KORN FERRY KORN TALENT + LEADERSHIP King of Macau Why Leaders Overrate Themselves BRIEFINGS VOLUME 8 8 VOLUME 2017 $14.95 US / CAN / $14.95 US How Can CEOS Manage So Much Uncertainty? IT’S THRIVING IN A CONTINUOUSLY CHANGING DIGITAL WORLD. Transforming once for the digital world is no longer enough. To keep up with the pace of change, organizations need to embed the ability to continually transform into their DNA. We call this becoming digitally sustainable. To fi nd out how, visit us at kornferry.com/digitalsustainability IT’S THRIVING IN A CONTINUOUSLY CHANGING DIGITAL WORLD. Transforming once for the digital world is no longer enough. To keep up with the pace of change, organizations need to embed the ability to continually transform into their DNA. We call this becoming digitally sustainable. To fi nd out how, visit us at kornferry.com/digitalsustainability Gary Burnison Thought leadership. Timely insights. And more. Chief Executive Officer kornferryinstitute.com Michael Distefano Chief Marketing Officer, Korn Ferry Chief Operating Officer, Asia Pacific BREAKING NEWS: Jonathan Dahl The Korn Ferry Take Editor-in-Chief Another Fortune 500 company replaces its CEO. Russell Pearlman France gets a new president. To respond to today’s Managing Editor fast-paced news cycle, Korn Ferry is offering its Nancy Wong Bryan own leadership perspectives on the headlines Copy Editor you’re seeing. Missed our angle? For weekend reads, check out “The Week in Leadership.” Amy Roberts Copy Editor Digital Sustainability, the Podcast Hear our digital and talent management experts share their insights on how Creative Directors Robert Ross organizations can successfully navigate digital Roland K Madrid transformation. The five-part podcast series focuses on leadership, culture, talent, the Art & Production workforce and rewards. Daniel Botero Mary Franz Marketing & Circulation Manager The Mystery Economy Stacy Levyn Rozen Government figures tell us the US job market Project Manager has never been stronger. And yet there is Tiffany Sledzianowski unrest—politically, economically and socially. Digital Marketing Manager In this occasional series, Korn Ferry examines Edward McLaurin a string of contradictions that mystify corporate leaders. Marketing Coordinator Naz Taghavi PLUS Contributing Editors Improve Your Emotional IQ Lexie Barker Being self-aware and in control of your emotions are David Berreby essential tools for any leader. Best-selling author Simon Constable Daniel Goleman highlights the 12 competencies of Martin Coyne emotional intelligence. Patricia Crisafulli William J. Holstein Karen Kane Doron Levin Christopher O’Dea Glenn Rifkin P.J. O’Rourke Shannon Sims Meghan Walsh Peter Zheutlin 2 Briefings On Talent & Leadership HOW DO WE ADVANCE IN A WORLD OF CHALLENGES? LyondellBasell delivers the plastics, chemicals, fuels and technologies that are advancing solutions to many modern challenges. Our products are found in nearly every sector of the economy, from lightweight and flexible packaging and stronger piping systems to many of the components and materials in vehicles today. To learn more visit: AdvancingPossible.com CONTENTS “The only certainty is that nothing is certain.” —Pliny the Elder COVER STORY Mission Impossible: The New Age of Ambiguity / 26 Brexit. New governments. Tech changes. How can CEOs manage so much uncertainty? By Jonathan Dahl Cover and story illustrations by Pierre Doucin 4 Briefings On Talent & Leadership FEATURES ON THE HORIZON Battling for the THE LATEST THINKING / 9 Leaders look at their own Right Job / 36 abilities and organizations through rose-colored glasses. Years into proving they’re good hires, veterans now ON THE BOARD / 12 struggle to find More boards are being pressed a good fit inside to add climate experts. many companies. By Meghan Walsh PIPELINE / 14 A new model for lowering healthcare costs is on the rise. It just needs the Mission Impossible: Magnate right leaders. of Macau / 44 HISTORY LESSONS / 16 The New Age Casino boss Francis Lui won big here, The rise and fall of Enron’s superstar. of Ambiguity / 26 but his next bet barely involves Brexit. New governments. gambling. Tech changes. By Russell Pearlman COLUMNS DOWNTIME SPECIAL SECTION: How can CEOs manage MACAU’S PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE LEISURE / 59 THE GLOBAL so much uncertainty? Fishing’s ECONOMY / 18 power of Zen Simon Constable GADGETS / 62 WORKPLACE The next Privacy, PATTERNS / 20 generation of virtual / 51 Debra Redefined reality Nunes As companies pry more, our willing- ness to reveal what EMOTIONAL SPORTS / 64 we do is shifting. INTELLIGENCE / 22 Grab By David Berreby Daniel a seat Goleman PLUS FROM THE CEO / 6 Gary Burnison ENDGAME / 66 Jonathan Dahl “The best leaders “Didn’t we use know how to make to agree to anticipation a disagree?” team sport.” Issue No. 32 5 FROM THE CEO the bad guys at first. Watching that show, week after week, I