Transformational Small Business Leadership

I came across an interesting article the other day while surfacing the internet. Although it's a couple of years old, I found it to be very thought-provoking.

In the September 2007 article on americanexecutive.com entitled Creative Office Environments: The Future of Work, Bob Delille made some comments about his company that I found really interesting and very insightful.

I know Bob Delille, as he is a former basketball and tennis buddy. While I don't know him in a work setting, I do know of his character and his competitive nature. He likes to win (with class). Louis Gerstner's comments in Elephants about beating the competition and wanting to win remind me of Bob.

Back to the article -- Bob had an outside firm survey Creative's customers to find out their perceptions of Creative Office Environments. The survey found that customers believed that Creative was a great provider of products and services. For many leaders, they would be quite satisfied with these results. Bob was dismayed. He believed that being perceived as a great provider of products and services was a sure-fire way to be "commoditized right out of business."

Bob went on to say that his vision for Creative was to be viewed as a creative problem solver in meeting customers' office furnishing needs. At that point, Bob decided to build his company's business around creativity and innovation believing that intellectual capital was his long-term competitive advantage. I found this to be so cool and indicative of the principled, visionary leader that I believe Bob Delille to be. To successfully make this strategic shift in focus requires a change in how you view your employees' talents, how you develop them and how you set their expectations and how you motivate them - all requiring leadership from the top.

The article also speaks of a strategic shift in focus for the company that builds on Creative employees' ability to integrate technology and furnishings for comprehensive workplace solutions. To me, this was almost reminiscent of Gerstner's recognition that IBM had a unique capability to provide IT integration services. Creative employees are no longer narrowly viewed as salespersons or installers - they are innovators, integrators and problem solvers. The company is re-branding to be seen as experts in the "future of work."

At Creative, Bob led changes in their workplace and organizational culture to support his vision for the company. The article is a great example of a small business leader who has led his company through transformational change.

As listed on the company's web site, the organizational values are:

• Family
• Being the Best
• Hard Work
• Passion
• Trust/Relationships
• Growth

Having known Bob, I know that these values are his values and I absolutely know that he walks the talk. It's not an accident that "family" is at the top of the list. I also note the presence of "passion" on the list - the attribute that Gerstner spoke of in Elephants as being so important to success as a leader.

Great stuff and the insight of needing to move from a great provider of products to a provider of innovative solutions (capabilities-based business) strikes a cord with me.

Creative Office Environments article:

http://www.americanexecutive.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5964

Creative's web site:

http://www.creative-va.com/