I made this claim (here) just after the Democratic Convention, now a couple of business gurus who blog for Harvard Business Publishing are confirming it: Barack Obama is not only an exemplary political leader, but would make an exemplary business leader as well.
Bill Taylor wrote today about How Barack Obama Became CEO of the USA. This post is more marketing- than leadership-oriented, summarized by these principles that anyone who wants to succeed in politics or business should keep in mind, always:
Embrace what makes you different, don’t apologize for it. Develop a message that sticks, and stick with it regardless of what your rivals say and do. Above all, stay focused on your constituents rather than your competition.
Umair Haque wrote more about Obama as a leader and innovator:
The most critical part of the story is the organization Obama built. Though conservatives are still arguing that Obama has little executive experience, nothing could be further from the truth.
Barack Obama is one of the most radical management innovators in the world today. Obama’s team built something truly world-changing: a new kind of political organization for the 21st century. It differs from yesterday’s political organizations as much as Google and Threadless differ from yesterday’s corporations: all are a tiny handful of truly new, 21st century institutions in the world today.
Haque’s post is excellent. It’s impossible for me to summarize because the whole thing is essential reading. I will take this sentence though, which is especially insightful:
Bigness of purpose is what separates 20th century and 21st century organizations: yesterday, we built huge corporations to do tiny, incremental things – tomorrow, we must build small organizations that can do tremendously massive things.
Comments on this entry are closed.