Leadership reflections, week 42

Odd Reitan is one of Norway’s foremost business leaders. He is known for his great success with value based leadership and excellent management and concept in the Nordic countries, and since 2005 Odd has been my mentor when it comes to management and concept.

I would like to share some lines from Odd’s latest “Weekend” with you. Hopefully, from what he writes you’ll recognize parts of the way MOT operates. I also hope these words from Odd will be inspirational and a confirmation of MOT’s global, national and local way of accomplishment:

Wal-Mart sell their products cheaper than others because of higher efficiency in management and distribution. The secret behind this is to take away what are not logical work tasks and increase the efficiency. Wal-Mart’s success is also a result of the ability to combine centralized government with decentralized government. In the same way that our shopkeepers run their shops with personal interest and go-ahead spirit, important tasks are implementing the concept, making systems and ways of thinking efficient, and at the same time ensuring that this becomes a way of being for everyone in the organisation. The clearer we define roles, responsibility and authority, the better. Structure and culture are closely connected, and everyone must do their part to ensure that the tasks are as clear as possible, wherever you are in the organisation. The leader’s responsibility must be to educate the employees and teach them to become better than the leader himself. A leader must give information and ensure that each single employee does his/her work the best way possible. The ‘toolbox’ containing support material and information needs to be complete all the time.