Monday, February 18, 2008

Rules for a Turn-Around - (the Drucker Suggestions)

I'm reading "The Daily Drucker" for 2008. It is 365 days of various comments, suggestions and introspective things from the late Peter F.Drucker.

Here is what he says about Turn-Around efforts (I seem to be drawn to them)

1. Abandonment of the things that do not work, the things that have never worked, the things that have outlived their usefulness and their capacity to contribute.

2. Concentration on the things that do work, the things that produce results, the things that improve the organization's ability to perform.

3. Analysis of the half-successes, the half-failures.

Drucker, P. (2004) The Daily Drucker. New York: Harper Business.


I see these as pretty self evident. Unfortunately organizations seem to hang on to the battles of yesterday, the memories of the past and all the meetings and organizational structure that go with it!

I'll post more on this subject later.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Development Plan - Critical or Waste of Time?

Currently I'm working on some career development items and I kept bumping into the fact that we have no formal long-term career development plan proceedure. This really surprised me because I always created my own ( what I wanted to do and how I would achieve it). So I set out to do some research on the subject.

There is quite a lot of information out there on the subject but all was pretty "over the top". I finally settled on creating my own format again based off these ideas. It seems many companies have job rotation programs or "experienced commercial leadership program" formats for a select few. But none of these answer the question of what happens to a person who is eventually identified as having potential but is not a part of any such formal job rotation program (none exist at my company)?

So I began sketching out this plan and it really opened my eyes to the dirty little secret these days. Once you get someone good on your team you don't want to promote them ( so that they go on to someone else's team!). Companies are so tapped for people in this era of downsizing that nobody wants to give up their best people. I experienced this firsthand. Well, I'm going out on a limb here because holding someone back can't be good for the business - I've just got to put this person on a faster track. The company will benefit even if I have to work without them. I've heard people continually preach that "you invest all this time in them and then they go and leave". I am convinced that some people deserve even more investment. Companies shouldn't look at it as money wasted but rather money invested ( and returned while that person works here). Ultimately if your company stinks and the person moves on - who is the bad guy? He or she for moving on or you for not improving your company to make it attractive to talented workers?

That is a tremendous risk but ultimately in a knowledge-intensive industry like mine ( engineered / formulated chemical systems ) people are the assets that generate all the return! Products don't invent themselves nor do they make or sell themselves. People do. Good people.

I'm banking on it........I'll post more on the subject when I get it finished.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Is the world flat?

I'm trying to get back into the posting routine but things keep tearning me away. I've been traveling a great deal for work and working my way through some good books and podcasts while at my second home ( that would be in airports!).

These days I'm reading Thomas L. Friedman's book "The World Is Flat". It is pretty good and since I work for a global chemical company, I can really relate to many of the trends. Since my market segment focuses on the prototype and design fields, I see the power that technology has given to people in this decentralized world we live in.

In fact, I work in virtual teams with people I've never actually met ( or met only once or twice perhaps). That is going to be the "Norm" as far as I can see for the future. In fact, my MBA classmates all connect virtually as well.

I think technology as a "flattener" is completely underrated by most companies. Perhaps there is a lesson in that for all of us?