Essential No. 6: It Takes a Dynamic Duo

The importance of inside-outside leadership pairs for high growth—like Apple's Steve Jobs and Tim Cook

By David G. Thomson

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High-growth companies need steady-handed managers, largely internally focused, who bring stability to an enterprise growing at lightning speed. These individuals exhibit control, discipline, and predictability. But such companies also need outward-facing leaders who are highly exploratory—particularly with business relationships and marketing opportunities. Thus growth needs not one leader but a pair of leaders.

Among America's highest-growth companies, leadership is based on dynamic duos—two individuals who complement one another to build the business from big to a billion dollars in revenue and beyond. Dynamic duos are the stuff of corporate legend: Sears and Roebuck, Roy and Walt Disney, Hewlett and Packard. At Apple (AAPL), Steve Jobs is Mr. Outside and Tim Cook is Mr. Inside. Microsoft (MSFT), Cisco (CSC), Apple, Juniper Networks (JNPR), Nike (NKE), Starbucks (SBUX), HCL Technologies (HCLT), and many others have applied the same Inside-Outside Leadership pattern.

One leader (or team) faces outward toward markets, customers, alliances, and the community, with the other leader (or team) focused inward to optimize operations. The inside-facing executive is typically the chief operating officer (COO); the external-facing executive is typically the chief executive (CEO). Together they make swift decisions—and quickly correct their mistakes.

Complementary Styles

Such relationships are dynamic in their use of complementary strengths. Exceptional growth company leaders have a conscious understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses and seek a partner who complements their style. As a pair, they are the highest of high-performance teams, and the two must have complete trust in and respect for each other. Even with limited resources, such teams execute "1 + 1 = 3" miracles.

The application of Inside-Outside Leadership isn't confined to American growth companies. India's HCL Technologies, one of the top global outsourcing companies and one of the top 20 most influential companies as ranked by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, applies the concept throughout the entire organization.

CEO Vineet Nayar is Mr. Outside. Mr. Anant Gupta is Mr. Inside. "Our entire structure is based on dynamic-duo pairs," says Nayar. "For example, Anant and I are really different, but this is beneficial. He comes from an R&D background. He can visualize technology trends a million times better than I can. To complement him, I am focused on external essentials, such as alliance and customer relationships."

Knowing Each Other's Jobs

In the Infrastructure Services Division, R. Srikrishna, senior vice-president for sales, plays Mr. Outside, while C. Vijay Kumar, senior vice-president for delivery and operations, is Mr. Inside. The secret to Sri's and Vijay's success is not only that they do their own jobs extremely well, but that they have also spent time in each other's jobs—enough to trust the other to know what he is doing. In terms of organizational structure, HCL is even organized so that Inside-Outside pairs report to other "dynamic duo" pairs. To ensure success, the company makes a point of finding complementary pairings.

What makes this organization work so particularly well? A culture of mutual respect across leadership, recognition of what each person contributes, and the fact that many of them have worked together for a long time.

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