How Ford Survived the Economy

Ford seems to get it in a way that is rare and refreshing. They reward rank-and-file employees, manage by walking around, and cultivate diversity. In concert with those principles, they rebuilt their business from the product, up.

Given their situation, it would have been far easier to rely purely on financial engineering. Instead, they chose to lead, to inspire, to include, to trust …

… and it seems to have worked.

There’s a lesson there, methinks.

How Ford Survived the Economy « theurbanwallstreet.com | the hip-hop of business.

Five Lessons from 2010 Worth Repeating — Without Repeating 2010 – Rosabeth Moss Kanter – Harvard Business Review

Occasionally, I feel compelled to add something to the Bizantics blog without humore or satire, particularly when it is especially poignant.

This is one of those moments.

Five Lessons from 2010 Worth Repeating — Without Repeating 2010 – Rosabeth Moss Kanter – Harvard Business Review.

On-The-Job Training

I recently visited my daughter at the site of her first job out of college, teaching 7^th graders in a school north of New York City. Excited as I was to see her, she was clearly exasperated by the events of the day, and began emoting like an auctioneer. In the middle of her carefully planned lesson, a student decided to lift his shirt and squirt anti-bacterial soap down his pants.  Despite his obvious interest in bodily hygiene, he was awarded a free trip to the principal’s office.

They can’t train you for moments like that.

The trouble is, “they” often don’t train you at all for your first job. My daughter has often complained about that fact as a first-year teacher. Yes, she is lucky to have a job at all, and she knows it. Yes, she has an education degree from a top-rated institution, even if her concentration was on lower grade levels. Yes, she did both student- and substitute-teaching prior to landing this gig, but those rolls resemble baby-sitting more than teaching. So, when she landed a full-time position a grade level she was unfamiliar with, it was akin to being pushed out of a nest, nestled on the branches of a redwood.

Now, my daughter is no shrinking violet. The very fact that she teaches 7^th grade proves that God has a sense of humor. I have come to learn that one of her favorite teenage past times was climbing on the roof of her middle school at night and sneaking into the building. She would then wander the empty halls, doing constructive things like coating the basketballs with Vaseline. Adolescent pranks aside, she is not one to complain, and is an incredible self-starter. She played Division I college soccer, held down multiple jobs in-parallel, and still had time for a healthy social life. She was once given the “Optimist Award” by her teammates, and is among the most upbeat and energetic people I know.

Listening to her current plight, I remembered my first job out of college, and the sales training activities that formed the foundation of my career. For example, I spent 2 weeks in my company’s Dallas office, learning from my mentors how to: a.) cheat on my expense reports; b.) identify the hookers at the Marriott bar, and; c.) appreciate big ears on a woman, in a handle-bar kind of way.

Never once did I visit a customer.

When I was not gathering valuable field experience, I studied arcane product catalogs, and met with managers who were as enthusiastic about training as they were about prostrate exams. Occasionally, a supervisor did seem to take joy in the process, like the purchasing manager who said nothing for 10 minutes in order to demonstrate how uncomfortable he could make me.

Similar to my daughter, I was thrust out into the world with little-to-no relevant preparation. After a few months of stumbling blindly, my company hired a “professional” sales trainer. I entered his introductory program enthusiastically, largely ignoring the Darth Vader belt buckle he was sporting. I was equally oblivious to the increasingly adversarial tone of the meeting, along with the fact that our VP of Sales was seated next to him like an old drinking buddy (which he was). Finally, after being peppering the audience with questions about his disjointed presentation, I naively asked Darth if he could write his key points on the chalk board in outline form. Red-faced, he glared menacingly at me for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he growled, “OK, smart guy, I’ll get you for that.” He was consumed by the dark side. Stunned as I was, it dawned on me that he had been making things up all day, and I had exposed him for it. I was embarrassed, dejected, and afraid for my job — all at once. Had anti-bacterial soap been available and within reach, I may have squirted some down the trousers I was shitting in at that very moment.

So, except for the select few college grads who somehow get into a structured, relevant training program, the secret they never tell you is that training often amounts to an infant being tossed into dark water and told to swim …

 …while they poke you with a light saber.

