A Skill in Short Supply

By Mike Hoban

What do you consider to be the most important leadership trait for a CEO to have? Is it “Influencing Skills” or “strategic decision making?” Or perhaps “business acumen” or “talent management” is at the top of your list of CEO right stuff.   All are likely found on the success profiles or job specs of many Chief Executive positions. How about the proven ability to run a large operation with P&L responsibilities? I think one could make a case for any of the above and I’m certain that there are many senior leaders out there working in assignments to develop those skills because the senior talent review team in the organization has deemed those skills or experiences as “must haves” for aspiring CEOs.   

Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo and Fortune magazine’s #1 Most Powerful Business Woman, has another view.

In an interview published in Fortune magazine a few months back, Ms. Nooyi stated her point of view. Call it interesting. Call it even a little provocative. She said:

“The most overrated skill is ‘running a business.’ To me the single most important skill needed for a CEO is strategic acuity.” 

She went on to say that former PepsiCo CEO Roger Enrico had once said “I can get operating executives to run a business. But I cannot find people to help me reconceptualize PepsiCo.” Agreeing with her one-time mentor, she said. “That skill is in shortest supply.”

“Strategic Acuity” is an interesting coupling of words and it’s the first time I’ve seen it articulated as an executive competency. In the physical world, acuity is about sharpness and clarity of perception or vision.  One definition refers to a capacity to “discriminate fine details of objects.” We can speculate – as Bloggers do - about what it means in relation to a business.

With all of the possibilities and choices available to an organization, Strategic Acuity can mean the ability to clearly see a pathway to success, a pathway that is likely to be not apparent to most others. It’s an intellectual quality (“reconceptualizing”) but it’s more than that. I think there is also an EQ (Emotional Quotient) component that compliments the IQ component in Strategic Acuity. EQ capabilities such as Empathy and Social Skills (Goleman) help focus that clarity of vision to provide meaning and context to the myriad nuances of human interaction involving customers, markets, employees, etc. In the business world, there is no Snellen Chart of different sized letters which help us to gauge visual acuity, so context, insight and measurement become all the more important for executing Strategic Acuity. No wonder Nooyi says it is a skill in short supply.

Of course, that’s not to say that experience running a business is not important…

Mike Hoban is a senior consultant for Development Dimensions International (DDI).