Each month, “Anschuetz on Leadership” episodes will look at unique ways that business can approach leadership. Christian Anschuetz is an adventurer, entrepreneur, and United States Marine Corps Captain (not on active duty). He’s been the CIO of one of the world’s largest advertising firms, CDO of a global safety and supply-chain company, and founded a nonprofit to help connect military veterans with business leaders for mutually beneficial outcomes. He’s currently building his own house, teaching at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and starting a couple of new businesses. Today, we talk about the urgent importance of a clear strategy to market success.
Episode 10
The Big Themes:
- Two processes are responsible for making great companies great: strategy and governance. And far too many companies do not have an actual strategy based on their target market and customers.
- The need for a shared lexicon: if you ask 10 people at one company to define what “digital” means, you are likely to get 10 very different answers back. This is bad news for that company.
- Balancing technology with human interaction: it’s fine and good that digital tools are so prevalent in our lives, but we should all think about how and where we’re finding person-to-person connections.
The Big Quote: “How expensive, in real dollars and opportunity cost, is it when we’re not clear on what we’re trying to do, the outcomes we’re trying to create, and how we’re going to get there? How expensive is that?”
