“The Courage to Change” a simply wonderful book.
I just finished reading the book “The Courage to Change” a few minutes ago.
Three Leadership Lessons from Sergio Marchionne.
The first book I read about this extraordinary manager was Paolo Bricco’s “The Stranger.”
Both books leave you speechless. While the former is a description of Marchionne’s thinking and work, “The Courage to Change” is basically a transcript of three lectures on Leadership and Growth that Marchionne gave to Bocconi students.
“The Courage to Change” is a book that is read in one go; indeed, the pages are not so many. The value they contain is.
It’s just crazy.
I loved Marchionne from the very beginning; in him I always saw and recognized an incredible charge.
What we all call Leadership.
You should know that when I read a book, I always have either a pen or a pencil with me to possibly mark things that I find interesting.
I would have liked to have marked every line of what I read, but of course, that would have been pointless.
So what I have marked is already the essence of a simply amazing thought. We could call it la crem de la crem.
Another aspect, of this highlighting the important steps, is the number of dashes I place at the side.
One means interesting, two very interesting, from 3 lines up you can only imagine. In this case we always travel from 3 lines up.
At some point I realized that I should have used an infinite number of vertical dashes because the thoughts expressed are truly incredible.
So I decided to adopt the acronym VI i.e. very important.
By now there was no point in continuing with the progression of dashes, because I would have found myself highlighting paragraphs by putting 5,6,7 vertical dashes. So the super thoughts, I indicated them with Very Important.
Another little curiosity, in the books I read I indicate some paragraphs with the letter C which stands for citation.
I highlight a thought that I want to later use in an article, a reflection a project.
As I said, I read this book all in one go, but decided to leave it on the nightstand.
It will be my mantra, because what it contains has changed me profoundly.
I have heard presentations, I have heard speakers talk about leadership, but I must say that Marchionne is not only unique but embodies exactly what he says.
The most important lesson is that if we want to change our way of life and the nation in which we live, it is up to us alone. To no one else.
I quote some excerpted passages from the book in the hope that you, too, will decide to read it.
So much happiness.
March 30, 2012
Aula magna of Bocconi University
Workshop Unthinkables
I reproduce the link of Sergio Marchionne’s speach
“It is the things we do and the way we do them that speak of ourselves, our worldview, the kind of people we want to be.
It is only the things we do, what we build, that make us who we are.”
“All of us, all those who want a better Italy, have an obligation to do something to change things. Sometimes, in our country, I have the impression that there is a passive attitude toward the present.
An attitude that is crumbling one of the pillars of our togetherness and our way of looking to the future.
It is as if we claim to be entitled to a better tomorrow without being aware that we need to know how to conquer it.”
“Let me say that rights are sacrosanct and should be protected. But if we continue to live by rights alone, we will die of rights.”
“That’s why I think we have to return to a healthy sense of duty, to the realization that to have you have to give.”
For Marchionne, evolution is key, constantly putting yourself out there, changing.
Speaking of his own team, he says.
“I tell them not to repeat the same things over and over again, the same routes, and to remember that the competition has known for a long time what we have discovered.”
“….we have to take the game to a place where there is no competition.”
“Being truly free also means knowing that at any moment it is possible to embrace a new direction, a new goal. It means not allowing choices made at a certain point in life to shut out everything else.”
“I have two rights in life, the rest are all obligations. One is to choose the people I work with, and the other is to choose the values that will guide the company, and what kind of leadership characteristics I want reflected in the people I choose.”
May 24, 2014
Bocconi University
Master’s degree in Management, Corporate Strategy course
“What I have learned, from all my personal and professional experiences, is that every success story is based on the ability of a group of women and men to impart a cultural-before technical-change to a certain order of things.”
“If there is one piece of advice I can give you today, it is to keep your mind open: open to the new, to the different, to the endless possibilities that will present themselves, without you ever having sought them out or even imagined them. The results you will be able to achieve and the intensity with which you live your life depend largely on this.”
“Those who are unable to see different perspectives, to listen to different opinions, to go beyond their own limited experience, miss the opportunity to live fully. And the greatest tragedy is that he will never realize what he has lost.
Behind every single achievement we have been able to achieve is a new way of thinking and looking at things.”
“Paper capitalism, profit without ethics, have not only proven failure but are also the negation of our own humanity.”
“You don’t need magic recipes to change the world. You already have everything you need. It is within you: it is the power to imagine things in a better way.”
June 20, 2014
New York – Bocconi Alumni American Conference
Gala Dinner
“…if the leadership is true to its values, if it works without violating those values.”
“… a great leader is able to drive change. And not just change for its own sake-it is the answer to a very simple question: when you go home at night, did you leave a better place than when you arrived in the morning?”
“… For me, the only thing a leader can do is point to a general direction. Set goals, incredibly bold ones, then get out of the way. Surround yourself with the best people you can find and make them work.”
“The market is an incredibly ruthless mechanism. It has no conscience, no ethics, it simply is.”
