Leading Indicators

Phillip Chin

As the baby boom generation of corporate leaders rides off into the sunset, there is mounting evidence that the businesses they leave behind are facing a serious leadership shortage. A recent survey by UBC’s Sauder School of Business of 40 B.C.-based CEOs – each leading a company with annual revenues that top $1 billion – revealed that succession planning is a huge concern. “One of the things keeping them awake at night is, who is coming up around them and who can lead their company going forward,” says Karin Kirkpatrick, director of Sauder’s Centre for CEO Leadership.

Info: Who are B.C.'s top CEOs?

Businesses around the world are grappling with this issue. After surveying more than 400 HR executives from 40 countries, IBM’s Global Human Capital Study 2008 found more than three-quarters were concerned about their organization’s ability to develop future leaders. Most worried were those in the Asia Pacific region (88 per cent), followed by Latin America (74 per cent), Europe, Middle East and Africa (74 per cent), Japan (73 per cent) and North America (69 per cent). “Without sufficient leadership talent, who will set the direction?” asked the report’s authors. “Who will paint the vision? Who will lead the change? It’s not only an HR issue . . . it is a business imperative.”

Organizational consultant Ken Keis, president and CEO of Abbotsford-based Consulting Resource Group International Inc., says much of the blame for our shallow leadership pool lies within the HR profession. “All too often, corporate HR is dysfunctional and powerless. They think they influence the way their business is run, but they don’t.” Keis – whose clients include Boeing Co., Chrysler LLC and London Drugs Ltd. – says that HR must be seated equally at the boardroom table and given enough muscle to ensure organizations don’t just pay lip service to people and leadership-development issues.

Perhaps the biggest contributor to B.C.’s leader­ship vacuum, however, is our aging provincial workforce. According to Kirkpatrick, over the next 10 years B.C. faces the largest wave of workforce retirements in Canada. “In 1975 the average age of B.C. workers was 27. Today it’s 41, and by 2035 it’s projected to be 52. Today 30-year-olds are doing jobs that people used to do when they reached age 40 or 45,” she observes. “We’re also seeing people who have only been with an organization five years suddenly becoming president – often without much in the way of leadership or people skills.” In an effort to fill the gaps, Sauder’s CEO centre is offering an accelerated leadership program to help prepare “c-suite” executives (those at the vice-president level) for eventual CEO succession.

For those hoping to climb to the top of the corporate ladder, it’s also not a bad idea to talk to some of those who’ve already arrived. To that end, we’ve collected words of wisdom from six diverse B.C. CEOs – each with their own distinct insights on leadership and what it means to them.

Peter Robinson,
CEO, David Suzuki Foundation,
Chancellor, Royal Roads University
You could say Peter Robinson has come full circle. On the heels of his first job as a park ranger (during which he twice won a Governor General’s Award for bravery), Robinson took a desk job with BC Housing, eventually becoming CEO. He then switched into retail, heading Mountain Equipment Co-op before this year assuming the helm of one of Canada’s foremost environmental NGOs.

“That first career move was the most difficult,” he recalls. “But over the years, I’ve come to recognize that steep learning curves are valuable moments as you grow into leadership.” He is constantly seeking challenges that align with his own values, and his long-term humanitarian work with the Red Cross has placed Robinson, 56, in some harrowing situations. Top of that list: the six months he spent monitoring prison conditions in Rwanda in 1998, a life-altering experience that moved him to pursue a master’s degree in conflict management at Royal Roads University. “Conflict isn’t just endemic in the Third World,” he notes. “It’s also common in the workplace and in relationships at home. Learning how to deal with conflict has made me a much better leader.”

Robinson believes there are plenty of skilled, committed young people ready to play a leadership role in the world of environmental sustainability. But he is less optimistic when it comes to the calibre of our current crop of corporate and political leaders. “I don’t think there’s a big leadership gap in Canada – just a shortage of strong, courageous leaders willing to change things for the better. Up until 10 years ago, we were viewed as a role model by other countries. Today there’s a distinct lack of business innovation, that whole myth that we’re a ‘green’ nation plus the fact that we’ve moved away from our traditional role overseas. When I talk to people around the world, they definitely give me the impression that Canada isn’t what it used to be.”