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Workforce USA

Monday, June 23rd, 2014

Were you shocked when you learned that the US didn’t make the top ten in healthcare, based on criteria of quality, access, efficiency, equity and healthy lives?

It’s fairly well accepted that the U.S. is the most expensive healthcare system in the world, but many continue to falsely assume that we pay more for healthcare because we get better health (or better health outcomes).

The top ten in order are United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Germany & Netherlands (tied), New Zealand & Norway (tied), France and Canada.

The US has long been the subject of global envy for the financial strength of our middle class, but no more.

While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.

What does this mean for those who graduated into the 2008 financial meltdown, one in five of whom have moved back with their parents?

And while much of the discussion about economic inequality has centered on the top 1 percent, it’s the gap between the top 20 percent and the rest that’s more salient to young people. (…) This uncomfortable fact, which many economists have recently accepted, suggests that we are living not simply in an unequal society but rather in two separate, side-by-side economies.

But cheer up; you only have to be in the 95th percentile, not the 1%, to be back among the envied.

How can that be? What about all the jobs created by companies such as Google and Facebook?

It’s easy to understand if you consider what the fastest growing jobs in the US are.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

As to American inventiveness and the much ballyhooed entrepreneurial spirit so richly displayed by a few Millennials, consider which actually is the most innovative country in the world.

Germany does a better job on innovation in areas as diverse as sustainable energy systems, molecular biotech, lasers, and experimental software engineering. (…)  But the fairy tale that the U.S. is better at radical innovation than other countries has been shown in repeated studies to be untrue. Germany is just as good as the U.S. in the most radical technologies.

What’s more important, Germany is better at adapting inventions to industry and spreading them throughout the business sector. Much German innovation involves infusing old products and processes with new ideas and capabilities or recombining elements of old, stagnant sectors into new, vibrant ones.

Perhaps it’s time for us—business leaders, religious leaders, politicians of all flavors and just plain folks—to take our collective heads out of the sand and do what it takes to turn things around.

Image credit: BLS

When Realities Collide

Monday, January 11th, 2010

collisionIt is reality that bloggers, coaches, academics, and other gurus write about how to engage the workforce, build cultures, develop leaders, motivate, and increase retention; companies pay substantial amounts to coaches and consultants to develop and implement programs; management agonizes on how to increase productivity through better use of its human resources.

It is reality that many companies are moving to “just in time” workforces; using temps and contractors at all levels with no health insurance, no vacation, no benefits—hire when you need them and dump when the project is done.

Business Week offers a comprehensive overview of this trend in a cover story entitled The Disposable Worker.

The forecast for the next five to 10 years: more of the same, with paltry pay gains, worsening working conditions, and little job security. Right on up to the C-suite, more jobs will be freelance and temporary, and even seemingly permanent positions will be at greater risk.

Obviously, there are people, especially at more senior levels, who have no problem with this approach; they relish the movement, change and challenge.

But they are the minority.

Everything described in the first paragraph is geared for companies that actually hire their workforce.

Typically, it’s a different set of experts who advise companies on outsourcing and temp workforces.

I ask you:

  • What will motivate workers to contribute at the level needed in today’s competitive global enviornment when they have nothing vested in the company?
  • Why should people who may not be there tomorrow put forth the initiative that underlays all leadership today?
  • How do you engage people when they have no idea how long they’ll be around?

In short, how do you get people to care when they know without a doubt that the company doesn’t care about them?

Image credit: anoldent on flickr

A Matter of Trust

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

manure-pileMy buddy Phil Gerbyshak over at The Management Expert wrote about trust and offered up some great quotes; one by Billy Wilder reminded me of something a manager told me years ago and it’s as true today as it was then.

Billy Wilder said, “Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else’s.”

The manager said, “I don’t mind shoveling my own, but I hate having to shovel somebody else’s.”

Over the last two years we have seen an enormous amount of it hit the fan and we find ourselves shoveling more and more messes not of our own making.

Americans have short memories, even for something as major as the so-called Great Recession, so I have a quote to offer up that may benefit you in the future.

