FEATURE CONVERSATION

Asia’s most successful owner CEOs are masters at managing contradictions, treating apparent trade-offs as things they must consider simultaneously.

These leaders embrace the “and” rather than choosing between opposing goals, the “or”. They build businesses at scale while keeping a day zero mindset, put purpose before profit while creating outsized value, and transform for the future while protecting the core. They do not see these as trade-offs or choices. They recognise that they must do both, all the time.

They operate with a telescope in one eye and a microscope in the other. In the same breath, they will talk about where their country and community are heading over the next 30 years and what needs to be done on Monday morning. This obsession with short-term execution, combined with an extremely long-term mindset, sets them apart.

They see no contradiction between creating value and building a nation. They are not running charities, but they believe that by focusing on creating value, they also create economic value for their communities and countries. The leaders who succeed pair strong conviction with genuine regard for the expectations of others. Those who have only conviction, or who only try to please everyone, tend to fail.

Owner CEOs take bold risks within clear limits and make decisions with speed.

The biggest risk is not taking risk at all. In every crisis, from wars to COVID to today’s geopolitics, many organisations freeze and play only defence. Leaders who take no risk become irrelevant, so the challenge is to play both defence and offence at the same time.

Owner CEOs are bold but bounded, moving forward only if they can survive the worst case. Many described themselves as cautious risk managers rather than risk takers, and they stay relentlessly focused on making the best case happen. Each leader draws their own line, whether that is risking profit but never capital, or risking short-term opportunities but never reputation.

Speed and learnability will be the defining advantages of the next era. The world is moving too fast to capture in a handful of scenarios, so leaders must make decisions under uncertainty without waiting for a clarity that may never come. With AI shifting the landscape every month, speed has become the new currency of competitive advantage, and the fastest learners will survive.

Enduring institutions are built through a distinctive approach to people and careful management of leadership transitions.

Owner CEOs get extraordinary performance out of ordinary people. They hire for character rather than competence and judge people on their contributions rather than their mistakes. They develop people through stretch opportunities and roles that are deliberately left a little fuzzy. They also look at a person’s long-term track record rather than their latest results, judging “the movie, not the trailer”, which builds the tolerance for mistakes that people need to take initiative.

Professional leaders can adopt an owner’s mindset, and boards decide whether they are able to. Leadership depends on context, but being an owner and having an owner’s mindset are two different things, and any leader can act as a steward of the institution. A board can be either a bottleneck or a resource, depending on how it defines its role beyond fiduciary duty and how much trust exists between the board and the CEO.

Founder transitions are complex, and their track record is mixed. In about two thirds of transitions from founders to the next generation, shareholder returns decline, although the minority that succeed do extremely well. The most common reasons for failure are founders hiring in their own image, mixing business and family needs, struggling to let go, and leaving succession too late.

Quotes

“The biggest risk is not taking risk at all. If you have to deliver sustainable performance and build an institution that will outlast you, you must take risk. There is no choice.”

“The leaders who will do well over the next 20 years will be defined by two things: speed and learnability. The world is moving too fast to capture in two, three or five scenarios. With AI moving the ball every month, the fastest learner will survive.”

“To me, CEO stands for Conviction, Expectations and Objectives. CEOs with high conviction but no regard for others’ expectations mostly fail, and so do those with little conviction who try to please everybody. The ones who make it combine strong conviction with regard for the expectations of others.”
– Gautam Kumra