spotlight
We at Senn Delaney wish you a healthy and high-performance 2012. To help you, your team and your organization thrive this year, we are pleased to share the best of our thought leadership and interviews. These articles and videos are intended to deepen leaders' understanding that organizational cultures can be intentionally shaped, and that high-performance, thriving cultures create the greatest competitive advantage and achieve outstanding results. Warmest wishes for 2012!
We are pleased to share four of the year's best CEO interviews on culture featuring ING Direct CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann, Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh, Ogilvy & Mather Chairman Shelly Lazarus, and The Home Depot Founder Bernie Marcus.
Griffin Hospital is considered a leader in innovative healthcare, but that wasn't always the case. Today, CEO Pat Charmel shares the story behind the turnaround that led to Griffin being named one of Fortune Magazine's top places in America to work. It all started with innovative thinking, a true focus on the customer and overcoming resistance to conventional thinking and change.
YUM! Brands CEO and Chairman David Novak offers powerful and sincere directives for creating a cohesive, success-oriented corporate culture in his new book, TAKING PEOPLE WITH YOU: The Only Way to Make BIG Things Happen. Several of Senn Delaney's culture-shaping principles are noted in the book. We are pleased to share an excerpt.
James L. Heskett's new book, The Culture Cycle: How to shape the unseen force that transforms performance, demonstrates that developing an effective culture can account for up to half of the difference in operating income between two organizations in the same business. Senn Delaney is pleased to share an exclusive chapter excerpt, Measuring Effectiveness.
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Knowledge Center
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First Horizon National Corporation CEO Bryan Jordan has led the nearly 150-year-old financial institution through turbulent times since the start of the economic crisis in 2008. In this interview, he discusses why shifting the long-established “Firstpower” culture was an important part of the turnaround. As a result, First Horizon has returned to profitability and improved performance and is better prepared for significant industry changes ahead.
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When the economic crisis struck in 2008, seemingly overnight, the financial services industry faced dramatic change. First Horizon National Corporation's emphasis shifted from expansion to refocus on its core businesses of regional banking and capital markets. The CEO and chief human resources officer swiftly responded by intentionally shifting the “Firstpower” culture to align with a strategic refocus on its core business as the best regional banking system in Tennessee. In this interview about leading the culture, CHRO John Daniel describes how a smaller, but more flexible, nimble and accountable organization has emerged. As a result, First Horizon has returned to profitability and improved performance and is better prepared for significant industry changes ahead.
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While many companies struggled during the recession, USAA, the financial services company serving military families, experienced some of the best success in its 88-year history. The company is basking in robust growth, top ratings for financial strength and accolades for customer service from the likes of Bloomberg Businessweek and many others.
What is the secret sauce? CEO Gen. Joe Robles says in this interview that the fundamental recipe for USAA's continued success is its culture of service. He discusses the importance of his role as the “chief culture officer” to keep a sustained, committed focus on the culture of going above and beyond — and doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do.
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John Bryson led Edison International, one of the largest investor-owned utility companies in the nation, as chairman, president and CEO from 1990 until his retirement in 2008. In this recent conversation with Senn Delaney Chairman Dr. Larry Senn, he looks back on why building a high-performing leadership team was critical to helping fulfill the utility's vision of Leading the Way In Electricity.
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With a clear mandate to bring Miami Children's Hospital into the digital 21st century, CEO Dr. Narendra Kini took the proactive approach of shifting the collective mindset of the institution in a more accountable, collaborative and customer-focused direction first, creating a culture called The MCH Way.
Now that the EMR transformation is beginning at Miami Children's, he has fully prepared the hospital to embrace the radical change. In the process, there has been dramatic improvement in patient, employee and physician satisfaction and clinical outcomes. He shares his leadership lessons for IT transformation success in this view from the top interview.
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At a time when organizations have to perform at their best, and all the low-hanging fruit has been picked, how do you improve the bottom line and top line of your organization? One answer lies in gaining maximum organizational synergies, something most organizations fail to accomplish. Why do so many companies fall short? What does it take to succeed? Founder and Chairman Dr. Larry Senn shares insights and offers some thought-provoking questions for leaders to consider.
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The Ohio State University President Dr. Gordon Gee discusses his passion and progress on creating a “One University”, high-performance culture to take the largest university in the U.S. from excellence to eminence. On the global stage, it is part of his vision to build a new model for the university of the 21st century: more agile, more responsive, less insular and less bureaucratic.
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In just two years, Chief Executive Ron Hilton has led Staffordshire
County Council, one of the largest local government bodies in England,
to dramatically higher performance, fiscal health and economic
stability. The council has moved up the national performance tables
into the top 10 percent of local authorities for improving performance.
Mr Hilton discusses the spectacular results the Council is seeing from
an ambitious reform agenda that is focused on creating a
high-performance culture.
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Even in the most resilient of companies, long-term strategies that guide fulfillment of the mission are being rethought, retooled and refreshed in response to challenging market conditions caused by the economic crisis. WellPoint Inc., the nation's largest health benefits company, recently did just that. David Casey, vice president of workplace culture and chief diversity officer, discusses the company's ‘Strategy Refresh' announced late in 2008 and how WellPoint's leaders are realigning the culture to support the directional shift.
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Senn Delaney CEO and President Jim Hart stresses the importance and proven value of leaders having a "thriving to win" mindset, especially during economic turmoil.
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In this candid interview, Atmos Energy Corporation CEO Bob Best shares his thoughts on leading during challenging times, and why creating and sustaining a healthy, performance-based ‘AtmoSpirit' culture has contributed to the gas distribution utility's stability despite the challenges in the industry and the worst economy since the Great Depression.
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It's become a business imperative to maximize operational effectiveness, trim costs, standardize and streamline processes, achieve economies of scale and increase competitive advantage. Today's most successful leaders do this in a way that balances the greater good of the enterprise with the competing demands of their autonomous businesses that must respond to the individual needs of their markets.
A more collaborative model that helps leaders of complex businesses to maximize effectiveness is gaining traction. Four prominent business leaders discuss their challenges and successes in shifting to this shared business model.
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Driven by a heartfelt mission to provide the best care for every child, Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio is striving to become a preeminent, nationally prominent pediatric teaching hospital and research institute.
To achieve this, hospital leaders are executing an ambitious strategic plan to increase capacity, enhance patient care and services, improve performance and discover new treatments and cures.
A foundational part of the hospital's roadmap to success includes building a one-team culture of accountability, collaboration and innovation, one that connects administrative, medical and support staff throughout the hospital and research institute to the mission, strategic plan and values. This article describes the positive results they are already seeing.
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It is considered to be one of the most successful mega-mergers of equals in the United States to
date. The 2004 union of WellPoint Health Networks and Anthem, Inc. created the largest health
insurance company in the nation.
When so many mergers fail or don't realize their expected potential, why is the WellPoint-Anthem story such a success?
Chairman Larry Glasscock, CEO Angela Braly and members of their Executive Leadership Team share their journey to build a new company and create a culture of trust and innovation and the many business benefits that have resulted.
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Companies today demand more from their annual corporate meetings of top executives. Those critical few days are highly strategic and focused discussions around meeting the challenges ahead, planning for new growth and preparing for more major change and strategic shifts.
It's an opportune time to consider the company's cultural impact on its changing strategies. Some of the world's largest companies use a 2- to 3-hour culture diagnostic session as part of their annual meeting of the top 50 to 300 leaders. It is an effective way to mobilize and focus leaders on shifting the culture to the high-performance, Thriving Leadership™ state needed to effectively implement new strategies and organizational change.
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