James M. Kerr - Indispensable: Build and Lead a Company Customers Can’t Live Without

James M. Kerr

www.humanixbooks.com

Humanix Books

INDISPENSABLE

Copyright 2021 by Humanix Books

All rights reserved

Humanix Books, P.O. Box 20989, West Palm Beach, FL 33416, USA

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ISBN: 9-781-63006-183-8 (Hardcover)

ISBN: 9-781-63006-184-5 (E-book)

For Haley, Dylan, and Irene

You are indispensable to me.

Let me recognize some of the people who have made a difference to me while writing this book:

• To Irene, Dylan, and Haleythanks for giving meaning to my work;
• To my mother, Elena, and sister, Lisathanks for your unconditional support;
• To Burgi and the rest of the extended familythanks for keeping me grounded;
• To my buddies, who cant be identified by name due to outstanding warrantsthanks for the study breaks along the way;
• To my editors at Humanix Books, Mary Glenn and Keith Pfefferthanks for believing in the value of the book; and
• Thanks to all of my clients who helped me learn and grow over the years as I continue to hone my craft.

Please enjoy Indispensable.

First and foremost, Indispensable is a leadership book. It contains a framework, or Indispensable Agenda, that you can use to help you make your business one that your customers cant live without.

Indispensable is intended for one type of reader: a business professional who wants to make a difference in their organization. Whether you are a C-suite executive looking for ideas to make your business more competitive or a Gen Z new hire who is eager to establish yourself as a fresh thinker, as long as you want to make a difference, Indispensable is for you.

Anyone who regularly reads my on which its based, Indispensable is written for quick consumption, fast understanding, and easy reference. Bulleted paragraphs are used to present key concepts. Ample industry examples are included throughout each chapter to help provide context and reinforce major points. Ive even included a Top Ten list at the end of each chapter that summarizes its key points. I hope that you find the writing style achieves its purpose.

Lastly, Indispensable is meant to be shared among colleagues and teammates. Its value comes through the building of a common understanding of what it takes to build an indispensable organization.

With that, if youre a business professional who wants to make a difference in your organization, please read on.

While the pandemic is still with us, we must find it within ourselves to focus on what we have to do to become the kinds of businesses that our customers cant live without. Yes, Amazon, Walmart, and Facebook continued to dominate their markets while other companies, like Zoom Video Communications and TeleDoc Health, leaped ahead of their competition by offering needed services in an easy-to-use framework.

Indeed, there are many great companiesonly a few are indispensable.

If youre reading this book, chances are youre already the type of person who wants to lead your company to greatness. The pursuit of greatness is important, but its not enough. Make no mistake, howevera business doesnt become indispensable by accident. Outstanding leadership is essential to bringing a company from greatness to indispensability.

This is an important distinction because anything less than outstanding leadership will not suffice. Why?

Outstanding leaders lead by example. They demonstrate desired qualities and behaviors to their followers through their actions and conduct. By doing so, these leaders put forth a sense that they and their teams share the same goals and aspirations and that together, they are going to go about achieving these ambitions as one. Indispensable businesses share a common purpose, so they need leaders who can set the example.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, for example, was one of the first CEOs to lay out a plan to address the COVID-19 crisis. His eight-point plan included, among other things, a call for other CEOs to take a ninety-day no-layoff pledge in response to already accelerating unemployment ratesdemonstrating a commitment to attending to the welfare of his people.

Further, outstanding leaders transform. They not only revitalize the organizations that they work in, but they rejuvenate the people they work with. The most preeminent leaders enable success through steady direction-setting, a single-minded sense of purpose, and unvarying communication, which facilitates the continuous transformation required to maintain indispensability.

For example, when the pandemic began to take shape, Jeff Bezos immediately pivoted attention away from his new rocket company, Blue Horizons, and placed it squarely on strengthening Amazons online retail business. He drove the hiring of 175,000 additional workers in order to meet the gigantic flood of orders coming Amazons way from a quarantined worldtransforming the business almost overnight.

Indeed, the crisis has proven to be a great equalizer, separating outstanding companies from the rest. However, this book is not about the pandemic. Its intent is to provide you with a framework that you need to help your business become so outstanding that it befits holding the indispensable moniker.

As you read the book, youll come to recognize how vital your leadership is to helping your business become indispensable. Regardless of your rank or position, you must be able to provide the following to the people you work with and serve.

A captivating vision. Outstanding leaders can articulate a vision for the future that every staff member understands and buys into. This vision becomes the stuff of rallying cries and establishes the common goal that leader and team will share.

But the vision effort must begin with understanding. If the troops dont get it, they wont follow. Outstanding leadership is required to articulate the vision of being indispensable and to work to drive what that means deep into the enterprise.

Active direction-setting. Next, a game plan for execution must be built in support of that vision. But building a plan without engaged direction-setting will not suffice. Outstanding leaders at every level will be fully involved, monitoring progress and charting the course for execution throughout their firms journey to indispensability.

Enlightened coaching. Outstanding leaders support their team and understand how to provide the right touch at the right timedirective when the path to success is unclear and supportive when its time to empowerjust like any world-class coach does when building a champion.

A collaborative environment. Outstanding leaders know how to establish a collaborative tenor within their area of responsibility. Selfish and egocentric behavior is stomped out; teamwork is recognized and rewarded.