Absolutely—all of the above. Do whatever you can. Information Technology is a challenge given the dynamics of the industry and unfortunately many universities or community colleges may not offer the latest and greatest programming languages or OS environments. Don’t let that stop you. Invest in yourself by self-study, seminars, school part time, whatever it takes. The key in the end is to challenge yourself and your employer to allow you to do more by accepting more responsibility in or out of your core competency. Don’t underestimate your abilities outside the technology realm. We look for employees that have a high technical acumen and have a strong “work ethic” but we pride ourselves on being business people first and technologists second.
There will continue to be evolutions in two kinds of tools—the first is the equipment that places electronic components, and the second is information technology. In the former, parts keep getting smaller, packaging of silicon changes, and the equipment needed to assemble and test the components changes. That’s pretty straightforward. In terms of IT, the issues are more complicated. Databases get better, faster, and simpler, allowing more tools. We are getting better at connecting all of our employees on a global basis, allowing for faster sharing of information. These innovations will certainly become more wireless, use more video, and make it easier to understand each other without as much travel involved. I, for one, am looking forward to that world.
The future holds many potentially “life-changing” possibilities with respect to technology. With the proliferation of wireless networking technology, both local and wide area,
efficient
mobile access to the Internet will be common place. Consumers using handheld PCs or smartphones will have access to e-commerce opportunities that today are only constrained by the networks on which access is given. In my opinion, wireless networks seem to hold the short-term constraints. As for doughnuts from vending machines…anything is possible, but it is hard to imagine the same hot doughnut from a vending machine.
No. I think every business sector has been affected positively by technology, some more than others. Unfortunately, many sectors have seen technologies exploited negatively through the proliferation of spam, viruses and other less than beneficial technologies.
National Geographic has always been synonymous with stunning images on the pages of our magazines and in our television and film productions. Advances in technology have allowed us to go farther into the field with smaller, lighter equipment to bring even more spectacular imagery to viewers. If you watch our special “Surviving Everest” on April 27, you’ll see some pretty incredible footage that had to be filmed by the climbers themselves, when our camera crew was physically unable to make it to the summit. This is just one example of how technology is changing the making of documentaries.
New technology for a brand like National Geographic is a gift. With the NGC, for the first time, consumers are and will be able to access us across a number of platforms. New technology will never replace people. You need people to interpret how to use this new technology to its fullest. We have television crews in the field every day exploring new scientific finds, documenting rare wildlife, and telling stories about both familiar and exotic cultures. We’ve even developed a “crittercam” to bring an animal-eye-view of the world.
S teve Elterich (Fidelity eBusiness):
Customers across our different lines of business have clearly adopted the Web as a preferred means of communicating with us and managing their accounts. Over 90 percent of our commissionable trades are conducted online. Over 80 percent of customer interaction is now through automated channels. We have also seen a huge adoption of our benefits outsourcing services through the Internet. Some, more specific innovations that have become popular include the ability to aggregate all financial holdings (regardless of the provider) on our Website, portfolio analysis tools and high end trading platforms for active traders.
Actually, no jobs are secure in today’s world, and that includes mine. Executives at all levels get fired. Companies get acquired, or they get into financial trouble. So no one can be absolutely assured that they are safe. What we do is constantly communicate with our employees around the world, to give them a sense of how we are doing—both good and bad. I have found that people at all levels and in all countries can live with job risk if they are constantly informed about where they stand. We obviously attempt to create as much stability as possible, constantly training and pushing employees to upgrade their skills, which are things that ensure employability at Flextronics or other companies.
Safety can be an illusion, even when the media talks about shortages in a particular field, such as health care—where if you are licensed and can fog a mirror, you can be hired. People like me are talking about “de-hiring” and identifying and eliminating marginal people, no matter how much a shortage there appears to be. Why? Marginal people do the bare minimum. Their work habits tick-off those who are working, even lessening their productivity because they grumble to themselves and to anyone within earshot what the slacker is doing this time. I call it the Domino Factor and it’s prevalent in the female-dominated workplace of health care.
Depending on what your job is, the smartest thing you can do is to show up, do your work and even more than is expected and keep training and expanding your clinical and “soft” skills. In every audience I speak to in health care, when the topic of change is brought up, I always ask how many consider themselves savvy about the workings of the Internet and simple computer programs. Only 10 percent claim to be. Outside of health care, that percentage would be 70 to 90 percent. People who work in health care are illiterate around computers.
