Xinfu blog

Steve Leads Session On Multicultural Leadership In Shanghai

Infosys China invited Steve to lead a session on multicultural leadership with Infosys’ top management team, including Infosys China CEO Rangarajan Vellamore.

The session was held on February 21, 2013 at Infosys China’s headquarters in Shanghai.

See these pictures from the event here:

1) Steve in action: speaking to Infosys China top leadership team

2) Indian vs. Chinese breakout: how can we best work together?

3) Infosys China CEO Rangarajan Vellamore (right) and Steve Tappin (left)

Connect with Steve on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/SteveTappin

And also with Infosys:

http://twitter.com/Infosys

Private Equity: the 10 critical CEO questions to ask next time you meet your portfolio CEOs

Steve was back out to SuperReturn in Berlin, the most influential private equity forum in the world, today. He was once again speaking alongside key industry figures including David Bonderman of TPG Capital, Dwight Poler of Bain Capital, David Rubenstein of The Carlyle Group and John Moulton of Better Capital.

Today, private equity investors are searching for the right evolved role to increase their returns.

Steve shared his belief that one of the biggest factors constraining private equity returns we see in our work at Xinfu is the ability of the CEO to drive growth.

Steve shared Xinfu’s view that private equity owners therefore now need to evolve their role from being financial engineers and expert challengers on operational efficiency to today being agitators for growth in their portfolio companies.

That means challenging portfolio CEOs and boards in terms of the scale of the growth ambition management sets and the time frames to deliver that growth.  It means ensuring management can set the right culture for growth in their specific business and put the right governance around growth so that standard governance of the strategic and operational plan does not strangle it.  It means getting the best people and freeing them to give their best.

It’s time for general partners to really challenge their CEOs.  Steve shared 10 questions to use to get the CEO focused on what really matters to growing his business for value creation:

  1. How do you become number one in your industry within 3 years?
  2. Do you have a common cause beyond money which unifies and lifts the company?
  3. Do you have 3 or 4 “iPod” ideas?
  4. Have you got clear battle plans to beat the competition?
  5. Do you really have the best exec team in the industry?
  6. Do you pull together as a true fellowship?
  7. Do you feel you have the level of mental clarity and energy required to perform at your absolute best?
  8. How would you run the business with 25% less overhead without customers noticing a difference?
  9. Are all the critical value creators 2-3 levels below the exec incentivised effectively?

10. Are we giving the teams space to experiment, think freely and take place some bold bets?

Bold private equity firms who focus on driving ambitious growth in their businesses by properly developing and challenging their CEOs and leadership teams will outperform their peers in the years to come.

Notes to editors

Xinfu

We are the world’s first global CEO confidants.

We are working with top CEOs from around the world to build a new generation of businesses that win in the right way. Our ambition is to work with a small number of ambitious global clients to generate extraordinary returns for their owners and create exceptional environments where talented people can fulfil themselves.

“The New Secrets of CEOs”

“The New Secrets of CEOs” is a completely updated edition of the bestselling “The Secrets of CEOs”.  Drawing on 200 interviews with top global CEOs from both East and West, Steve and his co-author, Andy Cave of the Telegraph, really dig into how the best CEOs are leading to win in the reset world. More on the book here.

Dec 4-5, 2010: China’s new focus: global brands and indigenous innovation – speaking at China Entrepreneur Summit, Beijing

It was great to be back speaking again at China Entrepreneur Summit in Beijing, once again the top forum for Chinese CEOs this year.

Steve, Hugh, and Michelle joined top Chinese CEOs such as Liu Chuanzhi (Lenovo), Guo Guangchang (Fosun Group), Jack Ma (Alibaba), Pony Ma (Tencent), and Dr. Liu Jiren (Neusoft) debating the new five year plan, the most pressing issues on the ground in China, and the challenges of globalizing from a Chinese base.

Whereas last year’s main theme was environmental protection and Copenhagen, this year the CEOs’ focus lay on identifying the right role for business in supporting social development and welfare.  Jack Ma really captured the mood in his keynote close to the forum, urging the group to: “Count the days left in your life…we came to this life to live and have fun. We need to think about what we have, what we want, and what we are willing to give up.”