“Just because you trust your teammates/financial manager/whoever doesn’t mean you should take your eye off the ball.”

Image credit: NIOSH on flickr

Seize Your Leadership Day: 2 From McKinsey

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

Have you ever registered to receive McKinsey reports? It’s free (my favorite price) and it’s valuable (my favorite requirement). I like it because I choose the categories I want and am not inundated with stuff I don’t want.

Today there are only two, because both are heavy on the meat, which requires more time and thought to digest and make use of.

The first is a global survey on how executives dealing with the recession as opposed to the thoughts and feelings of middle management. It makes for fascinating reading and offers up some interesting surprises.

The second discusses better ways to utilize frontline managers. “Instead of administrative work and meetings, they should focus on coaching their employees and on constantly improving quality.” Notice it says ‘instead‘, not ‘in addition to’, a not-so-subtle point that is missed by many higher level managers and executives. McKinsey also set up a discussion forum on Facebook and the author responded here.

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: nono farahshila on flickr

More About Jim’s Situation

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Last Friday I described a problem that “Jim” had called me with and asked you to offer up ideas that Jim could use.

In a nutshell: Jim is an executive and his CEO planned to scale necessary pay cuts so that young, single employees would take the biggest hits and those with children the smallest. Jim questioned the legality in terms of reverse discrimination, but worse he believed that the differences would become known and that would destroy employee trust and decimate the company’s culture. He wanted ideas on what to do.

In the first round of comments everyone agreed that Jim shouldn’t say anything, but also agreed that it was unlikely to remain a secret.

Everyone commented that what Jim could do was dependent on how open his CEO and the culture was—I assured them that Jim had indicated that it wasn’t a done deal and that she was completely open to other approaches.

Rob Hooft suggested that “within each function group, establish a base salary (e.g. comparable with the lowest starting salary in the group), and cut a percentage of what the people earn in that group above the base. An employee with a salary of 55k in a group with a 40k base and a 20% cut would lose 20% of 55-40=15k, that is he will be cut to 52k.”

But I’ve found that complicated actions are frequently misunderstood, so I couldn’t recommend this to Jim. However, Rob also said, “The cutting of the morale must be prevented by positive communication around the process, a real hard job for the CEO.”

Everyone agreed that this was critical to whatever solution was finally adopted.

Rick pointed out that “…the CEO that her pay needs to be cut more (in amount, not necessarily percent) than anyone else’s, and the amount of the cut needs to be leaked. Or, she could simply announce her own cut without any hoopla.”

Phil Gerbyshak suggested that when she makes her statement she should “mention that this cut was done in place of massive layoffs or in place of selling the company, something nobody wants.”

More was said, but you need to read the post.

My own suggestions parallel most of the comments, but while I agree that the CEO cut needs to be the largest, the percentage can’t be smaller than her employee percentages or it will look like a scam.

Additionally, I think all the execs needed to feel the pain and exempting so-called stars could destroy the rest of the organization’s moral.

The CEO might also use a series of Town Hall meetings to solicit ideas and input from employees at all levels on ways to cut expenses.

Sunday Jim and I discussed the suggestions so far; he is excited and is planning to show the thread to his CEO.

He’s hoping that over the next few days more ideas will come in to fuel a discussion with the rest of the executive team this week.

I’ll post updates as the come in and share the results when a plan is decided.

Image credit: svilen001 on sxc.hu

Seize Your Leadership Day: Articles And Leadership's Future

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

As most of you know I write a series on Thursday called Leadership’s Future that looks at education, parenting, kids, Millennials, etc. In the course of my reading I see a articles that would be of interest, but I can’t fit them all in, so I thought that today I’d offer up some of the good ones that I haven’t had time to feature.

Assuming you live on this planet you’re aware that there’s a recession going on, so what’s happening in the world of youth and parents?

Business Week had a great article on Growing Up In A Recession, while the NY Times says that parents finally are figuring out that whatever doesn’t have to be new and are opting for hand-me-downs and cutting off their trust-fund babies. Good grief, they might have to make it on their own!

