Accountable Leaders

Conclusion

A while back, I saw a commercial for the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA).¹ Entitled Record Label, the ad re- creates a fictional meeting in the office of the president of a record label back in the early 1990s. He is lamenting the fact that his company is being “killed by this Internet fad.” The CEO asks his executive team to give him ideas on how to revive their flagging business.

One suggests a mail-order CD club where members get 10 CDs for $1. Another suggests they invest heavily in laserdisc technology, as he holds up this massive-looking CD. Finally, a seemingly sensible woman pipes up with a radical idea: abandon CD sales and instead create an online platform to stream music to customers for a monthly subscription fee.

There is a pause as everyone looks at her with a sense of confusion and contempt. Then the annoyed CEO asks, “How is that going to help us sell CDs?” The ad finishes with a devastating tagline read by a narrator: “Are you on the right side of change?”

This commercial showed a company confronting a fundamental shift in its business environment. Their old business model was becoming less and less successful. CD sales were down. Something new was emerging, but they couldn’t see it. One person in the room had the way forward, but the rest of the leaders couldn’t think of or see their business differently.

To me, this commercial sums up what leading in the future will be like. We are living through a period of significant change ...