Dr. Senn interview appears in new CEO Forum magazine

Aug. 25, 2010 - PRLog -- Dr. Larry Senn is the founder and chairman of Senn Delaney, a firm that has partnered with hundreds of CEOs and their senior teams around the world, including 89 Fortune 500 firms, to create aligned CEO teams and high-performance cultures to support better business results. Robert Reiss recently asked Larry to share what he has discovered as key focus areas for CEOs who want even better performance.

What suggestions do you have for CEOs based on your experience in working with so many?

Most understand they need to get the strategy and the structure right. Fewer, but an increasing number, are beginning to realize that the biggest lever they have is getting the right organizational habits, mindset or culture. If you look at most failed mergers, acquisitions, strategies and restructures, you will find a cultural issue at the root of the shortfall.

Because culture is in the people domain, all too often it is delegated to the HR world and seen as leadership development. While that plays a role in it, we believe that the CEO and their senior team need to own, model and lead any effort to reshape organizational habits that stand in the way of peak performance. That is because of a phenomenon we discovered in our early research and named “The Shadow of the Leaders.” That is also why all our work begins with a CEO and their senior team to ensure that we make a measurable and sustained difference in a culture.

Enlightened leaders get this and work at it. Several CEOs in this issue mention the importance of leading the culture. ING Direct CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann talks about how the culture is the best way to lead employees to higher engagement. Jim McCann of 1-800-Flowers summed this up nicely when he described the role of the CEO as an influencer: “Each of us becomes a cultural engineer.” And David Steiner, CEO of Waste Management, really said it best: “When you want to make change, you've got to change that culture and that is the number one job of the CEO.”

Why is a CEO focus on culture so important today?

Most industries are going through major changes. Examples include health care, where big-pharma companies have blockbuster drugs coming off patent, and hospitals and insurers face healthcare reform. Retailers and consumer product firms are facing a new mindset in customers. Banking, airlines and other industries face continuing industry consolidation, and need to be an acquirer or be acquired. All of these situations require shifts in culture to support new strategies and structures.

One aspect of this changing landscape is merger and acquisitions. We work with the newly merged companies to pre-empt the culture clashes that often keep these deals from realizing full potential and synergy. We did this with the merger of WellPoint and Anthem, working with then-CEO Larry Glasscock to in effect create a new company with a customer-focused culture of innovation.

With the pace of change accelerating and turnover at the top, we frequently work with new CEOs or newly configured CEO teams. They need to hit the ground running and can't take the time it used to take to all get aligned and mutually supportive. The right intervention can make that happen fast. We also work with existing CEOs to take already good teams up a notch.

Perhaps the most common situation CEOs face today is gaining cross-organizational synergies. We call it “the last frontier” after picking the lower-hanging fruit. Most companies are made up or distinct business units, geographies and central functions. Most also have silos and turf issues that get in the way. Creating a culture where people work together seamlessly in matrix organizations with the right people collaborating and sharing resources for the greater good is an answer to superior performance.

Any success stories you'd like to share?

We have had great success in helping CEOs we work with to create winning cultures. One story in our book. Winning Teams –Winning Cultures, is about our work with Yum! Brands. David Novak engaged us in his first CEO role as the leader at KFC. Here's what he says about our work: “I was committed to having all of management walk the talk and provide the kind of leadership needed to restore the organization to its former greatness. The Senn Delaney processes and concepts were invaluable and brought out the best in people and improved customer service, sales and bottom-line results. They provided the same kind of assistance when I took over Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. We continue to use their concepts and techniques throughout all of YUM! around the world today.” I am happy to share more results with any CEOs who want to learn more.

Any final thoughts?

Corporate culture determines if your strategies, initiatives and mergers will succeed or fail. All organizations have cultures. The question is, do they shape us or do we shape them? To shape them requires a different kind of leadership and a different kind of shadow from the top, and that starts with the CEO's team.

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An international consulting firm founded in 1978, Senn Delaney is widely recognized as the leading international authority on culture change. We have worked with hundreds Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies to create healthy, high-performance cultures.