving the level of fulfilment you need from your current career path. You need to ask yourself what your objectives are in order to continue to be successful and fulfil your ambitions. What is it that will satisfy you personally? What do you need to change or find in order to achieve that goal?
Being fully aware of your personal brand and how you compare with those in the same playing field will be a major advantage here. You will have a better sense of what your skills are, what you enjoy doing, and what you bring to the table. You will also be able to shape what upskilling, reskilling or cross-skilling may be required. This self-awareness is key for deciding your place in the evolving landscape. For example, you may lack tech savviness, but are a gifted creative or strong strategic thinker. Instead of scrambling to adapt to new technology, you may choose to seek out a role that plays to your strengths. An honest assessment of your own skills, passions, and abilities will help you to ascertain what you have to offer, what you want to do next and where the gaps might be for you to compete given prevailing market trends.
Navigating a career in the face of technological advancement
At Rialto, we advise our clients to consider all of their options when it comes to career progression, whilst being increasingly mindful of the role that technology is playing in the future world of work.
For some, a career transition involves taking a step back to reassess your skillset and what you can offer your industry. This usually means allowing automation and machines to do what they are designed for and to take over the space you previously occupied. This does not mean you are regressing or bypassing innovation. Rather, stepping in this direction involves narrowing in on your talents, skills, and passions in order to develop a specialisation that is not currently serviceable with automation. This specialisation may fall into a field where there is no feasible business case for implementing new technology, or where a human could potentially be more knowledgeable. The focus can be on a skills gap that machines cannot currently fill. There are niche pockets within every industry that are not currently hot targets for mechanisation, and while some of these niches will stay this way, others may become targets later on. Professionals who step in this direction typically pivot to roles such as those requiring creativity, empathy, or vision. Developing a foothold in these pockets presents an interesting opportunity later down the road for professionals to help drive the development of technology and tools in their specialty.
For others, stepping forward to drive the development of future technology and tools is the answer to immediate progression. While this sounds technical, it doesn’t necessarily have to be. Technology and automation are a huge asset to businesses, but it takes human minds to understand the ways that technology benefits specific areas of the business. This direction can involve taking on more transformational, strategic or advisory roles but equally be more hands-on and require you to work directly with the solutions and technologies. You may lend your expertise to overseeing the work carried out by automation, essentially managing the technology to ensure it runs smoothly and accomplishes what it’s meant to. Or you may need to push aside any previous hesitation or cynicism and fully embrace new tools in your existing role. Machines are incredible things, but even with all of their incredible capabilities, they still require some human involvement to ensure the outputs are right. By choosing to head in this direction you are acknowledging your acceptance of the more hybrid workforce and demonstrating an openness to embrace these tools for the success of the organisation.
As the old saying goes, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” With the amount of change that is taking place daily, we as professionals cannot possibly expect that our careers will not need to evolve as a result. The worst response is to resign ourselves to complacency. This does not always necessitate a full-on career switch. Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of thinking differently about what is happening, what is possible, and what role you would like to play in a world being reset.
Reflecting on the ways we worked 15 years ago feels like gazing into another world. If you wanted to check your emails out of hours, you didn’t have a smartphone to do it on; you used a Blackberry or a mobile made by Nokia. We had yet to truly reap the business benefits of social media, as at the time Facebook was just for students, Twitter was still a year from introduction, and we wouldn’t post to Instagram for another five years. Jobs like SEO specialist, UX designer, Cloud services manager, and more simply did not exist. We even sent faxes still – and regularly!
That was 2005, which simultaneously feels like yesterday and eons ago. If that much change can happen in the workplace within a period of 15 years, imagine what the next five, ten, or 15 years will bring.
The truth is, the future of work is already here. It’s just unevenly distributed. Certain industries and sectors have adapted quickly to new technology and have been successfully implementing it for a while now. Even in the laggard industries, there are certain companies that either had the foresight or the budget to adapt quickly, and now find themselves leagues ahead of their peers and competitors as a result. But soon enough, those laggards will be faced with a sink-or-swim ultimatum to either catch up or be left behind for good.
