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Executive Times |
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Volume
7, Issue 7 |
July, 2005 |
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ã
2005 Hopkins and Company, LLC Note
re: links---certain hyperlinks assume that you are registered as a subscriber
to the site. If you are not a subscriber to certain sites, the links will fail.
If you register, the links should work. Also, certain hyperlinks expire and
may not be available when you try to go to the site. Who?
Stories in the press in recent weeks
delivered a consistent sledgehammer message about something obvious and true:
the most important decisions executives make are people decisions. As you
read the stories we’ve selected on this topic, think about the people
decisions that you’ll make this summer, or the ones that you should make. Is
yours the best team to produce your planned results? Do all members of your
team have the experience, talent and motivation to work together to achieve
success? Think also about the decisions that others may make about you. Are
you the best person to be performing your current role? What progress have
you made so far this year on meeting the challenges you and your organization
face? Fifteen new
books are rated in this issue, beginning on page 5. Two books are highly
recommended with a four-star rating; nine books are recommended with three
stars; and four are mildly recommended with two star ratings, a normal
distribution. Visit our 2005 bookshelf at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2005books.html
and see the rating table explained as well as explore links to all books
we’re reading or considering this year. Thirty one new books were added to
the “shelf of possibility” during June, leading us to fall further behind in
our triage effort to select the 15 books we read and review each month. For
your summer reading, there’s plenty to choose from, but if there’s something
missing from the bookshelf that you think we should be considering, or if
there’s a book lingering on the “shelf of possibility” that you think we
should read and review, let us know by sending a message to books@hopkinsandcompany.com.
The editors of
Fortune continue to celebrate their
75th anniversary with special features, and we highly recommend
reading the June 27 issue titled, “How To Make Great Decisions.” (http://www.fortune.com/fortune/fortune75/articles/0,15114,1071164,00.html)
When asked what surprises he found when asked to reexamine his “best company”
research through the lens of decision-making, author of Built to
Last and Good to
Great Jim Collins said, “We tend to think that decisions are very much
about ‘what.’ But when I look at my research notes and I look at interview
transcripts from the executives we’ve interviewed, one theme that comes
through is that their greatest decisions were not ‘what’ but ‘who.’ They were
people decisions. … Fundamentally, the world is uncertain. Decisions are
about the future and your place in the future when that future is uncertain.
So what is the key thing you can do to prepare for that uncertainty? You can
have the right people with you.” Each
executive needs to decide who is “right” for a particular organization. The
process of thinking about placing the right people in the right roles will
lead to improved results.
We read an
interesting perspective by Daniel H.
Pink (author of Free
Agent Nation recommended in the July 2001
issue of Executive
Times and of A Whole
New Mind on our current bookshelf) in the June 4 issue The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/04/opinion/04pink.html)
relating to new graduates. “Commencement speakers have long offered
graduating seniors the same warm and gooey career advice: Do what you love.
And graduates have long responded the same way: They've listened carefully,
nodded earnestly, and gone out and become accountants. No surprise. On every
day except graduation day, young people are taught that their futures depend
not on following their bliss, but on mastering dutiful (and less lovable)
abilities like crunching numbers and following rules.” This year, according
to Pink the advice may be accurate, and may be followed. “In an overstocked
marketplace, businesses can no longer crank out pallets of identical widgets.
They must create customized, intriguing, even beautiful products, services
and experiences. How do you do this? You need employees who possess not only
technical ability but also a sense of curiosity, aesthetics and, yes,
joyfulness.” Pink concludes that the way for graduates to survive in today’s
market is by doing work they love. Executives with jobs that certain
graduates will love may tap into the opportunity to have a successful career
start off in the right direction. Organizations that don’t receive the
refreshing perspectives of newly minted graduates will forego the opportunity
to see work through fresh eyes. What jobs in your organization provide particular
attraction to new graduates? What contact have you made with the new
graduates who have joined your organization this summer? What can you learn
from them? How attractive have you made your organization to the right
graduates? What’s the compelling reason for them to do what they love for you
as compared to others? Energized Few executives
would turn away from experienced, energized and motivated workers. Why is it,
then, that we read in the cover story, “Old. Smart.
