All of us are impressed with the astounding election campaign conducted by USA president-elect Barack Obama and his team. What caught my attention was the very competent manner in which Obama applied well-known business principles. In fact, many of you use them. Time magazine in their Person of the Year edition of 29 December 2008/5 January 2009, covered these principles as part of its extensive coverage of Obama’s success.
I thought listing the principles could aid all of us in winning over our own constituencies (our staff, our clients or customers and our suppliers) in our campaigns en route to greater success.
The principles:
• Simple competence – although nothing in today’s world is simple
• Obama’s official theme was change – but a specific kind of change: the nuts-and-bolts kind you can see and measure
• Voters were invited to believe because Obama kept delivering the goods
• Certainly he made mistakes and gave up on some ideas while doubling back on others. On the whole though, he was a doer
• When he decided to run Obama had no infrastructure at all
• But Obama had a philosophy of leadership which included a nose for talent, “hiring the smartest people, even if they are smarter than me”, having a low tolerance for nonsense and turf battles and game playing – and sending this message very clearly
• People started trusting each other, they focused on mission, as opposed to personal ambition or grievance
• “If you got really smart people who are all focused on the same mission, then usually you can get some things done” to quote Obama.
• Time reports that Obama is a businesslike boss. He prefers his briefing papers tightly written and shows up for meetings fully prepared
• He expects people to challenge him when they think he is wrong and to back up their ideas with facts
• He is not a shouter – but if he thinks you have let him down, you’ll know it
• “And I think people generally want to do the right thing, and if you are clear to them what the right thing is, and if they see you doing the right thing, then that gives your some leverage” (Obama) (This is different from the dominant attitude in politics – and elsewhere – that every disagreement is a sign of bad faith and every opponent is assumed to be malevolent.)
• Trust proved to be essential to his victory. His campaign trusted millions of volunteers (in the end 3.5 million with an e-mail list of 13 million) to download information about prospective voters , to assign themselves to make phone calls and canvass their own neighbourhoods and to keep the campaign abreast of developments (A typical presidential effort is top-down, intensively protective of data and strategies)
• People were trusted to handle this information honestly and as a result they felt much more accountable. (“These are my three blocks, and everyone’s counting on me.”)
Yes, Obama could talk, but talk didn’t win the election.
And the president-elect believes in plain measures. He offers voters a checklist to use in judging his performance two years from now (I list only three of many):
• Have we helped this economy recover from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?
• Have we instituted financial regulations and rules of the road that ensure that this kind of crisis doesn’t occur again?
• Have we created jobs that pay well and allow families to support themselves?
And Obama is quick and disciplined in following up. When he won the Democratic Presidency on 4 November, did the president-elect take time off after nearly two years on an exhausting campaign trial? No, advance preparations were in place and 5 November was spent in a five-hour meeting considering lists of candidates for Cabinet and White House posts and a host of pressing national and international issues. The transition period between election and inauguration had to be optimally used. His first 100 days started immediately and before his inauguration.
We, as business owners, could take note of this Obama quote: “Outside of specific policy measures, two years from now, I want the American people to be able to say, ‘Government’s not perfect; there are some things Obama does that get on my nerves. But you know what? I feel the government’s working for me. I feel like it’s accountable. I feel like it’s transparent. I feel like that I am well informed about what government actions are being taken, I feel like this is a President and an Administration that admits when it makes mistakes and adapts itself to new information.”
What will we say two years from now? How much of all of the above apply to us as owners or managers of businesses or non-profit organisations?
Obama on becoming President cannot put the USA on a new road all on his own.
The countries and peoples of the world are interconnected and as individuals all of us have to accept responsibility and accountability in a principled manner for our small part of the world. (“These are my three blocks, and everyone’s counting on me,” said the volunteer. We get paid.)
I have a feeling that you agree.
Albert
keywords: business principles, execution, organisation, planning