In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple as CEO after leaving the company in 1985. After 12 years of mismanagement, Apple market share was in the basement and Jobs was tasked with the responsibility to rebuild the company from the ground up. Trying to re-position the Apple brand, Jobs gave one of the best speeches that provided the catalyst for Apple comeback.
“Our customers want to know who is Apple and what is it that we stand for? Where do we fit in this world? And what we are about isn’t making boxes for people to get their jobs done, although we do that well. We do that better than almost anybody in some cases. But Apple’s about something more than that. Apple at the core – its core value is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better."
Jobs indicated that strategy can change, personnel can change but values; they should never change. According to Dr. Woodward, the first step in becoming a successful leader at any level is being true to yourself and relying on a solid foundation of clearly articulated values.
As the leader of your organization, what are the values you live by and lead by; what guides your decisions, big or small. The challenge for most young leaders is actually being able to articulate their values in a meaningful way. This lack of clarity results in decisions that can be a bit erratic and may often appear to be inconsistent in the eyes of their employees.
I have seen well-written values displayed on companies walls, on their computer screens, in pamphlets, etc. and no one knows what they are or what they mean to the organization. Because every decision made by the leadership of the company goes against all the company values. In many cases, there is a mismatch between the value of the organization and the values held by the leader.
When Carly Fiorina served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005, she was forced to resign following differences with the board of directors about how to execute HP’s strategy. Research carried out by Waters (2008) into how leaders’ values impact decision-making found a mismatch with the values of Fiorina and the values of the company. One manager at HP indicated
“People talked about the HP Way a lot, and Carly came along and brushed that under the carpet a bit and people didn’t like her for that.”
The values embedded in the company was not aligned to the CEO values system, and as a result, conflict ensued. When McNerney left GE and joined 3M from 2001 to 2005, holding the position as chairman of the board and CEO, 3M innovative culture suffered because the CEO values system was completely different from the values which existed at 3M.
For example, 3M’s creative culture that once gave rise to the “Post It Note” phenomenon prided itself on drawing at least one-third of sales from products released in the past five years, and was underpinned by the “3M Way”. McNerney however, implemented the GE playbook, remember McNerney was in a race to succeed Jack Welch at GE.
So McNerney intensified the performance-review process, cut spending, axed 8000 workers and imported GE’s Six Sigma program – a series of management techniques designed to decrease production defects and increase efficiency. Thousands of staffers became trained as Six Sigma “black belts.”
The focus on efficiency began driving out the innovation culture at 3M. Upon McNerney’s departure, new CEO Buckley reinvigorated the workforce by reversing McNerney’s legacy and getting back to the “3M Way” by scaling back on Six Sigma, boosting R&D spending, and rewarding risk-taking.
According to Lichtenstein, leaders need to recognize that their values shape their strategy preferences, which influence the organization’s culture that is termed the “values dynamic. Managers manage from their own values, but leaders have to lead a whole culture.
Therefore, they need to be aware of the diversity of values in organizations if they want their visions to become a reality and their value creation methods to be implemented. Leaders like Fiorina and McNerney who try to bend cultures to satisfy their own needs and values without understanding the values embedded in the organization will struggle to align the company to their vision and to create long-term value for shareholders and stakeholders.
By understanding the invisible forces of values, leaders need to appreciate how their own values influences the culture of the organisation. Trying to change an organisation values wholesale will result in disaster. It is best to determine what aspect of the culture need changing and developing strategies to execute those changes efficiently. By harnessing and unleashing the most potent power in business today: the motivational driving force within each and every employee, the company will give itself chance to succeed in this fiercely competitive business environment.