Key insights on strong leadership in uncertain times from our CEO Nancy McKinstry and the CEOs of Tory Burch, McKinsey & Company, Medtronic and Cisco Systems, as they discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic may shape the future of business in a Harvard Business Review article.
During this roundtable, design and retail CEO Tory Burch, Kevin Sneader of McKinsey & Company, Medtronic's Geoff Martha, Chuck Robbins of Cisco Systems, and our own CEO Nancy McKinstry talked about leadership in uncertain times. Nancy shared three tips for effective leadership right now: communicate, prioritize, adapt. Practically speaking, there's a real need to clear away bureaucracy, address things very quickly, and be operationally agile.
Nancy further expressed how proud she is of how swiftly Wolters Kluwer has adapted this new situation, while staying focused on helping customers make impact with our expert solutions. Our agile organization has proven its ability to rapidly disseminate Covid-19 information and software solutions for customers in health care, legal, tax and accounting to help them navigate all the changes in these unprecedented times.
When asked what advice she has for other executives who are pursuing a transformation effort, she looks at this with a long-term view. First, focus on digital transformation that affects your customers and gives your employees and customers the right tools. Second, continue reinvesting. Wolters Kluwer invests 8% to 10% of revenues in innovation, as we also did during the 2008 financial crisis. Finally, keep focused on specific priorities to prevent people from getting distracted and to keep building momentum.
Looking at the next normal, Nancy hopes to see more collaboration between governments and private enterprise. How companies treat their people has become a differentiating factor, with recruitment seeing an impact across many industries. Ultimately, this is also a time to remember the gratitude we owe to all frontline doctors and nurses. She believes that we’ll rethink healthcare and how it’s delivered around the world.
Read more on Nancy's views and of the other four CEOs in the HBR article.
Listen to the HBR IdeaCast episode with Nancy McKinstry on the company’s successful digital transformation.