Following the Hurd

I’ve been tracking the case of Mark Hurd, ex-CEO of HP and current co-President of Oracle, like a gaper at a crash site. I don’t want to look, but I can’t help myself. As a guy, a part of me  is inwardly shouting, “You da’ MAN!” while outwardly condemning his behavior as morally bereft. To my female readers, I apologize. Please understand that my inner voice stems from a gender-based reflex, not unlike hitting one with a mallet below the kneecap.

Step away from the mallet.

Over the course of my career, I’ve seen my share of objectionable behavior. For good or bad, I have evolved from being outraged to viewing it as but a piece of a larger puzzle. Some of the best employees I have ever worked with have regular dalliances, and they are somehow able to partition their personal life from work. I won’t say that I don’t judge them for their behaviors. I just don’t judge them completely.

And, let’s face it, everyone is doing it:

• Tiger Woods cheated on his gorgeous Swedish wife. Lots.
• Bill Clinton did it as a standing President, which may only prove how crazy Hillary can make you, but still …
• Mutt Lang cheated on Shania Twain, with her assistant, for God’s sake! Did he not realize how he came by his nickname? Did he not understand that he had hit life’s lottery???
• Brett Favre texted himself into infamy, despite the undying devotion of his beautiful, saintly wife.
• The spouses of Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, and Demi Moore stepped out on them.

I could go on and on…

In March of 2009, Fortune profiled Mr. Hurd, honoring him for his accomplishments at HP, and highlighting his obsession for details and operational efficiency. Apparently, he maintains a spreadsheet that tracks and analyzes his daily tasks. Wouldn’t you just love to get your hands on some of those now?

Not unlike Ms. Fisher, confidence is a dangerous mistress. Clearly, Mr. Hurd’s belief in himself allowed him to scale the corporate ladder, but over-confidence was his undoing. As I’ve said before, it is the rarest of people who can weather great accomplishment and adulation with their humility intact. Not to go all Zen on you, but EVERY moment has two sides … a yin-and-yang, so to speak.

I have to remember that for when this blog gets BIG.

Excerpts from E-Commerce News: Tech Buzz: Winners, Losers, Heroes and Villains of 2010

Perusing the web for material, I came across a year-end articla by Rob Enderle (TechNewsWorld) that highlighted examples of ignorance and arrogance, as well as decency and decisive leadership.

Much as it is cathartic to rail against the “MAN,”  executives should also be recognized  for making hard decisions for the sake of the greater good, whether they be embraced by the rank-and-file or not.

In the end, it’s about doing the right thing.

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Carol Bartz – Heartless Squared

Carol Bartz was ranked as the most highly paid underperforming CEO of the year and ended the year laying off a massive number of employees with a memo that was chilling in its heartlessness. Part of the problem is Yahoo’s (Nasdaq: YHOO) board, which can’t seem to make a good decision to save its life — first passing up a massive financial opportunity to merge with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and then picking a CEO who wasn’t qualified to run the company.

Any of us who have been managers have made bad choices with employees that have to be corrected. Bartz is an example of what can happen if you don’t do it in a timely fashion. Darth Vader would be proud.

HP’s Board – Doing What’s Right

On the positive side, we had HP’s (NYSE: HPQ) board, which was faced with a similar problem and decided to let Mark Hurd go after he crossed a number of lines. He had driven employee loyalty down to historic lows, and he either lied or told the truth so badly that his board didn’t believe him when he defended himsef against claims of harassment and leaking insider information.

Larry Ellison stepped in and raised the stakes but I really doubt it was wise for him to pit Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) against HP so early.

The lesson here is that as painful as it is to step up, it puts the company on a path toward healing and pulls it out of the death spiral.

Brian Dunn – Setting the Example

Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) missed earnings but instead of taking it out on his employees, CEO Brian Dunn praised their work and highlighted improvements in customer satisfaction and other internal store metrics. This kept folks focused on selling and helped him maximize results for the 4th quarter.

Since the problems appeared generally tied to competitive issues against online resellers like Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), it wasn’t his employees’ fault anyway. In the end, leaders take responsibility and take care of their people — they don’t maximize their bonuses at the expense of their folks.