Do you tweet? Some college professors are finding uses for Twitter in their teaching, although enhancing spelling isn’t one of them; speaking of education, some schools are delivering sex ed via cell phone.

How fair or valuable are anonymous teacher rating sites, such as Rate My Professors or Professor Performance, some teachers don’t aren’t concerned, but others may not be so sanguine.

Multiple studies by professors at a variety of universities show that having interracial roommates reduces prejudice. Not that surprising, it’s hard to hate a real individual vs. a hypothetical stereotype.

Finally, there’s a new texting champion (control your enthusiasm) who practiced by sending 14,000 texts a month. Isn’t that thrilling?

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: nono farahshila on flickr and SBARTSTV on YouTube

Barrett’s Briefing: The New Recipe for Business Success

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Recipes have changed over the years, with the biggest change being the elimination of fat. Ingredients for business success have similarly changed—no fat. Now it’s content and communities—not capital

Recessions have traditionally been good times to start new ventures and to expand SMBs (small and mid-size businesses). Larger competitors retrench, leaving some market niches exposed and unprotected. Workers are available, often at reduced rates.

Recessions loosen long-time business relationships and create brand-new opportunities. Recessions are Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” on steroids.

This recession is exceeding all expectations for creative destruction; but with a few substantial differences.

First, while risk capital was available for emerging ventures in previous recessions, it has simply vanished in this recession.

Second, the need for risk capital has dropped dramatically for certain types of businesses, particularly those focused on information services.

The New “New Business Model”—Everything You Need is Free.

OK, “free” is a little bit of an exaggeration. But the cost of business expansion is dramatically lower than in the past. For instance:

  • You don’t need an extensive network of offices. Most knowledge workers already have home offices. They work at a customer site, at home, or with co-workers at a coffee shop.
  • You don’t need a sophisticated telecommunications system. Virtual PBX’s, portable telephone numbers, internet-based telephone service, and conference call services are inexpensive and readily available.
  • You don’t need a big advertising budget. With Google Ad Words, you can pay only for results. Better yet, create your own promotion with social networks, blogs and email communication.
  • You don’t need production equipment, raw materials, or inventory. The data is the business.
  • You don’t need a computer facility to host your information database. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce and others offer cloud computing for free.
  • You don’t need any back office. You can outsource accounting, HR, IT, CRM, and almost every other internal business function.
  • You don’t even need employees. You do need a team, but new business models use clusters of associates.

If everything is free, then what do you need to build your business?

You need content and communities.

You don’t need capital!

This is an over-simplification, but allow me to make the point.

You Need Content

Your business needs something of value to provide to customers.

In the information age, this is content—not just entertainment content, but a cluster of information, typically housed in a set of inter-connected databases. In previous posts we discussed Google, Jigsaw, and Alexa.

Another example is deCODE Genetics. For only $195 and a sample of your DNA, deCODE will map your genes, identify a collection of your genetic risk factors, and map your genetic ancestors. This business model combines a proprietary database with a physical connection to each customer.

Granted, the actual consumer service is a “nice to have,” but the business model is powerful. Your business generates a continuous stream of data. Package it and build a data business.

You Need Communities

Communities are more than just a collection of customers, suppliers or employees. Communities have common interests.

Your business is only the conduit, or the meeting place for your communities. The most effective communities have some structure. Online games are excellent models for your communities. Provide enough structure and rewards to stimulate the community, but then let it grow.

You Don’t Need Capital—You Do Need a Cash Business Model

This may be one of the biggest surprises of the new century. The internet, low-cost communications, and the availability of low-cost support services have dramatically leveled the playing field for new businesses competing with established organizations. You don’t need huge capital investment to build an information business.

With no investment capital, you need a business model that generates cash quickly.

Here again, technology and the internet have conspired to meet your needs. Credit card payment systems eliminate the collection hassle. Internet delivery and prepayment terms shorten the cash cycle.

All you have to do is provide compelling value for your customers.

Go do it.

