The biggest competitive advantage

"I would like to challenge what you just said. Is that okay?"

The executive in one of Europe's largest companies agreed. He said that he was interested in getting as many perspectives on the company's situation as possible - including mine.

I told him that I agree that the company needs to reshape the IT organization in order to come up with new digital products within the next few years - which is absolutely necessary for the company to survive in a time of immense market pressure.

But when he asked me how the senior management team should "spin that story" to the employees, I felt a strong need to challenge the assumption that important strategic decisions must be "spinned" for employees to understand them.

So, I told him that the company's hundreds of thousands of employees are the company's biggest competitive advantage, and that instead of "spinning a story", the senior management team should trust that their employees:

1) See the same need for reshaping the IT organization as they do

2) Know things about the company's situation that the senior management team doesn't know (because they don't deal with different customers in different markets on a daily basis), and

3) Will do everything they can for the company to survive

That's my perspective.

What's yours?