Strategy, Marketing and Sales
Sales is no longer what is used to be: simple and linear. Over time, it has undergone a transformation, both in style and techniques, for the individual and more importantly for teams and organizations. In this evolution, sales has become more of a science with sales force automation, business intelligence and analytics adding firepower to selling. However, the art of selling is still close to the heart and is all about connecting and relating to the customer. Directionally and at a strategic level, it has so much to do with sales leadership connecting and relating to both the sales team and the customer in the market.
But how to relate to the ever-evolving consumer? It is Marketing that has been undergoing a transformation driven primarily by the consumer and the intrinsic change it represents. Buyers do not follow a linear journey anymore and the company has lost control of the customer life cycle. As technology slices and permutes various stages, it’s all about marketing and the strategy an organization adopts to be close to this moving target.
Finance and Accounting
As the new-age CFO function leads the critical accounting and control function and steers the financial planning and analysis to generate incisive financial reports and plan ahead for the organization and drive the tax, treasury and audit functions, it constantly looks at evolving to actively partner in the growth of the organization.
The CFO and the finance team today are an expert business partner to the CEO, assisting to steer the organization through the labyrinths of regulations and policies, varying cost of goods and margins, changing tax laws, competition, exchange risks, mergers and acquisition overtures, investors and analysts and play a hugely strategic role in defining the roadmap of the organization. There is an element of marketing savvy in this new breed of Finance geeks. More often than not, the speed of decision making in an organization gets decided by the foresight and acumen of the CFO and his team. The preparedness of the finance function and how outgoing the CFO is, also determines the risk appetite of the company.
Human Resources
Almost all that an organization achieves rests on its people. As Jack Welch recommends: ‘fight gravity, and instead of taking the middle 70% for granted, treat them like the heart and soul of the organization’. There is a challenge in getting the right set of people together but more often than not, it is an evolving process with the company’s aspirations changing along with the consumer! The greater challenge is in focussing on the middle 70% and getting the best out of them. The modern-day HR is quick to adopt system-based tools and free up time for a more strategic role of being a close aide to the business. How to grow people and be more flexible and agile as an organization are two strategic priorities facing every HR leader and his/her team today. And sometimes, growing people in the organization starts from growing the people in the HR function itself.
Manufacturing and Research & Development
The bar has been raised with excellence in this function with quality, service and safety being a given. Today, the manufacturing function is faced with under-utilized capacity on the one hand and escalating ask on margins on the other. Being aware of the change in technology and adopting the best with all qualifiers requires one to be relevant and agile. With the globalization of the supply chain function, it has become extremely strategic to know how to slice and distribute the manufacturing footprint to be closest to the customer. Mergers and acquisitions also add to the complexity across time-frames and impact planning and integration of manufacturing capabilities. New product development with R&D is a business-critical requirement for growth. Moreover, it is imperative to be aware of the tax implications in international as well as domestic markets. And can one overlook the power of the connected consumer as one quality complaint may be enough to bring the sky falling down on the manufacturing head? Or is it FSSAI calling......
Supply Chain Management
Today, the customer in the value chain is extremely well-informed about material pricing and is in a position to negotiate. The supply chain function has to truly think out-of-the-box and go global in terms of sourcing and look at a complex mix of multi-sourcing and multi-delivery points. Apart from escalations in material costs, the volatile exchange rates, the oil prices and its vagaries across future time frames can severely impact costing assumptions. All margin assumptions can go awry at times. The pressures on margins and building on efficiencies push one to look at all options of sourcing, material redesign, process improvements, new technologies, possibilities of bundling at all levels and any innovation that may add to the overall effort of achieving targeted margins. Moreover, with GST getting introduced, there is a huge potential which can be unlocked and Supply Chain is one key function which can decide the winner in this margin game standoff amidst stiff competition.
Legal, Compliance and Risk
In an effort to meet consumer demand and gain share from competition, the industry players continuously develop new products to increase their product portfolio and expand their operations to new geographies. As they increase their scale, they need to expand the support functions by having more manufacturing facilities and scale up supply chain functions. With all of this, the organization exposes itself to an ever-increasing challenge of complying with regulations, both local and global. The companies have been drawing up a comprehensive picture of the risk universe and trying to develop an integrated approach of assessment of risk and their mitigation plan. The Chief Compliance office (CCO) has been emerging as an independent function with a direct reporting to the MD and board of the company. The CCO and the Legal Counsel need to have a close working relationship for effective enterprise risk assessment and management.
Information Technology and Digital
Technology, both as a sector and a function, has grown exponentially over the years. Historically, the role of the IT function was to maintain and sustain the IT infrastructure of the organization. Over the years, Technology has been impacting both front and back end of the business and most importantly the consumer! This has necessitated the IT department to take a lead in how the organization can adopt technology in a big way to carry on its business. It has been extremely critical for the CEO to also understand the significance of the technology impact. The evolution has been accompanied by new-age functions like digital strategy and marketing, data storage and security, data analytics and many others which are getting more and more embedded into the working of the evolving organization.
In fact, the role of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in large organizations has started becoming extremely complex and demanding as technology adoption gets more pervasive across functions and geographies. Keeping pace with this adoption as well as the changing technology itself has expanded the role and started to add too much weight to the function, making it extremely critical.
Corporate Communication and PR
It has become extremely important for every organization to be able to portray the best face possible both in good times and in bad. At times it may need to impress with a robust recovery plan. Especially so as the courts in social media itself can be super quick and damaging. In today’s times, the risk of any chink in your reputation is extremely high and the speed at which it can go viral is all the more. This function has become multi-dimensional with the usage of most advanced technology as in social media, digital and multi-media channels and usage of data-based insights make it really cutting edge. For any organization, it has become absolutely critical to plan ahead and look relevant. A lot of it depends on how this function communicates effectively and in a sustained manner.
CXO, SENIOR TO MIDDLE MANAGEMENT
With complexity of business growing in the VUCA world and the pressures of delivery on margins, each of the functions has become more specialised. The CEO has had to depend heavily on his direct reporting team to evolve their own vertical strategies. More often than not, for critical decisions, the CEO may look at the top leadership management council shouldering responsibility of key functions and decisions as a team, thus taking advantage of collective capabilities. Organizations are also able to attract better talent when the positions have direct reporting to the CEO. Hence, CXO functions like digital, strategy and innovation have emerged, giving it due importance. In such organizations, the second and third line in command also get to learn, become more strategic and get better at handling operations by applying themselves better. They also start serving as strong probable candidates for succession planning. Moreover, leadership styles get infectious, which works well in a way. Thus it augurs well for the overall well-being of the organization. It is important for search partners to apply themselves well in getting new or replacement candidates for functions by developing better understanding of the industry, the company and the assignment.