The Editors: We kicked off our third Online Forum with a look at successful strategies that ‘survivor CEOs’ and other top executives have implemented to survive the economic slowdown. We also examined new ways that companies are using the tools of technology to become more efficient and productive despite the downturn, and how new advances in technology could change the way you work in the future. You asked our panel of experts. And they provided some insightful answers. Take a look.
THURSDAY, 5PM ET, APRIL 17
How can employees keep up their skills once they’re caught up in a full-time job? Would you recommend going back to school part-time or taking seminars or extra courses to keep up your skills—especially in technology? Frank Hood (Krispy Kreme):
Absolutely—all of the above. Do whatever you can. Information Technology is a challenge given the dynamics of the industry and unfortunately many universities or community colleges may not offer the latest and greatest programming languages or OS environments. Don’t let that stop you. Invest in yourself by self-study, seminars, school part time, whatever it takes. The key in the end is to challenge yourself and your employer to allow you to do more by accepting more responsibility in or out of your core competency. Don’t underestimate your abilities outside the technology realm. We look for employees that have a high technical acumen and have a strong “work ethic” but we pride ourselves on being business people first and technologists second.
How will technology change the way you do business—if at all—in the future? (Clarksville, TN) Michael Marks (Flextronics):
There will continue to be evolutions in two kinds of tools—the first is the equipment that places electronic components, and the second is information technology. In the former, parts keep getting smaller, packaging of silicon changes, and the equipment needed to assemble and test the components changes. That’s pretty straightforward. In terms of IT, the issues are more complicated. Databases get better, faster, and simpler, allowing more tools. We are getting better at connecting all of our employees on a global basis, allowing for faster sharing of information. These innovations will certainly become more wireless, use more video, and make it easier to understand each other without as much travel involved. I, for one, am looking forward to that world.
How do you see technology changing our daily lives in the future? Could we one day be buying doughnuts from a vending machine? (New York, NY) Hood:
The future holds many potentially “life-changing” possibilities with respect to technology. With the proliferation of wireless networking technology, both local and wide area,
efficient
mobile access to the Internet will be common place. Consumers using handheld PCs or smartphones will have access to e-commerce opportunities that today are only constrained by the networks on which access is given. In my opinion, wireless networks seem to hold the short-term constraints. As for doughnuts from vending machines…anything is possible, but it is hard to imagine the same hot doughnut from a vending machine.
Do you think there is a business sector that had not been affected much—or can’t be improved much—by technology? (Foster City, CA) Hood:
No. I think every business sector has been affected positively by technology, some more than others. Unfortunately, many sectors have seen technologies exploited negatively through the proliferation of spam, viruses and other less than beneficial technologies.
How have some of the new technologies affected your business? Has technology replaced people in some cases? Or does better technology allow you to streamline costs so you can do bigger stories and hire more people? (San Diego, CA) Ong:
National Geographic has always been synonymous with stunning images on the pages of our magazines and in our television and film productions. Advances in technology have allowed us to go farther into the field with smaller, lighter equipment to bring even more spectacular imagery to viewers. If you watch our special “Surviving Everest” on April 27, you’ll see some pretty incredible footage that had to be filmed by the climbers themselves, when our camera crew was physically unable to make it to the summit. This is just one example of how technology is changing the making of documentaries.
New technology for a brand like National Geographic is a gift. With the NGC, for the first time, consumers are and will be able to access us across a number of platforms. New technology will never replace people. You need people to interpret how to use this new technology to its fullest. We have television crews in the field every day exploring new scientific finds, documenting rare wildlife, and telling stories about both familiar and exotic cultures. We’ve even developed a “crittercam” to bring an animal-eye-view of the world.
What innovations have you found to be the most popular at your company?
(Austin, TX)
Steve Elterich (Fidelity eBusiness):
Customers across our different lines of business have clearly adopted the Web as a preferred means of communicating with us and managing their accounts. Over 90 percent of our commissionable trades are conducted online. Over 80 percent of customer interaction is now through automated channels. We have also seen a huge adoption of our benefits outsourcing services through the Internet. Some, more specific innovations that have become popular include the ability to aggregate all financial holdings (regardless of the provider) on our Website, portfolio analysis tools and high end trading platforms for active traders.
How do you keep your workers motivated when times are tough? Especially after you’ve had to lay off some of their colleagues? Also, how you can assure them that their jobs aren’t in jeopardy (assuming they aren’t)? (Omaha, NE) Michael Marks (Flextronics):
Actually, no jobs are secure in today’s world, and that includes mine. Executives at all levels get fired. Companies get acquired, or they get into financial trouble. So no one can be absolutely assured that they are safe. What we do is constantly communicate with our employees around the world, to give them a sense of how we are doing—both good and bad. I have found that people at all levels and in all countries can live with job risk if they are constantly informed about where they stand. We obviously attempt to create as much stability as possible, constantly training and pushing employees to upgrade their skills, which are things that ensure employability at Flextronics or other companies.
