Company chiefs can learn from politicians, and it works the other way, too

It is high political season in the United States and like my fellow citizens I follow the presidential candidates - their strategies and policies, personalities and positionings, frustrations and foibles.

At the same time, my professional life involves advising CEOs and C-suite executives (on China strategies and activities). As such, I have a parallel opportunity to observe CEOs working their businesses and presidential candidates working their campaigns - and from all this I've been reflecting on what executive leadership, political and corporate, is all about.

At its core, political and corporate leadership have similar objectives: to benefit the organization or institution as measured by the standard currencies of the sector. For example, in presidential politics, enhancing the well-being of the people as reflected by the unemployment rate (inversely); in corporations, increasing shareholder value as reflected by share price (directly).

Moreover, to be successful, political and corporate leaders must win "votes" in the marketplace - for politicians, in the media marketplace of ideas and ideology; for CEOs, in the commercial marketplace of goods and services. The votes are cast by the people: in commerce, with their wallets every day; in US presidential elections, with their ballots every four years.

How the best politicians win elections yields practical advice for CEOs.

Following are successful campaign strategies that can enhance CEO leadership.

Articulate a simple message. Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney talks the economy and jobs, getting America back to work; US President Barack Obama talks fairness and investment in the future, such as education and energy-saving technologies. One CEO spun off his firm's most promising division into a separate public company, and thus each company told a simple story.

Articulate a grand vision. Obama had great success in 2008 with his message of Hope and Unity (though realities of office make his 2012 message less grand in comparison). Romney's mission is to restore the competitive strength of American business, with an aggressive pro-American growth plan driven by a dynamic private sector. A technology CEO, concerned that his firm's revenues were coming largely from a medium-tech sector that was becoming a commodity, repositioned the company around three high-growth technologies, although they composed only a small part of current revenues.

Consolidate your base, then reach beyond. Obama must secure the left wing and Romney the right wing. (Although this makes political sense, each is pressured to espouse positions more extreme than each hand-over-heart really believes, which is an unfortunate and unintended consequence of the system.) The legendary founder of a major retailer ruthlessly prunes divisions, constantly seeking to serve core consumers, and then and only then experiments with other market segments.

Try to be liked. Obama is admired as a person - even some of his detractors say he would make a good friend - thus giving him the benefit of doubt. Most CEOs are people-oriented and take people management to be their most important responsibility.

Project strength. The controversial media revelations about Obama's role in cyber-warfare and "kill lists" of terrorists burnished his image as a tough-guy president. Several CEOs have reputations for making bold bets, high-risk actions that they would not be able to take unless they were perceived to be strong.

Enjoy a sense of humor. Obama projects confidence with wit, even making jokes at his own expense; Romney seems to struggle when trying to be natural. Some CEOs use mild but masterful self-deprecation so as to combine high self-confidence with an approachable common touch.

Some mistakes are deadly. When (in 1967) George Romney, Mitt's father, said that he had been "brainwashed" on Vietnam - well, no one wants a president who could be brainwashed - one poor choice of words ended his political aspirations. The market share collapses of Nokia and Blackberry, which missed the smartphone revolution, are staggering.

When politicians make mistakes, these errors can be examined more fully and thus avoided more easily. Following are campaign mistakes that CEOs should avoid to protect their leadership.

Exaggerations erode confidence. Don't sacrifice long-term credibility for short-term gains (which anyway are usually elusory).

Wild, flailing attacks can boomerang, undermining both likeability and credibility. The Republican primaries, infamous for negative ads, hurt all the candidates - those attacking as well as those attacked. CEOs may cheapen themselves by overtly attacking competitors.

Don't draw a line in the sand unless you know where you stand. Texas Governor Rick Perry fulminated against "big government", but when asked to name three agencies he would cut, he could come up with only two. "Oops," he said infamously.

Don't be overly cautious. CEOs who fear making mistakes more than missing macro-trends are doomed to do both. Moreover, if your remarks are always scripted, you will always sound mechanical.

Don't be too comfortable with your own people. If your staff is overly attuned to your way of thinking they cannot challenge old things or see new things. If they merely replicate or reinforce your ideas, they ossify your ideas and are worse than useless.

Don't be arrogant. There is a fine line between charisma and competence, on one hand, and being egotistical and overbearing on the other. Compare, say, Colin Powell with Newt Gingrich.

Don't be "perfect". No one likes people who seem to be "perfect". Every word in place, like every hair in place, makes a "perfect candidate" who will always have trouble getting elected. Leaders should be real human beings, not robots.

I began with the idea of bringing to CEOs lessons from presidential politics. I now realize how much politicians can learn from CEOs. Politicians who seek to make a real difference, not just to get elected, should learn from CEOs.

Vision is needed most when no one else sees the need.

Great leaders change organizations; they do not lead by protecting the status quo.

CEOs want to be popular, sure - but not as a means to get their jobs, rather as a result of doing their jobs.

The best CEOs worry less about the financial judgments of the quarter and more about the visionary judgments of history (tracking corporate strength and shareholder value). No American politician admits to making decisions based on polls, but that's what almost all of them do.

Top politicians, like top CEOs, are strong personalities, and they must guard against "group-think" stupor. A strong antidote to the poison of pre-formed homogeneity is diversity of senior staff (education, culture, experience, ethnicity, gender, etc.).

In a world where individuals are more empowered than ever before, the requirements of leadership, political and corporate, have never been greater. Political and business leaders should learn how to learn from each other.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is an international corporate strategist and investment banker who advises multinationals on doing business in China. A longtime counselor to China's leaders, he is the author of How China's Leaders Think. His biography of former president Jiang Zemin, The Man Who Changed China, was China's best-selling book of 2005. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily 08/17/2012 page8)