Fresh from the event, the key CEO challenges are:

•     Global brands and indigenous innovation: draft five year plan marks significant shift in Chinese government policy

Government policy for the last 30 years has been on broadly to progressively open the China market to Western business to give Chinese business access to technology and commercial best practice. With the new 5 year plan, the government is widely expected to change focus to promoting the indigenous development of global brands and technological innovation by Chinese champions. This will accelerate the development of strong global Chinese competitors in a wide range of industries.

•     “Winning family” culture and personalized approach to talent crucial to driving results and long term market position in China

Exceptional individuals are driving returns for top Chinese businesses; finding, attracting and holding on them is the single biggest challenge common to Chinese entrepreneurs, multi-nationals (“MNCs”), and State Owned Enterprises (“SOEs”).  Successful companies aren’t just relying on financial incentives.  The best companies are creating a “winning family” culture that works as a hot house for entrepreneurial talent and they are truly personalizing each employee’s experience, compensation and development.

•     Large pools of capital available to globalise ambitious Chinese market leaders

China has abundant capital and Chinese IPOs, in China and abroad, typically command generous multiples.  Some of these valuations appear inflated but liquidity gives Chinese companies scope for expansion and acquisition abroad. We expect the most successful examples of global expansion will be through smart partnering and use of minority stakes giving access to markets, expertise and brands, rather than high risk acquisitions.  The recent Fosun acquisition of a minority stake in Club Med is a good example.

•     There is a battle for China and a battle for the world.  The best global companies will develop a new way of operating and win both

Domestic Chinese entrepreneurs are learning to innovate their business models and systems fast around the customer and are determined to develop indigenous technical innovation.  They bring entrepreneurial spirit and a super low cost mindset to every industry they operate in.  And they are determined to win globally as soon as possible.

For the Chinese entrepreneurs the next step is to use smart learnings from the best global businesses to tweak their approach for globe…Western businesses must learn how to compete with these emerging global players or risk an unpleasant surprise in the coming years.

We’ll be exploring these themes and the other elements of winning in China as we continue to interview the top 100 Chinese CEOs for our upcoming book “The Journey of Chinese CEOs”, published in mandarin by Beijing University Press in Autumn 2011 and English globally later in the year.

Latest Secrets of CEOs for HRDs: Steve addresses day 1 of CIPD annual conference

Hosted by CIPD and Best Companies, Steve addressed the annual CIPD conference in Manchester yesterday.

Drawing on our “The Secrets of CEOs” research, Steve showed the assembled senior HR directors  how their boss’ CEO type has a massive impact on the HRD’s ability to influence the business and how in practice the HRD can become a true talent champion who helps the business drive commercial change and growth.

Steve finished with a challenge.  Top CEOs, whatever their CEO type, tell us that the key for HRDs is to put an emotive cause at the heart of the business and to build a CEO fellowship amongst the top leaders in the business.  Is your business led by a fellowship of the CEO focused on delivering a cause that gets the whole business going everyday?

“The New Secrets of CEOs” is a completely updated edition of the bestselling “The Secrets of CEOs”.  Drawing on 200 interviews with top global CEOs from both East and West, Steve and his co-author, Andy Cave of the Telegraph, really dig into how the best CEOs are leading to win in the reset world. More on the book here.

People Management magazine gets a sneak preview of Steve speaking at CIPD tomorrow

You can hear the latest CEO views on HR from Steve when he speaks at the HR profession’s flagship convention, the CIPD, tomorrow in Manchester.

In the meantime, People Management magazine got a brief preview when they caught up with Steve earlier in the month. One topic Steve will touch on is a key challenge for HR Directors: “from our “The New Secrets of CEOs” research, we know that, today most CEOs see the HR director as someone who cleans up messes, runs the HR machine and helps them with difficult people issues , instead of really focusing on putting talent at the centre of building a winning business”.

Read the whole article here.