Saturday Odd Bits Roundup: Three Culture Champions

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

Alexander Kjerulf over at Chief Happiness Officer shared a fascinating write-up (one of the case studies for his new book) about Wim Roelandts, CEO of Xilinx, managing through his eighth recession. During 2000 recession Wim decided there was a better way than the standard Silicon Valley of repetitive rounds of layoffs—and he proved there was. He called his strategy “Share the pain;” it was completely voluntary and 2799 out of 2800 employees opted to take the graduated pay cuts. He held fast in spite of opposition from both his Board and Wall Street analysts and it worked.

Next is a new book by Dave Hitz who co-founded $3 billion NetApp, number one of Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies To Work ForHow To Castrate A Bull & Other Corporate Survival Tips looks like a great read. Enjoy!

Last but certainly not least are two takes on Tony “A company’s culture and a company’s brand are just two sides of the same coin” Hsieh, the guy who built a billion dollar company on its culture. Both are takes on his keynote talk at SXSW 2009, but bring out different points. The one from Fast Company includes seven steps to incorporate Zappos core values into your company; the other is The Onion’s Baratunde Thurston via CNET.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Image credit: flickr

Seize Your Leadership Day: What Do You Want?

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

Six weeks ago I started Seize Your Leadership Day; each post had info and links to resources or articles I felt would interest/be or use to you.

Based on your reaction to date, it’s been of little use to you—a giant yawn.

So I thought I’d ask you directly, do you like the feature?

If so, is the content I find of use to you or does it need refining?

If not, what would you like to see here on Saturdays?

Please don’t be shy. The worst thing for any blogger is to ask for guidance from readers and not get any. Makes us wonder if anyone is reading.

In the meantime, Here are a couple of goodies for today.

Margaret Heffernan’s two most recent posts (1/6 and 13) are the start of a series and offer smart, real-life examples on dealing with the recession. As Heffernan says,

“Think of recessions as tests. Companies that fail them die. Companies that survive live to fight another day. But a few companies emerge stronger than ever.”

They’re short, with solid lessons and ideas for you to start using immediately.

Another useful reminder for recession managing comes in an 18 month old article in Business Week on the value of failure in achieving success. It’s more important in today’s economy than it was then, because without a safe environment in which to fail there can be no innovation and a company without innovation is a company on the slippery, downward slope to mediocrity—or worse.

I hope they’re of use to you.

Don’t forget to leave your thoughts and preferences for Saturday subjects as requested earlier. If you’d rather send them for privacy, you can reach me at miki@RampUpSolutions.com (please put Leadership Turn in the subject line to avoid filters).

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: flickr

Implementing recession-proofing advice (con’t 3)

Friday, April 11th, 2008

Image credit: asifthebes

‘Innovation’ is one of the main themes permeating recession-proofing advice, but if you don’t already have an innovation-friendly culture you need to start by rectifying that or it ain’t gonna happen.

As you work to fix any cultural problems you found, you can work on small innovations, too. Just don’t try and implement something that your culture won’t support. Innovation is about the freedom to fail as much as it is about the joy of succeeding. If you’ve trashed your managers or killed the messenger every time something didn’t work don’t expect to change their assumption that it will still happen or rebuild a viable trust level overnight.

And before you start moaning about spending money let’s remember that innovation is not always synonymous with expensive inventions or something that rocks your industry.

  • Start with your business processes and open everything to consideration, discussion and improvement.
  • Listen to your people—all of them.
    • Don’t make the mistake of thinking that ideas are the province of a certain level or education or position.
    • Administrative staff often knows where more of the speed bumps and bottlenecks are than their bosses, but they need to know that they’re safe before they’ll say anything.
  • Rethink your customer care. No matter how good you think it is it can still be improved.
    • Look for ways to do and fix the stuff that you may not have bothered with in good times.
    • Listen to your CSRs because they are your pipeline to your customers.
    • Be proactive by asking your customers for feedback, instead of waiting for a complaint.
  • Explore open innovation. It’s “about connecting with others to find new ideas and, often, to co-develop and co-market them.” Open innovation is not about outsourcing.

Remember, a slow-down or recession approach that’s only about cutting costs ignores the obvious. If you don’t innovate now you won’t have anything going for you when the the economy impoves—which it will as it always has.

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