Leadership and Strategy
Transformational CEOs

The belief systems of high-level managers have an important impact on their decision-making and approach to corporate strategy. In this article, the authors look at the mental schemes of several prominent Japanese and Spanish CEOs to show how diverse leadership styles can be successful in different contexts.

Executive Summary
In this article, the authors identify several different mental schemes evident among leading Japanese and Spanish CEOs. In what the authors term the PIF (Proto-Image of the Firm) approach, the CEO follows an abstract conceptualization of the company, or the company´s image, when making decisions. In contrast, the orientation towards profit and operational efficiency is the key to decisions made by CEOs who use the PA (Profit-Arithmetic) approach, a more analytical, rational mental model. The authors compare Japanese and Spanish managers using this framework, and argue that (1) a leader must have a mental approach that enables him or her to extract meaning from the situation at hand and organize actions, and (2) that this approach, oriented towards either the short or long term, depends on the environment and the leader’s personality and training.

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