In 2001 the list of companies with the highest market caps was dominated by blue chips. General Electric, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, Walmart, and CitiGroup — all were businesses led by managers who were experts in efficiency and optimization and who grew their businesses by making them work better than they had previously.
CEOs Should Think Like Founders, Not Just Managers
The signal is undeniable. The market now rewards the long-term vision and continual investment in new growth represented by younger enterprises. Although large enterprises have been responding to these developments for some time, mainly by applying the methods of startups such as lean experimentation, design thinking, and agile development, they need to do more. How? To truly generate new growth, CEOs must stop thinking of themselves as chief managers and start thinking of themselves as refounders. Refounders are leaders who, despite not having started the company, think with the mindset as a founder. They do not focus their energies on incremental growth through endless optimization, but instead look to leverage their company’s assets to build new offerings, move into new markets, and create next-generation solutions.