I am in the healthcare industry as a physician and executive (chief of a section and I administer 30 clinics plus patient care). The biggest problems are governmental underpayments for services rendered, deliberate down coding to achieve reduction in costs, and a bloated bureaucracy feeding itself rather than better management of government overhead costs. Workers’ Comp fraud detection needs to be a higher priority with the government as it is eating away at profits and productivity.
(Sayre, PA)
After a “fall,” the takeover executives typically have to make cuts and they make cuts in the highest expendable item: i.e. labor costs. That affects everyone, but the biggest cut will be taken from the majority of the workers and that, unfortunately, includes some of the lowest paid workers.
My position was just terminated at our local newspaper. I was the “dummy clerk”, the person who paginates the entire paper. After I was terminated, two part-time employees without benefits filled my one “necessary” position. What I accomplished in 38 hours/week is now taking 50 hours/week by two people. I had 18 years of seniority with all excellent performance reviews. At the same time that I was terminated, three other employees with over 20 years of seniority were also terminated. It seemed to everyone that the management team had sacrificed senior, non-management employees to save their own jobs. (Lolo, MT)
My company just had its most profitable year ever. How were its employees rewarded? With massive lay-offs in the state in which I work. Per employee, $100,000 net profit. Top executives took home close to $100 million total. Co-CEOs split about $35 million. Thanks. (Buffalo, NY)
Bennis: Crucibles by themselves are not critical. It’s how one constructs meaning from them. In February of 2000, just as the dot.com was becoming a dot.bomb, the New York Times reported on successive days in their business pages that the workers in Silicon Valley, who were given pink slips, were overjoyed. “Now’s the time to party,” the headline read. It was a story about how these geeks were going to celebrate the temporary end of their 24/7 existence by returning to grad school, going abroad, partying, getting married, etc. The following day, also on page 1 of the business page was a quite different headline, “Workers betrayed. Anger rages” and so on. Similar experience. Similar group. Totally different response. Some never recover or transcend their crucibles in a creative way, as an opportunity to learn. Others thrive and come out of the crucible, bigger, wiser, and with a more robust embrace of life.
The negatives and challenges are if times are tight, you may not get the paycheck; you usually put in far more hours than you would with a 9-5 job (which is the norm for me); that no matter what happens, your name is on the door—good news and/or bad—and you are the one that takes the hit or receives the cheers within the workplace, the public eye and sometimes in the media.
I went, interviewed, accepted a position as a stock broker with E.F. Hutton and moved. Several years later, I won an award and sent a copy of the newspaper article with a note: “Did I ever thank you for firing me?” I had challenges as a broker from my male colleagues, who would make insinuations about how I would get clients. When I surpassed them in commissions and got a private office, growing my clientele, speaking and writing books, it shut them up. That was in 1972. Several years later, I left to start my own firm and sold it in 1986. Since then, I’ve concentrated on researching workplace issues, speaking and writing as a career. In 1987, I wrote Woman to Woman: From Sabotage to Support (New Horizon Press) which was initially rejected by 28 publishers. The theme was that women can undermine other women in the workplace and was based on research for my dissertation and extensive interviews. Since that book, I’ve had more than a thousand interviews on the topic and completed several other national surveys.
During my career, I’ve had tremendous highs and some yucky lows. I’ve made lots of money and I’ve lost everything when I had a partner embezzle money from a loan that I had personally guaranteed. By the time that ordeal was over, my family was still a family, but we had no home, car, investments—nothing. During this time, my business almost died, I developed cancer and my son died. It was a horrible time.
Is there discrimination still? Sure. As a professional speaker, I would probably get double the fees for the type of work I do if I was male. Sabotage and bullying, especially when one gender is more inclined to target its own, can be dicey. Corporate America has trouble dealing with an issue that costs mega millions of dollars each year in lost productivity and replacement costs. Health care, a female-dominated industry, recognizes that and is beginning to address it.
My only regrets are around the issues of “I should have left sooner.” I’ve always been a maverick, independent and opinionated. Getting out sooner means that you recognized that you are a wrong fit in a given situation. Bureaucracy and political correctness drive me nuts.