It can be extremely hard to prepare when you aren’t sure what lies ahead, or how to get there. Many times, it is a team and stakeholder alignment issue of getting people onto the same page quickly – and understanding all voices. In the face of so much disruption and rapid change, how can you scale top line growth at the right margin, ensure high performance, improve employee wellbeing and customer experience, or develop and successfully execute new business strategies? The answer lies in Augmented Intelligence – Consulting (AI-C).
Defining the ‘Future of Work’
Before you can prepare for what’s next, you need to understand exactly what that entails. Many people hear the term ‘future of work’ and envision a world run by robots or a scene from a science fiction film. While elements of increased automation will play a key role in the future workforce, what we’re discussing here is much less drastic as humans and robots work together to form hybrid working. As mentioned, the future of work is already here; it’s just that your organisation may not be there yet.
Essentially, the future of work involves humans and technology working together in partnership to accomplish tasks in a more agile, effective, and efficient manner than ever before. Smartphones, social media, and other technology have become commonplace not only in the office, but in our everyday lives. As a result, today’s customers and multi-generational workforce increasingly value personalised, immersive data-driven experiences.
Business leaders have access to more data than they ever have before. In fact, the total amount of data that is created, captured, copied, and consumed globally is forecast to reach 59 zettabytes in 2020 and more than double to 149 zettabytes by 2024[1]. Businesses are beginning to understand the value of the data they generate and collect, but many are struggling to use it properly. Technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) can help to make sense of and use this data in ways we never would have imagined possible previously.
New software and tools are introduced to the market daily, all of which aim to turn available data into insights or to accomplish a specific task. There are tools available that can monitor every online conversation about your brand to provide insight into customer attitudes, write content for you, handle your hiring, identify sales opportunities, and so much more.
Surely, tech-driven environments require tech-focused solutions. But there’s so much more to this than simply adopting some new tools and updating your equipment.
Securing increased Alignment with AI-C
The humans involved in the change process are far more important than the technology. Most change or transformation programmes fail because of misalignment, with research sources quoting between 50% to 84% over the last 25+ years, which negatively impacts careers and business progress. The way that leaders think and manage their teams needs to become more agile and flexible in order to keep up with the rate of change and effectively execute new growth strategies.
It’s ‘easy’ for the C-suite to decide to sign off a transformation process, but most of the implementation will happen at every level of the business. A typical team raises on average 167 opinions on a given topic and 61 barriers as to why it can’t be done. If there is discord, lack of clarity, or miscommunications throughout the business, the change process has a very high potential for failure.
This is where Augmented Intelligence – Consulting (AI-C) can be massively advantageous. This advanced method of management consulting combines concepts from Harvard academics Professor Chris Argyris (Action Science) and Professor Thomas Schelling, a Nobel Prize recipient (Game Theory), as well as SchellingPoint’s applied research into Relational Network Analysis. It has been proven in over 500 real-world business projects and applications. This breakthrough in change management and leadership methodology is also now being taught at some of the US and UK’s leading business schools including Wharton, Warwick and Cornell.
Through this ‘lean’ consulting process, AI-C helps business leaders produce a credible and complete roadmap to address today’s business, cultural and digital transformations. This can include the creation of a new target operating model, cost reduction, efficiency, productivity requirements and strategic growth. AI-C gives everyone in the organisation a voice in co-shaping change and optimises alignment to future goals. It accelerates business-focused learning, reduces bias, increases collaborative thinking and insights in relation to securing future business goals. As a result, AI-C helps leaders adapt and increase the speed of decision-making to rapidly changing marketplaces, overcome increased competition, improve processes by implementing automation or next-generation technologies, determine policies, and develop new market-winning business strategies.
One of the key benefits of AI-C is its cost-effectiveness. It is delivered predominantly through virtual dialogues without the need for in-person meetings or workshops, which is ideal in the COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 world. The average timeline for an AI-C project is 6-8 weeks but it can be completed in as little as 3 days. Therefore, the AI-C process is concluded as efficiently and effectively as possible for significantly less cost than deploying internal resources and results in a more reliable, valid and endorsed set of actions to deliver business outcomes.
