Leg 8. From Itajaí to Newport (III). Corporate C-Suite Leaders: Are you ready to sail?
Good Morning. It is 00:15 am (CST time) and I am starting to write from home. I hope all the fleet is fine and doing well. I have seen the tracker, and TTOP is leading at this specific moment in time. I might not be so extensive today, but I wish you will enjoy the theme of today: Corporate C-Suite Leaders: Are you ready to sail?
By asking the business leaders if they are ready to sail, I do not mean to push them to learn sailing. Even though is a beautiful sport, each business founder, owner or Board of Directors Representative has their own sports preferences. What I mean by asking this question is the following: are you ready to lead your businesses in the competitive oceans with new mental models of holistic wisdom?
I found a wonderful and simple article written by Pat Reynolds at the American Sailing Association website: What makes a good sailor?. And her ideas inspired me to show you what you will see below:
If you wish to see this set of slides in PDF Format, click here: Eliescalante Leg 8 C-Suite Leaders.
Let´s do the following: Read the slides please, because if we don´t read them, little we will understand what I will share with you next.
A good sailor or skipper is someone who has evolved over time in his or her life as a sailor. It takes years of experience, years of learning from mistakes, years of education (certifications), years of harnessing intuition, years of improvisation and years of calmness for them to be wise. The same happens with Corporate Leaders. Any member of a Business BoD (Board of Directors) has to be ready to be AS a “good skipper”. Intuition, Solid Understanding of the Fundamentals of the Business, Inventiveness, Calmness, Experience, Operational Wisdom and Knowing how to hold the glass of rum is part of any C-Suite leader. 
These 7 characteristics must be present. These 7 attributes are interrelated and integrated too. What is more important above all these elements, is something which many BoD leaders have forgotten: LOVE for the business. I have met some BoD members throughout all my life which are sat in the Corporate Meeting Room, and they don´t like the business or are sitting there just because their parents wish, or they were appointed without fulfilling any of the 7 previous attributes. And in consequence LOVE for the business doesn´t exist either. We wonder what type of decisions can be made by those directors who don´t even like what they do? What type of corporate strategy decision making can they do?
Love for your business shows up. Why? Because as when we love someone, we can feel it in the air. It´s a miracle to love someone, and it is so beautiful and precious as time goes by, that we really see it giving fruits of wisdom for the future.
We all gain data and information, no matter our disciplines, or experience or intuitive genetics gift. But in order to build a solid future of wisdom, it takes not just experience but solid core years of brain development. Our brains have to exercise certain cognitive abilities, and this just happens when we study. Independently of the level of experience we reach, wisdom happens only if our brains have been developed by education. It is so important to train our brains. And the beginning of our evolution to wisdom happens with education. The experience is also important, but the wisest countries on earth do have more P.h.Ds than the rest. If we really wish to evolve and be better, my advice to Generation Z and Millenials is to encourage the accomplishment at least 22 years of rigorous academic studies (primary, secondary, high-school, bachelor degree, master degree and a P.H.D). It doesn´t matter what is your sciences domain, but if we wish to gain wisdom, the academic stages of learning, have to happen as much as the rest of the attributes of a good skipper. I am also thinking of doing a P.h.D. when I marry Alejandro Guillermo Lozano Artolachipi, even at my 47 years old.
From Data to Wisdom… Source: Karim Vaes blog.
Alejandro Lozano Artolachipi, I would love to be pregnant of a little girl with you. I wish to have babies with you. I want to be pregnant as soon as possible.
In addition, I also want to remark that the idea of having a successful Board of Directors makes sense only if we have wise multidisciplinary teams. Decision making is more than numbers. Data is at the bottom of the importance when doing the decision making. It is the foundation. Good and reliable data of course. Meanwhile, Wisdom is at the top of it. The key problem that we are having right now is: during the 90s and since the beginning of the 2000s, the technocrats have won the lead. The priority of doing decision making was given to DATA ANALYSIS, but that is just the bottom of the understanding process. We can´t make right decisions just by doing data analysis. It is important to evolve to wise decision making, which is what we need start doing before any Industry 4.0 efforts. Wisdom from wise Board of Directors members. In addition to the 7 qualities of an excellent skipper, a “Holistic Approach” is required from diverse disciplines. Many BoD configurations need to open up to people from diverse scientific disciplines and different countries contexts. Remember there are exact sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, pharmaceutics, mathematics, astronomy, technology, etc… In addition, there are human sciences such as the philosophy, history, literature, arts (in all its forms), linguistics, etc. So many people from different backgrounds are entitled to help. Even if it takes more time to decide, we all have a different point of views and clearly, we can make better decisions.
In addition, we must find some ways to “slow down” the decision making processes in our business competitive race. Wisdom doesn´t come by accelerating things. We are rushing all the time, and that is what we are teaching to the next generations. As you know I don´t have babies yet, but I wish to become a mother of the kids that Alex Guillermo Lozano Artolachipi and I will have and will accompany on their way to become wiser. And I don´t want my future babies to jump into an ocean of life without knowledge at least. I don´t want my future babies to live a hustle life. For what? We only have between 80 to 100 years span life (if God wishes) that we can´t waste.
I have waited all my life for having babies. I have never been pregnant. I wish so much to have them with Alejandro Guillermo Lozano Artolachipi, my beloved and adorable future husband. I wish to have babies with him.
The last paragraph opens up the door for our next theme: From the Past to the Future: Corporate Strategy Renewal.
See you then. I have to go to sleep. Blessings and thank you!
1:30 am – San Salvador
Inspiration Source Reference:
https://asa.com/news/2016/12/21/what-makes-good-sailor/#
Disclaimer: All the presentation slides shown on this blog are prepared by Eleonora Escalante MBA-MEng. Nevertheless, all the pictures or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.
Eleonora Escalante Strategy 