- Kevin Roberts – Red Rose Consulting - https://redrose.consulting -

Up, Up And Away – Winning in a SuperVUCA World

I come from the edge of the world, in biology where new stuff comes from. Switzerland is as close to the center as I can imagine. You stand for many good things: freedom, tolerance, stability, environmentalism.

Being in the center is no protection in a VUCA world.

Are conservatism, discretion and understatement going to serve you today?

Slow and steady will not win this race. The job of the leader is to reframe VUCA, to get above it, and the conditions for this are in place. superVUCA!

“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is” – Vince Lombardi 

Growth is a human characteristic, and it boils down to winning. Individuals and teams, families and friends, companies and countries, we all want to win.

The alternatives to winning are dispiriting, destructive and ever-faster distributed. The consequences are all around Switzerland, and bubbling beneath it.

I have three ideas to give you a winning edge in a superVUCA world, three ideas to tackle three burning questions affecting us all.

Burning Q1:  How does the whole world win – the ‘have-nots’ as well as the ‘haves’?

Idea #1 – SHIFT IT UP

Business is the world’s heavy lifter, giving people jobs, self-esteem, choices, hope and fortune.

The law of life-satisfaction: No job, no joy.

Capitalism is the best of the ISMs. Margaret Thatcher said: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

Business is the answer, business is the engine, but we have to create a capitalism of inclusion.

What is the role of Switzerland – the land of beauty, democracy, reliability, peace and small business productivity – the #1 place to be born in the world.

Your role is to provide leadership. The world needs you to stand up and step out. Leadership starts with great purpose.

A dream is Purpose-inspired.

What is Switzerland’s dream? What is your company’s dream? What is your personal dream?

Switzerland is about being world-class, when it has to be about being world-changing. Are your banks, medicines and watches world-changing? Or maintaining the status quo?

World-changing is the role of business, and world-changing delivers winning volume, share and margins.

Switzerland needs a dream.

Burning Q2: How can we build Brand Switzerland?

Idea #2 – HEAT IT UP

Brands are dead. 

And so is marketing.

We live in the Age of Now. People live in the moment, for the moment.

This is psychological, not just technological. Life is a flow state, a continuous stream, a quest for constant small moments of instant happiness.

People search, know, decide, share and live instantaneously.

ERA OF NEW

AGE OF NOW

Attention

Participation

Inform

Inspire

Interruption

Interaction

Return on Investment

Return on Involvement

Pumping Markets

Creating Movements

Winning is about inspiring movements fuelled by emotion. Negative emotions are three times more powerful than positive ones. Eliminate the negative, accentuate the positive.

Reason leads to conclusions; emotion leads to action.

Emotion needs to become Switzerland’s comfort zone.

Brands are dead, lost in a sea of sameness and parity.

This Love / Respect Axis maps the future of value. Everyone can put their own company through this, intuitively.

Low Respect. Low Love.
Wales – North Korea

High Love. Low Respect. Fads.
Brazil – Turkey

High Respect. Low Love. Brand land.
Switzerland – Belgium

High Love. High Respect. Lovemarks winning zone.
Australia – New Zealand

Even financial institutions can be Lovemarks.

Burning Q3: What is the future of leadership?

Idea #3 – POWER IT UP

Today there is a premium on leadership.

In business, reengineering and restructuring and re-everything only add incremental growth.

What accelerates? The unreasonable power of creativity.

Creativity has unreasonable power. Creative leadership is the difference – economically, politically, socially and culturally.

Where is Switzerland’s Creative Leadership today?

Five steps to become a Creative Leader:

Have lots of small ideas, continuously:

FROM

TO

Money

People

Satisfied

Restless

Reliable

Desirable

Exorbitant

Priceless

Service

Seduction

 Secrecy

Transparency

 Understating

Celebrating

World-class

World-changing

Pin stripe

Black dress

Cautious vanilla

Action thriller

Quality safe house

Magical power house

Never forget – the key burning answer is to do it together, because none of us is as strong as all of us.