CEO SPECIAL ....CONFESSIONS OF A NEW CEO

CONFESSIONS OF A NEW CEO

 

A few CEOs share with Yasmin Taj the learnings derived from their stints as a ‘new CEO’

Kamal Nath, CEO, Sify Technologies, was with HCL Tech for 17 years prior to joining Sify and took on his new role only nine months ago. Sharing his experience of donning the hat of a CEO, he states, “My first few months at Sify were spent in reaching out to key customers and understanding their views about Sify and working on re-organisation of the business lines. The toughest task is to align the different stakeholders in this transformational journey, as there are varied levels of readiness in different teams. The other key challenges prevail in aligning the new team with the existing one, helping the team adjust to new productivity levels and making them ready for a different conversation with their clients.”
    Antony Jacob, CEO, Apollo Munich Health Insurance expresses that when he came on board at Apollo Munich in 2009, he strongly believed that a united workforce with a clarity of vision holds the key to success. “One of the first things I created was multiple communication channels. Secondly, I was sure that to bring in a sustainable change for the long-term, I would need a core team in place that would stay for at least five years. We have been successful in achieving just that and have not lost any member of this core team since 2009,” he shares.
    Jacob believes that a leader not only influences, but also impacts others – for better or worse. “By adopting a leadership mindset, we should ensure that we impact others in a positive way to the best of our abilities and intentions. By and large, the role of a leader is to ensure that he or she leads efficiently and wisely through informed decisions,” he expresses. Talking about the first few days, Jacob adds, “I spent the first few months absorbing the myriad of internal processes and challenges each of our employees may have posed. In order to engage with the employees, I also travelled to all branch offices and met as many people as possible.”
    Tony Goodwin, CEO and founder, Antal International feels that it is imperative the CEOs understand that they need to lead from the front. “Also, they need to be fundamentally very strong on the subject or else it is difficult to hire and maintain skilled manpower. The employees look up to the management and feel lost if they don't get valuable inputs from the top management. One sure shot way to manage this is to constantly upgrade one’s own skills and be proactive about adding technology to streamline the process in the office,” he avers.
    According to Kunwer Sachdev, MD & CEO, Su-Kam, “A new CEO takes over the reins of the company with a new outlook/vision. He/she brings to the table new ways of working that might be new to the existing workforce and which may/may not necessarily work in the current frame of things. In order to be a ‘keeper’, the new CEO therefore, in his/her initial days in the company should carefully study the existing system and processes, organisational culture, employees, management, etc. In order to prove oneself, the new CEO should come across as a strong team leader who is inclusive enough to accept new ideas.”
    Nath further suggests, “A CEO has to define a long-term goal for the organisation and clearly define the steps to reach there. He/she not only needs to keep things on course for the current quarter, but also has to ensure that the large overreaching vision of the company is in radar while driving the quarterly objectives. The key stakeholders must be motivated, guided and empowered to internalise and execute this along with the CEO. This should be the single most important agenda for a CEO as a keeper.”
    In the end, it is not about being new or old, but about being able to build that connect with the organisation and its stakeholders. And if you have been able to achieve just that, you are certainly a keeper!
        Viren Naidu  ETF130528