(Newswire.net — September 7, 2017) — For decades, corporate leaders have been “talking the talk” of optimized sustainable value creation. That’s necessary but not sufficient for actually creating that value. As a result, less than half of all publicly traded companies create shareholder value, and far fewer do so at superior levels through sustainable means. I recently met the CEO of SuperOrg, Inc., Mark W. Sickles, who not only brought this chronic and widespread problem to my attention; he also revealed a simple, easy-to-use, and proven solution.
I was so intrigued with this new learning that I arranged an interview with Mr. Sickles to follow up with him about this breakthrough opportunity to 
optimize sustainable value creation. Mr. Sickles began by emphasizing the importance of being open to the possibility that advancements in methodology and technology can enable people to do what conventional wisdom says is impossible, and that shifting to a new and better approach is not an indictment of the past, but rather our natural pursuit of continuous improvement and breakthrough.
Question: What is the root cause of this chronic and widespread problem of shareholder value destruction and sub-optimization?
Answer: In a word, unawareness.
Question: What has been causing this unawareness?
Answer: A lot of the cause is a focus on the wrong indicators for value creation. For example, while there is a valid role for EBITDA, it is not a sound indicator of sustainable shareholder value creation simply because it does not account for the cost of capital and the depreciation and amortization of assets needed to sustain income. As Warren Buffett quipped, “The tooth fairy does not pay for capital.” So let’s stop keeping score as if she does. This boils down to measuring profitability after deducting for both operating expenses and a charge for capital.
Question: OK, so once corporate leaders start using the right measures for sustainable value creation, what do they need to do to put more points on the board?
Answer: Lead and manage at the systems level of thought and action.
Question: What’s your basis for saying that?
Answer: A compelling combination of theory, research, and practice developed over more than half a century. Let’s start with the man himself, Dr. Deming, who asked to be remembered as “someone who spent his life trying to keep America from committing suicide.” As insight into what Deming meant, consider this 1950 entry from his diary the first day of his course on methods for achieving quality: “I shall teach during the forenoons the theory of a system….”
Then in 1996, leading research on management practice led to the conclusion that “the system is the solution” and is where “the rubber meets the road” because only the systems level of leadership and management provides “deep knowledge of the web of cause and effect relationships in an organization, permitting executives to solve large and more complex problems” to create extraordinary value unattainable at the departmental or functional level. This research also found that leading and managing at the systems level is the only way to identify and develop all the right parts of the organization necessary to achieve a state of positive synergy where the performance of the whole is both different and greater than the sum performance of its parts.
And in 2001, we learned from Jim Collins that the CEOs and executive teams of the good-to-great companies – only 11 out of the 1,435 studied – “built a consistent system with clear constraints, but they also gave people freedom and responsibility within that system.” “They…managed the system, not the people.”
Furthermore, my own practical experiences as an executive and advisor to boards and CEOs align with these findings and reports. Whenever corporate leaders made the shift to the systems level, the rubber did indeed meet the road in the form of extraordinary increases in sustainable value creation.
Question: Are there any other reasons why corporate leaders should shift to the systems level of thought and action?
Answer: Yes. The already substantial pressure to lead and manage at the systems level is rapidly increasing. More people are learning every day that only a small minority of corporate leaders are optimizing shareholder value. This increasing awareness has resulted in institutional investors mandating that board directors engage with management in ways that optimize sustainable value creation. Doing so requires boards to shift to the systems level – often described as becoming the “strategic asset board” – in turn increasing the pressure on CEOs to do the same. This assertion is validated by one of Collins’ key points from Good To Great: One of the most damaging trends preventing more companies from optimizing sustainable value creation is the failure of board directors to hire systems level CEOs.
Question: Given all this evidence proving that leading and managing at the systems level is essential to optimized value creation, why aren’t all corporate leaders doing it?
Answer: Because up until now, it has been very hard to do, so most people ignored it as an option and didn’t even try.
Question: You say “up until now.” What’s changed?
Answer: Now, all you have to do to shift to the systems level and optimize sustainable value creation is log in to SuperOrg and follow our proven process.
Equipped with our SaaS toolkit and working knowledge of its underlying methodology, corporate leaders can now build smarter, faster, and stronger organizations, quickly outpacing the competition by enabling people to do their jobs at a level of systems excellence far beyond what they could ever do on their own. Consider this testimonial from board director and private investor Professor Dr. Hermann Eul: “SuperOrg includes the critical factors CEOs should focus on. But more importantly, SuperOrg has integrated these factors into a simple, easy-to-use digital toolkit, enabling CEOs to manage the interdependencies of these factors at a level they could not achieve without it.”
These systematized organizations are 1) great places for employees to work, 2) great places for customers to buy, and 3) great places for shareholders to invest. In these great places, every project, process, and resource earns more than it costs and enables a winning strategy; no other work gets designed, funded, or done. We call these great places SuperOrgs, where sustainable value is always optimized.
Question: Anything else?
Answer: Yes, would like to suggest the question for corporate leaders to ask is not, “Should we SuperOrg our business?” but rather, “Why wouldn’t we SuperOrg our business?”
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For more information, or to contact Mr. Sickles, visit http://www.superorg.solutions