Becoming an Adaptable Leader

One of the most important trends that Professor Wang sees impacting the future of work is automation. Analytics, AI (artificial intelligence), and machine learning are here to stay. While most leaders see this trend, what may be a little harder for them to grasp is the accelerating pace of their adoption across industries. For example, the demand for robotics has increased exponentially over the last 20 years. If leaders are not prepared for what will happen in that market, they will lose out to competitors that take the initiative today.

Consider what has happened with digital platforms in the last decade. Internet and social media platforms have become extremely relevant. Leaders need to know how to digitalize their business, how to think about social media, how to think about digital marketing strategy, and more. But, in the future, change will unfold more quickly. If executives are not flexible about how they operate now, they will fall behind quickly.

Not only will automation become more ubiquitous in the future, it will also be distributed across a more diverse set of stakeholders, connecting two key future technology trends with each other – automation and stakeholder complexity. Stakeholders refer to any party around a business that makes value creation possible for that business. For example, if you were operating General Motors in the 20th century, you would primarily be concerned about three types of stakeholders: suppliers, shareholders, and employees. Looking forward into the future, there are new types of technologies, like autonomous vehicles, that make the stakeholder map far more complex. For Nvidia, an important designer of semiconductors powering the AI boom, their stakeholder map entails not just suppliers, but also software companies, engineering firms, and even ride-hailing firms such as Uber that are involved in autonomous vehicles.

With the focus on data and stakeholder complexity being two key leadership trends that are becoming increasingly important to CEOs and leaders today, consider the experience of Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June 2020, a couple of months after the pandemic began shutting down the global economy, Khosrowshahi confronted social activists in front of his house who were demanding responses about what Uber was going to do about pandemic pay and other challenges. A few months later in 2021, Uber released a statement about how it was declaring new cultural values to combat the toxicity that had pervaded its internal culture. A couple of times that same year, Khosrowshahi made deliveries on behalf of Uber Eats or gave rides on behalf of Uber's ride-hailing app. This provided him with a first-hand perspective into both product and user experience to better inform his decision-making regarding customer experience. A few months after that, he was appointed to be on the board of Aurora Technologies, which took over Uber's autonomous vehicles arm. There, he had to be a technologist and R&D specialist. A few months after that, he led an earnings call, which required expertise in corporate finance. During that same month, he drew on his knowledge of regulatory strategy to work with the Biden administration on a national economic recovery strategy. Throughout these two years, Khosrowshahi had to employ many different skill sets that would have been difficult for the traditionally trained executive to respond to. An executive’s responsibilities today are not necessarily about knowing different domains, but rest on being open to constant adaptation and learning.

When it comes to the future of work and the future of business, the way to future-proof your business is to adopt a "learn-it-all" strategy which does better than a "know-it-all" strategy.

Today's executives and future leaders need the skills and ability to exercise command over many domains. To accomplish this, Professor Wang shared a basic framework that he and Professor Stephan Meier call the Learning Executives Framework, which helps executives become "learn-it-alls."

The Learning Executives Framework zooms out from an executive's internal capabilities to all the external stakeholders. A learning executive must practice having a vision, delivering values, and the art of persuasion because, ultimately, they will manage internal and external stakeholders. Internal responsibilities in their organization entail empowering employees, catalyzing and motivating the executive team, and aligning the company's goals with those of their shareholders and investors. For many leaders who have received their MBAs over the past three, four, or five decades, this is familiar. What might be unfamiliar is how these same skills can be applied externally. Today, the external stakeholders, such as policymakers and social activists, have just as much to do with how a company and executives lead value creation and value capture as the internal stakeholders.

The learning executive also needs to be attuned to major changes, including digitization, technological adoption, and automation, as well as unavoidable changes in the environment due to climate change.

By becoming an adaptable leader, executives can navigate the complexities of the modern world with confidence and success. The Executive Development Program: Leading into the Future gives business leaders the knowledge and tools needed to lead forward and thrive in this ever-changing world. Hear more on this program in our latest video: