Howell J. Malham Jr.

October 5, 2021 by Howell J. Malham Jr.

To enhance their company’s reputation in a complicated social landscape — and to ensure long-term profitability — elevated CMOs must design smart, authentic ways for executives to communicate about public responsibility.

“Agua!” That one simple word sent Coca-Cola’s stock plummeting by $5 billion when elite soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo moved two bottles of Coke out of view and asked for water during a press conference. No matter that the soft drink giant was the UEFA European Championship’s sponsor. The meaning of Ronaldo’s gesture was clear: As a health-conscious athlete, I drink water, not Coke.

And just like that, Coca-Cola experienced the economic impact of dragging their feet. How long have they known that their signature product increases the risk of insulin resistance, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure? And how long have they sidestepped using their power to positively influence health and wellness in a meaningful way?

It’s not an option for companies and their leaders to avoid entering into the fray of complex social challenges anymore. You might not be selling beverages that have the potential to damage people’s health. But your stakeholders still expect you to hold your professional services firm accountable for the ways in which you do impact your community.

As the C-suite’s new utility players, forward-thinking CMOs will help executive leaders skillfully participate in challenging, important conversations across a spectrum of social concerns. Use the following questions as a starting point to help your CEO enter into — and influence — the dialogues that matter in our world today.

How Do We Communicate Effectively in an Era of Reform?

As the keeper of your company’s narrative and steward of its expressed written mission, you are the best-placed, most-equipped person to serve as the company’s sextant. In this capacity, you’re required to measure the angles between controversial social issues to help your brand navigate uncharted territory.

In The Square and the Tower, Niall Fergusson offers a warning to CEOs who seek to maintain control using outdated, top-down methods. He says, “Hierarchical institutions have been challenged by novel networks, their impact magnified by technology…We should probably expect continued network-driven disruption of hierarchies that cannot reform themselves.”

Reform is hard. So is dismantling age-old expectations and norms associated with positions of power. But we can’t afford to bury our heads in the sand as social issues increasingly become business issues. Nor can we rely on authoritative communication styles of yesteryear. Rather, we must communicate with vulnerability and demonstrate a willingness to listen. If we don’t reform ourselves, we will be left behind.

But in order to help your CEO traverse this new terrain, your organization needs to grapple with a foundational question. What do we stand for?

What Issues Should Our Professional Services Firm Speak Out About?

The CMO-as-sextant role requires you to articulate how your company’s brand promise plays out in a charged social and political environment. To do it well, you must be truthful and authentic while simultaneously remaining accountable. This is necessary even if — or especially when — your best efforts to do better are met with criticism.

For example, remember when Dove tried to make bottles that reflected body diversity or when Target introduced transgender lavatories? Some sang these companies’ praises. Others decried them. But despite backlash, both companies boldly sparked conversations that were necessary and valuable — and that were in line with their own stated values.

In the professional services landscape, many firms are making a concerted effort to include Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting in their mantle of accountability. Lawyers, accountants, investors, and engineers measure ESG to answer to stakeholders and governments. But the thoughtful CMO should be thinking about how executives can communicate ESG-related issues to all audiences.

Furthermore, CMOs can and should measure audience sentiment and response to these efforts. In this way, CMOs can connect the dots for executives and show how speaking out on societal issues can impact brand reputation.

ESG is just one example. You may be focused on going beyond the performative in how your firm responds to issues of racial injustice. Or you might want to combat misinformation and speak out against fake news. Whatever the issue, it all comes down to this. What are your firm’s values? What issues matter to you? And in what way do you hope to leave your corner of your industry better than you found it?

Is it Time to Communicate a Broader View of Profitability?

Part of charting a course toward a different, reformed future is opening an authentic conversation about what it means to be profitable. That’s because stakeholders now demand that the pursuit of profit be tempered by a concern for doing what’s right. It’s not enough to make money. Organizations also need to consider the planet, marginalized groups, future generations, and society as a whole.

Weigh what it might mean for your CEO and your firm to embrace a more holistic view of profitability. How would that allow you to communicate a meaningful brand promise to your stakeholders and audience? What stories can you tell about the ways your firm is integrating business needs with social needs? And how might this evolved approach to financial governance actually lead to greater loyalty and commitment from stakeholders, employees, and clients?

Revenue is important. But if we want to create a more just, healthy, and sustainable world, it just might begin by expanding our definition of profitability.

CMOs Must Continue to Equip Executives to Communicate About Social Concerns

If your CEO doesn’t take a stand on an issue or concern that resonates with your market, somebody else will. And if that ‘somebody’ happens to have the power and influence of Cristiano Ronaldo in the Digital Age, watch out.

Your stakeholders expect vulnerability, authenticity, accountability, and a willingness to listen. So in order to augment your organization’s reputation and remain profitable in this new era, you need to prepare your CEO to engage in challenging conversations. All of that starts by asking the right questions.

If you’d like some help directing conversations that matter at your firm, connect with us. We’d love to hear from you.

July 28, 2021 by Howell J. Malham Jr.

Twenty-first century leaders that refuse to recognize the social needs and interests of key actors will fail to capture market share. CMOs can help CEOs understand and act on emerging opportunities honestly, openly, and strategically.

Old norms die hard.

Nowhere is that more true than in corporate America, where executives are struggling to understand and accept, let alone keep up with, the expectations and demands of a new reality: what’s good for society is good for business.

As Fortune reported recently, more than a few CEOs are now “more willing to speak out on controversial social and political issues;” some leaders at the helm of progressive brands like PayPal, Intel, and Lyft have in recent years not only taken stands on selective social issues but changed company policy to connect company values with to shifting opinions and beliefs.

Still, many leaders cannot or simply will not waver from old business norms—specifically, the expectations that government, not companies, should address and tackle social issues. Not necessarily because they’re blind to complex issues like diversity, equity and inclusion, and voting rights but because they haven’t been able to reconcile both the philosophy and logic of capitalist economics, as Milton Friedman explained it in the last century. And do so with genuine, not performative, expressions of social responsibility.

For an elevated CMO, the C-suite’s “new utility player” as we reported in the first of our series of articles on the new norms of executive leadership, this moment presents a unique opportunity to serve and support his/her/their CEO and other members of executive leadership by designing new ways of connecting the social to business in this still-uncharted reality.

And before said reality leaves present-gen leaders behind.

Words followed by deeds

Once upon a time, a CEOs’ greatest tool was the language of obfuscation. Secrecy and privacy of a company’s top leader created an aura of control and power; decisions were made almost exclusively and unilaterally on the golf course or at the dinner table

Before the digital age, a CEO had limited inputs – and a certain degree of control over – predictable outcomes. Now, information and inputs to consider in decision-making at the C-suite level are seemingly infinite. As such, sticking one’s digital head in the digital sand on everything from climate change to voting rights, whether through avoidance, obfuscation or silence, bespeaks of indifference or ignorance (or both) at a company’s highest levels.

On the other hand, if a company assumes a hastily conceived position that smacks of the performative, then it’s “let fly the rotten tomatoes!”

But the days of lip service and “let’s not and say we did” are over; the pandemic and technology made sure of it.

Part of the challenge – a big part – is understanding how, when, why, and where to have the conversation. Rare is there alignment between what is communicated one-on-one and in confidence over an almond milk latte at the nearest coffee bar, and what is expressed publicly in the conference room in the presence of executive and senior leadership, and peers.

The same goes for external comms – maybe the most effective press release isn’t a press release at all. It’s a proclamation AND a manifestation through deeds.

Or, said another way, its words with acts.

Whatever a company does, whatever public position it takes or doesn’t take on a social issue, it must be willing to face and accept the fact that it’s going to make some group or groups of actors unhappy. That’s actually OK, if a CEO means exactly what he/she/they declare publicly; backs it up with swift, decisive action; and is willing to explain to clients and employees the reasons for the company’s behavior.

Most rationale actors in a corporate setting can live with said unhappiness; but no one likes to be left in the dark.

Or worse, deceived.

At such moments, the CMO can step in and help the CEO connect a social position to a company’s strategy and long-term goals; and in a way that makes sense for existing and future employees. He/she/they can use data and insights through a marketing lens to inform and influence discretionary behavior of employees; motivate them through new sets of expectations, and imaginative performance goals, thereby being a friend to the CHRO, too.

Why? Any CHRO worth his/her/their salt knows that talent is an asset on the balance sheet; and companies do well when said asset trades at a higher value.

Working together, the CMO and CHRO can, for example, design incentives for brand ambassadorship for all organization talent; confronting social issues and framing them in ways that make employees believe that they’re about something bigger than the product or service; bigger than even the company itself. (Think of a famous business school case study of a hot dog company that proclaimed its mission was to head-off a protein shortage in the future.)

Even if it’s simply an invitation to be a part of a larger conversation about the issue—in fact, corporations that convoke assemblies to discuss issues openly and honestly with actors of all ilks may find themselves in the best possible position of all if there is one in such highly charged times: the convener.

Such initiatives can have a direct, positive impact on employee efficiency and effectiveness, which are absolutely critical to a company’s growth, and, as important, to raising the value of the talent asset. These assets are welcomed, not shunned, from the table in a corporate-sanctioned forum and encouraged to discuss the most important, meaningful, and complex social challenges of our time.

Coming up next in our executive leadership series: The Virtue of Accountability

March 22, 2021 by Howell J. Malham Jr.

In January, the leaders of Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon did something that no elected representative in Congress can do to the head of our federal government. Each imposed severe, unprecedented limits on the powers of a U.S. president.

Responding much faster than Congress to the will of the people — not as voters but as consumers — the chief executives demonstrated publicly and conclusively that, when it comes to circumscribing the powers of our government’s leader, they’re more effective than members of any other branch.

The heads of Reddit, Snapchat and Shopify followed suit, banning or severely restricting the 45th president of the United States from their platforms.

“[CEOs] have money, they have power, and they have more of the public’s trust than politicians do. And they’re using all of it in an attempt to preserve America’s system of governance,” writes Felix Salmon in his article “How CEOs became the 4th branch of government.”

With this power comes, of course, great responsibility —and a new kind of regulator, more powerful than the courts or the legislatures. Consumers can use their buying power and collective social influence to keep the “fourth branch” — let’s call it the C-branch — in check.

In such a world, the CMO becomes a CEO’s most valuable, versatile ally — a critically important conduit between the C-branch and consumers. These days, they must do more, a lot more, than simply articulate positions, craft messages and disseminate information internally and externally.

The office of the CMO must also have its ear to the ground to pick up what’s on consumers’ minds — their predilections, pain points and latest causes for social and political concern — and be able to transmit all of that back to CEOs to help them make critical, high-stakes and well-informed decisions.

Like whether it’s time to deactivate a sitting president’s Twitter account.

The C-Suite’s New Utility Player

These new conditions – driven by the primacy of social and environmental concerns among present and emerging generations of consumers – have changed the game for CMOs.

The game-change has accelerated the diversification and elevation of the importance of CMOs duties and obligations that had been occurring steadily over the last 20 years. For much of that time the primary driver was technology, especially the increasing importance (and sophistication) of data analytics and AI.

Far more than just a chief marketing messenger, the CMO is now something of a CIO too — an executive who, if not working directly with information technology, must understand it well enough to take full advantage of the growing array of digital marketing tools.

Additionally, the roles of the CMO and Chief Communications Officer are becoming more integrated by the day. They must be in order to achieve what Maja Pawinska Sims calls a better alignment with “brand and corporate narrative.” As honest, relevant, human tale-telling becomes even more closely connected to the P&L, the C-suite’s storytellers are increasingly relied upon to develop new tales.

It is not incorrect, then, to refer to the CMO as the C-suite’s new utility player, the executive who must know a little bit about every other position in order to help the CEO make sense of challenges and opportunities, especially in relation to the Three Rs: Revenue, Relationship, and Reputation.

Revenue & Relationships are the CMO’s Job Too

Reputation has long been in the domain of the CMO. Marketing’s ties to revenue run deep, but the new order makes them inseparable. And relationship has traditionally resided outside the chief marketer’s purview.

Using a deep understanding of both customers and community, CMOs can and must actively identify and broker new kinds of relationships for their companies. Success will make them indispensable lieutenants, especially when it comes to helping CEOs influence “constituents” — as elected officials do.

A focus on revenue means CMOs need more than just hallway collegiality with the CFO; they need to develop an active, healthy relationship. They must also help persuade the finance chief that today, what’s good for customers and communities is good for the company’s bottom line.

Rather than be put off by such a prospect, chief marketers should view the present as an opportunity to, as Jann Schwarz writes, “reclaim a more strategic role” through a key relationship with the CFO.

“[The CMO’s] creativity and imagination (combined with commercial discipline and a customer lens) can drive a sustainable and competitive advantage” through such a rapprochement, writes Schwarz.

Clearly, this is not your mother’s or your father’s CMO.

The New Corporate Narrative: Social Responsibility

In this brave new world, the CMO is the CEO’s eyes and ears, both messenger and oracle, watching how our market-society, and the people who comprise it, are moving, shifting, aligning and re-aligning.

This means that CMOs can no longer compartmentalize company narratives, social responsibility and profitable growth. As the last Business Roundtable made eminently clear, these are now intertwined and interdependent considerations, not to mention the focus on the three Rs.

CMOs who are paying attention and playing the long game know that social responsibility is the narrative and that terms such as “social impact” and “sustainability” are something more than fleeting hashtags to be expressed merely through a sprinkling of green on the logo.

And it will remain the narrative until norms have changed so dramatically that, among successive generations of consumers, it will be one of many unspoken expectations that leaders must be, at the very least, as committed to doing no harm — socially, environmentally — as they are to generating a return on investment for shareholders.

Perhaps the CMO’s greatest value, then, will be in perceiving what is moving the market. Or more accurately who is moving it: consumers and clients who are not data points, who are not math problems, but real, live people, governed by ever-shifting social norms and fickle human nature.

And who can vote any time, from anywhere, for unelected leaders in that fourth branch of government using something that may soon be more powerful than the ballot: their credit cards.

November 5, 2020 by Howell J. Malham Jr.

It is time for business leaders to develop enlightened positions on social issues that are also authentic, constructive and on-brand for a new generation of ‘citizen consumers.’

To say that 2020 has been a challenging year would be a gross understatement.

But the unprecedented chaos and confusion, our annus horribilis, has delivered a string of revelations for business leaders – revelations that will have lasting implications.

One of the most profound: Leaders in the private sector can no longer comfortably avoid taking an unambiguous and very public stance on what had been traditionally viewed as “social sector issues” such as climate change, racial injustice and economic disparity.

The reason is simple enough yet – still – not widely accepted: Social challenges are business challenges. From the violent union struggles and workers’ strikes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; to the Great Depression and Cold War eras; to the civil rights and women’s movements of the 1960s and 1970s; right up to the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter protests of the current day, business leaders have, time and again, been assigned a hard but necessary task, and that is to design strategies to respond to wide-scale social conflicts that impact those who produce and sell products and services as well as those who consume them – i.e., people.

There was a time when the C-suite grudgingly stepped up to meet an obligatory commitment to social responsibility simply to stay clear of bad publicity – and to keep the CEO out of the proverbial hot seat. But things have changed – dramatically. There are new, earnest expectations, articulated and memorialized by Business Roundtable in 2019, for businesses to true up on social responsibility in the belief that what is good for the planet and the society upon it is, in fact, good for business.

Therein lies another challenge for business leaders: How does a company effectively develop and communicate a position on key issues in a way that is constructive and not just reactive or performative? And is it even possible to do this while staying on-brand?

Answering that question, nearly a decade after Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer said CSR should be framed as a shared value that will deliver on unmet social needs, is more pertinent now than ever.

“I see this [conundrum] not as a dichotomy, but as a continuum with different poles,” said Caroline Grossman, executive director of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. “At one end, CSR is about positive impact on the planet’s most pressing problems, and at the other end it’s greenwashing. Risk mitigation falls somewhere in the middle.”

Getting to a meaningful place on this spectrum is about asking questions, sometimes tough questions – the most interesting of which focus on understanding why this new approach to key issues is, actually, good business.

Drawing from the Past – and Other Industries

Companies, specifically C-suites within those companies, should incorporate key questions as a strategy exercise or strategy reorientation.

This approach has become increasingly common across industries, said Grossman, whose research center supports people committed to helping solve complex social and environmental problems. “Some dramatic examples are companies founded on innovation that itself has the potential for outsize impact.”

Take plant-based meat. Grossman points out that Beyond Meat had a successful IPO last year and, as of this writing, is trading well above the offering price (even after a recent plunge). Impossible Foods, based on current research, is not planning an IPO but continues to attract investors. Both companies are also drawing attention from companies like Walmart, Kroger, Burger King and Amazon, and McDonald’s just announced a new “McPlant” line for 2021.

“I don’t think these retailers and restaurants stock plant-based meat because of CSR but because they think it is good business,” Grossman said.

Tables Have Turned

In the latter part of the last century, the most successful American corporations were uniquely positioned to drive consumer habits. One need only think of Nike, Google and Apple when it comes to what is now socially expected of us when it comes to deciding what athletic shoes we should wear, what email service we should use and what smartphones we should palm.

During the last six months, however, there has been a noticeable shift. After a ponderous and reactive response in the first weeks of the pandemic and then widespread protests, the social – social concerns, social issues, social anxieties – became a bigger influencer of big business.

As a placard at a Black Lives Matter protest in Chicago this summer read: “no justice = no peace and no profit.” [Emphasis added.]

Ideally, however, business leaders are not acting solely out of financial self-interest. Recent events should be spurring them to consider the concept of social responsibility as a vital part of business – an essential, indeed intrinsic, component nested within any for-profit enterprise.

Currently, there is strong support from consumers and investors for positive social/business impact. in Aflac’s 2019 CSR Survey, 82% of consumers said that companies bear responsibility for “making the world a better place,” ahead of the 75% who selected “making money for its shareholders.” Nearly all investors surveyed, unsurprisingly, placed importance on making money for shareholders (93%), but a similar portion of investors said that making the world a better place was important.

“I believe every business is inextricably linked to social responsibility. It is now part of our culture,” said Diane Primo, CEO of Purpose Brand Agency, an award-winning public relations, branding and digital marketing firm. “Even asset managers, investment bankers and financial giants are evaluating companies that do not comply with extensive ESG matrices.”

Primo’s insights reveal something else. Present-gen consumers have awakened to the fact that they hold real power – buying power – and they are quickly giving way to what will surely be a new demo for the 21st century: citizen consumer.

“What consumers care about, and how much they care, is redefining social responsibility,” Primo said. “Shared activism in combination with digital engagement is shifting culture quickly. We witness shifting perceptions as Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 spread and corporate responsibility evolves.”

This “evolution” was one of the reasons GreenHouse and Greentarget, in partnership with LAB/Amsterdam, launched Immediate Frontier. An independent research and innovation initiative, it was designed in part as a model for leaders to better see how to engage with the concept of CSR in a new, more holistic, less compartmentalized way.

Some business leaders are ahead of the curve, Primo said.

“Public companies are already undergoing significant change,” she said. “As powerful consumer action groups team with investment groups to modify sales and reduce capital flows, change will happen – and quickly.”

X (and Boomers) Includes Y and Z Now

The fact that more leaders are willing to tackle issues that would not have seemed relevant to a for-profit entity’s business goals previously seems all the more natural, indeed necessary, as one contemplates another revelation: These social issues, now front and center, are leading the way to entirely new value propositions for corporations – and serving up impressive business outcomes.

But present-gen leaders – Gen Xers and, in some cases, Boomers – shouldn’t bear this burden alone, nor are they capable of taking it on, experts suggest. Next-gen leaders deserve a seat at the table.

Grossman, who teaches a CSR course at Booth, said young leaders take a long view and have sprung into action when it comes to the pandemic and helping Black-owned businesses.

“The next generation is demanding that business does things differently,” Grossman said. “[They’re] challenging leadership to take issues of diversity, equity and inclusion into account.”

Students are eager to jump in to think about social issues in a business context, and vice versa. And, Grossman said, the leaders at companies that sponsor the course at Booth are listening to fresh, new perspectives and straight-up challenges that students bring to the experience.

“It’s critical for me to connect with all of [Rustandy’s] stakeholders – students, faculty, alumni, social sector practitioners and business leaders,” she said. “But it turns out that it’s the students who always ask the toughest questions.”

April 17, 2020 by Howell J. Malham Jr.

Leading through uncertainty demands different roles at different times

The term “thought leader” was halfway out the door before the pandemic. So devalued had it become that it was difficult to refer to someone as such without a whiff of irony.

But now, as companies big and small grapple with what to do and how to do it in the midst of a crisis of, literally, epidemic proportions, something is becoming crystal clear:: people need leaders who lead people not thoughts.

Building on conversations that began well before WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, we’ve spent the last few weeks dialoguing with executives, thinking through challenges they are facing as they attempt to marshal their teams through what is shaping up to be one of the most arduous experiences many have faced as business leaders.

“This is perhaps the most challenging business role I have had in my lifetime,” says Lori Perella Krebs, Principal at Ancora Investment Holdings.