I think my job is safe. Do people with jobs in healthcare have to worry? (Casper, WY) Judith Briles (The Briles Group):
Safety can be an illusion, even when the media talks about shortages in a particular field, such as health care—where if you are licensed and can fog a mirror, you can be hired. People like me are talking about “de-hiring” and identifying and eliminating marginal people, no matter how much a shortage there appears to be. Why? Marginal people do the bare minimum. Their work habits tick-off those who are working, even lessening their productivity because they grumble to themselves and to anyone within earshot what the slacker is doing this time. I call it the Domino Factor and it’s prevalent in the female-dominated workplace of health care.
Depending on what your job is, the smartest thing you can do is to show up, do your work and even more than is expected and keep training and expanding your clinical and “soft” skills. In every audience I speak to in health care, when the topic of change is brought up, I always ask how many consider themselves savvy about the workings of the Internet and simple computer programs. Only 10 percent claim to be. Outside of health care, that percentage would be 70 to 90 percent. People who work in health care are illiterate around computers.
COMMENTS
I am in the healthcare industry as a physician and executive (chief of a section and I administer 30 clinics plus patient care). The biggest problems are governmental underpayments for services rendered, deliberate down coding to achieve reduction in costs, and a bloated bureaucracy feeding itself rather than better management of government overhead costs. Workers’ Comp fraud detection needs to be a higher priority with the government as it is eating away at profits and productivity.
(Sayre, PA)
What has happened in corporate America? Why have so many executives gone astray? How can companies make sure that their employees—and executives—are behaving ethically?(Princeton Junction, NJ) John Riccitiello (Electronic Arts):
I think you’re going to see a renewed commitment to ethics and corporate government in American business. The scandals of 2002 have shocked boardrooms, shareholders and law enforcement into recognition that there needs to be tighter controls and better corporate governance. We’ve already seen some positive steps with the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which addresses accounting methods and communication. The answer is transparency—when shareholders have better access to information on how the company is run, management is much more careful about their decisions. In the corporate world, no breach of integrity should be tolerated; this much is clear. One thing missing from the equation though is the recognition that these scandals, while colorful and newsworthy, were really limited to a small number of companies and their executives.
Companies are in a financial mess because of the “executive” decisions. And the worker pays the price of mismanagement with a loss of job, yet the “executive” fails up (e.g. promoted) or leaves eventually under an umbrella. The success of a company is tied to executive decisions—if those decisions are bad, they should be the first to go! Why doesn’t that happen? (Richardson, TX) Warren Bennis (USC’s Leadership Institute):
It’s a good question and a complex one to answer because of the governance structures of most corporations. To begin with, these days, with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the business press more closely monitoring oversight of the board and executive decisions, top executives are often the first to be sacked. Still, too many of them are “gifted” when they leave with obscene severance packages going into the millions. Though, to be fair, these were often agreements made when the executive was hired.
After a “fall,” the takeover executives typically have to make cuts and they make cuts in the highest expendable item: i.e. labor costs. That affects everyone, but the biggest cut will be taken from the majority of the workers and that, unfortunately, includes some of the lowest paid workers.
COMMENTS
My position was just terminated at our local newspaper. I was the “dummy clerk”, the person who paginates the entire paper. After I was terminated, two part-time employees without benefits filled my one “necessary” position. What I accomplished in 38 hours/week is now taking 50 hours/week by two people. I had 18 years of seniority with all excellent performance reviews. At the same time that I was terminated, three other employees with over 20 years of seniority were also terminated. It seemed to everyone that the management team had sacrificed senior, non-management employees to save their own jobs. (Lolo, MT)
My company just had its most profitable year ever. How were its employees rewarded? With massive lay-offs in the state in which I work. Per employee, $100,000 net profit. Top executives took home close to $100 million total. Co-CEOs split about $35 million. Thanks. (Buffalo, NY)
I’ll start with yours—all good. Emphasize all of them. But I would add a few other questions you should ask: Are customers satisfied? Is there a development plan for succession at every level? Will the company be in better shape and continue to sustain its growth after the current CEO leaves? In other words, has top management created the enabling systems to develop future leaders? How about the retention rate of valued staff? Do employees identify with the company’s mission? Does the intrinsic work itself have meaning for the workers? These are some of the other criteria I would use to evaluate any executive and company.
Yes, to more rigorous criteria for IPOs. But, no, I don’t think we’ll ever return to ‘traditional business structures,’ if by that you mean the obsolete command-and-control structures. They won’t work anywhere because command and control can only work when combined with adaptive, agile, quickly moving and changing forces to keep up with the vertiginous changes in the marketplace. Finally, I don’t think the dot.com model has failed. It’s alive and well and taking place in different forms, and it will continue to extract wisdom and growth by understanding where things went wrong. The business acumen and experience our entrepreneurial dot-commers gained will re-assert itself in the coming years.
In fact, except in a very few instances, we haven’t provided services on an overflow basis for five or six years now. Rather, the industry has, for some time now, been focused on major relationships between suppliers and customers, engaging across a wide variety of functions like design, manufacturing, logistics, repair, consulting, etc. The need for big relationships like this has led most of the major players in the industry to acquire other capabilities, and it makes it nearly impossible for smaller companies to compete effectively because they can’t provide all these services.
Great ideas come from a lot of sources, but the best ideas usually come from our studio and publishing managers who love games and stay close to the gaming community. Sometimes it’s the idea for a whole new game; some times the idea is a piece of math that creates code for a really cool move within the game. But, like with movies and books, the easy part of creating a game is the initial idea. The hard part is building the game (or writing the book or creating the film) in such a way that it is entertaining and appeals to a specific audience….and then finding a way to reach this audience in ways that create their interest and willingness to pay for the experience.
