The Call for Epochal Leadership

So you want to be a business leader? Pay attention to Barack Obama

by Shoshana Zuboff

In 1924, Charles Collington, the owner of Collington Tire Co., considered a proposal for "systematic job analysis." Such data would introduce "scientific management," improve the hiring process, and increase factory output. But Collington prided himself on the company's craft motto of "One man, one tire," and his foreman objected to the prospect of young clerks observing, interviewing, and taking notes in the factory. So Collington vetoed the proposal. That's why you've never bought a tire with his name on it.

An experienced leader, Collington was a comfortable passenger in the paradigm of 19th century capitalism. If that model had held steady, his experience would have been a decisive advantage. Unfortunately for Collington, capitalism was already undergoing an epochal shift toward mass production that would leave him at the helm of a sinking ship. His inclination to rely on experience turned out to be the kiss of death.

Momentous change calls for a special kind of leader: a pilgrim, not a passenger. Such a leader is willing to embark on a journey through uncharted territory. Epochal leaders from Moses to FDR have used their spirit, vision, and skills to build a bridge from one era to the next. They not only provide safe passage through transition but also transform our sense of the future from dread to exultation. Epochal leaders are called by crisis, and it is the nature of historical change that such leaders must be propelled by instinct—not experience.

Reinventing Commerce

This season many U.S. citizens are grappling with the question of how important experience is in a Presidential candidate, particularly with regard to the candidacy of Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Whether he becomes the Democratic nominee or not, the support he enjoys among a broad base of voters is evidence of a hunger for epochal leadership in politics. A growing number of Americans are ready—even desperate —for a bridge to a new future, and Senator Obama alone seems able to offer it.

Anyone with ambitions to lead in business had better take note. Long before the humiliations of the subprime debacle, Americans were growing as disenchanted with business as they are with politics. And just as so many have rallied in hope around Senator Obama, Americans stand ready as consumers to reward those business leaders who display the wit and courage to reinvent commerce on behalf of the people it should be serving.

During the golden age of American mass consumption in the mid-1960s, CEO pay was about 24 times greater than that of the average worker, according to The State of Working America: 2006/2007. At that time 55% of Americans had a great deal of confidence in the leadership of major companies, according to HarrisInteractive, Poll No. 19, March, 2007. Today, when the pay ratio has risen to nearly 300 to 1, only 16% of us remain very confident in business leadership.

Alarming Figures

Every commercial sector has lost its credibility with the American public. Despite the impressive experience of our corporate leaders, only 2% of Americans trust the tobacco companies—not surprising—and only 4% trust HMOs, 7% health insurers or big Pharma, and 9% the auto companies. Of 17 major industries, only four garner more than 20%, and none rates higher than 34%. These alarming figures (from HarrisInteractive, 2006) reveal an historic opportunity for epochal leadership in Corporate America.

Business offers many examples of experienced leaders who clung to the status quo and went down on sinking ships even as their customers jumped overboard and swam to a new shore. But what's most instructive are those turning points when someone commandeered the lifeboats and navigated to that far shore where they were gratefully rewarded. Take Henry Ford. He was a stubborn and bigoted man but a brilliant epochal leader.

In 1908, Detroit auto makers used craft methods to produce luxury autos for rich customers—at a loss. Ford alone perceived that there was a new market of ordinary folks who wanted autos at a price they could afford.