“Drive change like there is no tomorrow”

Accelerate your learning: Combine all your learnings with going to ‘gemba’ (Japanese for actual place), where you actively listen to customers, employees and your board of directors. It’s important to have diversity in these initial encounters in terms of people, geography, background and customer segmentation, and to avoid judging or comparing. 

Go deep: Identify common themes, find trustful sources and dive deeper. One should properly diagnose his or her current state, organisation culture, root causes of poor performance, strengths and vulnerabilities to work on a tailored strategy smoothly. Make sure you have your seniors and key stakeholders involved and expectations are set.

Prioritise customers: Your ability to understand your customer well will define your relevance and competitiveness. It boils down to the voice of the customer and how you can strengthen your ability to understand contexts and industry trends.

Focus on structure: This includes people, capabilities, communication, processes, portfolio competitiveness, and your standard work. Don’t be afraid to take tough calls. Build a solid team that will influence the company culture of being driven by customer obsession and high performance.

Propel change: Drive change like there is no tomorrow. When I look back at previous roles and ask myself what could I have done differently, speeding up is always the answer. Don’t be afraid of failing and always get back on your feet quickly.