Globalization requires global leaders. Yet, with the dynamic rate of change in these emerging markets, one has to be current. Just because an ex-pat lived in China a decade ago, does not mean that he understands it today – as China is not static. Thus, companies look to hire locally. These companies are familiar with…

Hiring the right people for a company is one of the most critical tasks. When looking for candidates, hard skills essentially lead to interviews, and then soft skills differentiate candidates enough to make the hiring decision. Other interesting observations: ·       A’s hire A+’s, while B’s hire C’s ·       An outside hire is “shiny”; whereas an…

Bloomberg, with $7B in revenue and 15K employees, has a motto: “Fast is as slow as we go.” This relies on immediate execution with iterations to improve product/process. In addition, there is decentralized decision making, with empowered leaders aligned to the strategic plan who are accountable for the results. Many times, a company will build…

While the developed world faces slower growth, the emerging markets offer: Low-cost, increasingly skilled labor Increasingly prosperous consumers New growth market The emerging market represented 5% of the Fortune Global 500 in the year 2000; by 2025, McKinsey predicts this will increase to 45%. As this number jumps from 24 to 230, 120 are predicted…

How do you know your personal priorities?  Look at your calendar. How do you know your department members’ priorities?  Look at their night/weekend email (i.e., one company turns off their VPN at night to keep people from working…wish I could do the same with the smart phone!). How do you know your company priorities?  Look…

Many reports state that organizational change strategies fail 70% of the time. The New York Times reported that over the past 10 years, 41% of large federal information technology projects failed completely. Over half were either delayed, over budget or fell short of user expectations.  While there are many reasons for this, one factor to…

  High performers have a significantly higher business impact than the average performer. The top 5% of the workforce produced 26% of the output – or more than 4x more. While this ROI is great, these employees are generally paid less than 20% above an average worker in the same job (Personnel Psychology). Louisville-based healthcare…

Do you describe your work as a “job,” or as a “vocation” involving key responsibilities? Your view is probably shaped by your organization’s culture…whether an employee is considered a means to an end, or the end. You probably have a job if you are at a company similar to a certain car company, whose leader…

As companies expand geographically, there is a more deliberate effort to identify responsibilities for the regions versus the central office. Companies yo-yo back and forth between a centralized vs. decentralized model, with the in-between solution being a more federated model. The organization design must translate the company’s strategy into a value-creating operation. Usually, the central…

  Every individual (internal personal expectations) and every company (system/organizational/situational) understands boundaries, even if not explicitly communicated. In sports, there is an explicit “out of bounds” (as well as instant replay) that communicates to all players where the activity is. At organizations, it is not as clear – yet required. At an organization, the organization…