Poking through 13+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.
CEOs screwing up their company culture isn’t new. And, one way or another, CEO ego is usually the cause; what differs is what they do now vs. then. Before, it was rotten decisions based on dinosaurian mindsets coupled with a god complex. Now the screw-ups tend to be grounded in rotten decisions based on hard-to-believe immaturity coupled with a god complex.
Changing culture doesn’t happen overnight and takes a lot of damn hard work.
But it can be done.
And for CEOs willing to take the time and do the work, the payoff is ginormous to the 10th power and goes well beyond money — for the company, the employees, stakeholders and last, but certainly not least, for themselves.
“I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game—it is the game.”
On a funny, or should I say ironic, side note.
As I looked through past posts and articles I realized how similar in name Nadella is to his complete cultural and managerial opposite, [Robert] Nardelli.
Separated by two letters and a mental chasm that dwarfs the Grand Canyon.
I’ve made my own hiring errors, as have we all (anyone who claims otherwise is lying).
So when interviewing, we have a few company-wide mantras (for lack of a better term) to guide us.
I find this one goes a long way to ensuring we don’t get caught up in people’s past, rather, it helps us focus on attitude and potential.
“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.” — John Wooden, basketball player and coach
Look at all the people who were stars at places like Goldman Sachs or Google, such as Marissa Meyer, or GE’s Bob Nardelli (who nearly destroyed Home Depot), who were unable to maintain their level of performance outside the culture, systems and management of that specific company.
That’s why it’s always dangerous to hire stars — more than anything else they are a product of their environment.
In spite of being severely overloaded, KG still finds time to send me stuff he finds interesting and/or inspirational.
Over the years, we’ve had many discussions about culture and its importance in hiring.
He recently mentioned a quote from basketball player and Coach John Wooden.
“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”
KG: In any high performing organization, there are lots of systems and processes that make the organization successful.
When you look at people considered stars, they are almost never part of second or third rate teams; they are almost always in organizations performing at the highest levels.
This doesn’t mean that there aren’t truly high performing people in lesser teams, it’s just that they are not defined as stars in general (sometimes they may be local stars, but generally don’t get the full recognition).
So a star, per definition, is a member of an organization that performs at the top.
Me: So true. I’d add that in most cases people become stars as a result of the culture and their manager, or so I’ve found.
KG: Exactly. Look at all the people who leave Goldman Sachs or Google who were stars there (e.g. Marissa Meyer) but are unable to maintain their level of performance outside the culture & systems of that environment.
That’s why it’s always dangerous to hire stars — more than anything else they are a product of their environment.
Me: Absolutely, and the poster child is GE’s Bob Nardelli!
(Click for more Wooden wisdom. For more information about stars and Nardelli use use the tags below.)
I am a frequent Home Depot shopper, other than during the Nardelli regime, mainly because my Amex points a good conversion rate to dollars for HD gift cards.
Now it seems I only have to deal with corporate purchasing stupidity.
Let me explain.
I live in Washington State, just across the Columbia River about 20 minutes from Portland, Oregon, an area known locally for it’s dozens of micro-climates, multiple rivers and fast elevation changes.
This means that when it’s cold and rainy by me, it’s probably cold and snowy at my friend’s who lives about 15 minutes and 800 feet away.
But in general, we don’t get a lot of freezing weather — but we do get it.
A couple of weeks ago the entire area got walloped with the worst storm in 16 years and it stayed cold, with temperatures in the 20s.
So I wasn’t surprised when I finally got to HD to buy ice melt they were sold out.
However, I was flabbergasted when I went back this week and was told that they wouldn’t have more until October.
A very chagrined manager explained that they had sold out their year’s allotment and had no way of ordering more.
When pushed, he said that central purchasing decided how much of a given product would sell annually and if a store sold out tough luck.
So, based on the weather forecast, it was back to Lowe’s, where I shopped when Nardelli was in power.
Retail DIS-service; better know as retail stupidity.
Even after working decades with bosses at all levels, from CEOs to team leaders and first-time supervisors, their ability to make inaccurate, let alone stupid, assumptions based on nothing solid still astounds me.
The smartest/most creative people only attend top tier universities. No they don’t. The wealthiest/most indebted, unless they were on scholarship, attend those schools.
I can spot instantly talent, even with just a casual conversation. No you can’t. What you can spot are people like yourself.
Hiring/poaching top talent always pays off. Not hardly. Consider JC Penny, Bob Nardelli, Marissa Mayer and thousands more at every level and in every field.
Or that a birdbrain, even the smartest, could figure out the eight steps it took to get a reward, with no coaching?
As opposed to the wisdom of crowds, assumptions are more often the bias of crowds.
Changing culture doesn’t happen overnight and takes a lot of damn hard work.
But it can be done.
And for CEOs willing to take the time and do the work, the payoff is ginormous to the 10th power and goes well beyond money — for the company, the employees, stakeholders and last, but certainly not least, for themselves.
“I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game—it is the game.”
On a funny, or should I say ironic, side note.
As I looked through past posts and articles I realized how similar in name Nadella is to his complete cultural and managerial opposite, [Robert] Nardelli.
Separated by two letters and a mental chasm that dwarfs the Grand Canyon.
He is also the guy credited with Home Depot’s turnaround after Bob Nardelli’s disastrous run as CEO.
Ellison’s attitude and approach is the 180 degree opposite of Nardelli’s imperial, top down, command and control management style.
I was at Home Depot last weekend and in conversation with two employees who were solving a problem for me, which they did brilliantly.
I mentioned how different shopping there was now compared to during Nardelli’s reign. It turned out they had both worked at HD during that time and a couple of the stories they told were beyond belief.
Since becoming CEO at Microsoft, Satya Nadella has made revolutionary changes in both products and culture that would/could never have happened under the old regime and the stock is up 53%.
The world said that Apple under Tim Cook would be mediocre or even fail; it was assumed that no one could follow Steve Jobs. But in the three years April since Cook took the reins Apple split 7:1 and more than doubled its stock price.
What do these pairs have in common?
Culture.
Nardelli and Johnson were both outsiders who lacked interest or understanding of the existing culture. Both tried to use brute force to radically overhaul the existing culture and both failed miserably.
Nadella and Cook were both insiders; Cook was with Apple 13 years, while Nadella had 24 at Microsoft, and so far both are succeeding brilliantly.
Does this mean CEO jobs should always go to insiders?
Absolutely not.
Does it mean that changing the culture is a bad idea?
Absolutely not.
Lou Gerstner was an outsider who radically changed the culture at IBM.
And he sums the lesson up best.
“I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game—it is the game.”
Quicken Loans was rated highest in customer satisfaction among mortgage originators in 2010, 2011 and 2012, according to J. D. Power & Associates. The company has also been ranked in the top 30 of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” for 10 consecutive years.
What makes Quicken different?
Founder Dan Gilbert’s and CEO Bill Emerson’s focus on intentional culture—emphasis on ‘intentional’.
“If you don’t create a culture at your company, a culture will create itself,” Mr. Emerson said in a phone interview. “And it won’t be good. I sometimes hear people say ‘We don’t have a culture at our company.’ They have one. But if it hasn’t been nurtured, if no one has spent on any time on it, you can assume it’s the wrong culture.”
Call it Intentional Culture.
Of course, intentional culture comes in two flavors—positive (good) and negative (bad).
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
Even after working decades with bosses at all levels, from CEOs to team leaders and first-time supervisors, their ability to make inaccurate, let alone stupid, assumptions based on nothing solid still astounds me.
The following points are from a 
Mortgage originators are rarely great places to be, whichever side of the desk you are on.