Business has come a long way in recent years, and there’s more change yet to come. While some businesses thrive ahead of the curve, others risk getting left behind indefinitely if they do not adapt to the rapidly changing marketplace. It’s clear that in this face-paced and increasingly competitive space, the old tools and methods of leading will not suffice. AI-C can help business leaders undergo their transformation process as effectively as possible by ensuring organisational alignment. In a time where leaders and workplaces need to become more agile to succeed, AI-C is fit for purpose for the digital age and gives both internal/external stakeholders more of a voice in tackling any business challenge.
We invite you to join us for our Future of Work virtual seminar on 18th November. Associate Director Russell Beck and Rialto Director Richard Chiumento will examine the global trends impacting the workplace and providing useful insights into how organisations and employees can futureproof themselves. Register here
Additionally, to learn more about our AI-C methodology, you can join Associate Directors Lesley Lindberg and George Mystkowski for our virtual seminar on 3rd December where they will be sharing how one Company used AI-C to help shape and implement new and high performing working practices following COVID-19 challenges. Register here
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/871513/worldwide-data-created/
A select few words accurately describe business life over the past 6 months. Top of the list for many has to be the word “uncertainty.” Since the lockdown in March, leaders and decision-makers have faced tough choices regarding pay, staffing priorities, customer needs and propositions, and the future of their business, all while having no indication of what may lie ahead.
As we enter October 2020 and the seventh month of restrictions, there is no clear path forward for UK businesses. The Government’s existing furlough scheme ends and even with alternative schemes in place, it is likely that many more employers will have to make difficult staffing cuts, downsize their operations, or close completely in coming months.
No executive chooses to deal with such tough choices such as these, but it comes with the territory of managing and leading teams, and/or owning a business. What counts, is the way that you approach these situations, not just for the future of achieving business goals, but also for your people. During tumultuous times, management and senior executives are looked to, to be the stabilising force. It’s essential that they lead with confidence, assurance, high emotional intelligence and compassion. When this is lacking, morale and retention issues soon surface.
Battling Blowback
Making staffing cutbacks is one of the most challenging tasks for a leader. However you choose to carry out this duty will ultimately serve as one of the greatest testaments to your leadership abilities, and will shape how the rest of the organisation views you moving forward.
Delivering negative news with a cool and detached demeanour may feel like a professional and clean approach, but it can create the impression with both departing and remaining staff that you are callous with no concern for staff feelings and no appreciation for the time they invested in the organisation. Alternatively, displaying guilt, sadness, or remorse may ease the blow for departing staff, but remaining team members might then question your confidence in the future of the company, and fear for their own jobs.
It is a fine line for any business leader to walk. While supporting organisations as they develop their change management strategies, our team have found the most successful programmes are those where leaders spend as much time on their exit strategies as they do on their hiring and induction strategies. Providing support to the staff that your organisation needs to let go of due to redundancy and treating them empathetically is paramount, as is keeping a level head and optimistic outlook to inspire remaining staff’s confidence in the future of the organisation. Otherwise, you risk disengagement, lower productivity and reduced customer focus as remaining staff may no longer feel motivated to go the extra mile for a leader or organisation that they do not feel values staff or their efforts. Worst case scenario, you may even create retention issues, as employees may lose faith and seek out a leader and organisation they feel they can better rely on.
Focusing Your Attention
As a leader, you face constant scrutiny. Every decision and every tough conversation you have has the potential to impact your overall productivity and trust in both you and the organisation. Focusing your attention on the right priorities during times of difficulty and uncertainty can help you to maintain rapport and skilfully chart a stable path forward.
When planning and conducting those difficult termination discussions, remember that those individuals who may leave your organisations may still be future stakeholders – be that of your product, service or brand. For those organistions who are financially able to, providing support services to help individuals shape a new career trajectory and deal with the uncertainty that change brings will go a long way in leaving a positive feeling on exit. Equally, don’t forgot those staff who remain. These individuals will be the future of your business. This should remain front of mind throughout the entirety of the decision-making, planning and execution processes.
