Defining Leadership DNA: Translating Business Strategy to Leadership Effectiveness

A large multinational FMCG company used Peopletree Group's Organisational Genome to translate complex strategy documents into a leadership DNA profile, identifying which leaders could execute the strategy.

Industry: FMCG / Consumer Goods Geography: Global / Multinational Company size: Large multinational

Overview

The executive team for a large multinational FMCG company needed a way to translate complex strategy documents into a simple set of competencies and capabilities that could be communicated across the business using language all stakeholders would understand.

Challenge

Aligning company strategy and leadership is a difficult task. To execute a company's strategy, it is essential to identify the capabilities required to achieve the objectives and connect the right people to the necessary positions. The challenge was to design a process to translate the company's strategy into a set of competency profiles to identify the right talent.

Solution

After identifying the essential capabilities, Peopletree grouped similar capabilities and created the company's unique leadership DNA. The reasons why and how these capabilities would be incorporated to execute the company's strategy were unpacked and documented. The project was communicated to various stakeholders to clarify the competencies that would be most important for success. The Organisational Genome framework - which translates business strategy into organisational capabilities and then into individual competencies - was applied to create leadership profiles for different management levels. These profiles were then compared to Talentprint assessment data to identify who had and did not have the necessary capabilities to execute the strategy.

Results

The real value of this exercise was the creation of a leadership DNA profile listing competencies and profiles for different management levels. By comparing these profiles to Talentprint assessment data, the company could identify who had the necessary capabilities to execute the company's strategy and who needed development. The Organisational Genome enabled the identification of essential capabilities and the development of a leadership DNA profile that facilitated the alignment of the company's strategy with the right talent.