Changing Business Models: Courage, Confidence and Cloninger

Christine Flanagan
August 7, 2008

Kathy Cloninger is an ENFP. In Myers-Briggs terminology, that makes her an “Idealist Champion” personality who values personal authenticity, is a keen and probing observer of others, and is always on the lookout for what’s possible. By her own account, she loves to be in a room full of people, developing relationships, collaborating, or as she explained during a recent BIF interview, being “constantly surrounded by the voices of the organization” she heads. Only 5% to 10% of all CEOs have this personality type, which perfectly suits the special group of customers she aims to please: the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA). In fact, Cloninger epitomizes the Girl Scout mission statement: Courage, Confidence, and Character.

In addition to her genuine affability and her affection for the 2.6 million girls she represents, Cloninger points out that she is also “very bottom line.” When she took over the top spot of GSUSA in 2003, membership had declined, the demography of the marketplace had changed dramatically, and the Girl Scout brand was outdated. But Cloninger is changing all of that. “The public doesn’t know what we do,” she says. “They love us! But they don’t understand the depth of who we are.”

While cookies, campfires, service, and Moms are certainly the most recognizable features of the Girls Scouts, Cloninger has worked steadily to make the Girl Scouts “relevant” by understanding and responding to girls’ needs today, whether that means appealing to Hispanic girls who now comprise the largest demographic segment of the Girl Scout marketplace, leveraging the group’s global literacy and citizenship skills, or creating positive pathways for young girls to interact with mothers in prison.

All these changes necessitated the first national GSUSA restructuring since Juliette Gordon Low gathered together a group of eighteen girls in her hometown of Savannah, Georgia in 1912. As a federated corporation, the Girl Scouts has several hundred independently incorporated local offices. Cloninger’s mission has been to consolidate those offices from 312 down to 109. After two years, she is halfway to her goal, describing the process as a “study in change management” for both non-profit and for-profit CEOs. Cloninger attributes the success of the restructuring to its well-defined mission.

(Image is the new Girl Scouts community home page for girls 11-17)

“The first question we asked is, what is it that we are best in the world at?” she says. “We discovered that we were very fragmented. We are concerned about esteem, environmental issues, community service and character building. But our clear focus is that we are a leadership organization. We are very concerned about getting girls into leadership roles right now.”

The other paradigm shift Cloninger has presided over has been to make the Girl Scouts more “girl centered.” It seems obvious, but the results of the organization’s recent survey of girls suggested that adults were not paying attention to problems like over-scheduling or teen pregnancy. “We want to be the expert on girls,” Cloninger explains, “And we have to do what any good business does and that’s to remember that girls are our customers. Now we have more girls adding their voices, helping us make decisions.”

At the same time, the one million volunteers who comprise the Girl Scout workforce are the “delivery system” for the organization, so maintaining an effective distribution of services will depend on a more flexible notion of who such individuals are likely to be. Girls still say that mothers are their number one role models, but Cloninger has also been reaching out to young college women and new female professionals in the 18- to 29-year old age range who may not have started a family but could be a great mentor. She wants girls to see all the options available to them in their adulthood.

Cloninger is the perfect example of the changing face of leadership. Strategically transforming a 95-year-old not-for-profit organization requires maverick thinking. Our BIF-4 co-host and research advisor Bill Taylor says the way to build a disruptive future is to go back to your past and start with a distinctive idea and a maverick future.

He spent a lot of time with the Girl Scouts and says that pre-Cloninger, the organization was on the verge of being completely irrelevant. "One of the most liberating things they did was look back at when they were founded in 1912 and reread the writings of Juliette Gordon Low," he explains. "This woman was a complete radical of the first order."

Cloninger’s palpable excitement for the Girl Scouts is indeed infused with a deep respect for the organization itself. “There are very few institutions in this world where there are feminine traditions,” she says. “We want to honor the women who built this institution a hundred years ago as well as those young women coming in today.”

Most of all, Cloninger wants girls to develop a unique female perspective on leadership — one that moves beyond traditional service to “bold social change.” She wants to reach the point where Girls Scouts are not just nice to have around, but are an “absolutely necessary” part of our local and global communities. Her guiding message: "It's a girl's life. Lead it."