Your skills as a leader will play a key role here. Adaptability, empathy and compassion are three of the most important traits for a leader to have in times of difficulty. The choices you make affect real lives, and that should not be taken lightly. These two attributes will be of paramount importance for all interactions or communications regarding departing staff.
Once termination discussions have taken over, other skills will need to take over. Strong communication skills will be absolutely essential for clearly expressing your plans, goals and strategy for the business moving forward. Confidence and assurance are also key. If you seem secure in the plans for the future, it will provide your staff with valuable peace of mind. Positivity and optimism help to support this and can even help inspire motivation, creativity or deepen attachment to the organisation.
One final essential skill here will be your ability to unite your organisation. Your remaining staff have just lost teammates, colleagues, and even friends. It is likely that the company’s culture will feel fragmented. Be genuine and sincere in all of your conversations and in any speeches or written communication. Be open and honest with your staff. Acknowledge the hardships but do not dwell on negativity. Provide clear directives and outline specific plans or goals. Establish a dialogue with your staff and demonstrate a willingness to listen to any concerns. It is your duty as a leader to reassure your remaining staff that good times will eventually return, and the organisation will grow stronger from these challenging times.
Growing Together
Another great way to focus your attention on your remaining staff while also benefitting the business is to reskill or upskill your people. Regular reskilling and upskilling is now business critical given the pace of change. There is some debate about whether this should be the responsibility of the employer or the individual employees, and our stance is that the responsibility belongs to both.
An employer who invests in their employees creates loyalty, builds confidence and increases oragnisational competitiveness. Providing training or educational opportunities shows a clear dedication to professional development. In fact, these opportunities help minimise staff turnover in both the short and long term. Employees feel valued and invested in the organisation for the long haul, while employers reap the benefits of having a highly-skilled workforce to help carry out their roles.
Alternatively, employees should be encouraged to seek their own individual learning opportunities and pursue their own interests. This allows more freedom to explore areas that may not be directly related to their role, but might provide other value. Lifelong learning is incredibly beneficial and can provide the individual with many benefits to enhance their career professionalism and role impact.
No leader wants to find themselves in the position of having to make difficult staffing choices in the face of an uncertain future, but given the unpredictability of this pandemic it is reasonable to assume that many may have to do just that in the coming months. In these situations, it is important to stay focused on the future and the team you will have by your side moving forward.
Constant change and unpredictability in the business world means that the only certainty for leaders currently is yet more uncertainty. It isn’t just services, products and organisations that are having to be reinvented but leadership skillsets, too. As well as analysis of the factors affecting organisations like multi generational workforces, digital transformation, constant disruption and the shift towards automated and remote working workforces, redefining leadership requires imagination and creative thought on the part of today’s leaders. To help equip leaders to face these future challenges, Rialto is continuing to research the future capabilities and skillsets that are important based on the experiences of Leaders across multiple organisations on current and predicted market trends. The research feeds into the Rialto Accelerated Leadership Index (RALI), which enables leaders to benchmark their capabilities and skillsets. Our latest findings have highlighted the following leadership requirements
Be a visionary strategist
Leaders must never lose sight of the importance of being able to devise a strategy and vision and effectively communicating it to the workforce so everyone is aligned behind it. In todays’ remote working setting, the language and frequency of communications used to achieve this is extremely important. Leaders must ensure that what they say and the tone of voice is both inclusive and engaging for every segment of the workforce. In an era of multi-generational workforces, this is all important. Much has been made of the importance of the authentic leader in recent years and this continues to gain traction. To believe in a strategy and vision, employees need to have trust in the leader putting it forward. Leaders must be who they claim to be and this means upholding the corporate values and behavioral standards both in person but now more than ever from afar. In the current operating environment, it is highly likely that the vision and strategy will be underpinned by transformational change and communicating this brings additional challenges. Employees can be fearful of change, especially if it feels enforced.
