Living Supply Chains: How to Mobilize the Enterprise Around Delivering What Your Customers Want

Chapter 4. Leading from the front: Converting customer insight into successful implementation

How do you judge a good leader? Many of us can recognize good leadership when we see it, but it’s harder to define. My experience tells me that successful leadership is not necessarily transferable from one organization to another – nor is one style necessarily right for a particular organization through time. Leaders and leadership styles need to be just as dynamic as the people they lead and the customers they seek to satisfy. Effective leaders will be able to shape the subcultures and implement the strategy needed in a complex supply chain environment. As John Kotter put it, ‘institutionalizing a leadership-centered culture is the ultimate act of leadership’. ...