The skills executives need to transition to a much bigger business

It takes skills for a big fish from a small pond to adjust to a much larger scale.

Andy Dunn improved his listening abilities because larger firms need ‘a lot of folks rowing together to get things done’.

Andy Dunn has found it hard to work for Walmart, the biggest retailer in the world, following its 2017 purchase of Bonobos, a small men’s clothing retailer that he co-founded and led for years.

“I have gone from being the captain of a dinghy to a deckhand on an aircraft carrier,” says Dunn, head of digital brands for Walmart’s US e-commerce unit. “It has been really humbling.”

Dunn is an example of an executive who swapped a powerful post at a relatively small business for a lesser role at a far bigger company. The trend reflects large corporations’ takeovers of innovative upstarts, many of which prided themselves on purpose, not just profits, and created cultures that were less buttoned down.

While such job changes can be jarring, executives can thrive in bigger ponds if they forge ties with key internal players, devise ways to influence colleagues despite their diminished authority and gain attention for their critical expertise.

Dan Smith, chief executive of Raines International, an executive recruitment firm, says: “The switch represents the hardest smart move that an executive can make. You’re guaranteed immediate frustrations — ranging from corporate politics to risk-averse cultures.”

Dunn said Marc Lore, his Walmart boss, helped connect him with everyone.

He already knew Lore, who had founded e-commerce start-up Jet.com, a web retailer that Walmart acquired in 2016.

By working for Lore, Dunn improved his ability to listen patiently, because a large enterprise needs “a lot of folks rowing together to get things done”.

Dunn spends up to two weeks a month at Walmart headquarters building close relationships with associates outside e-commerce, such as store merchants.

Kate Bullis, a managing partner of SEBA International, an executive-search firm, says: “The skills it takes for an executive to get something done in a huge, bureaucratic organisation are very different from those needed at a smaller concern where nimbler decision-making and action are not only possible but expected.”

When big fish transform into small fish, things don’t always go swimmingly. Angela Ahrendts, a previous leader of Burberry Group, a luxury goods company, left Apple this April after running the tech giant’s retail stores for five years. She had come under pressure from Apple chief executive Tim Cook amid poor iPhone sales, and their leadership styles differed, sources say. Ahrendts declined to comment.

Lonnie Shoff has been president of the clinical diagnostics division of Thermo FisherScientific, a lab-equipment company, since November 2016.

She advises not to become a smaller fish in a bigger pond until you know “what you find fulfilling in your work life”.

Her unit generates far less revenue than the operation she formerly commanded at Henry Schein, a medical-supply company, but Shoff says she doesn’t mind her reduced status because “I am able to make an impact’’.

Even though Shoff doesn’t report directly to her current employer’s chief executive, she says she enjoys tremendous autonomy overseeing Thermo Fisher products that help save lives.

Executives considering such a leap should dig deep to fully understand the bigger business’s management team and culture, coaches say.

Christine Heckart pursued that approach before joining Cisco Systems in December 2017 as senior vice-president of product marketing. The maker of networking gear was 16 times bigger than Brocade Communications Systems, her previous employer, and she stepped into a newly created role inside Cisco.

As part of her due diligence, Heckart said she conferred with nearly every Cisco executive that she would work with inside and outside marketing. Cisco’s six-month recruitment process made her realise that “people (there) don’t make a decision until they get buy-in’’, she says. “The culture is very consensus-oriented.”

Heckart persuaded marketing teams in various Cisco units to collaborate on offering customers a more cohesive voice about its products. She says a powerful senior executive outside marketing then soured on her collaboration push — even though she initially considered him an ally.

The run-in led her to quit Cisco in January and take the helm of Scalyr, a tech start-up.

“I wasn’t able to build the kind of relationship with that person that I needed to be successful,’’ she says. “The probability of my going back to a really large company is very, very low.”

John Squeo left a top management spot at a small hospital system to become a strategy director for Accenture in 2018. Already a blockchain expert, he realised he would have to establish those credentials before pursuing a higher level role.

Squeo started advising a healthcare client that was considering blockchain. That allowed him to showcase his know-how and helped him stand out inside the global management consultancy.

Last year, Squeo won extra duties leading blockchain initiatives for its North American health practice. “There are a lot of eyes on this role,’’ he says. “It has given me a pathway to rise.’’

Tripp Mickle contributed to this article.

The Wall Street Journal