Steve’s back in the UK after giving the closing keynote of the World Retail Congress in Berlin last week

For us, the Congress highlighted three key challenges for retailers today:

1.  Retailers have not mastered the digital revolution.  As Philipp Schindler, VP of Northern and Central Europe at Google, reminded delegates, the internet should not be just one of retailers’ channels but, increasingly, their flagship channel

2. There is a significant personal leadership challenge for retail CEOs. As Michael Gould, Chairman and CEO of Bloomingdale’s, put it during his induction into the WRC Hall of Fame,    “it is people who make the difference in retailing”.  Most retail CEOs are not powerful people leaders

3. In the western world, the retail winners in recent years have been commercial executors.  In India and China today the top CEOs are corporate entrepreneurs and global missionaries.  These leaders are much better at getting the best from their people.  Western CEOs would do well to learn from their Eastern competitors.

Taken together, CEOs will need a new type of leadership to win in the evolving retail landscape.

For more on the differences between Eastern and Western retail CEOs and the other main types of CEOs around the world, read “The New Secrets of CEOs”.

“The New Secrets of CEOs” is a completely updated edition of the bestselling “The Secrets of CEOs”.  Drawing on 200 interviews with top global CEOs from both East and West, Steve and his co-author, Andy Cave of the Telegraph, really dig into how the best CEOs are leading to win in the reset world. More on the book here.

Steve draws the World Retail Congress to a close – Berlin

Steve will be drawing the three day World Retail Congress in Berlin to a close tomorrow evening. Drawing on our experience as confidants to leading CEOs in retail and beyond, Steve will

- Share how the best retail CEOs lead today

- Take the Congress through the three areas where winning retailers will focus in the coming years

- Help participants ensure they turn their learnings from the event into action.

Steve will host the opening panel discussion of the day: ‘Getting consumers moving again: how retail can boost economic recovery and restore trust’.  The panel participants are: Matthew Shay, Kumar Rajagopalan, Richard Simonin and Gao Shulin.

Hard globalisation in a reset world: London Business School Global Leadership Summit 2010

Steve, Hugh and Michelle joined John Connolly, Global Chairman of Xinfu client Deloitte, and CEOs and senior leaders including Peter Voser of Shell, Andy Green of Logica, Savio Kwan of Alibaba, Ravi Kant of Tata Motors and Vittorio Calao of Vodafone to debate “New Frontiers: Expansion, Opportunity and Innovation” at LBS’ flagship event, the Global Leadership Summit.

The event ranged widely and included some memorable exchanges – in particular, the very lively and stimulating panel discussion between Savio Kwan, Ravi Kant and Mo Ibrahim, Chairman and Founder of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and Founder, Celtel.

A selection of the key CEO questions the team felt remain unanswered include

-          How do you build a business that consistently innovates new products and services on a global scale?

-          What type of leaders do you need in your particular business to drive out performance in the near term and long term business leadership?

-          How do you use rising talent to spot commercial opportunity?

We will be examining these questions in detail in the forthcoming “The Secrets of Chinese CEOs”.

Read more about the event here.

Insead: 50th Anniversary Leadership Summit

Steve really enjoyed joining other senior CEOs to discuss for the Insead 50th Anniversary Leadership Summit at Fontainebleau. More details here.

Steve heads to the “Asian Davos” – Boao Forum 9th to 11th April

Steve and Michelle tomorrow join over 1,000 Asian CEOs and leaders on Hainan Island, China, for the 8th Boao Forum, “Asia Going Green: The Road to Sustainable Growth”.

As usual, the forum will see Asia’s most influential leaders debate the aftermath of the global crisis, and in particular, Asia’s green challenge, with numerous global peers.  There’s much for Chinese and Asian leaders to be extremely proud of, and for Western leaders to take note of, but Steve and Michelle will also be looking to lay out the business and personal leadership challenges they also undoubtedly face. 

It promises to be a powerful exchange – and we’ll tweeting on developments throughout the conference and blogging on our thoughts and conclusions coming out of it. 

For further coverage, in particular keep an eye on CCTV, Bloomberg, CBNC, New York Times, Fortune, WSJ, and the BBC. Boao website is here.

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