“Predictable competition is something of the past.”
“You have to be able to motivate people, and even more, to lead them. Leading people is a very strange thing:most people think that being a leader means giving instructions. It is not, it has nothing to do with that. You have to somehow get to those people, ignite the spark in them.”
“There are an infinite number of ways to make the numbers, and then there is a way of making them that is socially responsible.”
“… your only real value as a leader will ultimately be measured in the quality of the leaders who come after you.”
“For those of you who are in love with spreadsheets and capitalism — be very careful! Every time you move a cell on your computer, it impacts so many human lives.”
Today is May 23, I have recently finished the book and I am reflecting on my life and what I have done.
How many people I met, how many people decided to work with me.
How many of them then decided to go their own way.
Some of them thanked me.
Today at age 54, I wonder if I represented change for any of them. I was able to make a difference.
That is, as Marchionne says, whether I left a positive legacy or not.
If I were to look at the current results, I would say no.
Because if I had been a true leader, a person who could enthuse, engage and spur people on, these people would still be with me.
I often think about this passage, and in my heart I firmly hope that I have been helpful to at least some of them.
I do not hope this out of vanity, but simply, because otherwise my existence here would be of no use.
It is probably strange to read this article on my site.
In the perspective of constant positivity and pro-activity it would seem at least negative.
I decided to publish it with the goal of giving a different view.
For the past two months, covid accomplice, everywhere I turned there was someone doing a Facebook Live to explain how to improve my business, how to strategize, how to move beyond this period etc….
I myself have written several articles on how you should do it, what you should do, when you should do it.
Now I’m like, what the fuck?
Maybe sometimes, in order to learn, we just need to stop.
Of looking at who we have next to us on this wonderful journey called life.
And if what we see doesn’t convince us or make us think as I’m doing right now, it’s probably a sign that we need to change something.
Without anxiety, without pain or sadness but with absolute awareness and determination.
Leading a company means taking responsibility for constantly changing and evolving
Change is not an option, but a conscious choice.
If we do not constantly change our companies, we lose to competitors and the market.
“Not the strongest, the smartest wins but the one who best adapts to change.”
Charles Darwin
Today I start from this quote for some very brief reflections.
This difficulty in adapting to accept change is not only of small businessmen but, often, it is also of the great leaders, the big executives.
Those who have built empires, created markets, and often in the past have been innovators and trailblazers.
A few weeks ago, I had a meeting with a PR manager of a large company in the home appliance industry about developing some business.
At the beginning of the meeting he said a sentence that really “took me apart.”
“We have a need to implement a Social strategy. Since the Management does not believe in it at all, the budget dedicated to them is really limited.”
The words were not exactly that, but the content and meaning absolutely were.
I can understand that these “limitations” belong to the artisan, the professional, the small businessman who, for a thousand cultural and personal reasons, do not believe in the marketing strategies let alone in Social Media Marketing or SMM, as defined by some.
It is difficult to accept when this thought is manifested by top leaders.
By those who are responsible for leading a national or, even, international dimensional Company.
It means closing your eyes.
It means imposing one’s objective limitations on those who, instead, could go beyond and with their expertise, vision and intelligence, create opportunities for the company to grow and develop.
It probably means not offering the “new youth” the same opportunity that these leaders were given in the past.
And it’s all there.
So you find that Companies like AGFA and KODAK, leaders in photographic film production, did not believe in the advent of digital cameras and imploded.
Learn that IBM executives, mocked the then-young Bill Gates when he introduced the first Personal Computer and were overwhelmed.
Fortunately, then, they had the ability to innovate and evolve.
You find out that there are outraged workers who are striking because the company they worked for that produced CDs and cassette tapes has closed down.
And this, too, is reality.
An employee cannot be disassociated from the company he or she works for. He cannot live a life of his own. He must be interested and involved in it.
Employees, management and ownership must share values, goals, problems and successes. This is the only way to go further, to progress, to grow, to expand the business.
In the period in which we live, “Master” can no longer exist. This is not the statement of a politician or trade unionist (by the way, I really can’t stand trade unions, they are ruining Italy) but the statement of one who believes that 1+1 equals 4.
That is, the shared value of knowledge, ideals, goals and benefits, exponentially multiplies the results provided, that these are shared fairly and proportionately among all who participated.
And then we will not have a Company, we will have a spaceship launched at full speed, which others call alien, because they do not understand it, but which the few who do understand it call: Future.
I hope I have conveyed to you the cue, the idea behind this article and why I wrote it.
I wish you a great life!
Want to learn more about how to grow your Business? Don’t miss these articles:
- Do we want to make our Companies or Activities attractive? It is essential to invest in people!
- When motivational drive turns a dream into an attainable goal
- Support the nonprofit Entrepreneur You Are Not Alone
- Generational change in a Company is a difficult bet to win
- Howard Schultz. A history of success
- Ethical marketing: how it can make a difference for companies
- Your Marketing Consultant is your best ally