Bio

Jim Austin, former senior executive at Baxter Healthcare, blends strategic expertise with deep industry experience. He is a Faculty Consultant at Wharton’s Aresty Institute of Executive Education, leading senior-level seminars on growth, vision, strategic change, and agility for top organizations including Coca-Cola, GE, GlaxoSmithKline, and CUES.

At Brown University, Jim serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor in Health Services, Policy and Practice, where he teaches graduate courses in leadership. He is also author of Transformative Planning: How Your Healthcare Organization Can Strategize for an Uncertain Future.

Previously, Jim was a Senior Principal at Decision Strategies International, guiding major strategic initiatives for clients such as the American College of Radiology and Volunteers of America. He also spent 12 years at Baxter Healthcare, where he led strategy for the $2B Renal Division. Earlier roles included leadership positions at ANCHOR HMO, Arthur D. Little, and the Ministry of Finance in Botswana. He now leads JH Austin Associates, Inc.

Speaking Topics:

Improved Decision-Making and The Art of the Con

Why do some individuals gain support for their ideas in meetings, while others seemingly languish?  At the core of any organization's performance are the decisions that leaders make…those financial, strategic, human resource, marketing and leadership decisions that underlie an organization's performance. Understanding how to improve decision-making is a truly fundamental leadership requirement. In this session, we will explore typical decision “traps”--those biases in large part determined by how the human brain operates. Drawing on recent research, this session will expose participants to decision biases through short exercises and offer ways to alleviate them.  

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how we are all susceptible to “irrational” decisions in certain situations
• Ways to spot such biases within one’s own organization or team 
• Frameworks to counteract decision biases.

Finding New Growth Opportunities

As Steve Lohr writes in an article on Microsoft, “One of the evolutionary laws of business is that success breeds failure; the tactics and habits of earlier triumphs so often leave companies--even the biggest, most profitable and most admired companies--unable to adapt."  Clearly, sustained competitive advantage, Michael Porter’s definition of “strategy”, is difficult to attain, especially in these increasingly uncertain times.  In this highly interactive seminar, Mr. Austin will outline key frameworks for identifying innovative, new avenues for growth.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the difference between “inside-out” vs. “outside-in” thinking and what it means to be “customer-centric”.
• Identify obstacles to strategic growth and approaches for overcoming.

Execution and Driving Change

High performance requires effective execution and, for many organizations, change management. Unfortunately, major change efforts have a dismal track record. In multiple studies, highlighting the experiences of hundreds of companies initiating large-scale changes, the overwhelming results are poor. For example:

• John Kotter’s seminal research in the field of change management half a century ago revealed that only 30% of change programs succeed.
• A 2008 global IBM study of major change initiatives found that only 41% fully met their objectives, while 44% missed their budget, time, or quality goals, and 15% were seen as total failures.
• In 2013, a report that aggregated over 6,000 senior executive surveys revealed that 70% of change efforts fail to achieve their target impact.

As the Harvard Business Review’s editor articulated so well in discussing why so many transformation efforts fail:

“…no business survives over the long term if it can’t reinvent itself. But human nature being what it is, fundamental change is often resisted mightily by the people it most affects: those in the trenches of the business. Thus, leading change is both absolutely essential and incredibly difficult” (Kotter 2007).

Learning Objectives:

• Understand a 3-step process for driving execution; and
• Improve capacity to lead change. 

Leading Strategic Change

Most strategic change initiatives are never implemented.  While one cannot guarantee a strategic result, two steps are essential for reducing risk and improving outcomes in Leading Strategic Change: first, adapting a Strategic Mindset that is open to more than just incremental change; second, Execute, Execute, Execute.  Most strategic initiatives fail not for their poor strategic choices, but for being unable to expand upon prior mental models and poor execution.  This seminar will examine four common mental model pitfalls and proposed means for overcoming from frame narrowness to confirmation bias, groupthink and finally attribution bias.  Execution depends on clear priorities, understanding stakeholder needs and clear, simple, consistent communication.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the difference between tactical and strategic decision-making, key to leading strategic change
• Overcome barriers to strategic decision-making
• Understand the critical elements to executing strategic change.