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February 27, 2006
Corporate Values meet Employee Cynicism
A good interview with McGill's Sandra Cha and HBS' Amy Edmondson in HBS' Working Knowledge newsletter this week on corporate values and the risk of employee cynicism:
Q: In this firm or others, can such conditions be lessened or avoided? Are these potential risks at most other organizations?Posted by PJ at 02:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A: One of the next steps with our research is to look at leader strategies that reduce the chances of becoming seen as hypocritical. We theorize—but still need to test the ideas—that employees are less likely to jump to and maintain this harsh conclusion about leaders when leaders do four things:
(i) Explicitly acknowledge the tension among multiple aims. Sometimes values bump up against one another—consider the cases in which leaders need to manage tradeoffs between maximizing profits and investing in employees in a given year. L'Oréal manages such tensions by explicitly assigning responsibility for different values to specific people. Senior managers focus on short-term goals; HR is responsible for reminding them about long-term goals such as developing employees. These different foci are meant to trigger continuous dialogue about the tensions, leading to creative solutions.
(ii) Clarify the values' appropriate meanings, but not restrict their scope excessively. The problems at Maverick began with employees' interpretations of the corporate values, which were broader than the CEO intended, causing them to interpret some of his actions as breaching the values. Obviously, greater agreement about the values' meanings would have helped to prevent their reactions. At the same time, we believe that leaders should not clamp down hard on how employees interpret corporate values, because it is in the process of personalizing abstract values—of finding unique personal meanings—that employees find inspiration.
(iii) Proactively "give sense" around actions that could be seen as values-threatening. When another person takes an action that harms us, we tend to automatically assume that the other person is bad and has negative intentions. When employees witness a leader acting in ways that could be seen as threatening cherished values, they are quick to conclude that he or she is a hypocrite. But leaders who take the time to carefully explain the reasons behind negative decisions (which are often invisible to employees) may be able to show employees the ways in which they are trying to sustain the values, while also managing business realities.
(iv) Create a sense of psychological safety. Employees need to feel that it is safe for them to express negative views about leaders. Leaders can make this possible by seeking regular feedback through anonymous surveys or other safe forums. Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (also sold as Edy's) is a fantastic example of the last two strategies. In the late 1980s, several employees accused Dreyer's leaders of being hypocrites who were not implementing the company's employee-centered values in practice. In response, senior executives began working hard to do a better job of supporting the values, conducting and responding to regular employee surveys about the values. Then in 1998, Dreyer's faced a number of serious challenges simultaneously. Among them: Competitors were engaging in aggressive discounting, the price of butterfat had skyrocketed, and the CEO was coping with a brain tumor. Dreyer's senior executives decided that they needed to restructure the company financially. The day after they announced the restructuring to the financial community, they were on planes all over the country, meeting face-to-face with every employee to explain the situation and the changes that would have to take place. Rather than feeling bitter or disenchanted, employees rallied around the company. Their efforts helped Dreyer's to recover from the toughest business climate it had faced in twenty years to become the leading U.S. ice cream producer today, with over 1.5 billion dollars in sales in 2004.
February 26, 2006
A Day of Work, Years of Planning, £50m Payoff
London's Independent newspaper ran an exceptionally detailed article on Saturday looking into the £50m bank robbery that took place a week ago in the UK. The Tonbridge Heist shows the huge amount of planning and detail work that goes in to something of this scale. You don't just get up in the morning, decide to rob a bank over beakfast, and look around for a ski mask. The work takes months, and the details can kill you. An excerpt from the article:
Dumping the money was the smartest thing the robbers could have done. When police found bank notes worth up to £15m in the back of an abandoned white van on Friday, it was easy to imagine that the gang responsible for the Tonbridge heist had left the money after panicking or being disturbed. But as police made two arrests yesterday, and an emotional statement was read out on behalf of the family kidnapped in the raid, another theory emerged.Posted by PJ at 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Three highly professional south London gangs are now the main suspects and, money-laundering experts believe, leaving some of the loot behind may be another example of the robbers' meticulous attention to detail.
If the notes discovered in the van had been newly printed, they would be very hard to get rid of. "It would be very foolish to try to spend them or deposit them in a bank account in this country," said Prem Sikka, professor of accounting at Essex University. "The serial numbers would make them easy to trace."
Far better to abandon them and carry off only used ones that had been in circulation already and would be untraceable - and which may have been worth up to £35m on their own.
February 18, 2006
When Marketing Goes Bad
BMW seems to be striking out with their most recent marketing tactic: "BMW Magazine," a $20-year, quarterly magazine that just launched their first issue. While I certainly laud them for the attempt, they're completely failing in the balance between blatant propaganda marketing and common interest pieces. Take for instance the closing paragraph of an article on the architect Tom Kundig:
Success brought a flood of commissions. Although he makes a typical, West Coast, laid-back impression, Kundig is currently working on 20 projects at once. "It's the most I can manage," he confesses. What would Tom Kundig really like to do? Does he have a dream project? He doesn't need to think long about the answer. "I'd like to build a quiet place, a house for meditation and reflection. A chapel, maybe a monastery." And to accompany him on a long drive in his M3, he would like to have Stephen Hawking, the physicist as a passenger.
What also concerns me is that BMW has also launched a audio books program. Can you imagine some of the potential content?
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore except my BMW M5 with 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.
or
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean,
They were smart enough to be willing,
To buy their BMW sight unseen.
or even
The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked THROUGH them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not service--she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll-- I'll-- I'll take away your 325xi for a week!
(PS-Apologies to Melville, Shakespeare, and Twain)
(PPS-Apologies to BMW. I love you guys. Really. If my mad old lady took away my 325 for a week, I'd cry. Hard.)