Owning your own company allows you to be in control, set the agenda and redirect quickly if need be. You aren’t layered in the bureaucracy that large companies and organizations bring to the table. If one of our employees comes up with an idea that we all react positively to—Ta-Dah!—it gets implemented today, not next week or next year. There are days we have actually identified as “goof-off” days, which means music of choice is played (sometimes quite loud), lunch is ordered in, brainstorming and what-ifs are encouraged openly, and we play. From those days, great ideas are generated that seem to appear out of thin air.
The negatives and challenges are if times are tight, you may not get the paycheck; you usually put in far more hours than you would with a 9-5 job (which is the norm for me); that no matter what happens, your name is on the door—good news and/or bad—and you are the one that takes the hit or receives the cheers within the workplace, the public eye and sometimes in the media.
The first real challenge I encountered in the workplace was in the early 70s. I worked as a stockbroker’s assistant and was fired when I went through a divorce (something that just wouldn’t happen today)—the manager of the firm felt I needed to go home and take care of my “family situation.” I had three kids under the age of nine. I found myself overqualified for the secretarial jobs I interviewed for. Several of the clients and brokers at the firm I had worked for were angry that I had been fired. Between them, they called me and asked me to lunch to “thank me” for all the help I had given them. The lunch changed my life—they gave me an envelope with money, a round trip air ticket to San Francisco and a list of interviews they had set up in Northern California.
I went, interviewed, accepted a position as a stock broker with E.F. Hutton and moved. Several years later, I won an award and sent a copy of the newspaper article with a note: “Did I ever thank you for firing me?” I had challenges as a broker from my male colleagues, who would make insinuations about how I would get clients. When I surpassed them in commissions and got a private office, growing my clientele, speaking and writing books, it shut them up. That was in 1972. Several years later, I left to start my own firm and sold it in 1986. Since then, I’ve concentrated on researching workplace issues, speaking and writing as a career. In 1987, I wrote Woman to Woman: From Sabotage to Support (New Horizon Press) which was initially rejected by 28 publishers. The theme was that women can undermine other women in the workplace and was based on research for my dissertation and extensive interviews. Since that book, I’ve had more than a thousand interviews on the topic and completed several other national surveys.
During my career, I’ve had tremendous highs and some yucky lows. I’ve made lots of money and I’ve lost everything when I had a partner embezzle money from a loan that I had personally guaranteed. By the time that ordeal was over, my family was still a family, but we had no home, car, investments—nothing. During this time, my business almost died, I developed cancer and my son died. It was a horrible time.
Is there discrimination still? Sure. As a professional speaker, I would probably get double the fees for the type of work I do if I was male. Sabotage and bullying, especially when one gender is more inclined to target its own, can be dicey. Corporate America has trouble dealing with an issue that costs mega millions of dollars each year in lost productivity and replacement costs. Health care, a female-dominated industry, recognizes that and is beginning to address it.
My only regrets are around the issues of “I should have left sooner.” I’ve always been a maverick, independent and opinionated. Getting out sooner means that you recognized that you are a wrong fit in a given situation. Bureaucracy and political correctness drive me nuts.
I was the first employee hired at the National Geographic Channel, with the task of creating a cable network, hiring 120 employees, and putting together an infrastructure, all while working through a complex joint venture between News Corporation and the National Geographic Society. My assignment was to put the channel on the air within eight months, and since this is National Geographic, it had to be great! But perhaps the greatest challenge was making sure we met expectations. As you can imagine, a legacy brand like NG commands a level of quality unlike any other.
We also faced a challenge of getting our channel on the air in cable systems around the country. We launched with 10 million homes having access to our channel, and are now nearing 50 million, having just celebrated our two-year anniversary in January. This makes us one of the fastest growing cable networks ever—and the challenge now is to keep growing.
Yes—and I know for a fact that it did make it harder. I went to college to become a teacher, which was an acceptable female profession in my parents’ eyes. That was my first hurdle! Getting my first break in the television business was harder because it was—and in many ways still is—a male-dominated field. Being an Asian-American woman added to the challenge, making it necessary to continually prove myself as I moved my career forward.
Like most executives, I suppose it is fair to say that my career has been a series of challenges, each one new and at the time I was facing it, seemingly the most daunting. On a personal level one of the most challenging positions I ever took was in the early 1980’s when I moved to Germany to take on a mid-level management position in a company where my boss and team members only spoke German and I could not yet count to ten in their language. I was expected to be fluent in a few months and to learn my new job at the same time. My days were really tough. I took Intensive one-on-one German language lessons from 6 AM to 9 AM. I worked from 9 AM to 6 PM and then had German lessons until 9 PM. Then, I went out socializing in German, a language that I was not sure if I was loving to learn or learning to hate. After a few months, it all came together. What I learned from this is that having a good plan, focusing on the plan everyday and working hard can help you overcome seemingly impossible challenges.