We also faced a challenge of getting our channel on the air in cable systems around the country. We launched with 10 million homes having access to our channel, and are now nearing 50 million, having just celebrated our two-year anniversary in January. This makes us one of the fastest growing cable networks ever—and the challenge now is to keep growing.
Laureen Ong (National Geographic Channel):John Riccitiello (Electronic Arts):Warren Bennis (USC’s Leadership Institute):Judith Briles (The Briles Group):
For employees, loyalty and competence aren’t always valued. Employers expect more: what can you do for them? Because of the rapidly changing workplace, all employees must keep up and expand their skill base. In the past, employers routinely paid for it; today, not always. It doesn’t matter; to be a viable employee, technology is your partner, not a foe. Learn about it and use it.
The economy is not so hot, millions have lost their jobs and the country has enormous debt. A great majority of the jobs that will be available in a few years will come from new industries that are being birthed now. Staying in circulation and learning new things will take you to the head of the line.
- A capacity to define and set a direction with meaning, a vision if you want. But not any old vision or dream but one that has resonance with the staff—a compelling, engaging and persuasive idea that connects with the followers. Shakespeare said it best in Henry I, Part II when he has the Welsh seer, Glendower boasting to Hotspur, “I can call the spirits from the vasty deep. And Hotspur immediately deflates Glendower with, “Well, so can I. So can anyone. But will they come when you call them?”
It isn’t the vision alone; it’s the meaning. Will they come when you call them?
An adaptive capacity, which includes a positive outlook, eyes continually positioned for adventure, novelty, those dangerous “inflection points” that must be taken into account, and individuals who are never content with the status quo. As I noted earlier, remember Gogo’s advice in Waiting for Godot: “Habit is a great deadener.”
The capacity to engage others, to generate “buy-in,” to enroll others in your dream.
The capacity to generate and sustain trust, which is no easy task. It takes a combination of authenticity, directness, constancy, caring, and being comfortable under your own skin.
Moral compass. As I wrote 35 years ago, managers do things right; leaders do the right thing.” Figuring that out isn’t easy, especially in today’s confusing and “riddling” world. But it’s key.
I also want to argue that the above characteristics are just that; the central factor in successful leadership is character. Everything else is perishable.
Briles:Woman to WomanChicago Tribune’s
Today, seven studies and many books later (Zapping Conflict in the Health Care Workplace, The SeXX Factor, Woman to Woman 2000, GenderTraps, The Briles Report on Women in Healthcare), I know that issues of women undermining women in the workplace are real and incredibly costly. Men undermine as well, but their methodology and targets are different. Today, are can crunch the numbers and tell a company what rotten behavior costs them—in the old days, I knew it was a cost, though I wasn’t able to spread sheet it. So, I would have quantified the numbers and created the training programs to augment them. And, I would have realized early on why general corporations were spooked about bringing in programs like ours (fear of charges of sexism by women when they routinely offer programs on sexual harassment for men) and concentrated on those such as health care, where women were the clear majority of the workforce and the problems we dealt with impacted greater numbers.
For entrepreneurs, create an Advisory Group/Board for individuals you know within your field and get together at least on a quarterly basis. I did this later on and it helped tremendously in directly/re-directing me when needed. Don’t do anything that you are not passionate about. Be willing to work the long hours when needed. Have money to create your “package” and market it to your buyer. Know when to bring help in and look for those who can support you as you move to the next level, whatever that may be. Finally, never, never lose your sense of humor. There are times it will be your best friend!
In terms of the transferability of leadership skills, in general, we believe that great leadership is indeed transferable. Although styles vary widely, the enduring traits of great leaders are consistent across industries and even across time. There are certain industries, however, such as retail and financial services, where history has shown it more difficult to have outsiders successfully come in at the top.
Hood:
Judith Briles (The Briles Group): The single most important thing for a leader and manager to do is to tell the truth. Nothing sinks morale faster than hedging and lying. And no matter how hard we work, we find fun in it somewhere. If tough times are on the doorstep, acknowledge it-the great majority know that “something” is up . . . they just aren’t sure what. Rumors and side-chatter is created that can be quite damaging.
Here’s my advice to all managers and leaders:
Start with the state of your company and business: What needs to happen to turn things around and prevent reductions (or additional reductions)?
Continue with setting goals, and be honest about how realistic they are. Avoid any pie-in-the-sky scenarios.
