Category Archives: Talent

Should You Recession Proof Your Business … or Idiot Proof It?

Industry week recently ran an article on how to “recession proof your business” by three authors that had a rather interesting take on how you go about this. According to the article, you start by identifying the tribes that constitute your business and determining where they are in their sociological progression. If they are in the “life stinks” (stage 1), “my life stinks” (stage 2), or “I’m great” (stage 3) stage — where the latter is said to be the case for 48% of workplace tribes in the U.S., then the consensus (of the authors) is that your business won’t survive the recession.

It’s obvious that a “life stinks” and “my life stinks” mindset is a recipe for disaster. But why is a “I’m great” mentality mindset insufficient? As the author’s note, this is where the theme is “I’m great, and you’re not”, people at this stage have to win, and winning is personal … they’ll out-work, [out-]think and [out-]maneuver their competitors, and the mood that results is a collection of “lone warriors,” wanting help and support and being disappointed that others don’t have their ambition or skill. As I’ve mentioned before, the day of organization man is over … it’s the era of networked person, who’s a team player.

In comparison, a tribe that has reached the “stage 4” mindset, where they believe that “we’re great”, have evolved beyond a loose organization of lone-warrior organization men into a tightly knit organization of cooperative networked persons. As the authors note, they are nimble, innovative, stress-resistant, and adaptable — the qualities that help them do well no matter the circumstances. They align on core values, build strong relationships, and develop plans in real time — the key to the responsiveness needed to navigate the troubled waters of a downturn and the uncertain demand that it brings.

Thus, the authors contend that the best way to “recession proof” your business is to do what it takes to help your team reach “stage 4”. Now I’ll agree that this is a necessary factor for success, and one of the keys to surviving a downturn — but, I hate to say it, it’s not necessarily sufficient. It takes a good team — but this team needs good data, good technology, great support, and resources. If your team doesn’t have good data, how will they make good decisions? If they don’t have the technology they need to capture good data and analyze it in real-time, how will they be able to take action with any confidence? If they don’t have your support, how likely are they to be willing to put their neck on the line when it counts most? But most importantly, if they don’t have the resources, and more importantly, if you don’t have the resources, does it matter?

Innovation, enabled by an innovative team, is the best way to survive a downturn and come out as a market leader, but that team is going to need good systems, good management, and the resources to ride it out. That requires you to be running your company appropriately in the first place — to be making smart long-term decisions on a regular basis and spending the corporate coffers responsibly. If you’ve been following the market, throwing money away like the boom is never going to end, making bad decisions year after year, or acting like an Enron or Boo.com (remember them? — if not, look them up) — in short, running your business like an idiot, then chances are that a great team is not going to save you — because, at this point, there won’t be enough of your company left to save. And when it comes right down to it, if you’ve kept your team free of idiots, there’s a good chance that your teams quickly achieved “stage 4” on their own — which would mean that your business is already recession-proof. So isn’t the answer to idiot proof your company?

Are Your International Procurement Skills Up to Snuff?

the doctor is pleased to welcome Dick Locke of Global Supply Training back to Sourcing Innovation.

My guest post on the issue of keeping talent mentioned a ten-question quiz on global supply management skills. After the post, there was a surge of people who took the quiz. I have to say the results were disappointing. I graded the first thirty answers that came in after my guest posting. The average number of correct answers was 1.5 out of 10. Two people tied for top score with six correct answers. The average number of questions that were answered at all was 5 out of 10.

If I assume that the answers largely came from readers of this blog, I suggest some training is in order before you source outside your home country.

The quiz had questions on cultural differences, legal issues, customs and logistics, foreign exchange risk management and sourcing techniques. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not a perfect quiz. Two of the questions are US-centric, and one has some wording that misled a few people. However, there were many areas where basic knowledge was obviously lacking.

  • Two people out of 30 recognized my description of the U.N. Convention on the International Sale of Goods.
  • Two people out of 30 knew that forward contracts were the standard way to protect future exchange rates.
  • Five people out of 30 knew that the buyer has the in-transit risk of loss under the CIF Incoterm.
  • Estimates of the time it takes a container vessel to travel from Japan to the US West Coast ranged from 5 hours to 56 days. The average and median were about 18 days. Only one person came within 5 days of the correct answer (9 days for a Panamax or post-Panamax vessel). OK, that one is US-centric.
  • On the brighter side, twenty out of thirty recognized that Japan is a country where people have difficulty saying “no” or giving bad news directly. That question had the best result.

At the risk of appearing self-serving, I think it’s obvious that the people who took this quiz need a skill upgrade on global issues before they work outside of their home country.

As a final note, Dick’s company, Global Supply Training offers training on international procurement issues.

Onegai shimasu, Dick.

(A Great CPO is) The Practical Visionary

A recent article in Strategy+Business which started off by noting that today’s Chief Information Officer must enable the organization to meet its strategic goals and to envision goals that were never before possible caught my eye. The article, which quickly quoted Michael Giledman who said that you (need to) spend a lot of time listening and fixing things in the background because you need to prove yourself if you want to be taken seriously, really emphasized why today’s CIO needs to be The Practical Visionary.

Moreover, not only is the article packed with great advice for CIO’s – but it’s also packed with great advice for CPO’s! The article noted that today’s CIO also trains her focus on the demand side of the business, becomes a serious contributor to business results, and harnesses powerful new technologies that make (real-time) information attractive and accessible. This is because a strategic CIO has much to offer the organization with her specialized knowledge of the capabilities, requirements, and costs of new technology – capabilities that uniquely position the CIO to help the organization set priorities that affect each and every one of its operations.