I’m fairly certain that most of those geeks we studied—but not all of them—will morph into geezers. (I’m thinking of geezers as wiser, more evolved—and why not? They have lived 4 decades longer.) Though not reported in the book itself, we had five independent researchers who had nothing to do with our study, responding to this simple question after reading the transcripts of the interviews:‘Would these geeks become geezers? Yes, No, or Uncertain.’ Most raters guessed that 90% of the geeks would evolve into geezers.
There isn’t just one—it’s the economy, jobs, and leadership. In the leadership area, lack of credibility, integrity and trust ring loud. Coming off the Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and Qwest messes this past year, the high level of incompetence and outright theft from both employees (lost jobs while paying outrageous bonuses to key execs) and shareholders only create an environment of mistrust. The greed factor has filtered through every level of the workplace.
For employees, loyalty and competence aren’t always valued. Employers expect more: what can you do for them? Because of the rapidly changing workplace, all employees must keep up and expand their skill base. In the past, employers routinely paid for it; today, not always. It doesn’t matter; to be a viable employee, technology is your partner, not a foe. Learn about it and use it.
The economy is not so hot, millions have lost their jobs and the country has enormous debt. A great majority of the jobs that will be available in a few years will come from new industries that are being birthed now. Staying in circulation and learning new things will take you to the head of the line.
Most exemplary leaders seem to embody the following characteristics:
1. A capacity to define and set a direction with meaning, a vision if you want. But not any old vision or dream but one that has resonance with the staff—a compelling, engaging and persuasive idea that connects with the followers. Shakespeare said it best in Henry I, Part II when he has the Welsh seer, Glendower boasting to Hotspur, “I can call the spirits from the vasty deep. And Hotspur immediately deflates Glendower with, “Well, so can I. So can anyone. But will they come when you call them?”
It isn’t the vision alone; it’s the meaning. Will they come when you call them?
2. An adaptive capacity, which includes a positive outlook, eyes continually positioned for adventure, novelty, those dangerous “inflection points” that must be taken into account, and individuals who are never content with the status quo. As I noted earlier, remember Gogo’s advice in
3. The capacity to engage others, to generate “buy-in,” to enroll others in your dream.
4. The capacity to generate and sustain trust, which is no easy task. It takes a combination of authenticity, directness, constancy, caring, and being comfortable under your own skin.
5. Moral compass. As I wrote 35 years ago, managers do things right; leaders do the
I also want to argue that the above characteristics are just that; the central factor in successful leadership is
In the late eighties, I began to research and publishing my findings about differences I found in the female dominated workplace versus the more gender integrated workplace. When my book Woman to Woman was published in 1987, I surely thought that companies would welcome me to talk about this issue. The book later became the Chicago Tribune’s Business Book of the Year. We geared our company to create programs to meet the demand. I was wrong—not about the issue, but about the welcoming arms of Corporate America. It was scared to death of my topic, concerned that if someone like me showed up on their doorstep, they would have been deemed sexist.
Today, seven studies and many books later (Zapping Conflict in the Health Care Workplace, The SeXX Factor, Woman to Woman 2000, GenderTraps, The Briles Report on Women in Healthcare), I know that issues of women undermining women in the workplace are real and incredibly costly. Men undermine as well, but their methodology and targets are different. Today, are can crunch the numbers and tell a company what rotten behavior costs them—in the old days, I knew it was a cost, though I wasn’t able to spread sheet it. So, I would have quantified the numbers and created the training programs to augment them. And, I would have realized early on why general corporations were spooked about bringing in programs like ours (fear of charges of sexism by women when they routinely offer programs on sexual harassment for men) and concentrated on those such as health care, where women were the clear majority of the workforce and the problems we dealt with impacted greater numbers.
For entrepreneurs, create an Advisory Group/Board for individuals you know within your field and get together at least on a quarterly basis. I did this later on and it helped tremendously in directly/re-directing me when needed. Don’t do anything that you are not passionate about. Be willing to work the long hours when needed. Have money to create your “package” and market it to your buyer. Know when to bring help in and look for those who can support you as you move to the next level, whatever that may be. Finally, never, never lose your sense of humor. There are times it will be your best friend!
This is an important question. I think that having an MBA gave me the basic financial skills, analytical skills and experience reading and studying about business to provide me with the instincts to make good decisions. Instincts come from having a lot of experience. There are other ways to get those skills and that experience, but they are less efficient. One way that I recommend to many young people is to go to work for companies that have a reputation for very good management, so that you can learn how great companies operate.
When we lead a CEO search or any senior executive search, we help our clients determine which candidate(s) are the best for the job based on evaluating the individuals versus the agreed-on selection criteria. The first step in any search is to define the requirements for the position as a function of the strategy for the company. Is it a growth situation or a turn-around? Is it a large, complex, multi-divisional corporation or a pre-IPO single product line company? How important is international? What role will technology play in the company’s future? Then we diagnose the personal characteristics that will be required in terms of leadership style, cultural fit, communications skills, work ethic and so on. From these questions, we derive the implications in terms of the ideal professional experience and personal qualities and then identify and assess the most relevant candidates for the position against the criteria. After that, it is a series of give-and-take discussions and meetings to arrive at a place where the candidate is just as interested in joining the company and taking on the new role as the board or hiring company is in having the candidate.
