Agility

Changing direction and rhythm to bypass the defense does not mean forgetting the basics:  you still need to constantly head for the goal.  And you still need the skillful throw.  You need both the explosive power and the final soft touch.

As a business leader, I noted I had to protect the rooted culture of the organization, while at the same time keeping my eyes open and find new, alternative ways of doing things.  Just like in sports, you have to keep the backbone, but you also have to adapt to changing environments.

Later in life and quite unexpectedly, I had to resort to agility… Spin-off decision: the division where I operated was detached from the “big steel group” and turned into a separate company, listed.  With the management team, we had to create an identity for the new company, with help from a specialized firm in London.  Let aside the difficulty to gain consensus on the logo, the graphic chart, the core values of “Newco”, the whole mission was thrilling!  This was the most creative move I was involved in, over the years I spent in the steel industry.

We had little time to get ready for D-day.  So, management team consensus was put aside, in order to implement all branding materials in time for the General Assembly which was planned to validate the creation of the new company, and its listing.

To decide faster, decide alone.

I had no idea of the number of decisions to be made in such a short time period: for example, the creation of a 60-second movie…   At the General Assembly, the Chairman was in a position to announce “and will I now let you watch the institutional movie for the launching of newco’s name, identity and values”… Just in time!

The Chairman never knew about my three heart attacks in the backstage: he didn’t have to.

Backstage work had been unforgettably stressful.  I did remember it for long.  Still, it never impacted my professional life, in the following months and years, and it never impacted the new company.

However, there was one surprising decision, concerning the branding process.  Its impact was unexpectedly strong.

Here is the story:

I reported to a man…, to be frank, not the charismatic leader type.  Introverted, scarce in his words, and poker face. To my surprise, he, the future CEO, showed sudden liveliness and enthusiasm about one precise value he wanted to promote, for the new company: with sparkling eyes and an enigmatic smile, he proclaimed “We should consider agility“…

Well, agility is not the first trait you would think of, to speak about the steel industry…

You would think of slowness, heaviness, hugeness… Traits which counteract agility.  You do not handle a mill with a thousand or more employees as you would a small distribution unit or a service center with 50 to a few hundred headcounts.  A small business unit is like a fast boat: you can stop and change direction easily.  A large unit is like a tanker: it takes tremendous energy just to change the heading one degree.

So, agility was a surprising choice for a steel industry environment.

The question is still banging in my head today: how to easily maneuver a big mill at all times, in any circumstances?  During the months following the creation of the new company, we began to realize that answering this question was a matter of survival for the newborn.

The listing was launched on the Amsterdam stock exchange.  On the fast train to Paris, coming back from the listing ceremony, the management team was in a great mood.  The freshly listed company’s CEO jested: “See, it’s easy, you just bang the gong with a little hammer and you create tremendous shareholder value”.  Easy…

Indeed, we had good reasons to be happy.  And we were.

The stock of the newborn went up and the stock of the original group recovered the value of the spined off entity in a few minutes: great immediate outcomes, better than expected would even say – being pushed to do so – the Chairman of the new company.  It had certainly not been easy to prepare everything on time, but satisfaction was real and probably well-deserved.

But it did not last long…

Very soon, the global economic environment compelled us to become more agile than we could have imagined. In a few weeks’ time, our stock price went down dramatically.  Debt was high.  We were losing money. Worst of all, we were at the mercy of banks.  There was no sign that we could be helped by the market before long.  Satisfaction turned into desperate urgency to find survival ways. Like meerkats in the desert.

It was time to put our values into practice to avoid bankruptcy.  Time to roll up our sleeves and come up with agility.

For a Human Resources leader, agility in hard times seems an impossible mission.  It would mean being able to cut payroll costs drastically, whereas the company does not have the cash required for severance pays…, and while still trying to keep the competencies needed for the future, and at the same keeping motivation and engagement as high as ever.

These contradictions will give you splitting headaches…  No time for deep reflection, no time for good or bad moods, no time for discussions.  But it is time to be agile. And you go on. At times, without a clear sense of direction though.

Basketball – whatever the tactics – is about winning: winning the game…, the championship…, or …, the world cup….

Business – whatever the tactics – is not always about winning or losing a game.  But just as in sports, while being agile you’d better keep the direction, the heading.  If not, you will be exhausted…  Even an athlete would be.