Thanks to a good friend for referring this great article to me. It’s from Harvard Business Review, written by leader that got his company’s stock price back on track after a fall.
In the article, A.G. Lafley, CEO of Proctor & Gamble, elaborates on these four things:
1. Defining and interpreting the meaningful outside.
2. Answering time and time again the two part question, What business are we in and what business are we not in?
3. Balancing sufficient yield in the present with necessary investment in the future.
4. Shaping the values and standards of the organization.
Leaders at all levels should learn this article and ask themselves how the things they’re doing line up with these.
It struck me a long time ago that good leaders make things simple, effectively, while bad leaders often make things more complex. This is one of those simple, but effective, things. Many, who prefer the complex, may scoff at its simplicity. But, my guess is those who do will not keep their jobs for long.
As I reviewed the list and read the article it struck me that these are the very same things that well-run households do these things well too.
May 21, 2009 at 6:36 pm
[...] A.G. Lafley’s, head of Procter & Gamble article about the four things only a CEO (see this post) can do, he defined two critical moments of truth for [...]