In terms of the transferability of leadership skills, in general, we believe that great leadership is indeed transferable. Although styles vary widely, the enduring traits of great leaders are consistent across industries and even across time. There are certain industries, however, such as retail and financial services, where history has shown it more difficult to have outsiders successfully come in at the top.
Our customers have driven our growth in ebusiness. Today, customers can interact with us through phones, branches, or the Internet—over 80 percent of our contacts are through the Internet. I think the potential of the Internet is just now being realized in the “post-bubble” environment. You are seeing old-line, blue chip companies as well as newer, more entrepreneurial companies putting their entire business on the Web, from inventory and supply-chain management to human resources and benefits management.
I would say I’m more excited than surprised by what we can do now versus even 5 years ago. We can now deliver entirely over the Web e401k plans for a small business or help a customer plan for their retirement and child’s college education. The next several years will see an improvement in the online tools we offer and I would think that in ten years, we will see the true power of integration, aggregation and interoperability come to fruition through the Internet.
I think about technology this way…. Our goal at Krispy Kreme is to deliver a consistent, remarkable and indelible experience to our customers. In fact when asked the question “What are our killer applications or technologies at Krispy Kreme?” I always respond “…our killer app is our doughnut not our technology” Having said that we use state-of-the-art technology to streamline many functions in support of that ultimate “customer experience.” We leverage technologies such as our corporate portal myKrispyKreme.com, web-enabled supply chain applications, Krispy Kreme Interactive Television streaming video as well as our web site [www.krispykreme.com] . Technology has allowed Krispy Kreme to be more efficient and scaleable in our operations with less time spent in the back office and more time spent with the customer.
I really do think technology has helped us expand. Over the past several years we have developed a strong IT strategy that has supported and enabled our business processes to grow and scale in a very fluid fashion. Our store development and supply processes have benefited greatly by the strategic deployment of technology allowing our entire organization to take on an agility that I think many organizations don’t have. As you may know Krispy Kreme has a global presence now, which has changed our supply chain dynamics. Technology has allowed us to overcome those challenges making the transition to a global company easier.
Here’s my advice to all managers and leaders:
Start with the state of your company and business: What needs to happen to turn things around and prevent reductions (or additional reductions)?
Continue with setting goals, and be honest about how realistic they are. Avoid any pie-in-the-sky scenarios.
Support starts at the top—not the bottom. In rough and bumpy times, speak up and don’t hide behind your closed door.
Be generous with praise and bravos for your support team, and be willing to tell them when they screw up.
People are sick of ‘do more with less.’ Prompt them to focus, and set priorities that are realistic. Overwhelming a bewildered staff with fantasy ‘musts’ may send a manager home at night satisfied that s/he’s ‘doing everything possible’ but in fact, you’re driving any real talent away. Just because the job market is flooded doesn’t mean your best workers won’t leave.
Austerity measures do not preclude training and appreciation. It’s not hypocritical to reward people for hard work by holding offsite meetings or celebrations. In fact, it’s crucial to motivation and re-building workplace camaraderie and confidence. What is hypocritical is to hand out large bonuses at the top while employees are being told to recycle paper clips.
Before implementing ‘cost saving measures,’ truly pencil them out. Requiring employees to do work that can be outsourced for a nominal amount of money and deflecting them from the work they were originally hired to do (and are now not accomplishing) is nonsense. Either their talents are no longer required or the work they should be doing isn’t needed. If it is, it’s not being done. Do the math.
Take a walk on the wild side. Talk to the lowest-ranking employees. Ask them what’s changed that bothers them the most. You may be shocked at changes you didn’t even know had been put into effect. Ambitious supervisors and managers can get carried away with the opportunity to put bullet points on their annual reviews… “Saved $500 annually by ordering staples and paper clips recycled.”
When times are tough, management must lead with confidence and keep communication channels open. If it doesn’t, the workplace can easily become a war zone. Snipers and saboteurs are lurking, ready to be cloned. Messages should be delivered with style and positive energy, acknowledging the phase the company is in. If times are bad and pink slips likely, employees don’t feel blind-sided if an exit day arrives.
There are several articles on my website,
But the world keeps changing, and oftentimes we have people engaged in activities in the wrong locations, or in businesses that are dying or will not be needed in the future, and then the best thing to do is eliminate the jobs and move on. As terrible as that is, it is often good for the employees also, so that they can get re-situated in a place where their particular skills will be valuable longer.
We all take temporary measures also, from going to a four-day work week, to temporarily reducing pay, etc. But in a drastic downturn like we have been experiencing, these measures just aren’t enough. We all engage in lay-offs, as well as cutting pay, reducing travel, etc. to keep our companies in the best possible financial shape for the future. If we don’t do these things, we can often pay the ultimate price of being forced to shut down parts of our business or even go bankrupt.
While Flextronics has laid off some 15,000 people during this downturn, today we have more employees (100,000) than ever before. Without moving quickly, we could be in financial trouble and jeopardize the livelihoods of the rest of those people.
But many companies are showing the way. Accenture, for example, has developed a scheme whereby their staff can take a leave with 25-percent pay and find not-for-profit employment for a year or so and then return.
The companies that, over the long run, can sustain profitability are those that view the company as a community, a unit of survival, like a family, and realize that every other cost-saving device has to be undertaken before any employee is sacked.
