What’s changed for Chief Legal Officers?
CLO MEGA THEMES
Strong Ethical Leadership
CLOs have the opportunity to promote ethical principles not only with the senior leadership teams but also throughout the organisation and supply chain, building in diversity, climate responsibility and supporting new sustainable ways of working.
Enhance Enterprise Value
Legal Departments will add material value across organisations by going beyond business strategy and utilising broader relationships, technology and data.
Agility & Resilience
Legal leaders need to maintain the new-found agility of their role and their teams that was supercharged by COVID-19. At the same time,they need to balance this with resilience and sustainability, which will involve strengthening support for colleagues.
Focus & Execution
There is a need to focus on the ‘stuff that matters’, to automate the mundane, digitalise the department and become experts at execution. Recognising and addressing the new legal, compliance, security and privacy issues arising from the new business models and ways of working will be crucial.
Risk & Order
CLOs have traditionally been a source of calm under pressure, giving a feeling of order in a world of chaos. CLOs need to build on this firm footing, proactively manage risk, using their creativity and analytical skills, to find practical sources of competitive advantage.
Explore these themes further at one of our Chief Legal Officer Network events
easyJet
“Following the extraordinary global impact of the pandemic whilst operating in a continued fast-paced environment in a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world, CLOs need to move beyond legal expertise and step into business acumen, strong leadership and relationship building whilst utilising technology and data analytics to drive efficiency and enhance enterprise value, using their problem-solving skills combined with EQ and creativity.
CLOs are uniquely placed and will do this whilst also promoting ethical principles and adhering to the rule of law. At the same time, it is crucial that they focus on building and investing in diverse teams and get comfortable in promoting new ways of working.
It is quite the challenge ahead!”
Maaike de Bie, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, easyJet
CLO Challenges & Opportunities 2021
As Chief Legal Officers and General Counsels lead their teams through 2021 and beyond, what are the key challenges they must confront and what opportunities can they exploit?
1.Legal team reskilling, upskilling, motivation and resilience
2.Managing risk and commercial decision-making
3.Self-service and legal automation
4.Business model and digital transformation
5. Reputation management & brand perception
6.Improving relations with the CEO, Board and Stakeholders
Volvo Financial Services
“Our focus needs to go beyond everyday business acumen, strategy and regulatory proliferation because that is ‘bread & butter’ for us and has been for many years. The pandemic has caused a seismic shift. CSuite focus has often been on agility, digital transformation and how to engage and retain your people, but the pandemic took those concepts and smacked us all between the eyes with them.
We were forced to become agile and adopt new business and operating models almost overnight. We were forced into new ways of working – globally – overnight. We now need to balance our agility with resilience for long term stability and sustainability, both personally and among the people and businesses we lead.
We need razor-sharp focus so that we become experts at execution. We need to quickly pivot and recognise the legal & compliance issues arising within the new business and operating models that have now become our reality.”
Alexia Maas, Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Volvo Financial Services
Join Winmark's CLO Network
REIMAGINE, REINVEST AND REJUVENATE
It’s time for the C-Suite to look beyond ‘normal’. Time to build a resilient organisation with a purpose, business model, skills, resources and strategic direction fit for the new future. Find out how C-Suite leaders are prioritising their leadership agenda.