The Leaderonomics Show: ‘Strategy And Leadership Go Hand In Hand,’ Says Howard Yu

Howard Yu, professor of strategic management and innovation at IMD Business School, took a time of reflection to reconsider his banking career after it did not take off well. Today, he is in the academic space, specialising in technological innovation, strategic transformation and change management.

The Leaderonomics Show host and Leaderonomics CEO Roshan Thiran caught up with Yu to learn more about his personal journey of career transition and his key insights in strategy and innovation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially in the age of disruption.

Here are some key takeaways from the interview:

• When an industry actually moves from one discipline to another to make innovative leaps, incumbent companies that are able to follow these jumps can stay on top of the game.
• Strategy and leadership always go hand in hand. In an industry where organisations stagnate with a knowledge discipline, it is the role of leaders to embrace the next big thing and rejuvenate its core business.
• In Asian context, the struggles faced by SMEs to become global can be addressed by both the entrepreneurs and policymakers.
• Successful SMEs are usually those who are obsessed with their customers; providing what their customers actually need.
• For SMEs to scale, reintegrate big data analytics and create an end-to-end customer experience that the big guys are not going to pay attention to.

 
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Still figuring out the next strategic innovation to grow your business? Share with us your thoughts at editor@leaderonomics.com. For more episodes of The Leaderonomics Show, click here. To engage with Leaderonomics to help your organisation innovate strategically, email us at training@leaderonomics.com.