Apparently, my thoughts on this subject have become "timely."
With that said, I shall jump in with "both feet."
That's generally my strategic plan once I make a decision.
I wrote this and never posted it a few weeks ago, but when this article from Stan Choe came out, CEO Pay in 2015: When a $468,449 raise is typical , I decided to go ahead and hit the publish button.
There are a lot of reports and links that provide numbers on the percentages and increases in executive salaries versus "the rest of the company." We can locate compensation packages, bonuses, stock options, and vast ranges of discretionary allotments and spiffs signed over to various CEO's and company officers. Many contain old numbers and questionable sources. The study Stan references was long-term, designed to be scientifically objective, and as a result, is more inclusive and accurate.
It is particularly interesting to me because I wrote the three statements below weeks ago, before reading the study and the article. Most CEO's invest a great deal of time and energy into their positions, but as the work-world shifts, I expect that we will see significant changes to their role, particularly in publicly traded companies. Here were my suppositions:
⦁ The reams of data now available to companies will provide sales histories and reporting numbers that can easily be cross referenced and analyzed in ways that previously would have required months or years to pull together.
⦁ That data is going to repeatedly show surges of sales and profits for a one to three-year period, followed by a drop in sales or reduction in profits.
⦁ CEO responsible for the losses will be in the process of exiting, if not already gone, and, for the most part, the company and the shareholders will absorb the losses.
How can I carelessly make those broad, sweeping statements?
Easily, because I've spent years on the customer service and product tech side of things, and watched the crap flow. Allow me to summarize.
⦁ In the corporate world, historically, sales and marketing RULED - period, end of conversation. That is a fact. It's not a terribly surprising fact given that most corporations are capitalist ventures, and without revenue, the company does not exist. Supply and demand are basic economic principles that tell us if you have no market and you have no sales, you will not have a company for long (no matter how thoughtfully and lovingly you put it together.) Furthermore, without sales, benevolent intentions will never be realized. There will be no company benefits, and certainly no donations to charitable causes. I get it. Sales and marketing matter.
⦁ With that said, the CEO is typically hired because he is a "superstar." He has proven his skills at another company where he doubled earnings in two years and demonstrated his ability to put the company back on the map. He is featured in reputable business publications where they sing his praises and provide the numbers that support his formidable accomplishments. The sale reps are happy because they are all making bonuses, and the world is a happy wonderful place where unicorns romp and rainbows color the sky. This continues until thunder clouds form on the horizon.
⦁ Sales are coming in slower this quarter, and rumors abound that key accounts are having discussions with competitors. A high performance sales manager resigns. The top sales rep in another region jumps ship. The quarterly report comes in, but by this time, the rumors have been confirmed because that key account already canceled. Customer complaints about billing issues, sales offers, or product quality, surface during meetings, but the topic is quickly brushed aside to address the scheduled agenda.
⦁ People are a little edgy, but the CEO reassured everyone that there is still ample sunshine and too many rainbows to worry about those distant clouds. He is confident, and he is very convincing. He shuts down the manager from finance or the CFO who attempts with quiet determination to raise a couple of red flags.
He reminds every one of all the accolades heaped upon the company recently, and when the CTO or CIO raises a concern about scope changes to a significant project, he brashly relegates it to the parking lot issues to save everyone's time. He is adamant that a different meeting will need to be scheduled for another time to include the right groups, even as members of the IT team point out that all stakeholders are in the room. It stays parked, and another meeting is scheduled for three weeks out.
⦁ By the end of second quarter, the mood within the company has deteriorated significantly. People gather to speculate on where the company is headed and what impact it could have on jobs if third quarter projections are not met. People share with friends and colleagues that they have been given "feedback" about their performance. They have been told to step up their efforts to meet goals that made no sense from the time they were delivered.
The current goals, with targets modified by management, make even less sense. Their plan is to try to make up what was missed first and second quarter. Since most of the metrics measured cannot be controlled by those being measured, the mood continues to darken, and the "workers against management mentality" escalates. All of the money spent to understand employee motivations and gather feedback to improve performance and culture has been trashed.
⦁ As third quarter roles in with more sinking numbers, stocks plummet, more sales reps have jumped ship, and employee use of mental health and prescription benefits to combat stress, high blood pressure, anxiety and depression spirals upward. Rumors are rampant, realignments are the rule, and "leadership" is micro- managing every performance metric imaginable from customer feedback to bathroom breaks (yes really!- Christopher Isak's article explains.)
None of it actually matters because the CEO will be out the door by the end of the year. He isn't concerned because his Golden Parachute was well negotiated, and he had another position lined up. His hard-driving, take no prisoners, results driven plan sold them from the day they met him.
That's pretty much it. Don't get me wrong. It's a good plan. Controlling, driver, Type A personalities do get things done. They generally get things done quickly. They are decisive and impatient and openly praise and reward supporters. Naysayers, or people who raise questions or concerns, are routinely, and often abruptly, accused of being negative or unsupportive. It works, and it's perfect if you want great sales and growth for a couple of years.
The past twenty years has seen the unprecedented growth of corporate entities and franchises. The corporate model of create, SELL, define best practices, and SELL more has been perfected. The practice of duplication has become commonplace . Technology has automated a huge portion of the work that was performed by people in the past, and all that brings us to today.
As fog computing arrives, Cloud moves forward, and the Internet of Things evolves. As Robotics advance, Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence become the norm. As bots continue to be birthed, what happens next?
