{"id":12035,"date":"2019-09-01T14:15:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T14:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insulation.org\/io\/?post_type=articles&p=12035"},"modified":"2019-10-29T14:16:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T14:16:09","slug":"why-you-should-create-a-shadow-board-of-younger-employe","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/insulation.org\/io\/articles\/why-you-should-create-a-shadow-board-of-younger-employe\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Create a “Shadow Board” of Younger Employe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many companies struggle with 2 apparently unrelated problems: 1. disengaged younger workers, and 2. a weak response to changing market conditions. A few companies have tackled both problems at the same time by creating a \u201cshadow board\u201d\u2014a group of non-executive employees that works with senior executives on strategic initiatives. The purpose? To leverage the younger group’s insights and to diversify the perspectives that executives are exposed to.<\/p>\n

The shadow boards seem to work. Consider Prada and Gucci, 2 fashion companies with a good track record of keeping up with\u2014or shaping\u2014consumer tastes. Until recently, Prada enjoyed high margins, a legendary creative director, and good growth opportunities. But since 2014, it has witnessed declining sales. In 2017, the company finally admitted that it had been \u201cslow in realizing the importance of digital channels and the blogging online \u2018influencers\u2019 which are disrupting the industry.\u201d Co-CEO Patrizio Bertelli said, \u201cWe made a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the same period, under the direction of its CEO Mario Bizzarri, Gucci underwent a comprehensive transformation that made the company more relevant to today\u2019s marketplace. Gucci created a shadow board composed of millennials who, since 2015, have met regularly with the senior team. According to Mr. Bizzarri, the shadow board includes people drawn from different functions; they\u2019re \u201cthe most talented people in the organization\u2014many of them very young.\u201d They talk through the issues that the executive committee is focused on, and their insights have \u201cserved as a wake-up call for the executives.\u201d Gucci\u2019s sales have since grown 136%\u2014from 3,497 million euro (FY 2014) to 8,285 million euro (FY 2018)\u2014a growth driven largely by the success of both the company’s internet and digital strategies. In the same period, Prada\u2019s sales have dropped by 11.5%, from 3,551 million euro (FY 2014) to 3,142 million euro (FY 2018).<\/p>\n

We researched companies that use shadow boards, trying to understand what they really contribute to the organization
\nand what best practices look like. We focus here on 3 companies\u2019 experiences.<\/p>\n

Business Model Reinvention.<\/strong> Facing increasing pressure from Airbnb, French AccorHotels needed a new business model. Top management asked marketing to develop a brand for millennials. However, after 2 years, marketing came up empty. Arantxa Balson, Chief Talent and Culture Officer, decided to turn the project over to a shadow board. In 2018, the Jo&Joe brand was born. Considered \u201can urban shelter for Millennials,\u201d the brand communicates creativity, flexibility, and a strong sense of community. According to Ms. Balson, the shadow board succeeded in part because it focused on its members’ vision and developed their point of view \u201cregardless of all internal and cost constraints.\u201d The shadow board then gave birth to another innovation, the Accor Pass, a hotel subscription that provided people under 25 with a place to stay while they hunted for a permanent residence.<\/p>\n

Process Redesign.<\/strong> Stora Enso, a Finnish paper and packaging company, used its shadow board (which it calls Pathfinders and Pathbuilders) to revise how the executive committee assigned work. Until this shift, work was assigned to groups that the executives considered experts and therefore best suited to the assignment. The shadow board convinced them to assign certain tasks to non-experts, arguing that an unbiased view would increase the chance of breakthroughs. One project, aimed at reducing supply-chain lead time, had stumped a supposedly expert team. The new team came up with a workable plan within 6 months. No team members came from the business unit in question, nor had they any prior supply chain experience.<\/p>\n

Organizational Transformation.<\/strong> CVL Srinivas, the CEO of GroupM India, needed to implement a 3-year digital and cultural transformation. With that end in mind, he created the Youth Committee (YCO). Since its inception in 2013, the YCO has led GroupM\u2019s Vision 3.0, making digital the centerpiece for driving future growth. Working across departments, the shadow board also led a scoping initiative focused on the digitalization of contracts. It strengthened GroupM\u2019s ecosystem by increasing the number and improving the nature of partnerships with media owners, data providers, consultants, auditors, and start-ups. Additionally, the group noticed that there was not much cross-agency interaction. To promote meaningful conversations, the YCO developed a social media platform (Yammer) that facilitated conversations between management and lower-level employees across agencies.<\/p>\n

Increased Visibility for Millennials.<\/strong> Research suggests that millennials crave more visibility and access, which shadow boards deliver. This visibility often results in significant career progression for shadow board members. At Stora Enso, a female shadow board member was a group-level financial controller when she began the program. As a result of her impressive work on a project involving one of the company’s legacy businesses (paper), she was promoted to Sales Director of the largest paper segment a few months after the program\u2019s end. As Human Resources (HR) Director Lars Haggstrom stated, \u201cThis [promotion] would never have happened had it not been for the shadow board program.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Are the Best Practices for Implementing a Shadow Board?<\/h2>\n

Look Beyond the \u201cHigh-Potential\u201d Group.<\/strong> Many companies staff shadow boards exclusively through executive committee nominations or with already identified high potentials. Millennial participants tend to prefer a more open process. Stora Enso\u2019s HR Director Haggstrom pushed for an open-application process\u2014allowing anyone who fit certain criteria to apply. Doing so not only created a more diverse cohort, but also allowed the company to discover some hidden gems who would not otherwise have been on the radar. Interestingly, they tested the performance of the company\u2019s top 40 high potentials (who were clear shoo-ins for the program) against the employees chosen via open enrollment. On abilities such as data analytic skills, sense-making, and teamwork, the open-enrollment members outperformed the high-potentials.<\/p>\n

Make It a CEO-Sponsored Program.<\/strong> For the program to have maximum impact, support needs to come from the top of the organization (though most are coordinated on a procedural level by HR). For example, AccorHotels\u2019 shadow board program succeeds because CEO Sebastian Bazin plays an active role by interviewing potential members and regularly interacting with existing members. At Stora Enso, members reported directly to the CEO on issues related to the Pathfinders and Pathbuilders work.<\/p>\n

Keep Evaluating and Iterating.<\/strong> All the companies we profiled adjusted the programs as they learned what worked (and what did not). For example, Stora Enso\u2019s leaders reviewed the program annually and, as a result, added resources to better capitalize on diversity within the shadow board and interactions between the shadow board and executive committee. And while GroupM\u2019s YCO originated as a 12-month program, the organization extended it by 1 year to allow the YCO to maximize potential contributions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Involving younger employees in problem solving and developing strategic initiatives is an innovative way to engage this segment of your workforce and realize new approaches to stay on top of changing market conditions. This article provides real-life examples of how major companies have benefited from this approach, as well as guidance on how to establish your own \u201cshadow board.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":[473],"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[21,454,472],"class_list":["post-12035","articles","type-articles","status-publish","hentry","category-business-managment","category-454","category-september-2019","author-jennifer-jordan-and-michael-sorell"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy You Should Create a "Shadow Board" of Younger Employe - Insulation Outlook Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/insulation.org\/io\/articles\/why-you-should-create-a-shadow-board-of-younger-employe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why You Should Create a "Shadow Board" of Younger Employe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Involving younger employees in problem solving and developing strategic initiatives is an innovative way to engage this segment of your workforce and realize new approaches to stay on top of changing market conditions. 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