Robert Hargrove: The Best Advice You'll Ever Get

Executive Transitions Require Boldness of Vision, Not Just Baby Steps

I had a fascinating meeting in Manhattan with Arturo Poire, Global Head of Talent Management for Marsh McLennan, the $10.5 billion dollar, professional service firm. As I sat discussing the Masterful Coaching program with Arturo and his colleague, Paul Picciani, he noticed that I had written a book, Your First 100 Days, and asked me a very good question: “How is the book, which came out last spring, different from the classic, Your First 90 Days, written by Michael Watkins about a decade ago.

The two books, though coming at leadership transitions from different angles, actually really complement each other very well. With regard to my book Your First 100 Days, the differentiator lies in the subtitle - Powerful First Steps on the Path to Greatness. This suggests boldness of vision that can change the face of things, which in turn shapes, limits, and defines immediate action. Michael Watkins’ book, by contrast, emphasizes the importance of securing early wins so as to establish key relationships and build personal credibility and momentum.

I generally coach CEOs in their first 100 days, who have a clear mandate to deal with a crisis or competitive threat, to declare an impossible future that will inspire and motivate the troops, while setting the stage for organization transformation and the kind of paradigm smashing thinking that leads to breakthrough results. I then coach them on creating a structure for fulfillment that follows Watkins’ model of securing early wins and establishing ‘A’ level priorities.

This past week in the business news, I noticed a couple of good examples of this approach.

Thorsten Heins, New Rims CEO Pledges to Put Blackberry Back On Top
According to a story in Businessweek, Research In Motion Ltd.’s Thorsten Heins, five days into his job as CEO, pledged to put the company back on top of in the U.S. smartphone market and said he was holding talks with rivals eager to license its software. “We have to do something dramatically different in the U.S. to get our market share back,” said Heins, 54. “I’m here to fight. I’m here to win.”

“In the first 100 days, I am going to focus on one thing,” Heins said. “My first job is to get BlackBerry 7 into all of your hands.” Heins, who took over from co-Chief Executive Officers Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, said his immediate priority is to revive BlackBerry sales in the U.S., get a revamped version of Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM’s struggling PlayBook tablet onto the market next month and introduce its new operating system, BlackBerry 10, on time later this year. This is to make up for the fact that the company lost out on the smartphone market to Apple’s iPhone and devices that run on Google’s Android software. RIM’s revenue has slumped for two quarters, driving RIM shares down 75 percent last year

New CEO sets path for J.C. Penney to Reinvent Itself
In The Salt Lake Tribune, there was a story about Ron Johnson, who oversaw Apple’s retail strategy before starting at J.C. Penney this fall. Johnson said last week that in his first 100 days he wanted to establish a bold vision to totally reinvent the company. While many shoppers go to Walmart for price, Target for cheap style, high-end stores for luxury treats and the Web for ease, stores such as J.C. Penney have faded into the background.

Coming into his job from his vision of an impossible future, he began scoring some early wins. “We need to give customers enough reasons to love us.” His powerful first steps to make JC Penny a destination retailer included announcing a new designer partnership with Nanette Lepore and a new spokeswoman and advertising star, Ellen DeGeneres. He also introduced a logo and new color-saturated advertisements that barely mention price.

Johnson’s problem was that reinvention was hard to do for a retailer stuck with yesterday’s stores. He declared right off the bat that within four years, the stores would be completely redone, each divided into about 100 small boutiques with a service center that he called “Town Square” at the center.

He scored an early win right out of the box by getting off of the nonstop promotions at the stores and moved to three kinds of pricings (everyday, monthly specials and clearance).

Investors last week, while having reason for caution, responded positively. J.C. Penney shares soared nearly 19 percent Thursday when the department store chain delivered a 2012 profit outlook that was well above analysts’ projections, a day after debuting the new pricing plan. Shares rose $6.44 to close at $40.72.