Support starts at the top—not the bottom. In rough and bumpy times, speak up and don’t hide behind your closed door.
Be generous with praise and bravos for your support team, and be willing to tell them when they screw up.
People are sick of ‘do more with less.’ Prompt them to focus, and set priorities that are realistic. Overwhelming a bewildered staff with fantasy ‘musts’ may send a manager home at night satisfied that s/he’s ‘doing everything possible’ but in fact, you’re driving any real talent away. Just because the job market is flooded doesn’t mean your best workers won’t leave.
Austerity measures do not preclude training and appreciation. It’s not hypocritical to reward people for hard work by holding offsite meetings or celebrations. In fact, it’s crucial to motivation and re-building workplace camaraderie and confidence. What is hypocritical is to hand out large bonuses at the top while employees are being told to recycle paper clips.
Before implementing ‘cost saving measures,’ truly pencil them out. Requiring employees to do work that can be outsourced for a nominal amount of money and deflecting them from the work they were originally hired to do (and are now not accomplishing) is nonsense. Either their talents are no longer required or the work they should be doing isn’t needed. If it is, it’s not being done. Do the math.
Take a walk on the wild side. Talk to the lowest-ranking employees. Ask them what’s changed that bothers them the most. You may be shocked at changes you didn’t even know had been put into effect. Ambitious supervisors and managers can get carried away with the opportunity to put bullet points on their annual reviews… “Saved $500 annually by ordering staples and paper clips recycled.”
When times are tough, management must lead with confidence and keep communication channels open. If it doesn’t, the workplace can easily become a war zone. Snipers and saboteurs are lurking, ready to be cloned. Messages should be delivered with style and positive energy, acknowledging the phase the company is in. If times are bad and pink slips likely, employees don’t feel blind-sided if an exit day arrives.
There are several articles on my website, www.Briles.com under “learning resources” that tie into this area.
Michael Marks (Flextronics): This is a tough question. All CEOs, certainly myself included, hate to lay off people And I don’t think we’re overly quick to do so. For example, at Flextronics today, we still have a variety of business segments that are losing money, but where we are trying to keep the capabilities in place for when business improves.
But the world keeps changing, and oftentimes we have people engaged in activities in the wrong locations, or in businesses that are dying or will not be needed in the future, and then the best thing to do is eliminate the jobs and move on. As terrible as that is, it is often good for the employees also, so that they can get re-situated in a place where their particular skills will be valuable longer.
We all take temporary measures also, from going to a four-day work week, to temporarily reducing pay, etc. But in a drastic downturn like we have been experiencing, these measures just aren’t enough. We all engage in lay-offs, as well as cutting pay, reducing travel, etc. to keep our companies in the best possible financial shape for the future. If we don’t do these things, we can often pay the ultimate price of being forced to shut down parts of our business or even go bankrupt.
While Flextronics has laid off some 15,000 people during this downturn, today we have more employees (100,000) than ever before. Without moving quickly, we could be in financial trouble and jeopardize the livelihoods of the rest of those people.
Warren Bennis (USC’s Leadership Institute): I agree totally with the premises behind all these questions. Some of the best CEOs do not start cutting labor costs and those that do are often fooling themselves by making dangerous cuts in their human, intellectual, and social capital.
But many companies are showing the way. Accenture, for example, has developed a scheme whereby their staff can take a leave with 25-percent pay and find not-for-profit employment for a year or so and then return.
The companies that, over the long run, can sustain profitability are those that view the company as a community, a unit of survival, like a family, and realize that every other cost-saving device has to be undertaken before any employee is sacked.
Companies should keep an eye open for employees who seem depressed or under too much pressure during times such as these, to avoid a serious problem that might damage the company, in event that downsizing must occur. Employers need to continue to be positive even against the odds to be successful in win-win situations of all types. Thanks for listening!! (Gainesville, GA)
Let employees know that the reduction in customers is very serious and could get worse. Let them know the importance of cutbacks and why they need to be done to save the company, first, and jobs, second. Without the company, there would be no jobs… So many people have lost their jobs because their companies had to fold because of the lack of work coming in. It’s a domino effect. No customers, no company, no jobs. You can look at it any way you want, it all means the same. (St. Louis, MO.)
