Unlocking Strategic Value: The Power of Building an Enterprise Mindset
In today’s fast-paced business landscape, fostering an enterprise-wide perspective is critical for achieving business success and setting strategic priorities. As such, we are often focused on helping our clients develop an enterprise mindset.
What Gets in the Way of Enterprise Thinking?
- Narrow Focus on Department and Individual Priorities: It’s common for organizations to prioritize departmental and individual goals over broader enterprise objectives. This can lead to fragmented efforts and missed opportunities for alignment.
- Vertical Lens as Enterprise Leaders: Executives who were promoted from leading specific units or functions may struggle to adopt a broader, horizontal lens required for effective enterprise leadership. Overly focused on certain areas, they might miss critical interdependencies.
- Doubt in Enterprise Ways of Working: Some executive teams may hesitate to embrace enterprise ways of working, fearing that it could slow down operations or introduce unnecessary complexity.
- Tolerance of Silos: Failing to appreciate the impact of decisions on other business functions can create silos and hinder collaboration, limiting the enterprise’s collective potential.
- Avoiding Difficult Conversations: Navigating real trade-offs is crucial for driving enterprise value, but some executive teams may shy away from making tough decisions.
Key Steps for Building Enterprise Leadership:
Redefine the “Why”: Recognize that the benefits of an enterprise mindset extend beyond your team, including customers and shareholders. Embrace the collective impact.
Prioritize Enterprise, Team, and Self: Make strategic decisions in that order, demonstrating a commitment to the broader enterprise objectives.
Tie Remuneration to Enterprise Strategy: Foster accountability and empowerment by aligning executive teams’ remuneration with the achievement of the enterprise strategy.
Embrace Your Executive Team: Consider yourself an enterprise leader, part of the executive team responsible for delivering on the enterprise strategy.
Think Horizontally: Look for connections and interdependencies across and outside the enterprise, leveraging shared data to make informed decisions.
Promote Holistic Ways of Working: Encourage integrative thinking and diverse perspectives to address issues with a comprehensive approach.
Thrive as an Enterprise Leader
At Exec Ascend, we firmly believe that building a collective enterprise mindset empowers companies and executive teams to thrive, unlocking strategic value, building resilience, and accelerating execution speed.
