Leading for Competitive Advantage

by Christine Davis

A business needs outstanding leadership to successfully navigate through today's complex, competitive world. Identifying and understanding the strategic orientation of your business toward customers and innovation is one thing; however, it is quite another to successfully reorient the organization in another direction. The organization will need a vision and someone to follow who will be brave enough to take on the risks of changing the status quo. The leadership has to be able to interface in a more sophisticated way with its employees, customers, and suppliers if it wants to empower them to become more involved in the value creation for their business. The executive leadership is responsible for guiding the organization through the strategic planning that will define the actions needed to achieve competitive advantage. The leadership has to involve the right people in this process and develop a vision that will inspire those involved to make the changes needed to be successful. The executive leadership will need to clearly communicate its expectations to employees so that they understand the role they are expected to play in the innovation process.