(the corporate lifecyle structure)

Economic and customer news have varied during the current early autumn. Throughout the lifecycle stages, businesses are moving more and more rapidly from one phase to the next. At an accelerated rate, we see tough growth of new rises and heavy drops of mature businesses.

In terms of leadership choices, business changes are interesting: whether it is possible that the same CEO or management team is capable of leading both growth and crisis.

Last year, I became acquainted with the Nordic Business Forum’s Aswath Damodaran-model and its six phases of a company’s lifecycle. He argues that each stage needs different leadership; the CEO role is very different in one phase to another. The model is - I think - easily approachable and understandable, but I approach the content in relation to the hiring of CEOs. 

The CEO is always recruited by a company at a certain life-cycle stage and this -from what I perceive- hardly involves agreement in advance to “do this step and then your mission is done". Certainly, there are leaders who specialize in leading a specific stage; someone experienced in accelerating growth or someone highly capable of managing a corporate crisis. However, generally, the choices for leadership pursued are for long-term adoption, even if the situation -or stage- changes.

Is it realistic to expect the same leader to be a strong innovator, a concept builder, a commercial driver, a process integrator and an operations champion? No.

Is it desirable to change the leadership at the beginning of every stage of development? No.

The key element of skillful leadership is the assertive reflection of the leader, based on good self-knowledge: at what stage of development, I naturally excel in competency, personality and motivation. And after pinpointing the stage, investigating the strengths to find its source. 

Successful leadership in the various phases of the business can still be based on long-term employee selection, if the ability to build a team through the compensatory strengths exists and everyone can find the will to patch the team's weak areas. There is no such diverse and superior individual who alone will be able to be successful at every turn of the business. The challenges are guaranteed to arise if there is a lack of will to cooperate or if self-reflection fails badly, and one cannot form a realistic picture of one's ability.

A successful leader occupies two important competencies: self-knowledge and team building. These help a long way, whether the business stages are experienced as a rollercoaster or a walk in the park! I recommend exploring the Damodaran-model and reflecting on the lifecycle: the stage(s) you are at your best and where your business is heading. If you experience all phases as one and the same, you’re lucky! If the stages seem very distant from each other, reflect and initiate a journey of self-development!

By Elina Koskela, Managing Director MPS Career Oy:

Career paths are my professional passion. In particular, the careers and work of the CEOs which I have been familiar with for a long time. My views on the execution of leadership come from several perspectives: the recruitment of CEOs, the assessments of CEOs and the coaching of CEOs. I also experience the joys and sorrows of the CEO personally by operating as a CEO myself and from a home perspective by living as a CEO s wife. Job interviews, coaching sessions, job applications and CVs, as well as joint discussions, have given the opportunity to review a role that is generic on paper, irrespective of the company, but as an everyday reality and as a personal experience, something quite unique.