Don't assume that the skills you've developed in one industry are automatically transferrable to another.
I'd been working in the mobile phone industry for 15 years when I inherited a car business. I was pretty good at defining new phones, developing them and bringing them to market. I hired good people and built strong teams. Our operations ran well and we had a solid supply chain. I loved phones. But I knew nothing about cars, except they got me to work and back. The car business I inherited was very specialised in the repair and modification of luxury vehicles and had a small customer base of car dealers and manufacturers.
I started with the financial performance, set a strategy for improving cash flow, visited a few customers, worked hard with my team, built a new sales and marketing program and agreed investments that would bring new business. I did all the things you'd expect an incoming boss to do. But I didn't understand the car business. I thought my business acumen would suffice, but nothing moved the dial. One of our customers said, "You're not a car man. You see this as a business, not as a passion." He was right.
Eventually I sold the business, breathed a sigh of relief and went back to phones.
Don't assume you can jump from one industry to another and just deploy a series of KPIs to run the business. I think this is a particular issue for consultancy companies that sell their business expertise and yet send in consultants who have no idea about how the business really works.
I've come to realise that passion is the number one criteria for accepting an exec role. The same applies to non-execs. If you've got the passion then go for it, if not then stick to your knitting.
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