There are a lot of different directions the business world could take. Politics, security, and the economy will all play their part, but looking over the horizon right now, my takes are as follows:
⦁ Sales and marketing will always have a place in the corporate world, but the roles will change more over the next five years than they have in the past thirty. Sales will be driven from customer needs and wants, and the consumer demand for sustainable, safer, traceable products is going to multiply rapidly.
Consumer demand for actionable, personalized service is going to escalate, along with their intolerance for confusion about products or billing. The expectations that problems will be resolved quickly, with immediacy, will increase, while the problems they encounter will be increasingly complex.
The days of a company throwing together a market plan on the fly and sending out the press release on the sales promotion, before their customer service and support teams even know there IS a promotion, will need to end for companies that intend to survive. Customers will no longer tolerate excuses and bad planning, and apologies will fall on deaf ears.
Drive ahead to beat the competition will only work if the entire customer experience is seamless from start to finish. This means product managers and marketing teams must involve IT and Customer Service at planning stages. The routine of throwing IT the project needs and specifications, and sharing promotion materials with Customer Service, AFTER everything has been budgeted, ordered, and printed must end.
This will become the rule, not the exception. The winners will be the companies who "get it."
⦁ Company roles are going to change. They are going to change a lot. Industry discussions generally revolve around automating routine, repetitive tasks and answering basic questions. General consensus is that a "Fourth Industrial Revolution" of sorts is imminent with AI, IoT, and robotics at the helm, and millions of jobs are expected to disappear.
The assumption has been prevalent until recently that those jobs would be clerical, customer service, and maybe retail positions. As all of the discussions continue to circulate about AI and robotics, I wonder how many actually realize how much of what they do can be automated? Perhaps the recent lay offs of brokers on Wall Street caused a few people to pay attention. A few more started to listen when a law firm brought in their first robot.
The robots continue to beat the humans at chess. Chess is about strategy. AI beat the professionals at Go. GO is a game of strategy. Who is responsible for corporate strategy? Some bells should be starting to ring.
⦁ The public and the workforce is more educated and has more global awareness than at any time in history which means they can, and do, ask questions. They look things up when something annoys them or they "just want to know." According to the research in Choe's article, most people think the average CEO salary is one million dollars, and they believe that salary to be excessive. It speaks volumes that they are already angry about that perceived disparity when actual disparity is much higher.
With a newly published study that provides glaring proof that the average CEO salary is significantly higher than people suspected, added to market losses, exorbitant pay outs, and eroded faith in leadership, what direction will the corporate entity take?
I expect that artificial intelligence will be strongly considered. I do not think the CEO role will be automatically excluded from the consideration of replacement by artificial intelligence. I do not think any executive roles will be excluded. Considering the mathematical capabilities of AI, it will definitely be looked at for all accounting and reporting functions.
⦁ Recent studies of human motivation prove that people want to participate in the development of projects and ideas. It has been established that the top down management style that has been used for years in our largest companies and corporations is no longer effective. The smart companies who have already involved consultants and strategists have been moving rapidly toward more cooperative, less centralized work places for years.
Many managers and project leaders no longer work from an office in a building, instead using a mobile work option involving technology, virtualization, and software based infrastructures that eliminate the requirements for hardware and offices and machines and connections. The logical progression is to move toward a collaborative workforce where there is a team approach to most objectives.
From product design and development to marketing, customer service, and sales, there will be more of a consultative approach in the workplace. Project leaders, or coaches will be in demand, and it is quite likely that the leadership role could shift from one team member to another as projects and goals change. This will allow employees to focus on the job they do best and enjoy, but it will put them in the position of having to deal with accountability, performance, and deadlines. They will learn and grow as part of a team that shares knowledge and expertise. They will experience pride and ownership from start to finish, plus a degree of freedom and choice in how to work.
⦁ I think it is also important to remember, as we move forward, that specialized technical skill does not equal management or leadership skill. There are some brilliant technical minds who are also great leaders, but the distinction needs to be acknowledged. Everybody is not a communicator or 'people person," and as we move into the common use of AI, this distinction is particularly important.
Human perception matters, and it is influenced by voice tone, dialect, slang terms, facial expressions, and word choice. When it comes to problem solving, however, things that cannot be easily measured also matter, and they often matter a lot to the customer. Knowledge of company culture, structure, dynamics, product flows, how products and technologies overlap or don't, how they interact, or don't, can all impact customer experience. Unexpected things like legacy projects or benefits, and why they were ended or set aside, departmental responsibilities and purposes, even company charitable causes are some of the intangible things that can make huge differences to customers.
If you don't believe it, think back to the last time you had a billing problem. How many calls did you have to make to get it resolved? How many times were you circled through automated systems, recorded messages, and online chat before a live person actually helped you? Even worse, how many real people had to transfer you to someone else because the automated system sent you to the wrong place?
How much of your personal time did that company waste by forcing you to navigate their technology? Did you WANT to do more business with them? Contrast that experience with your most recent "great" customer service interaction. As we continue to automate and generate these solutions, it will be critical to recognize when human intervention is needed and appropriate.
I suspect that the places where people are most valuable or most needed will be surprising to some. Smart leaders will slow down, step away from the automation, step away from the sales funnel momentarily, and view end to end processes. If the new CEO is a bot, the odds that he or she will care even less about humankind than his or her predecessors are pretty strong.
The establishment of ethical standards, imperatives, and requirements must happen before AI is implemented on a wide scale basis. Irrevocable human rights need to be standardized, and we need to define critical failures and standard protocols for managing them. It would be a good idea to do this before the companies with billions of dollars pay government officials and local rulers to make the guidelines to suit their purposes.
The bots are babies right now, but kids grow up quickly, and once they head out into the world on their own, the ability to control them, or their decisions, pretty much disappears.
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