AUTHOR'S NOTE:
GREAT LEADERS RESPOND AND ADAPT COURAGEOUSLY AND BOLDLY TO DRIVE ACCELERATED TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

Together, all over the world, we are experiencing a historic moment of accelerated transformational change. For many of us in the technology community, the COVID-19 pandemic represents the ultimate challenge of our careers.

The speed of the response is truly extraordinary. In a matter of weeks, we have transformed our organizations and our workforces. These processes of swift change and rapid transformation will likely continue.

What remains unchanged is the essential need for authentic leadership expressing a strong message of hope, confidence, compassion, kindness, and courage.

Over the past 30-plus years, I've been blessed with the opportunity to work with visionary leaders at amazing companies such as Zoom, Darktrace, Adobe, Moveworks, Zendesk, Nutanix, Okta, RingCentral, UiPath, and many others.

Based on my experience, I am absolutely convinced that now is the best time to be a technology leader. Despite the crisis, we are on the cusp of a new era of technology-enabled innovation and reinvention fueled by advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, 5G, cloud computing, edge networks, virtual reality/augmented reality, facial recognition, and geolocation.

When the scale and severity of the crisis became apparent, our team at HMG Strategy pivoted quickly to shift from a live summit model to a digital summit model. In addition to producing and presenting a full slate of virtual summits featuring top-tier world-class industry thought leaders and executives, we also produced dozens of virtual briefings, meetings, conferences, and webinars.

None of this would have been possible without clear-eyed and confident executive leadership, and a team of dedicated colleagues who shared an optimistic and uplifting vision of the future.

Eric Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom, put it nicely when he said, "Hunter and the HMG Strategy team confirm that now is unquestionably the best time to be a technology leader. Executive Leadership Summits highlight the responsibilities and opportunities we have as pioneers guiding the next amazing cycle of innovation on a global scale."

Patty Hatter, SVP Global Customer Services at Palo Alto Networks, told me that "HMG Strategy provides a looking-glass view into the future state of technology and its global impact. Every tech leader needs to be inclusive in thought leadership and HMG Strategy provides the necessary, diverse viewpoints."

I sincerely appreciate the affirmations we have received from our network and I am deeply grateful for their continuing support and engagement throughout these difficult times.

Confronting and Overcoming Unexpected Challenges

I find it fascinating that world-class executives such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Bob Iger of Disney, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook have resumed their primary leadership roles during the crisis.1 Modern leadership requires presence, even in a world of virtual meetings. Exemplary leaders actively demonstrate their commitment and sincerity, no matter where they are in the table of organization.

From our unique vantage point at HMG Strategy, we can see the shift and observe how great leaders adjust and adapt quickly to the new normal. Facing a torrent of new and unknown challenges, our leadership capabilities are being tested as never before. From my perspective the new and pressing challenges include:

• Leading the digital enterprise courageously and enabling strong growth, inventing new business models and creating opportunities for growth, and profitability in core, adjacent, and new markets.
• Redesigning and reinventing the organization's portfolio of digital assets and capabilities.
• Elevating the customer experience and reducing friction at all levels, in all markets.
• Accelerating cultural shifts through new platforms and collaborative tools that enable, enhance, and augment workforce productivity, anywhere and anytime.
• Ensuring safety and security in all workplace environments and processes, whether at home or in traditional business settings.
• Enabling and implementing processes and technologies required for smooth "return-to-work" scenarios and hybrid scenarios involving a blend of work-from-home and in-office arrangements.
• Identifying and mitigating risk through the next 18 months.
• Inspiring, coaching, mentoring, and guiding the organization through difficult times.
• Creating and supporting an authentic culture of gratitude, humility, collaboration, teamwork, and kindness that will outlast the crisis and serve the organization when new challenges arise.
• Inspiring hope and confidence by providing exemplary and courageous leadership throughout the crisis.

Confronting an onslaught of hard challenges and responding effectively to them will be difficult. Finding and implementing the best processes and solutions will require all of our skills and experience. They will require the kinds of superior courage, knowledge, and experience that great leaders bring to the table.

Great leaders accelerate their efforts to reimagine, reinvent, and innovate the customer experience and invent new business models to drive value across the enterprise while ensuring the highest possible levels of safety and security. They deepen and extend the strength of their relationships in the C-suite and boardrooms, and open new paths to success in receptive markets. They complete the shift to digital and embrace the new normal. They thrive and succeed, despite obstacles and barriers.

At HMG Strategy, we have a history of engagement with top-tier brands such as Apple, CVS Health, UnitedHealth Group, McKesson, AT&T, AmerisourceBergen, Ford, Cigna, Chevron, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Verizon, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

I recently asked my friend Snehal Antani to share his thoughts on leadership excellence. Snehal is co-founder and CEO of Horizon3.ai, a cybersecurity startup focused on AI-enabled red teaming. Prior to starting Horizon3, he served as a CTO for the DoD within the U.S. Department of Defense, responsible for transforming the technology capabilities of the command to include cyber security, advanced R&D, AI, and data analytics.

Here is Snehal's insightful response to my question:

I've worked with both great leaders and terrible "leaders." What makes them different is a question that's been top-of-mind lately. It wasn't about technical expertise, or business savvy, but rather a simple difference: the great leaders were naturally inclusive, making everybody feel that they were part of one team regardless of title, rank, org structure, or pedigree.

With inclusiveness as the foundation, they trusted and empowered their people to move out, giving them room to maneuver, coaching along the way. When things went wrong, or problems were daunting and ambiguous, the truly great leaders were able to roll their sleeves up and "troop lead," quarterbacking their team through issues without seeking blame or fault, but extracting lessons to continuously improve.

They never let issues linger or fester. These leaders inspired me to punch above my weight, helping me discover my limits vs. stifling me. They demanded excellence of me without saying it. They coached and rarely admonished.

The terrible "leaders" I've worked with have been almost the exact opposite: engaging people based on rank, title, pedigree; dictating tasks under the guise of policy or authorities; demanding loyalty; hiding when things are tough; seeking glory off the backs of others.

Great leaders also recognize the extraordinary value and "infinite potential" of their teams, colleagues and partners. "Assume that your team has that infinite potential," says Shankar Arumugavelu, SVP and Global CIO, Verizon. "My leadership style has always been about empowering my teams and giving them challenges. What I want to make sure is that people have the autonomy and I always look for people who are life-long learners."

The Time for Courageous Leadership

Now is truly the time for courageous and visionary leaders to step forward. Here's an excellent example of what I mean by visionary leadership:

I had a wonderful and truly illuminating conversation recently with Nicole Eagan, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy and AI Officer of Darktrace, one of the first companies to develop an AI platform for cybersecurity.

Nicole's extensive career spans 25 years working for Oracle and early- to late-stage growth companies. Named one of HMG's "Top 100 Technology Executives to Watch" in 2019, Nicole has introduced machine learning to enterprises of all sizes. Under her leadership, Darktrace has won more than 100 awards, including being named one of Fast Company's "Most Innovative Companies" and a CNBC "Disruptor 50."

Naturally, we spoke about how the pandemic is transforming the universe of enterprise security and forcing companies to develop new strategies for coping with a continually evolving range of cyber-risks.

"Until recently, the security industry has focused on traditional concepts such as network security, cloud security and endpoint security. Today, with so many people working from home, the focus has shifted to workforce security," Nicole...