Dunn is an example of how this should be done, making people proud they worked for Best Buy.

Leo Apotheker – Building Loyalty

Over the last several years, the first thing a new CEO would typically do was announce a new layoff or major cut in facilities or benefits. The first major action by HP’s new CEO was to reverse a number of his predecessor’s anti-employee policies and restore some of the salary cuts and benefits. This is a great way to establish loyalty and refocus employees on their jobs and off their resumes.

As you can tell, I’m a big believer in taking care of your people — and we focus so much on folks who don’t do this, I think equal time should be spent talking about CEOs who come through for their folks. HP is once again becoming a great place to work.

Steve Ballmer – Kicking a Little Ass

I had fun last week writing a tongue in cheek open letter to my friend Steve Ballmer. But the truth is that in 2010, he came through for Microsoft and got rid of a couple of the problematic executives and executed sharply in some critical areas.

The most important was marketing, and Kathleen Hall’s team has done incredible work improving Microsoft’s image and the Windows brand. On the stats I’ve seen, the company is actually outperforming Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), and no company does that — let alone Microsoft.

I’m personally pleased with the successes of Windows 7, IE9, Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Kinect, but I’m particularly pleased that Microsoft has taken control of its own brand again.

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The full article can be found at: E-Commerce News: Tech Buzz: Winners, Losers, Heroes and Villains of 2010.

Ten Brands Americans No Longer Love

I think there’s a lesson or two here …

Ten Brands Americans No Longer Love – 24/7 Wall St..

2010 Bizantic Of The Year

Of all the bizarre business antics of 2010, my favorite is the installation of nets at Foxconn’s campus in Shenzen, China, along with the rest of their subsequent PR moves.

Foxconn has not officially acknowledged that the nets were response to the rising number of suicides. Personally, I think the suggestion is absurd. Clearly, these are not suicides nets — they are trampolines, installed to promote esprit de corp.

In a similarly progressive vein, CEO Terry Gou announced at the mid-year shareholders meeting that:

• Half of the 12 suicides were occurred after the story received international attention.  As a result, Gou handed control over “welfare management work” to the Chinese local government, which may chose to block internet coverage for the events.  Suicide IS a dangerous trend, so it’s best not to popularize it by making anyone aware. You know how kids are.
• Foxconn will no longer pay the families of employees who kill themselves.  The new policy, though, ends suicide payouts that could total as much as 10 years worth of salary — which amounts to about $3,000 at current pay levels. There shall be no incentive for suicides. Period. If you want some extra coin, sell an organ like everyone else.
• The company has also started to flee China, where it currently employs over 800,000 people, and is beginning to move production to Vietnam, where citizens will be more appreciative of working for hundreds of dollars a year, and therefore less likely to kill themselves.
• There has also been some suggestion that the company will start to replace employees with robots. Apparently, Mr. Gou has not seen “iRobot.” Instead, he thinks it is Apple’s next product.

All of these progressive moves and statements have improved employee morale dramatically. Just look at these happy faces!

My question is, “Where can I get one of those T-shirts?” because I love Foxconn, too.

12 Signs Signs Arrogance Is Ruining Your Company

I came across an interesting article in Business Week that I felt compelled to comment on. The link to it as follows: http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/dec2010/ca20101220_008468.htm

The comment I left was abbreviated do to work count limitations. Here is the full version, for your reading enjoyment:

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Great article. It’s always nice to see the things you have come to accept intuitively put concisely into print. Still, I can’t help reflecting on why this problem exists with such regularity in the first place. Here are some of my personal thoughts:

1. In general, it takes a maniacal commitment to succeed to attain a leadership position in large corporations. In general, you usually have to endure a lot to reach the executive management level. In the end, though, people with a maniacal commitment to succeed tend to be …. well … maniacs, who are not predisposed to reflection and/or outside guidance.

It is the rarest of leaders who reach great heights with their humility intact. I can think of a few sports examples, such as John Wooden and Mike Kryzewski of basketball coaching fame, but that’s about it.