Employees want their leaders to be visionary and charismatic but there must also be substance and pragmatism behind both the strategy and the vision. In the complex and unpredictable operating conditions that exist, there is no room for leadership rhetoric and vision and actions really must speak louder than words.
Become a digital Navigator
Digital navigators don’t have to be technological whizzkids but do need to understand where the organisation fits into the digital revolution and how to make sense of new and emerging technologies to ensure they hold credibility and can stay a step ahead of the competition. They will have closely observed what has happened in the era of digital transformation to date and gleaned what works and what doesn’t. They will have an enthusiasm for technology but are not blindsided by it. Digital navigators do not have all the answers and understand the importance of keeping an open mind because when new technology emerges, it isn’t always apparent how it can be best deployed. Digital navigators are also important because they can help embed a digital mindset into the leadership team. Some boards have failed to connect with digital transformation programs and absolved responsibility for them. In the current climate, that simply isn’t an option.
Delivering the ‘X’ factor
The past 12 months has continued to see heightened importance placed on both customer (CX) and employee experience (EX) and the two are increasingly seen as intrinsically linked.
What is really building momentum in this area though is the recognition that delivering a great employee experience is critical to business success. Ensure that your people want to work and love doing their jobs and it will translate into a great customer experience. With the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s time now to reset the employee experience to create a more meaningful and lasting emotional connection between the employee and employer. Despite this being a technological age, with increasing levels of automation within many organisations, people will continue to be the real differentiator and their actions will have a direct impact on the bottom line. An employer which understands the correlation between an exceptional employee experience and the customer’s experience of the organisation, its products and its service will be the winner.
Develop the three A’s of agility, adaptability and acumen
Future leaders must be able to think on their feet to react and adapt to the constantly changing business conditions that have become the norm. It’s no surprise then that agility and adaptability feature on nearly every leadership hot skills list. Agility enables a leader to adapt, flex and respond to new business opportunities or, conversely, change course if they see danger/problems ahead. The speed of technological change has shortened product lifecycles and business lead times, increasing pressures for any organisation that is trying to compete in the digital economy. Agile and adaptable leaders create agile and adaptable organisations that can respond and reinvent themselves to keep pace with the competition. There is another ‘A’ that needs to be added to the list though: acumen. Needless to say that leaders need business acumen but not only is it required for boardroom decisions and business deals but to manage the increasingly complex set of multi stakeholder relationships that organisations find themselves forging.
Adopt a game-changing mindset
It’s imperative for organisations to constantly innovate and reinvent themselves to stay ahead of the curve. Leaders must be able to spot the talent in their organisation who can change the game and in some cases the course and fortunes of the company. While not everyone has the personality traits of true game-changers, everyone can be encouraged to adopt a game-changing mindset and it is paramount that leaders recognise its importance. Game-changers can disrupt entire industries and create news ones. In a world impacted by both the global pandemics and economic downturns, they are even more vital to have in an organisation. With the right people and blend of skills and characteristics to support them, their full potential can be harnessed with minimal downsides for the organisation or those around them. Business leaders must therefore make certain that senior colleagues and board members understand the role of the game-changer and their purpose as those who are resistant to change or risk averse may struggle to tolerate them. Indeed, game-changers can be risky individuals who enjoy living outside of comfort zones and breaking the rules. But at a time when many organisations are seeking daring new ways to set themselves apart from the crowd and win new customers as well as retain existing ones, game-changers hold the key. And it is only those leaders with an understanding of game-changing mindsets that will be able to translate ideas into workable new products, services or solutions for the organisation to elevate itself above the competition
Doubtless we will see the future leadership capabilities & skillsets continually added to as Rialto progresses through its 10-year project. Certainly, some of those skills highlighted today like agility and adaptability will continue to be highly significant for several years to come. Equally, softer qualities which we haven’t highlighted today, for instance, a high level of collaboration and emotional intelligence will also be required so leaders can empathise with how the workforce is feeling as we embark on transformational change.
COVID-19 continues to impact the world of business in ways we never imagined and so too must our approach to leadership development.
