Strategy is also a decision about what to stop
A leadership team can agree on growth while avoiding the choices growth requires.
Read the argument
Chief Executive Officer China · Global perspective
Lan Xu
Open to Board appointments · Advisory roles · Speaking invitations
The conviction behind the work
My task is to give the enterprise a direction it can act on. I make the choices about customers, capital and capabilities explicit, then give business leaders the authority and accountability to deliver. I want difficult information to reach the leadership team while there is still time to respond.
- Enterprise revenue led
- ₹18,400 Cr
- Across 22 markets
- Value created
- 3.1×
- Market capitalisation over six years
- Colleagues
- 41,000
- In manufacturing, services and retail
- Acquisitions integrated
- 7
- On time and within the thesis
Beyond the page
The record behind the perspective.
In the boardroom
- Northbridge Infrastructure TrustIndependent Director · 2022 — Present
- The Lakeshore FoundationTrustee · 2019 — Present
- Calder LogisticsNon-Executive Director · 2017 — 2021
Recognition
- Chief Executive of the Year — IndustrialThe Boardroom Review Awards · 2024
- Top 50 Transformational LeadersCapital & Governance Quarterly · 2022
In conversation
- “The CEO who stopped three businesses to build one”The Boardroom Review · 2025
- “Succession as strategy: lessons from an industrial turnaround”Capital & Governance Quarterly · 2024
- “Episode 112 — Choosing what not to do”The Leadership Ledger podcast · 2023
Rare clarity about what the enterprise will and will not do — and the patience to make those choices stick.
Continue the conversation
Ideas are tested in conversation.
For board, advisory and speaking invitations, and for readers who want to take an argument further.
- Board appointments
- Advisory roles
- Speaking invitations
office@lanxu.example