Companies should keep an eye open for employees who seem depressed or under too much pressure during times such as these, to avoid a serious problem that might damage the company, in event that downsizing must occur. Employers need to continue to be positive even against the odds to be successful in win-win situations of all types. Thanks for listening!! (Gainesville, GA)
Let employees know that the reduction in customers is very serious and could get worse. Let them know the importance of cutbacks and why they need to be done to save the company, first, and jobs, second. Without the company, there would be no jobs… So many people have lost their jobs because their companies had to fold because of the lack of work coming in. It’s a domino effect. No customers, no company, no jobs. You can look at it any way you want, it all means the same. (St. Louis, MO.)
There are some promising signs to redress the imbalance between CEO pay and the average worker’s pay. Compensation committees are taking a stronger hand and there are signs that forward-looking executives are making certain that the lowest ranking employees are the first to receive any bonus payments—an inverted bonus plan that is now being used at such places as Planar Systems in Beaverton, Oregon. However, much more needs to be done to create additional equity in compensation. Not easy. Capping salaries wouldn’t work in a capitalistic system. No one has figured out how to control skyrocketing salaries in a star system, such as that used by sports athletes, screen actors—or CEOs.
The demands on employees are also going up, and where employees improve their own skill sets, they also become more in demand and command ever-increasing salaries as well. And, of course, these things tend to go up and down. After the last period, where a relatively few number of executives received obscene compensation, things are now returning much more to normal, as they should.
Sharpening our pencils and spread sheets, we developed formulas and steps for Red Ink Behaviors, identifying Saboteurs and Conflict Creators in the Midst, Thriving with Change and Creating Confidence. From those formulas, we created the Judith Briles Health Care Leadership Forum where we bring in up to 16 managers at a time for an extensive two-day lab. Eighteen hours later, the participants leave with knowledge and tools that they can immediately implement.
I always believe that there are opportunities with every problem; you just have to dig in and reexamine what you are doing to find what works . . . and what doesn’t work. Because I travel so much with my work and working with organizations, I have a terrific opportunity to have an ongoing “lab.” Always asking questions, creating and taking surveys and listening to responses, I’ve been able to create books that fill our clients’ needs.
I do a simple exercise with my audiences. I ask them to write down the four most important things in their personal or professional life. Through a process of elimination, they take things from the list until they get to their most important item—it could be family, career, time for self, starting a business, going back to school—you name it. I then ask how many spend a significant amount of time each day directed toward their goal—and the answer is very few. We are all so busy.
The point is that you must prioritize. Having a happy family doesn’t mean that you need to do all the cleaning and shopping—get some help. At work, look at how you spend your day—do you need another committee meeting? Does any of your work day go toward “wasted” energy and time? Move to eliminate anything that isn’t critical to the present work you do.
When my kids were young years ago, I was interviewed by one of the national women’s magazines—they wanted to know how I did it all, career, kids, marriage, etc. I told them, “Simple, I get help.” It’s the first time I flunked an interview. The magazine wanted to hear that I baked casseroles and froze meals for the week, that I did crafts in the wee hours of the morning. When I asked what the demographics of their magazine were, they described the average woman—works, kids, trying to balance their lives.
Before ending the interview, I suggested that they trash the article and instead do one that showed their readers how to measure time and money and why it might make sense to pay someone to clean the house so that they can have some weekend time off. They didn’t.
Families, and kids, grow up. During the years, there are different demands on a parent. When kids are little, Moms usually lack sleep, just from “momming”. Add in the demands of a career, it’s a double whammy. As kids grow, the soccer and taxi years prevail—you run from game to game, activity to activity. With the teens, independence hits big time and parents have a whole new set of worries.
So, to survive and thrive—learn to say no. Are the demands on you something you “need” or are they something you want? This applies to both work and home.
But neither would be defined as “basic.” What is basic is understanding your goals, what gives you meaning, what drives you and makes you feel most alive, what your strengths and weaknesses are, and how you can enhance the former and make the latter irrelevant, understanding yourself and whether or not you want to lead. Learning about these things are the basics, the necessary conditions for a successful career and life. Understanding both business and technology can be important or not depending on how you answer the first few questions.
I’m not sure this qualifies as a “skill, ” but I believe you have to be willing to take risks to get ahead. Throughout my career, I’ve purposely avoided getting trapped in any particular role. Along the way, I’ve taken the opportunity to learn as much as I can and develop new skills that have helped me grow.
I think it’s this ability to see the big picture and plan strategically that has been the most essential to my career.
The slump has hurt our business, along with other technology companies. While we just completed a quarter with record revenues, margins have been under considerable pressure as there is too much industry capacity, and customers are hurting so much that they are putting tremendous pressure on suppliers to reduce costs, none of which has been good for profits.
On the other hand, our company has performed better than most of our customers’ so we aren’t complaining too much, and we have generated a lot of cash during this period.
We don’t see much evidence of improvement anyway, but business is pretty stable. Telecom markets continue to be very weak. We aren’t planning for an improvement in end markets for the remainder of this year.
