UK's Top Business Leaders Rally in Pursuit of Bright Business.

Business Editors

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 28, 2003

Britain needs a new approach to business leadership, according to a new authoritative report published today involving some of Britain's most successful business leaders.

The Bright Business Effect Report, commissioned by Orange Business Solutions in partnership with The Future Foundation, highlights the findings of an extensive study investigating the critical success factors to achieve business excellence in today's complex competitive environment.

The aim of the study was to investigate if there could be one single x factor that pointed to the hallmark of business success. This was explored through in-depth expert interviews including CEOs from leading British companies (including Rod Eddington, British Airways, Neil Holloway, Microsoft UK, Paul Walsh, Diageo, Dianne Thompson, Camelot Group1), high profile business commentators, leading venture capitalists and top British business schools, desk research and quantitative surveys among British employees and senior HR practitioners.

A copy of the full report (including attributed commentary) can be downloaded from www.orange.co.uk/business.

The Bright Business Effect report concludes that leadership is the single most important factor in determining business success. However, to achieve leadership excellence a paradigm shift is required with respect to the skills and attributes of senior management. In short, to succeed today business leaders need a new set of skills built around relationships, integrity, passion, toughness, self-awareness and communication - the new 'must haves' for today's - and tomorrow's - business leaders. The research throws into question whether our leaders have got what it takes.

There is good news for women keen to reach the highest levels because many of these skills the report uncovers are often much more prevalent in women than in men. What's more, women leaders are getting a real vote of confidence from employees. When it comes to communication, however, a serious gap appears to exist in British business. Despite the level of 'management talk' about the importance of communication, the report reveals a dangerous gap between leaders and employees highlighting a critical challenge that today's leaders must overcome quickly.

The report also highlights that on balance leaders are probably born and not made, however, we are in danger of letting potential leadership talent slip through the net through our lack of commitment to leadership development programmes and nurturing young talent coming up through the ranks. Finally, the report highlights a cultural problem that we need to overcome if we are to develop great leaders, namely that unlike the Americans, the British have an innate discomfort with celebrating success.

Commenting on the Bright Business Effect report, Paul Flatters, CEO, Future Foundation, said: "This important research demonstrates that the x-factor which creates bright business lies in the recognition that business is complex - with a capital X - and that successful leadership entails a new set of leadership skills. Bright business leadership is about thriving amidst this complexity."

John Allwood, executive vice president, Orange UK, said: " The Bright Business Effect report provides us with invaluable insights on achieving and sustaining success in today's - and tomorrow's - complex trading environment. We intend to apply this learning in our own organisation as well as share the report with our business customers and the wider business community as part of our commitment to supporting British business."

The following executive summary of the report discloses an overwhelmingly consistent view of the critical success factors needed to achieve business excellence.

Business excellence is the product of excellent leadership

-- Every one of the experts interviewed is adamant that business

excellence is the product of excellent leadership. All other

factors determining business success, such as strong products

and services, innovation, growing market sectors, large market

share, cost controls, planning and policies are defined as

"givens", whereas exceptional leadership is defined as what

really makes the difference.

-- British employees are also in no doubt; with 90% agreeing with

the statement: 'The quality of the leadership of an

organisation is the key factor in determining the success of

that organisation'.

Machismo and charisma - out, humility and team building - in

-- Business is too complex now to be exclusively dominated by the

buccaneering, super confident, and 'take things by the scruff

of the neck boss'. Nor are colleagues, employees and business

partners easily seduced by charm and charisma.

-- The best leaders are now rounded personalities with a new,

sophisticated set of skills and personal attributes built

around communication, relationships, integrity, passion,

toughness, determination, emotional intelligence, and the

self-awareness to know his/her own strengths and weaknesses.

-- The experts emphasised these skills as the new 'must haves'

for the exceptional modern business leader; being much more

important than traditional business competencies such as

delegation, cost control, professional and/or technical

skills.

-- Results from the employee survey are remarkably similar to the

views of the expert contributors with respect to the new order

of leadership skills and competencies - with communications

and passion coming top of the list for employees.

-- While machismo and charisma are out, personal toughness and

the ability to generate respect among peers and employees are

definitely in. Research was conducted among senior HR

professionals to investigate this theme in more detail, with

some alarming results giving cause for concern - namely that:

-- Too many UK senior executives and managers lack personal

toughness (81% of the sample confirmed this). 93% of the

sample hold the view that this is having a damaging effect

on the UK's economic projects.

-- Too many senior executives and managers are unable to

generate respect among staff (79% of the sample concur).