John Riccitiello (Electronic Arts): I know for me it certainly seems like there are some problems when top executives can be paid huge sums even when their companies stock and performance are down. As for EA, we have a three-part compensation scheme comprised of a base salary, a bonus and stock options. More or less, management doesn’t do well on bonus or options if the company doesn’t perform. My sense is that executive compensation is respected by the shareholders and by the employees when it is simple and clear.
Bennis: There has been, over the past two decades, a ‘growing disparity between employee and executive pay,’ as you say, which has seen its first plateauing in 2002. That said, the average employee is making $1 to just about $450 for every CEO. CEOs are still doing very well, even with stricter surveillance by the SEC and the board compensation committee. Last year, according to the Wall Street Journal, the average CEO total-pay package came to $1,802,053. But total direct compensation reached a little over $3 million.
There are some promising signs to redress the imbalance between CEO pay and the average worker’s pay. Compensation committees are taking a stronger hand and there are signs that forward-looking executives are making certain that the lowest ranking employees are the first to receive any bonus payments—an inverted bonus plan that is now being used at such places as Planar Systems in Beaverton, Oregon. However, much more needs to be done to create additional equity in compensation. Not easy. Capping salaries wouldn’t work in a capitalistic system. No one has figured out how to control skyrocketing salaries in a star system, such as that used by sports athletes, screen actors—or CEOs.
Marks: This is a controversial subject always because people are emotional about it. But it is actually a rather simple issue. It has to do with supply and demand. To be a successful executive today requires tremendous sacrifices in terms of travel, hours worked, etc. In addition, to be successful requires a very broad set of skills to manage a global enterprise. The group of people who can manage this complexity and stress successfully are relatively few and in great demand, and so command increasing salaries.
The demands on employees are also going up, and where employees improve their own skill sets, they also become more in demand and command ever-increasing salaries as well. And, of course, these things tend to go up and down. After the last period, where a relatively few number of executives received obscene compensation, things are now returning much more to normal, as they should.
Frank Hood (Krispy Kreme): A successful, long-term, sustainable expansion strategy is one that is throttled whether in or out of challenging economic conditions. Our strategy at Krispy Kreme is one of planned and steady growth. We take care in ensuring that our strategy for growth does not outpace our infrastructure’s ability to support it.
Briles: We took a magnifying glass and looked closely at the types of companies and associations we worked with. My expertise is in workplace issues around sabotage, conflict, change and building confidence—especially in female-dominated workplaces. We do a great deal of work in the health care area—a group that represents 15% of the GDP with an estimated growth to 15% over the next few years.
Sharpening our pencils and spread sheets, we developed formulas and steps for Red Ink Behaviors, identifying Saboteurs and Conflict Creators in the Midst, Thriving with Change and Creating Confidence. From those formulas, we created the Judith Briles Health Care Leadership Forum where we bring in up to 16 managers at a time for an extensive two-day lab. Eighteen hours later, the participants leave with knowledge and tools that they can immediately implement.
I always believe that there are opportunities with every problem; you just have to dig in and reexamine what you are doing to find what works . . . and what doesn’t work. Because I travel so much with my work and working with organizations, I have a terrific opportunity to have an ongoing “lab.” Always asking questions, creating and taking surveys and listening to responses, I’ve been able to create books that fill our clients’ needs.
Steve Elterich (Fidelity eBusiness): Our thoughts are with the troops overseas. We have found and continue to see that many of our customers don’t react to swings in the stock market or other types of events, both good and bad. Many customers are planning for the long term and we have not seen anything that would suggest otherwise at this point.
Jim Citrin (Spencer Stuart): My sense is that the war has had a modest effect on the hiring front. Only the most critical positions are being filled now, those that simply cannot wait. Much hiring is on hold until more clarity is achieved about the war, consumer, and capital spending. International travel and international hiring is also being affected, as has been widely reported by the growing SARS scare and spread.
Hood: We really haven’t seen an appreciable change in our business due to the economy. The public, our customers, still see Krispy Kreme as an affordable indulgence. We are always managing costs responsibly so cost cutting really is part of our day-to-day tactical strategy. To my knowledge we have not had to lay anyone off due to economic conditions.