Productive” in the June 27 issue of Business
Week (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_26/b3939001_mz001.htm)
that, “The Society for Human Resource
Management … says 59% of members surveyed don’t actively recruit older
workers and 65% don’t do anything specific to retain older workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found in
1995, the last time it looked, that workers aged 55 and up got only one-third
as many hours of formal training as workers 45 to 54. …As Urban Institute senior fellow C. Eugene Steuerle
told the House Ways and Means
Committee in May: ‘People in their late 50s, 60s and 70s have now become
the largest underutilized pool of human resources in the economy.’” Organizations who neglect this labor pool
are likely to suffer. Those who think of older workers as tired or lacking in
stamina should reflect on the story in this article of Emma Shulman, who, at age 92 works 50
hours a week at the NYU School of
Medicine. “Her boss, Steven H.
Ferris, dreads the day she decides to retire: ‘We’d definitely have to
hire two or three people to replace her. … Complains Shulman:
‘One of my problems is excess energy, which drives me nuts.’” Wise executives
will look to remove those obstacles that tell experienced older workers to
get lost. When
you’re searching for the right people for your organization, how wide do you
cast your recruiting net? How well-represented are older workers in your
organization? Do your policies and programs create incentives to work or to
retire? How effectively are you utilizing your experienced employees? Are you
open to the possibility that energy to do a job can be present or absent at
any age? Infrastructure How effective is your infrastructure when it comes to the
creation and maintenance of intellectual capital? Do the people who work in
your organization receive all the tools they need to succeed? Does their
collaboration lead to the creation of value? Is talent attracted to your
organization because of your infrastructure? Makeover To what extent does what others wear influence your
judgments about them? How important is appearance in your decisions about
people? Is what you wear at work appropriate? Are you ready to listen to the
advice of an image consultant or a personal shopper? Are you a candidate for
a makeover? Follow-up
Here are selected
updates on stories covered in prior issues of Executive Times: Ø
We
called attention in the May 2005
issue of Executive Times to the
interesting life of CEO Phil Purcell in leading Morgan Stanley
during a time of corporate civil war and opined that whether he would be a
casualty of that war was unclear, but what was clear involved removing
distractions and improving performance. Purcell announced (http://www.morganstanley.com/cgi-bin/morganstanley.com/pressroom.cgi?action=load&uid=418)
on June 13 that he plans to retire once a successor is named, saying, in
part, “It has become clear that in light of the continuing personal attacks
on me, and the unprecedented level of negative attention our Firm -- and each
of you -- has had to endure, that this is the best thing I can do for you,
our clients and our shareholders. You have all done an extraordinary job
serving our clients despite the almost daily distractions. Your dedication
and commitment to clients have been clear for all to see. I feel strongly
that the attacks are unjustified, but unfortunately, they show no signs of abating.
A simple reality check tells us that people are spending more time reading
about the acrimony and not enough time reading about the outstanding work
that is being accomplished by our firm. … let’s get back to work.” Ø
In
the April
2001 issue of Executive Times, we had a quote
from former Morgan Stanley executive John Mack reassuring employees
who were apprehensive about Dean Witter’s Phil Purcell becoming CEO to
be patient, that “cream always rises to
the top.” Mack and scores of other Morgan Stanley executives left the firm
while Purcell was leading it. In a stroke of irony, the Morgan Stanley board
is considering Mack as successor to Purcell, and that decision may be made as
we go to press with this issue. In 2001, we thought Mack got creamed. Looks
like he may have been right all along. Legacy
Integrated While his
co-workers were on vacation in August, 1958, Jack S. Kilby, a new employee of Texas Instruments who had not yet
earned vacation leave, stayed in the lab and invented the microchip,
technically, the first monolithic integrated circuit, and in so doing, he
changed the world. His invention laid the conceptual and technical foundation
for the entire field of modern microelectronics. It would be hard to find a
place not impacted by the integrated circuit. In late June, Kilby died in Latest
Books Read and Reviewed: (Note: readers of the web version of Executive Times
can click on the book covers to order copies directly from amazon.com. When you order through these links, Hopkins
& Company receives a small payment from amazon.com. Click on the title to read the review or
visit our 2005 bookshelf at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2005books.html).
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ã
2005 Hopkins and Company, LLC. Executive
Times is published monthly by Hopkins and Company, LLC at the
company’s office at To subscribe to Executive
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Hopkins & Company Ø Coaching:
helping individuals or teams find ways to do more of what works for them, and
ways to avoid what's ineffective Ø Consulting:
helping executives solve business problems, especially in the areas of
strategy, service to market, performance and relationship management Ø Communications:
helping executives improve their written and oral messages To engage the services of Hopkins &
Company, call Steve Hopkins at 708-466-4650 or visit www.hopkinsandcompany.com. |
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