2. A reward structure that is built around quarterly financial targets will be disproportionately focused on the short-term. Let’s face it — the maniacs at the top want to maintain their financial and social status, and much of that is derived from, “making their numbers.” So, if that’s the way that the score is kept, a company’s focus will be short-term. It’s inevitable.

3. Organizations are increasingly owned-or-influenced by remote entities, creating a management situation that is culturally-and-geographically distant and arrogant. For us survivors of the high-tech electronics evolution, this is a particularly poignant issue. It’s easy to be over-confident when you can readily leverage cheap labor, currency advantages, raw materials, and favorable regulatory environments. Somehow, good fortune makes leaders smart, while bad fortune makes them unlucky.

I’m not just picking on foreign countries and companies here. I think Americans wrote the book on this form of arrogance. We are simply getting our come-uppance now.

In a nutshell, arrogance seems to be the result of structural problems with how our businesses and leadership evolve. Start-ups morph into public companies, with a singular focus on short-term financial performance. Company leaders evolve into corporate royalty, with egos and entitlements to match. And, in one form or another, management becomes further removed from their own employees and businesses.

I’m not saying that arrogance is hopelessly entrenched in our business environment, or that there are not solutions to consider. I’m simply saying that I have to get back to working for my arrogant bosses right now;-)

My Brand of Bizantics

“This is not the time or place for this discussion,” barked the CEO tersely, signaling an end to our debate and, possibly, my career. Our Chief Strategy Office, and my prime antagonist, chattered rapidly in the CEO’s ear, his Cheshire cat grin spreading from ear to ear. A hush came over the over the room. No one in their right mind had the temerity to challenge our CEO. Like many Asian executives, his easy smile was just a thin veil, shrouding a highly-autocratic management style. Our hotel conference room, filled with 50 company executives, went quiet. An electric mix of fear and awe permeated the silence. I, on the other hand, was just feeling awful. I had done it again. All I could do as people filed out for lunch was stare blankly into my laptop.

You would think I would have learned. Over my 30 year career in the technology side of the cable TV industry, I had worked for 13 different companies; some start-ups, some Fortune 100 companies. This was the 3^rd time I had been awarded the title of Vice-President, mostly because I was reasonably well-known in the industry, and had previously worked with several employees of my current company. Still, it was humbling to acknowledge that I had found this job after 9 months of unemployment, parked far too long at the crossroads of “Over-Qualified” and “Desperate-for-One-Last-Chance.” I should have just been happy to be here. I should have just kept my head low, repeating in my head the well-known fraternity pledge mantra, “Thank you, Sir. May I have another?”

 But I didn’t. I never do.

If you met me in real life, you would probably say what everyone says about me. “I can never imagine you getting angry.” I’ve heard that comment often when I first join a company. People say that because I am fundamentally an easy-going guy. I like to please people. I’m not a Type A personality by any stretch of the imagination. Oddly enough, I think that quality contributes to my eventual internal combustion. I take on extra assignments. I try to help my supervisors and my peers, and am often asked to because my depth of experience and varied skill set. Simply put, I am a kind of Swiss Army Knife:  a seasoned salesman with good writing skills and an MBA, who is knowledgeable about network technology to-boot. Early on, I realized that if I was going to spend my career calling on engineers, and I had better be able hang with them, conversationally. I do so well enough to have been thought an engineer myself on occasion.

I resent the accusation.

All kidding aside, I am more of a geek than a salesman. I am fundamentally an introvert. Most salesmen I know are extraverts. They acquire energy from social interactions. For me, they absorb energy. I’m not the classic “glove-and-stomach” sales executive, focused on shaking hands, making friends, and taking customers dinner. Instead, I’m more of a stage performer. I’m the guy who stands at the front of the room, flashing elaborate PowerPoint slides, and holding court for 2 hours. Like the timid actor who transforms on stage, I become someone else. I usually am confident, knowledgeable, and witty. I have stage presence. That gift has won acclaim from both my peers and my supervisors, and provided me with a moderate of level of notoriety in my industry.

