The Burning Ambition

By Jesper J. Elling

Thank you for your interest in my new book.
In this, my fourth book, I will share all my insights and secrets about breakthrough leadership with you. How you can create extraordinary and lasting breakthrough growth in top and bottom line performance, "simply" by changing the way you lead the company.

From "burning platform" to "burning ambition"
Most industries and companies have now adapted to the new world order of recession or the post-recession zero growth environment. This means that most companies no longer have to fight for their life on a day-to-day basis and the idea of using the "burning platform" is more or less gone. The recession was a great chance to rethink, redirect and reinvent the company. If you utilized that opportunity I guess that your company is close to being in the best shape ever. This means it is time to capitalize on the great additional potential in the marketplace and in the, company by creating a "burning ambition".

The concept of the "burning platform" is pain driven. The situation is painful and you have got to run. "Where to" does not really matter. The alternative, the concept of "burning ambition", is pleasure driven it is about a particularly attractive situation or state that you want to realize a place you want to go.

Most companies have a huge potential that can be liberated through breakthrough leadership. It is not unlikely that top and bottom-line performance can be grown by 25 to 50 per cent year-on-year via breakthrough leadership.

It all starts with you believing in the additional potential. If you do this in the right way the upside is fantastic and the potential downside is close to non-existent. This is the optimal situation and starting point for your transformation.

Join me on my breakthrough mission.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483653099

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Jesper J. Elling. 136099-ALBE

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013910487

ISBN:   Softcover      978-1-4836-5307-5

             Hardcover    978-1-4836-5308-2

            Ebook           978-1-4836-5309-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 07/12/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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Contents

1 My burning ambition

with this book

2 Thanks to clients and colleagues

3 What is breakthrough leadership?

4. The breakthrough staircase

5. The starting point – your personal breakthrough

6. Growing the management team from being OK to breakthrough

7. The breakthrough strategy

8. How to create a breakthrough organization

9. Executing the breakthrough in the market place

10. The breakthrough company

11. The great breakthrough leaders around the world

12. Close

13. Additional materials, inspiration and links

14. Your reflections, insights and notes

Jesper J. Ellin

The Burning

Ambition

1

My burning ambition

with this book

My burning ambition with this, my fourth book, is to take you on a journey. A journey towards making you a very successful breakthrough leader, and your company a breakthrough company. In my close to 20 years of business and leadership consulting, I have had the pleasure of working with many great breakthrough leaders and companies. I have also had the rewarding pleasure of seeing average leaders, organizations and companies achieve breakthrough status. This is why I became a consultant. To see an executive come through and to have his/her personal breakthrough is simply amazing. And this initial and very subtle personal breakthrough could potentially be the start of the biggest breakthrough in your industry ever.

If you have read my previous book, When leaders lead, you will recognize some of the ideas and you will see new ideas and many great new cases.

Let’s take the impact of your leadership to the max. You have a great additional potential. And so does your leadership team and organization.

Make the decision – become a world class breakthrough leader and start today.

"Your company has the potential

to become a breakthrough company

– so it’s all up to you"

The coming year could be the best year in your career ever. Add to this that your personal growth, development, satisfaction, recognition, and standing in the industry will reach an unseen level. I hope you accept my invitation – let’s go.

Please let me encourage you to use the section at the back of the book to capture all your insights while they are fresh.

Have fun with the book.

With the deepest respect.

January 2013

Jesper J. Elling

2

Thanks to clients and colleagues

Please let me thank my fantastic and courageous clients over the years. This book would never have been made if it wasn’t for the great cooperation with great leaders all over world. A special thanks to…

• Niels Düring, Head of GPP,

Gerresheimer

• Carsten Dilling, CEO,

TDC

• Jesper Brøckner Nielsen, Partner Boyden Global Executive Search and Former CEO,

Telia Denmark

• Marit Imeland Gjesme, Head of Academy and Patrizia Seewald, Academy Administrator,

Takeda CCO HR

• Jesper Nørrelund, Vice President,

Dong Energy

• Stefan König, Managing Director,

Takeda Austria

• Chris Juliam, Regional Managing Director,

Takeda Frabene region

• Paul Maris, Sales Director,

Takeda Belgium

• Aarnoud Overkamp, Managing Director,

Takeda The Netherlands

• The Daxas / REACT team at

Nycomed/Takeda

• Ahdy El Sayes, Country General Manager

Nycomed/Takeda Saudi Arabia

• Susanne & Lars Peter Busch, Owners,

LogBuy Group

• Anders Hansen, Group CEO,

Nic. Christiansen Group

• Preben Nesager, Group CEO

Comwell Hotels

• Kenneth Egelund Schmidt, Former CIO,

Carlsberg

• Charlotte Møller-Andersen, Director,

Experian

• H.C. Madsen, CEO,

Danske Spil A/S

• Jesper Møller, CEO,

TOMS GROUP

• Elisabeth Hellemose, Nordic HR Manager,

AIG

and many more.

Also a big thank you to my wonderful back up team – Charlotte, Lisa, Lars and Jesper – you are simply fantastic.

3

What is breakthrough leadership?

3.1. The essence of breakthrough leadership

Breakthrough leadership is about making the impossible become possible – it’s that simple!

I am a strong advocate of the tremendous power of breakthrough leadership and a true believer in the saying:

With great leadership a company can accomplish anything.

In my view, everything stands and falls with leadership. I fully believe in the equation:

S + / - L = R*

*The situation plus or minus leadership equals the result. There is nothing else in the equation – nothing.

The purpose of breakthrough leadership is to enable you to lead yourself, the management team and the entire company in such a way that your leadership heavily outweighs the problems and barriers that the company is facing. That you lead the situation instead of being a victim of the situation (e.g. a recession, general economic trends or a business-specific downturn). That you are at all times hunting for the full potential and refuse to accept the current level of performance, by demanding the extraordinary from yourself and your people. The result will be exceptional breakthrough growth in the top and bottom line, a heavily reduced cost ratio and increased customer and employee satisfaction.

The essence of breakthrough leadership is a delicate combination of the very ambitious goal that will take people out of their comfort zone and an unprecedented high level of leadership support. This delicate combination will enable you to make the impossible become possible.

3.2. The trigger of the process

What could trigger the shift in your leadership paradigm from ordinary leadership to breakthrough leadership?

Based on my experience, the call for breakthrough leadership could come from at least the four following situations.

• Crisis

• Huge potential

• Preparing for exit of the company

• Personal reasons

Crisis

If your company is facing or heading for a crisis it’s time to change your leadership approach, and you should never waste a good crisis. In a crisis your leadership has to increase in power and outweigh the challenges that the company is facing. Especially in a crisis, leaders and the power of their leadership contribution are tested and exposed. A crisis is the