wanted to grow up with my own “mission impossible” one day. Flash-forward 40 years. Like every other leader I’ve met recently, as a CEO I face unprec- edented levels of uncertainty, ambiguity and constant change that make every day a “mission impossible.” Over time, leaders have periodically faced upheavals, from world wars to technological advancements that changed how we live and work. But today is different. During a recent two-hour conversation with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, our wide-ranging discus- sion covered everything from globalization and geopolitics to the environment. Later, in a private Your conversation, he emphasized the uniqueness of these times—truly like none other in history. The world is flat and borderless, yet also Mission, walled with protectionism. Change is every- where: US interest rates, after an extended period at essentially zero, are rising. Within a deeply Should You divided political climate, there are attempts to reform healthcare and revise tax laws. Unem- ployment is low, but wages are stagnant. Given Choose to that the average length of an economic cycle is just over five years, the current expansion in the US is undeniably in a late stage. Accept It A year after the UK’s Brexit vote, Europe is still feeling the reverberations. France’s new president, Emmanuel Macron, has his hopes on revitalizing the European Union as being key BY GARY BURNISON to his country’s economy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces an election in September; despite her popularity, in today’s uncertain times, he mission was always found in a nothing can be taken for granted. In Asia, growth phone booth, a vending machine, continues, but all eyes are on China’s economy. a parked car or other mundane Geopolitical hotspots and terrorism fears erupt location. The tape recording that with unnerving frequency. Tdetailed “your mission, should you How can leaders accept the mission of coping choose to accept it,” ended with the chilling with today’s conflicted reality? warning that in the event of capture, all knowl- The answer can be found in two timeless edge would be disavowed. With a puff of smoke, abilities that define leadership: to anticipate and the tape self-destructed in 10 seconds. to navigate. Anticipation starts with the reality of As a boy growing up in Kansas, my favorite today, using the known to forecast the unknown TV show was Mission Impossible. I loved the dis- of what’s likely to be beyond the horizon. It means guises and techno-gadgets, and the fact that you projecting, having a Plan A and a Plan B—plus couldn’t always distinguish the good guys from Plans C and D to cover the possible contingencies. 6 Briefings On Talent & Leadership FROM THE CEO ortunately, leaders don’t have to go it alone. occurs, whether an obstacle or an opportunity. FJust as Mission Impossible had its team that Together, anticipating and navigating require saved the world every week, as a leader you must world-class agility that stretches the intellectual rely on your team—people on the front lines and strategic abilities of even the best leaders. with their fingers on the pulse of change. The As a leader, you must engage all your senses, best leaders, whether at the helm of companies including your intuition. Rather than rely on or countries, know how to what you know, you must make anticipation a team delve into what you don’t— sport by establishing an The answer can with insatiable curiosity organizational culture that seeks to understand that creates and elevates be found in two timeless “why,” while also asking, world-class observers. abilities that define “why not?” Actively anticipating leadership: to anticipate Expand and alter your requires a change of perceptions. What looks thinking. Setting a and to navigate. like an obstacle or an strategy is not a once-a- insurmountable challenge year exercise. As I’ve said may be an opportunity in before, such arcane exercises inevitably come disguise—if you are willing to look beyond the 11 months too late. Strategic thinking must be mask of the obvious. about decision-making and course-correcting in This is the mission, impossible though it may the midst of the storms and surrounded by the seem. Although you do have the choice of whether fog of uncertainty. And, all the while, leaders who to accept it, as a leader, your only real answer is are trying to set a long-term plan face intense “yes”—before the tape destructs in 10 seconds. • demands from board members, shareholders and Wall Street for steadily improving results every quarter. Navigation is the companion skill to anticipa- tion. Navigating uses objectivity and clarity to observe and react to what is. It involves course- correction in real-time when the unexpected Best in class? Only in class. The new Panamera Sport Turismo. The Panamera provides its own benchmark. As a Sport Turismo it is now in a class of its own.