Aside from knowledge and experience, certain personal qualities I possess tend to ingratiate me with my customers and supervisors …. at first. Oddly enough, I am sympathetic to the issues of my cable company customers. I know that cable operators are viewed with a loathing reserved only for government officials, but I have always approached them with the words of one B-school marketing professor ringing in my ears. “Customers are fundamentally rational.” It may be the equivalent of having empathy for a serial killer, but it works for me. Even it is just a mental trick, it helps me to connect with my customers, and employers find that valuable. They also appreciate the fact that I operate very well independently. Most employees need a lot of guidance and direction. I don’t. I handle ambiguity well, and I am adept at breaking down complex problems. If there is a void in management guidance or attention, I often fill it.

And these are the seeds of disaster.

Over time, a new informal structure evolves around me. Eventually, I transition from my initial role of “Happy Helper” to the “Go-To” guy on most sales and marketing issues. I acquire more than my share of responsibility, along with the stress that comes with it. And then, invariably, I hit a speed bump. Better said, a nemesis appears, usually in senior management. It’s like going to a baseball game; there’s always that guy your section, rooting for the other team. Loudly. That same guy somehow ends up in a position of influence and authority at the company’s I work for, and he tends to target me. Sometimes he is a peer, but usually he outranks me. In any case, his emergence is like storm clouds on the horizon. Sooner or later, bad weather rolls in, taking the form of a public confrontation. When it occurs, I am simultaneously shocked because I have taken on so much, indignant because I believe myself to be so valuable and high-profile … and afraid that someone has seen through my act as a fish-out-of-water sales executive, despite my stage presence and bluster.

That view might be a little too self-critical.

Vain as it sounds, I am often right about my assessments of the business initiatives I participate in. In fact, I can’t think of one example where, when my employer zigged when I recommended zagging, that it worked out well for the company. OK, maybe just once. And, in almost every case, I had the overwhelming support of my co-workers. I was the front-man for the silent majority. And that’s the point. I have often pondered why others did not either have the courage to speak out against the vocal minority. Do they not have the courage of their convictions? Weren’t we Americans raised to do the right thing, to believe in truth, justice, and the American Way? In our schools, churches, and from most people who set us on the path to adulthood, we hear the refrain, “The truth will set you free.” From the beacons of the business world, such as the renowned management guru Peter Drucker, we are told that, “It is better to do the right thing than to do ‘things’ right.” If you think about it, our entire country was founded on the notion of rebelling against authority.

I digress.

While righteous indignation and liquid courage may work for some, most corporate types are motivated more prominently by their sense of self-preservation. The silent majority is really not made up of wimps; rather it consists of pragmatic folks whose minds are properly focused on one key point: It is far easier to pay one’s bills if you have a regular paycheck. Viewed from another perspective, the vocal minority tends to over-represented in positions of authority for a very logical reason. Think about it. Would you like to work be a CEO, working 80 to 100 hours a week, making constant decisions that affect the wealth and well-being of both investors and employees? Most, I offer, would say, “No.” To tolerate all of that stress, it takes a maniacal commitment to succeed. And that’s just the problem.

People with a maniacal commitment to succeed tend to be … well … maniacs.

So I understand and appreciate those at the top. In fact, they are in many respects no different than the rest of us. We all morph to the extremes. Leaders go from confident to conquerors, while followers go from acolytes to assholes.

Apparently, I haven’t adapted well, and I’m OK with that.

Sound Bites #1

• “Not only am I living off of my expense reports, I’m even  saving a little.” This quote comes from a fellow salesman whose average expense report was $1,000/week higher than his peers. He was subsequently laid off 3 months after making that remark. Go figure.
• “Mine’s bigger.” Said by yours truly to the President of my division, referring to 2 distinctly different proposal requests from the same customer, in a heated debate. Foolishly.
• “I’m just picking the fly shit outta’ the pepper.” Said many times by my friend and mentor BC, on slow days at work. I wish I knew where he got that line, ‘cuz I know he didn’t make it up himself.
• “Creativity is 95% plagiarism.” Said with regularly by my friend JT, the  four-time loser (because he has worked for-or-with me on four separate occasions). I’m 100% sure he ripped that line off.
• “You’re too honest. Lie a little.” – President of a major U.S. consumer electronics company, as a side bar comment to me during a presentation to a leading cable TV company.