In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
– Thomas Jefferson
As consumer tastes change, so must companies, or else they quickly become extinct. As a clothier with 150+ years of history, Burberry has had to reinvent itself to stay relevant in the digital age. Best known for its iconic trench coats, the luxury fashion house had lost much of its appeal by the 1990s. Thanks to the empowering leadership of CEO Angela Ahrendts, Burberry has been able to transform its brand image from stodgy to stylish in recent years.
Business strategies, like fashion lines, have a short shelf life. Yesterday’s innovations are tomorrow’s relics. For this reason, leaders must create agile, adaptive organizations that easily can switch directions to meet the ever-evolving needs of customers. However, flexibility does not mean rootlessness. Great organizations stay in touch with consumer preferences without losing track of their identity.
Angela Ahrendts consciously has empowered the next generation to set the creative direction of Burberry. Trusting the intuitions of a younger set of leaders, she has emphasized the role of Internet technology and social media in developing the brand. Resultantly, Burberry’s digital connection with customers serves as its primary differentiator, and though a relatively old company, Burberry exudes freshness and originality.
In most organizations, senior leaders make important decisions and then delegate the workload to a supporting cast of younger coworkers. Burberry flips the model. The company has formed Strategic Innovation Councils to capture the creative energy and insights of the younger segment of its work force. Ideas birthed by the councils guide the brand, and elder leaders simply lend their functional expertise to implement them.
If tapping its youthful creativity helps Burberry to swim with the currents, then highlighting its heritage keeps the brand from being swept off course. During her time at Burberry, Ahrendts has been meticulous about preserving and perpetuating its core identity. In her mind, the faster the company innovates, the more important reiterating its values becomes.
Questions for Application:
As a leader, how are you empowering the next generation of leaders in your organization to exert their creative influence?
As a leader, what are you doing to infuse the values of your organization into its systems and structures and to transfer those values to the next generation?
John Maxwell grew up in the 1950s in the small Midwestern city of Circleville, Ohio. John's earliest childhood memory is of knowing that he would someday be a pastor. He professed faith in Christ at the age of three, and reaffirmed that commitment when he was 13. At age 17, John began preparing for the ministry. He attended Circleville Bible College, earning his bachelor's degree in 1969. In June of that same year, he married his sweetheart, Margaret, and moved to tiny Hillham, Indiana, where he began his first pastorate.
While serving in his second church, Maxwell began to study the correlation between leadership effectiveness and ministry effectiveness. On July 4, 1976, while preaching at a service commemorating America's bicentennial, John sensed that God was calling him into a ministry to pastors. Within days after that event, pastors began to contact him, asking for his assistance in nurturing their churches. Over the next four years, on an informal basis, John helped scores of fellow pastors. Then, in 1980, he was asked to become Executive Director of Evangelism for the Wesleyan denomination.
Though his time at Wesleyan headquarters was productive, John soon realized that his deeper desire was to help pastors from numerous denominations. He knew that desire would be unfulfilled if he were to stay at denominational headquarters. As a result, in 1981 John accepted the call to return to the pastorate, this time at Skyline Wesleyan Church in the San Diego, California area. But he did so with the church's blessing to pursue his vision. The Skyline congregation allowed him to continue mentoring and assisting pastors even as he led them to new levels.
In 1985, as he continued to equip and encourage other pastors, John took the next crucial step in leadership development. He founded a new company called INJOY and created the INJOY Life Club, featuring a monthly tape for leaders. The fledging operation, established in the corner of a garage, was soon bursting at the seams. The INJOY Life Club tapes were received with great enthusiasm, and the number of subscriptions quickly increased from hundreds to thousands. Simultaneously, the demand for other resources and seminars exploded. Pastors from coast to coast were responding, and their desire for help was even greater than John had anticipated.
As the years passed, INJOY began demanding more and more of John's time. In 1995, he resigned from his position as senior pastor at Skyline following a very fruitful 14-year tenure. The church had tripled in size and its lay ministry involvement had increased ten-fold. Dr. Maxwell is in great demand today as a speaker. Through his bestselling books, audio and video resources, and major conferences, he communicates directly with more than one million people every year. He is frequently asked to speak for organizations such as Promise Keepers and Focus on the Family, but his greatest joy and desire is to help pastors become better leaders.
Because the need for leadership development knows no borders, John established EQUIP, a non-profit organization which trains leaders in urban communities, academic institutions, and within international organizations. EQUIP is also spearheading a movement which has enlisted more than one million pastoral prayer partners who covenant to pray specifically for those who shepherd God's flock.
John continues to seek new opportunities to help churches and church leaders. He knows that one thing is constant: the only hope for the world is salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, who gives life abundantly.