95% of the sample holds the view that this trend is also

having a damaging effect on the UK's commercial prospects.

Women leaders get the shop floor vote

-- The research suggests that women are now well placed to reach

the highest levels because many of the new skills of the

modern leader are characteristics traditionally associated

with women. These include communication, passion and caring.

This proposition is supported by the employee research. 82% of

employees working for organisations led by a woman agree that

their leader is doing a good job in running the organisation.

However, only 70% of employees working for an organisation led

by a man agree that their leader is doing a good job.

Mind the communications gap

-- Both the experts and employees agree that being a good

communicator is pivotal to successful leadership; with

employees citing communication as the most important attribute

of leadership, and experts commenting that communication is

becoming an ever steeper challenge as employees become more

demanding and cynical. One CEO in the study states that he

needs to spend four times as much time communicating as he did

ten years ago. While it could be assumed that this trend is

widespread, the research highlights a serious communications

gap. When employees were asked to rank attributes actually

possessed by leaders, communications came only eighth on a

list of 13, and good at listening came only ninth. This

suggests that organisations are either still not paying enough

attention to employee communication, or that they are simply

not getting it right.

(1)A list of contributors is listed in the notes to editors section of this press release.

Britain letting leaders slip through the net

-- Many of the experts thought that Britain does not acknowledge

leadership as a business discipline unlike the Americans;

resulting in inadequate leadership development programmes and

poor identification and nurturing of good leadership talent as

managers move up the ranks.

Leaders born not bred

-- The majority view is that the very best leaders are born

rather than made. The experts however agree that there is a

large number of people who have a great many talents and could

become good leaders if they were provided sufficient support

in terms of development programmes, mentoring and coaching.

Britain's uncomfortable relationship with success

-- Many of the experts feel that the British are ambivalent and

even suspicious about success; resulting in a culture and

attitude which is highly critical of successful leaders and

unwilling to celebrate achievements.

The Football manager approach to CEO selection

-- Top management turnover in Britain can be too high. Leadership

takes time to make an impact, and the temptation to change

CEOs if early results are poor can be highly damaging. The

research highlights the benefits of continuity - especially

among staff. The employee survey revealed that leaders who

have been in post longest are rated most highly. While experts

agreed that continuity pays, leaders must be flexible enough

to learn new skills, and be versatile enough to adjust to new

circumstances to accommodate shifts in business cycles.

Notes to editors

The Bright Business Effect report was conducted by The Future Foundation. 30, in-depth interviews were conducted with senior business leaders in the public and private sector, business commentators, venture capitalists and business schools. Desk research was conducted covering over 100 articles and publications. Two pieces of quantitative research was conducted - one among 600 British employees and another among 200 senior HR practitioners and high-level recruitment consultants. A full copy of the Bright Business Effect report can be downloaded from www.orange.co.uk/business.

Contributors to The Bright Business Effect Report

Sir John Banham, Chairman, Whitbread Plc; Alan Bloom, Head of Corporate Restructuring, Ernst & Young; Debra Davies, Vice-President Consumer Products, American Express; Greg Dyke, Director General of the BBC; Rod Eddington, CEO, British Airways; Sir Matthew Evans, Former Chairman, Faber & Faber; David Gibson, CEO, Association of Colleges; Mark Goyder, Director, The Centre for Tomorrow's Company; Matthew Gwyther, Editor, Management Today, Charles Harvey, Dean of Bristol Business School; Amanda Hall, Business Profile Writer, The Sunday Times; Dr David Herbert, Managing Director, ING Barings; Neil Holloway, Managing Director, Microsoft UK Ltd; Will Hutton, CEO, The Work Foundation; Professor Simon Knox, Professor of Brand Marketing, Cranfield School of Management; Colin Lloyd, Venture Capitalist, Former CEO of KLP Group Plc. and Former President of the DMA; Dame Sheila McKechnie, Director, Consumers' Association; Andrew Main Wilson, Chief Executive, Institute of Directors Enterprises; Julie Mellor, Chair, Equal Opportunities Commission; Professor John Murphy,

Shell Visiting Professor of Customer Management, Manchester Business School; Chris Murray, Managing Director, NIREX; Penny Newman, Managing Director, Cafedirect; Hazel Hutchinson, Director, Aegis Corporate Strategy; Professor Peter Quick, ESCP-EAP Oxford; Sir Martin Sorrell, group Chief Executive, WPP; Chris Tennant, Venture Capitalist, IRRFC; Dianne Thompson, Chief Executive, Camelot Group Plc; Peter Wallis, Senior Partner, SRU; Paul Walsh, CEO, Diageo

About Orange

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