The last few years in business have been some of the most challenging ever, with the pendulum swinging wildly in every direction – onshore, offshore, downsizing, growing, outsourcing, hiring, new technology, proven practices, regulations, world events, foreign and domestic markets, healthcare, security, social media, direct media…and the list goes on.

Competition is fiercer than ever in light of a global market and technology.

Consumers are more knowledgeable and demand more for less.

Devoted employees are harder to find, as many have lost trust in the system of business or given up on looking for jobs altogether.

This makes it quite challenging for today’s CEO to keep up with current trends and technology, let alone forecast the future with any degree of certainty. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) calls this “Leading in Extraordinary Times”.

Let’s face it, the business template of previous decades has pretty much been thrown out the window, and everyone in any industry is forced to create a new model. This means that today’s CEO must be intensely adept at assessing current and future changes and having a company that is quickly adaptable to the market. The old bloated corporate ship that took forever to turn in a new direction must be replaced by a model that is lighter, quicker, and much more agile – one where leaders are able to quickly assess a situation, efficiently conduct due diligence, and steer in the new direction if it is in the best interest of the company.

The new successful corporate model will be modular in a sense – able to quickly adapt to new demands and incorporate new technology.

According to PWC, leaders of tomorrow must have these attributes:

Tomorrow’s CEO is a continuous learner. A connected leader. A trusted partner. An orchestrator of talents and capabilities.

Connected devices are smarter; connected customers and employees are smarter; connected industries are smarter. Businesses need to get smarter.

Source: “Leading in Extraordinary Times”

At the end of that article, PWC has posted this wise advice from Rodney O’Neal:

The world will tell you where it’s going, it will tell you what it needs, but it’s going to be in code, and so you need to be able to connect the dots. It’s important that global CEOs listen carefully to what the world’s saying, from each region, and be able to take that input and piece it together to formulate a vision, a strategy, and the tactics of how his or her particular company is going to take advantage of where the world is going. And the ability to decode the messaging is going to be extremely critical.

• Rodney O’Neal, CEO of Delphi Automotive Systems LLC
  Source: “Leading in Extraordinary Times”

Your job as a leader is to know what is going on now and what is on the horizon, and to ensure that you, your company, and your team are prepared. Are you doing your homework and making the right connections?