Winning at Service

Waldemar Schmidt, Executive-in-Residence, IMD, Lausanne. Before becoming Executive-in-Residence at IMD, Waldemar Schmidt was CEO of ISS, the world's leading facilities support services group with 26 5000 employees in 35 countries. To cap his career accomplishments he now serves on the supervisory boards of 12 European companies and serves as chairman of 5 of them.Gordon Adler, Senior Writer, IMD, Lausanne. In addition to serving as IMD's Senior Writer, Gordon Adler also works as an editor and communications consultant/writing coach at a number of international companies. A freelance writer, he recently co-authored a book about family business, and has published in leading journals and magazines.Els van Weering, Research Associate and Project Manager at IMD, Lausanne, creates case studies for IMD's executive education programmes. Her areas of special expertise include corporate learning, international growth, entrepreneurship in large corporations, talent retention, strategy and leadership.

• Foreword ixAcknowledgements xiii1 Introduction 1The Investigation 5The Framework 6How this Book is Organized 82 The Journey to Leadership 9The Challenge 9Four Journeys to Leadership 12Signposts 2002 33Four Companies: Four Winning Traits 373 Pick Your Game and Play it 39Decide What You Want to Do 41Follow a Simple, Replicable Business Model 49Use Simple, Transparent Performance Measures 58Questions for Service Leaders 614 Leadership at the Heart 63Visionary Industry Shapers 67Passionate and Inspirational Leaders 80True Entrepreneurs 93Intimate Business Knowledge 97Questions for Service Leaders 985 Passion for People 101Recruit 106Integrate and Develop 111Retain 122Build Partnerships with Unions and Works Councils 132Questions for Service Leaders 1356 Keep It Simple 137Flat Organization and Decentralized Decision-Making 138Small Head Office 143Questions for Service Leaders 1477 Winning at Service: Final Words 149Win by Relinquishing Power 153Win with the Right Outlook 154Win at Golf: Play with a Full Bag 159Win by Turning Non-Core into Core 160Can all Companies Win? 161Assa Abloy: Lessons from a Non-Service Winner 166How Large Can Winners Be? 167Appendix 171Index 175