The Cothu Group

Q. Describe what it means to you to be a high performance business leader?
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Otto Von Bismarck one said “Fools say they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by other peoples experience.”

I am not a current business leader. I am a future consultant and a leader of tomorrow. As a future leader I therefore think the best answer to this question is by researching what it takes to be a current high performance business leader. Only then by gauging responses from people already in leadership positions can I truly answer such a question.

Martin Cronin (Forfas) said “The ability to form a clear vision of where to take your organisation, and the ability to bring your people with you and to enable them to give of their , is what it means to be a business leader.”

Dr Ivor Kenny “A leader is someone who has willing followers. Without followers there can be no leaders. Leadership is a combination of character (who you are) and competence (what you can do). “

Therefore a high performance business leader is one who carries the ultimate responsibility. They are personally accountable for results not for the elegance of their arguments.

A high performance business leader is someone with vision. As Eddie Haughey of Norbrook says “If you don’t have a vision, its very difficult to have a starting point . A vision is a dream. If you don’t bring a dream to fruitition, to realisation , then it is an hallucination. You must sit down and come to terms with yourself and ask the question “ Can I deliver?” If you can convince yourself that you can deliver then you start out to do so. If you are going to succeed you have to be good enough to judge those who can deliver, either to deliver for you or with you.

Others like Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Aer Arann) believe its about “how to create an environment in which people can do the best themselves. My role in Aer Arann in not to lead but to facilitate leadership. The people in Aer Arann motivate themselves and each other.”

Mark Fitzgerald (Sherry Fitzgerald) “Good leadership is about upwards, downwards and sideways communication. Its no use telling people something has to be done. You have to discuss with them what the issue is, knowing clearly what you want done. You have to bring people around to the same conclusion, developing and tweaking it. Then you have a much better understanding of getting implementation.”

A true high performance leader therefore “has a sense of innovation, focused not just on today and tomorrow but on the day after tomorrow.”

Being a high performance leader in the future will demand from me the ability to change, My success as a future leader will lie not in my approach or reaction to the world. It will be determined by how I perceive this world. To be among the great high performance leaders I must demonstrate the ability to focus exclusively and unremittingly on an ultimate objecttive and in the process bring my people with me, all the while enabling them to give of their very best.

Q. Why do you think Leadership is of importance to the continued success of the Irish economy and what do you think are the most important attributes a leader must have in Irish industry today?
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Leadership now more than ever is required in Ireland to respond to the implications of global change. In the next decade Ireland will need strong leadership in order to smoothly transfer a manufacturing export driven economy to a knowledge economy driven by service exports.

In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Ireland cannot stand still at this critical time in its history. Leaders make history. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

People depend heavily on their leaders to respond to change. The transfer to a knowledge economy may not be smooth without such leadership. I have seen from my own work experience in China that they are in the process of trying to dominate the knowledge economy as they have the manufacturing economy.

This knowledge economy differs from the traditional economy in many key areas. The consequence of location is reduced. Using the right technology and methods, virtual marketplaces and virtual organisations can be created that offer benefits of speed and agility, of round the clock operations and of global scope. Knowledge enhanced products and services can command price premiums over comparable products with low embedded knowledge or knowledge intensity. The pricing and value will depend highly on context and can have vastly different value to different people at different times.

These characteristics, so different from those of the physical economy, require new thinking by leaders and policy makers. Such leadership requires risk-taking against the prevailing and slow changing attitudes and practices odf existing institutions and business practice. To ensure the continuined success of the Irish economy our leaders will require the indispensable qualities of the ability to sense the future and to select the lines of advance that best promise of success.

Q. Why do you think 'sustainable' business practices, are so important to future leaders and what do you think the key challenges will be for public and private leaders in their balancing commercial (or economic), social and environmental needs?

Sustainability is defined as development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

This theory is based on an ethical imperative of equity within and between generations.  It implies sustaining the natural life-support systems on the planet, while extending to all the opportunity to improve quality of life.

This view states that companies should take into account not only the simple (profit) bottom line of their business operations, but adopt a three-dimensional perspective that includes economic, social and ecological implications of doing business. In fact it has become quite fashionable – at least in the rhetoric of companies and their stakeholders. However, reality appears to be that the economic bottom line still dominates corporate decision making. 

In the future this will have to change. Government leaders will need to put in place regulations that break the link between economic growth and damage to the environment. Government leaders must recognise that nations depend on companies for economic growth but that industry is having a detrimental effect on the natural environment . This can be seen in rising green- houses gases and in air and water pollution. Government leaders must be able to put in  place and enforce regulations that balance the need to protect the environment but ensure that companies operating in this country can still remain competitive globally.

Government leaders should continue the emphasis on companies to use the best available technology and promote the improved uptake of cleaner production processes. Business leaders must in future, be able to direct their companies to do more with less. They must reduce the intensity of natural resource consumption associated with energy, industrial and agricultural production and be aware of their impact on the environment. Government leaders must properly evaluate the individual polluting impact of products and services and these must be factored into the costs  so that the consumers can make enlightened decisions and therefore chose environmentally- friendly  products.

Both government and business leaders should plan for a migration of the Irish economy from a production/manufacturing base to a full blown knowledge- driven economy.  Knowledge -based large manufacturing  facilities, such as  pharmaceuticals with strong emphasis on their environmental impact will remain.  Indigenous food and food ingredient companies using Best Available Technology must be encouraged. More sustainable  exports such as service and human capital products  will ensure we have continued economic growth and job creation but that we can also meet our environmental  responsibilities.

In summary our increased global population and technology will increasingly challenge resource availability and the stability of natural systems. The challenge for leaders is to develop the ability to respond to these challenges at the appropriate pace.