It’s all about productivity-producing more for less. Any state, nation, global firm could help raise the whole boat with output. This is the history since the native Americans. (Saratoga, CA)
I need a job! (Kansas City, KS)
In our research for our book, The Five Patterns of Extraordinary Careers, we sought to understand the factors that influence the value of talent, and one result of our work was an index that we have called the Human Capital Markets Index (HCMI). The index tracks the value-and therefore the attractiveness-of talent in a particular market. Our analysis showed, for example, that in the aggregate U.S. economy, the value of talent has increased multi-fold since 1970 and peaked in 2000, only to fall precipitously in the past three years.
The bad news is that due to layoffs, job insecurity, and the decline of new opportunities, many people feel less valuable than ever before. Unfortunately they are significantly less valuable since the peak. But as the saying goes, everything is relative. The good news is that, despite the recent downturn, you are likely to be more valuable than you think in the future. Looking out to the year 2020, we expect the value of executive talent to grow appreciably, even if substantial volatility continues. Many forces at work support this: demographics, underlying demand and growth, the power of productivity-enhancing technology, and the increasing role of intellectual capital in business today. You can assess the long-term attractiveness of any sector by looking at each of these.
Healthcare, for example, will benefit from a stable to shrinking supply of professionals, and dramatic increase in demand driven by the aging of the population over the next twenty years. Sectors undergoing great change, such as those deregulating, will also place a premium on talent. No sector is immune from underlying demand, but different sectors are influenced by economic pressures in different ways.
Some sectors, such as advertising and consumer spending, are cyclical with the economy. Other sectors such as basic materials are less cyclical. More specifically, health care is driven more by demographics, pharmaceuticals is driven more by R&D breakthroughs, and defense is driven by government spending and geopolitical events. The key is to make a thoughtful assessment of the attractiveness of different industries using a variety of factors.
Since you don’t mention what type of business you are thinking of starting, it’s difficult to refer you to groups that can be of assistance. NAWBO (the National Association of Business Women) can be a good place to start. The local Chamber of Commerce is another source.
Check out both your city newspaper with business section and in many metropolitan cities, there is likely to be a Business Journal. It’s common for them to highlight the fastest growing businesses on an annual basis. For women, they often have a special section on women business owners. Either way, you have names of successful people, some who may have a business that could benefit from yours or one that has similarities. The Internet is a great resource to find these. Then call and ask for an appointment.
In the book, Lessons from the Top, that I co-authored in 1999, we identified, interviewed, and profiled the most successful business leaders in America—everyone from Bill Gates of Microsoft, Michael Dell of Dell, and Lou Gerstner of IBM, to Fred Smith of FedEx, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, and Shelly Lazarus of Ogilvy & Mather. Some other business leaders who I would add to that list include Terry Semel of Yahoo!, Paul Pressler, of Gap Inc., Steve Burke of Comcast, and A.G. Lafley of Procter & Gamble. The traits that great leaders share are that they 1) Live with integrity and lead by example, 2) Develop winning strategy, 3) Build a great management team, 4) Develop a flexible, responsive, and highly motivated organization, and 5) Tie the strategy, operations, and culture together with reinforcing management, measurement, and information systems. In addition, from an interpersonal point of view, the best leaders—as I mentioned in a question earlier—are those who care more about the organization they are leading and those who they work with than about themselves. As author Jim Collins says, it’s not that they don’t have egos, they do. It’s just that their ego is tied up in building a great, enduring company.
The list hasn’t really changed, with the possible exception that international skills (languages, experience living overseas, etc) have become more important. The skills are the usual ones—outside of job specific skills—and include the ability to communicate well, to be a team player, to show relentless curiosity, and to have an ability to grow and change.
That said, being a leader takes guts. You have to be willing to step up to a challenge and not afraid to take the nay-sayers on. You have to be willing to bend, and in some cases, break the old rules of the workplace, of your predecessor. The great value that women bring to the workplace in their forms of leadership is multiple. Women have learned that leading from behind works—interact and consult with people you are responsible to; be able to listen closely and clearly as all speak. Leadership comes from example (yours) and directing others. If all a group hears, “I, I, I….” your leadership is dead in the water.
Good leaders aren’t threatened by ideas generated around them and from any level. They encourage input from others, coaching and motivating them to being involved and achieving what they envision. Leaders are human—it’s imperative that they tell their team when they do great . . . and when they screw up.
J
At EA, we’re blessed with a team of nearly 4,000 employees who are very, very smart. The challenge here is to have us all pull in the same direction to achieve the big things we need to in order to continue to get better and meet the high demands of our shareholders and of ourselves. This means a huge amount of communication. When our people feel like they have been heard and truly understand what we all need to do to win, we succeed as a company. Last year, I was very happy when Fortune Magazine, The Times of London and other publications voted EA one of the best places to work in the world.
I’m a high-tech worker, well educated, skilled in the latest technologies, and in my early 40’s. Because it is easier than several years ago to find high-tech workers, my employer is demanding work hours and on-call rotation, which leave me with precious little free time for my family or other personal business. I want my life back! I hear this workload backlash from every co-worker and from acquaintances at other firms both large and small.
When the economy gets rolling again, companies like mine—which take excessive advantage of the law of supply-and-demand now—won’t be pleased with the turnover. I plan to participate in the job change process. In the tech workplace, turnover can be a insurmountable roadblock to new product introductions, timely product deliveries, service improvements, or corporate expansion, and hence profits. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. (Minneapolis, MN)
Get some good experience. Go to work for a highly regarded company where you can learn good skills, work overseas, and work on improving your skills.