“I was CEO of another company based in New York when 9/11 happened and this crisis is different. September 11 was undoubtedly a catastrophic event and scarred many New Yorkers emotionally but we united within our industry and started rebuilding soon afterward.”

Uniting, albeit virtually, isn’t the problem now—it’s attempting to rebuild what previously existed under a “shelter in place” order during a pandemic with a recession in the offing that’s costing leaders the most sleep.

Another problem:: no one really knows what is expected of a business leader in a calamity of this scale or complexity because those who were in charge during the last pandemic—the Spanish Influenza of 1918-1920—have long since passed.

Through formal and informal conversations, we’ve discovered that a leader must play not one but several different roles in a leadership position, if they want to inspire lieutenants to do their best work.

Individual leadership styles, as identified by Daniel Goleman, (coercive, authoritative, affiliative, etc), will certainly influence how one wears these hats; but the hats must be worn, and at different moments, to lead teams “in a calm and honest manner,” as Krebs says, through times of great uncertainty.

The Social Worker:: When the crisis hit, it was hard not to react in a very human way to very human concerns that were suddenly front and center. This requires patience, compassion, and plenty of empathy. As Francis of Assisi’s famous prayer goes, a leader must seek not so much to be consoled as to console. Successful crisis leaders don’t complain to their lieutenants that their feet hurt; they allow their lieutenants to complain to them about aching feet. Once the pain is acknowledged—human to human—those lieutenants will be ready to do the job.

The Improvisor:: As Kelly Leonard, executive director of Learning and Applied Improvisation at Second City Works, wrote recently, “We are all working script-less. So we need to mine the toolkit of an improviser. We need to say ’yes, and’ rather than ’no’ or ’yes, but’ as a way to create an abundance of ideas and options.” In other words, play the moment—or “scene”—that we’re in right now, not the one we wish we were in. It requires embracing the craziness and the messiness coming every which way, and thinking fast to, as Tim Gunn would say, “make it work” for you and your team.
The Convener:: Organizing lieutenants around the same table at the same time; having a clear agenda when you get them there; and creating the space to have courageous conversations, hard conversations.
The Facilitator:: Not only must a crisis leader convene, said leader must be prepared and equipped to drive those hard conversations, knowing in advance the questions to ask of those whose counsel he or she seeks; and of those who are seeking it. Also, great crisis leaders already know what they think; they’ve been training for such a moment all of their professional lives. Having the right questions is far more important than having the fast answers.

The Interpreter:: There’s an old joke that made the rounds during the late Cold War years:: The Russians and the Americans don’t have any issues; the problem is that interpreters hate one another. A crisis leader is sense-making on the fly, clarifying in real time to make sure other leaders aren’t talking past one another. The messages shared are in fact messages heard.
The Decision Maker:: The best decision makers know when the decision is working; and when it isn’t. As everything is in flux, the crisis leader is always prepared to rewrite the script as the last thing one wants to do is lead a team on the dread march of folly, toward a goal that is no longer relevant or plausible.
The Advocate:: If you’ve hired properly, and trust those hiring decisions, then your team is the team that can win in good times…and bad. Conversely, senior leaders must know that you stand with them and for them. For this to work, you must shake off old norms that may be too restrictive and move toward a culture where lieutenants have the agency and autonomy to do what needs to be done, without seeking [repeated] direction from the crisis leader on how to solve problems they are expected to solve on their own.
The Innovator:: There’s a time for rewriting the old script in a fine fury of desperation, which many leaders are tasked with in the opening stages of a crisis as they scramble to adjust to new conditions and constraints, putting on hat after hat. Then there’s a time for tearing up the script, and creating a new one in an equally fine fury of innovation. Every crisis leader knows, generally, what innovation means; but the truly successful ones know what it actually is:: the systematic identification and disruption of norms that have a bearhug on just about every aspect of any business that involves people. If a leader doesn’t know their norms—how to spot them, how to dismantle them—the leader doesn’t know innovation:: How to use it and where; and how to drive it within an organization that is in the fight of its life.

Wearing each of these hats, playing the related role and, most important, knowing when to play them is one of the fundamentals of succeeding as a leader in a crisis, one who is playing the long game.

And playing to win.

Howell J. Malham Jr. is founder and president of GreenHouse::Innovation, Greentarget’s strategic partner. He is the author of “I Have A Strategy (No You Don’t):: The Illustrated Guide to Strategy.”

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