I have had the privilege of working with Greenberg during the past seven years in a leadership- development program targeted at our senior executives and have found the experience inspiring. Leadership requires the ability to take a broad view of one s situation, to set a direction, and to steer an often-unwieldy organization toward a goal. The development of business leaders, therefore, requires expanding the viewpoint of potential leaders beyond their own disciplinary background and training in business and economics. The Andersen Executive Program provides our partners with an opportunity to do just that using the arts, sciences, and even religion as a starting point for discovery. The resulting discussions and learning have been remarkable.
Music is the ideal metaphor for business executives and especially for professional-services firms.
As with an orchestra, a professional-services firm has only the expertise of its professionals and their ability to form and sustain relationships to ensure its success. Like orchestra members, our professionals are experts in their field and, increasingly, as with an orchestra, the ability to provide valuable service to our clients depends upon the skill with which our professionals perform as members of an ensemble. My supposition is that business executives would have much to learn about their relationships with their strategists by examining the composer-conductor relationship. Traditional organizations usually aren t moving fast enough to understand the impact of e-business. If you can t bring immediate value to the table, the e-business project is shelved.