Replace “CIO” with “CPO” and add “product” to the above and you get Today’s CPO also trains her focus on the demand side of the business, becomes a serious contributor to business results, and harnesses powerful new (on-demand) technologies that make (real-time) information attractive and accessible. This is because the strategic CPO has much to offer the organization with her specialized knowledge of the capabilities, requirements, and costs of (new) products and technology – capabilities that uniquely position the CPO to help the organization set priorities that affect each and every one of its operations. That’s one of the best descriptions you’re going to find anywhere on what today’s CPO needs to be!

It’s a long article, but like many of the articles on Strategy+Business, it’s a good read. The article also stresses the importance of openness, intelligence, and interoperability – which are also key to supply and spend management success. And of course, just like the CIO has to manage the information life cycle, the CPO has to manage the product and service life cycles. The guidelines it gives for strategic leaders are also very well thought out and worth the read. So check it out.

To Win the Talent War, You Must First Defeat the Enemy Within

As evidenced by my recent Talent Week series, and many posts on Talent here on this blog, a major war for talent is building, and you stand to lose your business if you don’t start preparing now. However, as clarified in a recent McKinsey Quarterly on “Making Talent a Strategic Priority” article, before you can win on the global talent battlefield, you have to first insure that you’ve defeated the enemy within.

The article notes that, to a considerable extent, executives should be blaming themselves for their talent woes. Although it’s true that shareholders and investment analysts are largely responsible for the obsession with short term performance, it is managers who too readily treat talent in a reactive, knee-jerk manner – by hiring additional sales and marketing people only after new products take off and by cutting discretionary spending on people development when performance drops. As Charles and Don were quick to point out in their posts, the best way to acquire the talent you need is often to develop it within. Furthermore, companies that cut talent are making the worst innovation mistake they can make. This failure to focus on talent creates a vicious circle: a lack of talent prevents corporate growth which creates additional performance pressures which causes executives to put even greater emphasis on the short term which starts the cycle again.

Furthermore, when companies do make talent a priority, they tend to fall into another trap where they adopt an overly narrow focus on HR systems and processes – which diverts attention away from the place where the biggest obstacles lie: their heads’. Systems and processes don’t create innovation – innovative people, with the right experience and training, do.

Then there’s the seven obstacles to good talent management:

  1. Senior managers don’t spend enough high-quality time on talent management
    People are the key to your success, so why aren’t they your top priority?
  2. Siloed organizations that do not encourage constructive collaboration and resource sharing
    Establish organizational wide goals and organizational wide teams and focus on common objectives. (And whatever you do, don’t tear all the walls down and build an “open environment” thinking that it will solve all your problems.)
  3. Line managers are not sufficiently committed to the development of people’s capabilities and careers.
    Which is not surprising, since they take their lead from the CEO who is consistently failing to put people as his or her top priority.
  4. Line managers are unwilling to differentiate their people as top, average, and underperformers.
    Differentiation is not necessarily a bad thing. If you don’t know who’s underperforming, than you don’t know who is the most desperately in need of training. And if you don’t know where they’re weak, how will you select the right training?
  5. CEO’s and senior leaders are not sufficiently involved in the shaping of the talent management strategy.
    Talent management needs to start at the top.
  6. Senior leaders do not align talent management strategy with business strategy.
    Talent needs to support the business. Shouldn’t the two be aligned?
  7. Line managers do not address under-performance effectively, even when chronic!
    This is a triple whammy. First of all, under-performers might not even realize they are (chronically) underperforming. Secondly, they are not getting the help they need. Thirdly, it’s sending a message to the rest of the organization that under-performance is okay.

In summary, you need to win the battle within before you’ll be ready to fight the coming war.

Talent 2008 Week Wrap Up: Purchasing’s Report on Procurement Professional Development

I hope you enjoyed this special mini-series on Talent and associated issues this week. With the talent crunch about to hit in a big way, we could all be losers in the talent war if we don’t start taking steps to make sure we have the talent we need in place when we need it. As Charles points out, this will require us taking a good look at our organization and ourselves and making sure that we’re ready to face the challenges ahead.

To wrap up the week, I thought I’d share some highlights from Purchasing.com’s Special Report on “Procurement Professional Development”, since they took great care in timing their report to more-or-less coincide with Sourcing Innovation’s Talent 2008.

In “How to Build the Procurement Dream Team”, Purchasing notes that building the procurement dream team doesn’t happen overnight, it starts in the minor leagues by recruiting the best interns and ensuring that they have meaningful experiences to encourage the next crop of top interns to take a chance on your company. It requires you to benchmark and review your organizational capabilities, to understand what competencies you have in house, and what skills you need to bring in. Furthermore, attracting talent will require more than just a job description – it will require the organization to clearly outline its priorities and give candidates as much feedback as possible. Then, once you bring your new talent in, you will need to make sure they stay up to date on the latest best practices through regular training.

In “Got a Procurement Job Interview? Here’s What NOT To Do”, Purchasing outlined some big don’ts that you should probably avoid in an interview.

  • Prominently placing your cell-phone on the table
    (as this can give the impression you’re more important than the interviewer)
  • Rummaging through a folder
    – of projects you are currently working on –
    to answer a question
    (as it looks like you are disorganized and don’t take care in protecting confidential information)
  • Swearing in the interview
    (it may be deemed to show a lack of control and will offend the religious)
  • Supply-Chain Buzzword Mania
    (chances are your interviewer is not holding a supply-chain buzzword bingo card and will not appreciate it)
  • Telling the interviewer you’re not looking for a job
  • Telling an interviewer you know a test inside out
    because you had to take it three times …
    and then telling the interviewer you failed all three times
  • Inappropriate attire
    (especially if you show up to Coke wearing a Pepsi hat!)