The argument starts from Leonardo da Vinci as a type rather than a genius. The article describes him as whole-brain and a humanist at once: analytical scientist, creative artist, and deeply empathetic toward people and his environment. That combination is the profile it proposes for business leaders.
The timing argument is that the shift was already under way before the pandemic. Many corporations had pledged to move off pure shareholder profit maximization toward a multi-stakeholder orientation. The article names the destination real growth, meaning growth that is sustained, long-term and inclusive.
Key findings
- The profile comes from a study, not from the analogy. The Institute for Real Growth surveyed 550 senior marketers and other leaders to identify what a da Vinci-like leader requires.
- Three characteristics emerged as most critical. Analytical skill to decode the world, creative capability to tell inspiring stories, and empathy to connect and collaborate.
- Outperformance is given a specific definition. An outperformer is a company that has grown revenue faster than its direct competition for the last three years.
- Two numbers carry the empirical weight. 85% of outperformers are good or excellent at assessing and understanding market developments. Nearly three-quarters have robust external connections.
Decoding the world
The analytical half is rigor applied to research and data. But the article is explicit that data alone does not produce insight. Empathy is what unlocks the reason behind the numbers.
The behavior that carries it is ordinary curiosity, practiced constantly. Norman de Greve, then chief marketing officer of CVS Health, describes listening to at least one podcast a day across subjects from purposeful branding to meditation.
Connecting and collaborating
Collaboration is described as a habit of leading by example rather than a process. Silvia Lagnado, then sustainable growth officer at Natura & Co, spends her first six months in any new job learning from colleagues across every geography and discipline.
The study is unequivocal on one related point. Diversity at the strategic decision-making level improves outcomes, because multiple perspectives improve the result of any complex task. Getting the benefit requires setting one’s ego aside.
Inspiring storytelling
Storytelling here means enrolling people, not presenting well. The article frames it as understanding what motivates and worries stakeholders, and being willing to walk in their shoes. It warns that no single approach works on everyone.
The article’s best illustration is a demonstration rather than a presentation. Stan Sthanunathan of Unilever showed his executive committee a photograph of a crowded street and asked where it was taken. The guesses were India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It was Edgware Road in London, near the office they were sitting in.
The point of the anecdote is the choice of method. A chart or a demographics quiz was available and would have carried the same fact. The article notes he made a permanent impression instead.
What the profile is for
The closing claim is double. The profile is offered as a path for helping the company flourish, and as a way for the leader to future-proof their own role by prioritizing a human-centric, multi-stakeholder approach.
Scope and limitations
The article is written by people from the organization that ran the study, and it says so. The Institute for Real Growth is described as a nonprofit supported by WPP, Google, Facebook, Kantar, LinkedIn, Spencer Stuart and others. Readers should weigh the findings with that disclosure in view.
The evidence is presented as headline percentages with no method attached. The article gives the sample as 550 senior marketers and other leaders. It reports no sampling frame, no response rate, and no test of whether the named characteristics cause outperformance or accompany it.
One detail in the article does not match its own framing. Its opening calls da Vinci a left-brain analytical scientist and a right-brain creative artist, and the list of three characteristics then assigns the hemispheres the other way round. The substance of the three characteristics is unaffected.
Source
This page summarises Here’s why the business world needs more Leonardo da Vincis, by Eva Linderborg, Frank van den Driest, Marc de Swaan Arons, 2020.