‘Future leaders will need engagement skills and empathy to lead staff through uncertainties’

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: His current research involves studying the link between leadership, change and performance. For Andrew Pettigrew, Professor of Strategy and Organisation at the Saïd Business School, innovation, change and corporate governance in organisations in the private and public sectors in the UK and beyond have been long-term research interests. Between 2003 and 2008 he was dean of the School of Management, University of Bath. He has also held appointments at Yale University, London Business School, Warwick Business School, and Harvard Business School. He is author, co-author or editor of 15 books and has published in top management journals in the US and Europe. Pettigrew, who consults globally on matters of corporate governance, leading strategic change and executivedevelopment, shares his views on leadership post-slowdown in an email interview with fe’s Saikat Neogi. Excerpts:

How do you think the leadership issue will come to the fore after the global financial turmoil?

Leadership after the turmoil will much depend on how any individual company comes out of the turmoil. Did they come out having renewed the business and therefore competitively well organised to face the future or do they come out just having dealt with the short term crisis. That is the critical issue for many companies at the moment. Do they survive, do they recover or do they survive, recover and renew the business at the same time?

Do you think corporations will have to look at the younger generation to lead, given that the financial turmoil has changed the way business is done now?

No. I don't think it’s necessarily a matter of going to a younger generation. The big issue is whether the next cycle of leaders can deliver the right vision attitudes and behaviour for the new circumstances. My experience of chief executives is that some have a much greater capacity to keep learning than others. Those that are capable of learning quickly in the present context, as distinct from just acting quickly in the present context, will be better prepared for the future.

It is also crucial that chief executives who learn effectively are also able to transfer that learning capacity to the rest of the organisation so that others get caught up in a pattern of fast and effective learning combined with adroit and responsive action.

Was the global crisis a result of greed or is there some fundamental problem in the way business is done?