Senior leaders have a twofold challenge: ensuring their own skillset is up-to-date and relevant and ensuring that the organisation’s future leaders are equipped with the skills and capabilities that will be required to transform, grow and prosper in the future.
Rialto Consultancy has been reviewing the key trends emerging as a result of Covid-19 including the greater need for even more digital business change, the continuation of remote working, changes in customer mindset and behaviour, changes in employee expectations, including greater wellbeing focus as well as specific industry issues. More than ever, our teams are advocating that people and commercial strategies must be aligned if companies are to stimulate innovation, increase efficiencies and agility to respond to further and ongoing changes.
Nurturing and encouraging the best contributions and impact from all talent is a priority, including further investments in upskilling digital skills.
Identifying and developing a deep pool of next-generation leaders is essential in order to compete. Successfully delivering effective leadership development programmes, increasingly requires organisations to scan market trends to see the bigger picture on how future developments in the world of business and work will impact on their organisation and sector.
So as we move into the third quarter of 2020, how can you ensure leadership development has maximum impact? Rialto has identified key areas of focus.
1. The upskilling/reskilling imperative
The pace and scale of change means leaders and their teams must be at the top of their game and ensure they have the knowledge and capabilities to manage it. But this will be the bare minimum requirement if UK firms are to tackle the biggest skills challenges they’ve ever faced.
Leaders must elevate their focus on the impact disruption and remote working is having on workforces and ensure the right learning programmes are in place. These must go beyond traditional development programmes. They must recognise the importance of brokering learning experiences as well as connecting employees to learning experiences across the organisation. Technologies like AI and machine learning are continuing to displace, change and create new ways of working and jobs at all levels with a new premium being put on soft skills to ensure the human-digital workforce works to optimum effect.
Rialto will be partnering with business leaders over the coming months to help them maintain the right balance of emerging, existing and legacy skills to help drive transformation and respond to disruption. We believe it is important for organisations to develop these skills in-house as competition will remain fierce for critical talent segments.
2. The art of managing change
The requirement for leaders to be agents of change and ensure their teams can effectively implement transformation programmes (operational, digital or otherwise), will continue to be a priority throughout 2020 and beyond.
Rialto has observed that many leaders are ill-equipped to deal with such change while others simply aren’t prepared for the shorter timeframes in which it must be effected. They also lack clarity on how to ensure organisational design supports the faster and more agile work practices that are required in the current climate. Employee experience is also a key factor in successful change management and this is still being overlooked.
In our experience, many of these problems stem from change management not being accurately reflected/represented in leadership development programmes. The need for change will be ongoing in the next decade so organisations must identify what skills and capabilities will be needed for future transformation programmes and find ways to impart them.
3. Authentic leaders who create space and time for meaningful conversations
Employees have even higher expectations of their leaders and are keen to see accountability and transparency in both actions and behaviours. In short, they want authentic leaders who they can trust and who set the standards bar high for others to follow.
In the connected, always-on world in which we are bombarded with information and messages, it will be the leaders who are able to create time and space for meaningful and honest conversations about real issues that are impacting their team and the organisation. Rialto has also encountered more organisations building this type of approach into their leadership development programmes. They want to empower leaders to be able to have consequential conversations to those above and below them to help drive decision-making.
4. Building resilience and agility across organisations
Many of the problems that leaders face today and in future cannot be solved with traditional approaches so they must be able to quickly adapt their thinking and actions.
Resilience, agility and adaptability have been a pre-requisite part of a leader’s make-up since the global recession more than 10 years ago. Current changes and development will continue to place a premium on these traits. Leaders must be able to challenge their own thinking as well as that of others. They need to be able to adapt to work in ecosystems as these will be a source of new thinking that could lead to solutions.
The future will not only be about leaders building their own resilience and agility though but ensuring it is embedded across their workforces. The ongoing transformation organisations face can take its toll and lead to employees hitting a point of diminishing performance which prevents them from delivering on goals.
Leaders must help teams to become more resilient but also ensure the environment created is supportive to create and implement transformational strategies and initiatives.
