Trusted Ally: Elevating the Traditional Legal Role to become a Trusted International Business

Partner

Volker Weisshaar, General Counsel EMEA

SONOS

ECC Summit 2015

23-24 November

Agenda

•Role of the General Counsel

•Which skills are relevant?

•GC and the board

•Prepared to be a strategist?

•Ready to take decisions?

•Questions?

Role of the General Counsel Everything is changing?

Role of the General Counsel

MAYBE :

• Takes commercial decisions?

• Defines the strategy?

• Is the Chief Cheerleader?

• Acts as officer/director?

• Is the jack of all trades?

• Runs business operations?

OR: • Drives commercial

decisions?

• Participates in forming strategy?

• Brings positive energy?

• Strategic advisor to the board?

• Speaks the team’s languages?

• Uses project management skills?

Which skills are relevant?

• Innovation

•Anthropology

•Project Management and Planning

• IT skills

•Presentation skills

Do you foster Innovation?

Do you foster Innovation?

• Organize innovation workshops : Hackathon ?!

• Regularly set time for brainstorming without judgment

• Learn from other groups

• Foster culture of no finger pointing

• Start with yourself and admit mistakes

• Recognize entrepreneurial initiatives, also if they fail

Anthropology • Study the practices of marketing and design companies

(Ideo)

• Be a sales rep/customer care manager/ marketer etc. for a day!

• Immerse yourself in the challenges, motivations of the different teams in your organization

Project Management and Planning • Project management is essential for cross-functional

collaboration

• Legal team needs to develop project management skills

• Get actively involved in the business planning to allow pro-active behavior

IT Skills • Does the legal team operate at the same level as the

rest of the organization?

• Affinity of team with using (big) data?

• Do you make use of IT training offerings?

• Do you use project management programs?

Presentation skills • Do you write briefs to describe a problem/project?

• Does your team get communication/presentation training?

GC and the board

Do you know how to get your topics on the agenda?

Understand the priorities of the board Know the strategies of your company: Make your topics part of the strategy! Observe how decisions are being taken amongst the board

team Observe how the individual members prefer to receive input: What kind of data? Written or oral input? Facts and numbers?

GC and the board

Your role on the board

Speak the language of the board

Communicate in real time on the spot:

Ask your questions at the meeting

Be engaged and help forming strategies

Add positive energy to the meetings

Story telling can help

Ready to be a strategist?

A good strategy is:

• Clear and practical, so it can be implemented

• The energy that drives businesses and organizations, guides leadership, and directs the team.

• Draws people in the same direction.

• Is a positive, energizing state of mind.

• Momentum for the current plan of action.

• Moral and ethical guidelines for achieving goals.

• Crucial intellectual ingredients for success and victory

Ready to be a strategist?

A strategist:

• Has exceptional communication skills

• Communicates effectively in real time, on the spot, because that's how managers make decisions.

• Focuses on what is truly and indisputably important

• Helps everyone recognize the obvious

• Always focuses on the outcome

Ready to be a strategist?

Think about the executive decision model:

1. Situation description : Facts and data

2. Analysis, explanation, interpretation : impact

3. Options, pathways to a solution: multiple solutions

4. Recommendations: “if I were you …”

5. Negative unintended consequences

Ready to be a strategist?

Think about types of feedback: 1. Data Feedback 2. Feeling feedback : state of mind of stakeholders? 3. Old-fashioned feedback: What should we know

about, no one else knows about? 4. Advanced information: Threats and exposure,

organizational impact 5. Real time concerns: What should we worry about

today? 6. Peer activities?

Ready to take decisions?

The overconfidence bias & The confirmation bias The overconfidence bias: frequently makes us misjudge our own abilities and the abilities of our company The confirmation bias: Unconscious tendency to put too much weight to information that is consistent with our beliefs and experience So, what can we do against this? …..

Ready to take decisions?

A. Consideration of different points of view?

Have assumptions been checked?

Against comparable internal projects

Against comparable external projects

Diverse opinions integrated?

Diverse team involved?

Discussed with the biggest opponent of project?

At least one plausible alternative discussed?

Ready to take decisions? B. Consideration of downside risk?

2 most important side effects within organization?

2 most important industry changes which might negatively impact the outcome?

2 most important changes in the macro environment which might negatively impact the outcome?

Ready to take decisions?

Depending on the answers to A and B (use a point systems):

Decide: process has sufficiently respected downside risk and diversity of opinions. Or Reach out: Proposals have been tested sufficiently, but might still have too narrow assumptions. Broaden the perspective? Or look for new alternatives? Or Stress-Test: proposal reflects a variety of viewpoints but might need to be more challenged. Get outside view? Or Reconsider: process has not been comprehensive enough.

THANK YOU

For more information about the marcus evans legal

summit series: webenquiries@marcusevansbb.com