Recently, I wrote an article in my column ,“Career Moves,” for the Denver Business Journal. I referred to the recent hiring of Chelsea Clinton by the consulting firm of McKinsey & Co. at a six-figure salary. Granted she’s smart—a graduate of Stanford University and Oxford—but where is her “real life” corporate experience? As an employer seeking consulting services, thanks, but no thanks. The former first daughter’s most valuable asset is her pedigree.
An employer is not a parent—it is not going to stand by you and take care of you forever.
Your boss is first and foremost your boss, not your friend.
Loyalty is redefined—you do the work, the employer pays you. It may not need your work tomorrow.
Generally speaking, an MBA is not a
In addition, just as a stint in the military builds lifelong bridges and friendships, so too does the intense two-year experience of an MBA. The relationships and networks that are built from an MBA program are a key part of the value proposition and more importantly, they create the richness of experience.
Finally, some of the most important skills in the marketplace have to do with teamwork and communications. Having team projects, field study opportunities, presentation and class participation requirements, and the interpersonal dynamics associated with a class or section, you will develop skills far beyond accounting, finance, marketing, and operations.
I personally would rather have someone come to me with a variety of experiences, and if a company is growing in a direction that demands further education of its employees, then seek it at that time. Some will pay for additional training and education.
I got my MBA in 1980 and my DBA in 1990. Each of degrees was sought when my business was in a major shift, and in one case, crisis. Because I was able to enter a program that encouraged me to use the business as a laboratory, everything I learned I was able to immediately apply.
Would having my doctorate have helped when my partner embezzled money that I became personally responsible for? Most likely not.
Depending on your career path, you may need degrees up front, or you may be able to acquire them along the way.
Sometimes I think we put too much emphasis on degrees and not enough on real-world experience. (Raleigh, NC)
Let me give you one example. Say you are a financial manager in a heavily sales driven company. If you understand that this is what drives the company’s results, think about ways that your work, analyses, or activities can support the sales effort. Which clients or segments are most profitable? Can you help develop a new financial information system that will make the sales force or sales management more effective? Build bridges across your company so that your internal network is more robust.
In addition to specific professional skills, including industry experience and functional expertise, the most important and therefore marketable skills are intangible interpersonal skills. In the interconnected world that all of us work in, skills such as flexibility, adaptability, listening skills, empathy, responsiveness, teamwork, and communications are more important than ever before.
We have a good product, but the labor force (which I am a part of) doesn’t seem to have a clue just how important it is to put out 110%—especially in hard times. Many people give less than their best and now is not the time for that. (Rockford, IL)
One thing I cannot emphasize enough is for the candidate to invest time to really understand the company and industry they want to work in. If you want to work for the New York Yankees, I suggest you learn everything about the Yankees, their current players all the way back to Babe Ruth. Study what you can about their management, their financial position and their challenges. If you want to work in the game business, go out and play the games, get good at them, study the competition and the technology and, of course, learn all that you can about the company you are to interview with. If you know your stuff, it will show in both your questions and your answers.
In our forthcoming book,
Our business community has lost sight of what produces success. Effective management, cost controls and face-to-face contact can never be replaced by “off-the-shelf programs,” “out-of-the-box-thinking” and, of course, “business solutions.”
The greatest business advice I ever received was from my father: “A salesman who covers a chair instead of a territory, always remains on the bottom.” If we keep looking for excuses, we will find them; the key is to go out and get the business, don’t wait for it to find you. (Wichita, KS)
Some women take exception when I say this, but what holds many women back is sometimes themselves. It is not uncommon for women to cover all bases. If a parent, even with a spouse or partner, she usually does the majority of the domestic duties. She works long and hard hours, and it doesn’t matter if she works for someone else or is her own boss. She is Superwoman . . . and she is super exhausted.
If a woman wants to be successful, she has to prioritize. She can’t do it all . . . at least, all at the same time. If the goal in business is to be successful—very successful—then she has to concentrate on making that happen. Knowing and understanding the competition; accumulating the needed funds to grow the business; having the physical and mental energy to commit to its success; and the moxie to know what works, is working and what doesn’t. This means she needs help—on the domestic side, and if she has kids, there too. Forget about being the taxi driver and the gourmet cook.
Success can also be defined as merely making enough money to cover business expenses and pay a decent salary. That can be achieved with lots of work and time or a fraction of it.
In each downturn of the economy, as a business executive, I have beefed up the sales department and marketing. This has taken us to the next level of business, as most companies seem to cut back on sales staff and marketing. We have not had a lay-off in 25 years. (Keokuk, IA)
I work as a sales manager for a medical supply company. What we have continued to focus on is micro-managing our services to our customers. Service, Service, and more Service.
The days of easy money are gone; our mindset has served us well. Our staff and team leaders keep a close track on the satisfaction of our most important assets: our customer base and customer satisfaction.
Thinking outside the so-called “box,” our company has taken it to the next level: “Forward Thinking.” We monitor all our resources, and track the company’s successes and recover quickly from costly mistakes.
Back to basics, we make our money the old-fashioned way in the modern world! (Atlanta, GA)