Posted by PJ at 09:18 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBackFebruary 17, 2006
Twilight of the Blogs
In an interesting article in Slate, Daniel Gross asks if blogs as a business are on the decline:
As a cultural phenomenon, blogs are in their gangly adolescence. Every day, thousands of people around the world launch their blogs on LiveJournal or the Iranian equivalent. But as businesses, blogs may have peaked. There are troubling signs—akin to the 1999 warnings about the Internet bubble—that suggest blogs have just hit their top.Posted by PJ at 04:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 15, 2006
Adjusting to the Multi-Gen Workforce
An interesting piece from Fast Company this month called Scenes From the Culture Clash, looking at multi-generational workplaces and how companies are adjusting to the influx of youg workers:
A handful of other companies are making profound changes to harness the talents of the new workforce. Deloitte & Touche USA, the accounting and consulting firm with 32,000 U.S. employees, heard from its gen-Y workers that brutal audit schedules, in which teams had to camp out at client companies for weeks or months at a time, seemed superfluous in an age when client records are digitized. They felt they could get the same work done remotely. Deloitte's clients told the firm that they didn't care whether auditors were on-site or not, as long as the quality of the work didn't suffer. After a successful test in its New York office in which employees had the choice to work off-site, Deloitte is rolling the program out nationally over the next 18 months.
It's always fascinating to look at how companies adjust to changes like this. This is especially true now given the impact that technology is having on us, and in how we think about work and play and where those two have to take place.
February 07, 2006
10Q's with James Hackett
You're going to think I'm a really weird dude, but I'm envious of the guy who works the check-in desk at a fine hotel. Every once in a while there's a mix-up in somebody's reservation, but they know exactly what needs to be done. They have all the tools to do it. They work in a lovely setting, and their days begin and end on schedule. Have you ever looked at the faces of the people who check you in? Very few look like they're having sleepless nights.
An interesting 10 questions with James Hackett, CEO of Steelcase, Inc.
Posted by PJ at 07:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBackFebruary 06, 2006
"Bring Out Your Dead..."
Millions of people fly on thousands of airplanes every day. Over time, those airplanes need to be replaced. But what do you do with the old ones? You send them to an airplane graveyard in Southern California.
Anyone looking to start an airforce?
Posted by PJ at 08:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBackTitle IX Didn't Make It Here...
Ever wonder how much college sports coaches are paid? And the difference between male and female? If so, here is some fascinating reading for you: Women's Basketball Coaches Association Division 1 Women's Basketball Coaches Survey Report 2000-2001. Table Three is very interesting, looking at salary information:
1994/1995
Male Coach Salary: $88,626
Female Couch Salary: $55,828
Difference: $32,798
1997/1998
Male Coach Salary: $98,800
Female Couch Salary: $69,600
Difference: $29,200
1999/2000
Male Coach Salary: $118,276
Female Couch Salary: $87,714
Difference: $30,562
2000/2001
Male Coach Salary: $115,586
Female Couch Salary: $86,119
Difference: $29,467
...as is Table 9, operating budgets:
1994/1995
Men’s: $186,000
Women’s: $123,000
Difference: $63,000
1997/1998
Men’s: $187,000
Women’s: $152,000
Difference: $35,000
1999/2000
Men’s: $204,809
Women’s: $173,162
Difference: $31,647
2000/2001
Men’s: $193,299
Women’s: $163,769
Difference: $29,540
Some other interesting data points, not listed in the report:
1. Joe Paterno, the coach at Penn State, makes about $500,000. President Spanier makes about the same.
2. Pat Summitt, the head women's basketball coach at Tennessee, makes $824,500 base salary. She is the second highest paid women's coach in the US (by only $500)... but only the third highest paid coach at Tennessee.
3. University of Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder made $370,055 in FY04. Her assistant coach, Jennifer Fitzgerald, made $88,535. The men's head coach, Steve Alford, made $946,175. His assistant coach, Greg Lansing, made $103,143. The Governor? He made $107,482.
4. Geno Auriemma, the UConn women's coach, is the highest paid in the country at $825,000. Jim Calhoun, the men’s coach at UConn, makes $1,400,000.
Rinse and Repeat
Lego isn't alone in looking to their customers for innovation. "Lush Cosmetics is a fast-growing $100 million brand, thanks to founder Mark Constantine's contrary product-development philosophy: Innovate like mad, then start over again."
To keep fresh innovations pouring in, Lush often turns to its customers for input. At its Web site, Lushies swarm the company's forums by the thousands to chat online with Constantine and his staff. They flirt with him, insult him, and debate him -- yes, about soap. (Long, curse-laden posts about shampoo are not uncommon.) Last year, Lush picked a group of forum members to actually help manufacture products. It flew them in, put them up in a B&B, took them out for dinner -- the works.Posted by PJ at 08:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 04, 2006
Outsourced Innovation at LEGO
Great WIRED article on oursourced innovation at LEGO here.
But the boldest part of the Mindstorms overhaul is Lego's decision to outsource its innovation to a panel of citizen developers. Relying on the MUP is a gamble that Lego hopes will lead not only to a better product but also to a tighter, more trusting bond between corporation and customer.Posted by PJ at 10:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 01, 2006
Whoops.
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, a Mass. newspaper which shares a computer system with the Boston Globe (both of whom are owned by the New York Times), has inadvertently released close to 240,000 Globe and T&G subscriber credit card and bank routing records. The records, accidently printed by employees on two separate occasions, were apparently placed into the recycling bin at the T&R, which then used that paper to bundle the Sunday edition prior to distribution.
Posted by PJ at 10:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
