I have observed / worked with say few startups now and some are
failures as far as planned business goals achievement concerned. Are they
in business yes only one moved away from
software development. I am just trying to collect my thoughts on
these failures. Don’t want to blame anyone in particular but try to review as a
third party PMO stand point. PMO as I am a manager & leader tried my best
to go and educate the CEO and other founders without much impact yes this is my
short coming. This is my personal analysis so please don’t escalate to anyone
or any business.
There is a clear difference between leadership and management.
Leadership is of the spirit, management is of the mind. Managers are necessary,
but leaders are essential. We must find managers who are not only skilled
organizers, but inspired and inspiring leaders.
I’ve often said real leaders refuse to take the credit for success, but
they will always accept responsibility for failures. Yes; but it goes with the territory. In this
blog I’m going to toss out the politically correct story-lines and
reveal the top reasons that leaders fail
In the points listed below I’ll examine some of the more common reasons
attributed to business failure, and I’ll likewise assess the roles and
responsibilities of leadership as they pertain to said reasons being leadership
failures:
Lack of Vision: It is the role
of the CEO to clearly define and communicate the corporate vision. If there is
no vision, a flawed vision, or a poorly communicated vision, the responsibility
falls squarely in the lap of executive leadership. Moreover, if the vision is
not in alignment with the corporate values there will also be troubled waters
ahead.
Poor Branding: A poor brand
generally means leadership has failed. Brands fall into decline for only one
reason – leaders have abdicated their responsibility. They have allowed their
brand equity to erode, and failed to deliver on the brand promise. Leaders who
don’t steward their brand as one of the greatest corporate assets deserve the
fate that awaits them. Branding is an inline activity you can’t wait for I will
build then start bending, in my understanding branding start with vision, with
idea inception.
Lack of Execution: Everything boils down to execution, and ensuring a
certainty of execution is job number one for executive leadership.
Entrepreneurs or CEO s who don’t focus on deploying the necessary talent and
resources to ensure that the largest risks are adequately managed, or that the
biggest opportunities are exploited have a leadership team destined for
failure. Or many CEO builds team stating this is not I will do but just observe
for example initial sales left to technocrats which cripple everything. Sales
is the art where mostly technocrats fail as they are more in love with the
produce as creator than business angle understanding
Flawed Strategy: A flawed
strategy simply reveals weak leadership. While there are exceptions to every
rule, companies tend to succeed by design and fail by default. Show me a
company with a flawed strategy and I’ll show you an inept leader. This is major killing point and there is no
fixed formula only business augmentation understanding will take you to end.
Capital Shortages : I have witnessed well capitalized ventures fail
miserably, and severely under-capitalized ventures eventually grow into
category dominant brands. A lack of capital can provide a socially acceptable
excuse for business failure, but it is not the reason businesses fail. Raising,
deploying, and managing capital is ultimately the responsibility of leadership.
The amount of capital required to run a business is based upon how the business
is operated. Therefore if leadership operates the business without
consideration for capital constraints, or irrespective of capital formation
issues, then the blame should fall squarely on the shoulders of leadership.
Moreover, if executive leadership squanders capital through irresponsible acts,
there will also be severe consequences.
This is major issue with Indian executions but still
Poor Management: It is the job of leadership to recruit, mentor,
deploy, and retain management talent. If the management team is not getting the
job done, it’s not a management problem, it’s the fault of executive
leadership. Show me a leader that blames his management team for failure to
execute and I’ll show you a poor leader. 8. Lack of Sales: A lack of sales is
ultimately attributable to a lack of leadership. Strategy, pricing, positioning,
branding, distribution, compensation, or any number of other metrics tied to
sales force productivity all rest with executive leadership. A lack of revenue
is not someone else’s problem, it’s a leadership problem.
Toxic Culture: The truth is nothing stifles productivity and creates
conflict like a toxic culture. That said, a toxic culture simply cannot exist
where good leadership is present and engaged. If the lunatics have gained
control over the asylum be sure to fit leadership for a straight-jacket as
well.
No Innovation: Leaders create a culture of innovation or they kill it.
Leaders who can’t stay in front of the market tend to get run over by it. Great
leaders have a strong bias to action. They don’t rest upon past
accomplishments, and are always seeking to improve through change and
innovation. Those leaders who don’t openly embrace change will be doomed by
their antiquated outlook.
Market Target miss: Good leadership pursues sound market opportunities. Pursuing
the wrong market, or pursuing the right market improperly is also the fault of
executive leadership. Scaling a business too fast, too slow, or worse yet, not
designing a scalable business to begin with is a leadership issue. No market
equals no leadership…
Poor Professional Association: Nobody has cornered the market on knowledge
and wisdom. If leadership doesn’t seek out the best quality advice available to
them, then they will likely not make the best decisions. All CEO s and
entrepreneurs need top quality professional advisers. There is no excuse for
C-level leaders to have blind spots. When
a leader has a “miss” or a blind-spot, he or she is simply showing the arrogance
of operating within the limitations of their own thinking.
The Inability to Attract and Retain Talent: Great leaders surround
themselves with great talent. They understand that talent be gets more talent.
If your company doesn’t possess the talent it needs to achieve its business
objectives no one is to blame but leadership.
Competitive Awareness: A business does not need to be the category
dominant player to avoid failure. That being said, it is the leadership’s
responsibility to understand the competitive landscape and navigate it
successfully. If a company isn’t consistently winning, it’s not what the competition
is doing, but rather poor leadership that creates the inability to compete.
Obsolescence or Market Changes: If executive leadership is in touch
with the market it will be difficult to be caught by surprise. It is the
responsibility of executive leadership to make sure that the proper attention
is given to innovation, business intelligence and market research to manage the
risk of obsolescence and market changes.
A few words on leaders & Team chemistry, Leaders develop guidelines
with their team - they constantly enlarge the guidelines as the team becomes
willing to accept more responsibility. This can be as a simple as coding
standards or security guidelines at work.
Leaders change their role according to the demands of the team - for
example they become more of a coach or facilitator. Leaders involve team
members as working together or owning together - in finding new ways to achieve
agreed-upon goals. Leaders create the
opportunity - for group participation and recognize that only team members can
make the choice to participate. This need to happen otherwise we are moving
towards doom.
Bottom line…businesses don’t fail – leaders do. The talent that it
takes to operate at the C level is matched only by the amount of
responsibility that goes with the territory. If it was an easy job everyone
would be a CEO or entrepreneur. Thoughts ? wire me at ravindrapande@gmail.com happy to
learn and grow @ India Training Services
