Return on Leadership
Growth is the Holy Grail of corporate strategy. Not only do high-growth companies deliver significantly greater shareholder returns than the average, they are also five times more likely to survive as independent entities than their low-growth counterparts. There is little doubt that leadership quality is a key determinant of a company’s growth, but the specificies are frustratingly elusive. What matters more – analytics or people leadership? Is growth driven by a small group of stars or a broad leadership cadre? Should executives conform to one corporate leadership profile, or does diversity deliver faster growth? Few studies have been able to provide analytically rigorous answers to these questions – or quantify the impact of leadership on growth. As a result, companies struggle to focus their leadership development efforts and budgets on creating value for the business.
To solve this problem, McKinsey & Company and Egon Zehnder International have carried out thorough statistical analyses of the relationship between managerial quality and revenue growth, across a global sample of more than 5,000 leaders in 47 listed companies. The study confirms that talent matters : executives of high-growth companies have a higher level of competency than those oflow-performing firms. But the study also makes it´s clear that having good leaders is not good enough; only excellence makes the difference. Companies with outstanding leadership teams have a high correlation with revenue growth, while those with solid but unexceptional leaders have no correlation at all. The study also shows that several commonly held beliefs are mistaken. For example, it is not true that a solid talent bench can pull off any strategy: leadership is always contextual, and competencies for success vary greatly by strategy.
Henri de Romrée and Magnus Lambsdorff will share the key messages of their research, and will discuss with participants potential implications in terms of management of top talent.
S’il est un fait incontestable que la croissance d’une entreprise dépend en grande partie de la qualité de ses dirigeants, il est en revanche bien plus difficile de cerner les différents types de compétences qui contribuent le plus à cette réussite. Rares sont les études qui parviennent à apporter des réponses rigoureuses sur le plan analytique. Les entreprises éprouvent dès lors pas mal de difficultés à concentrer leurs efforts et leurs investissements en matière de développement du leadership de manières susceptibles de créer de la valeur pour l’organisation.
Pour relever ce défi, McKinsey & Company et Egon Zehnder International ont mené une vaste recherche associant qualité du leadership et performance opérationnelle. Cette étude allie l’expertise unique de ces deux cabinets d’experts sur un échantillon global de plus de 5000 évaluations individuelles de sociétés leaders dans leur secteur.
Étude présentée par Henri de Romrée (McKinsey) et Magnus Lambsdorff (Egon Zehnder Int.)
Le débat offrira aux participants l’occasion de prendre connaissance des conclusions parfois non-conventionnelles de cette étude et d’en discuter les conclusions en tables rondes.
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