Laureen Ong (National Geographic Channel): Yes, I believe it is possible to “have it all,” but only if you’re not constantly trying to measure up to someone else’s ideal. Every woman isn’t cut out to be a Martha Stewart clone—and we shouldn’t feel guilty about it. Balancing career and family will never be easy. It will always involve sacrifices, and if you’re lucky, a strong partnership. I’m blessed with a very supportive husband, which makes the balancing act much, much easier.
Briles: Referring back to an earlier response, women can have it all—just not all at once. Men don’t have it all either—balance, successful career, happy family—if they put in the amount of hours and work that women do.
I do a simple exercise with my audiences. I ask them to write down the four most important things in their personal or professional life. Through a process of elimination, they take things from the list until they get to their most important item—it could be family, career, time for self, starting a business, going back to school—you name it. I then ask how many spend a significant amount of time each day directed toward their goal—and the answer is very few. We are all so busy.
The point is that you must prioritize. Having a happy family doesn’t mean that you need to do all the cleaning and shopping—get some help. At work, look at how you spend your day—do you need another committee meeting? Does any of your work day go toward “wasted” energy and time? Move to eliminate anything that isn’t critical to the present work you do.
When my kids were young years ago, I was interviewed by one of the national women’s magazines—they wanted to know how I did it all, career, kids, marriage, etc. I told them, “Simple, I get help.” It’s the first time I flunked an interview. The magazine wanted to hear that I baked casseroles and froze meals for the week, that I did crafts in the wee hours of the morning. When I asked what the demographics of their magazine were, they described the average woman—works, kids, trying to balance their lives.
Before ending the interview, I suggested that they trash the article and instead do one that showed their readers how to measure time and money and why it might make sense to pay someone to clean the house so that they can have some weekend time off. They didn’t.
Families, and kids, grow up. During the years, there are different demands on a parent. When kids are little, Moms usually lack sleep, just from “momming”. Add in the demands of a career, it’s a double whammy. As kids grow, the soccer and taxi years prevail—you run from game to game, activity to activity. With the teens, independence hits big time and parents have a whole new set of worries.
So, to survive and thrive—learn to say no. Are the demands on you something you “need” or are they something you want? This applies to both work and home.
John Riccitiello (Electronic Arts): This is an interesting question. In my view, without doubt, technology leads to increased productivity and has the potential to lift all economic boats. More or less, as an economy and all across our society, we’re all better off for most of the new technologies. In the short run, new technologies can displace workers in a variety of cases. The antidote to these displacements is training, learning and flexibility. If we focus on learning and remain flexible, then we all have the chance to benefit from these new technologies.
Frank Hood (Krispy Kreme): I think technology will continue to make business and industry more efficient. And, as we have seen since the industrial revolution, jobs will shift from place to place within the economy. So, we will continue to see periods of time where the jobs may not be absorbed and “redirected” as quickly as we might like for them to. Therefore, we, as a society, need to focus on the effects of technology and not let people go without the necessary “training and retooling” to be effective contributors to society. I think that if we begin to consider technology as anything but a series of tools used by humanity to further the goals of humanity, then there is a chance that jobs will be lost and not replaced.
Steve Elterich (Fidelity eBusiness): Technology is one of the keys to the continued growth of Fidelity and the financial services industry overall. As technology is refined and broadband access becomes a reality, Fidelity will integrate the different channels more and more into the overall customer experience. For example, sharing a browser session while on the phone with a service representative during a planning exercise. I think there will always be a need for human interaction with customer service representatives and we are looking at putting more useful investment tools at the fingertips of both our customers and our service representatives.
Elterich: A great question! Fidelity works very hard to blend technology into the customer experience. The bottom line for us is to engage our customers in the manner in which they are most comfortable, through either the phone (both with reps and automated voice response), Fidelity.com, our 90 Investor Centers, wireless pagers and phones or any combination thereof. Technology is not an end in and of itself. Our goal is to innovate to improve the way we do business and to improve the overall customer experience.
Riccitiello: Keeping pace with technology is a life or death proposition for a videogame company. Today, it takes 18 to 30 months to make a top-quality game for the PC. When the studio team begins, they know that technology is moving so fast that the PC they’re creating the game for, hasn’t even been invented yet. New features and capabilities are being introduced every day, so you have to make some educated guesses on which way the technology and consumers are headed. Right now, some of the best engineers at EA are working on models for the next generation of consoles, such as the PlayStation 3. We don’t know what Sony’s final design will be, but we’ve got a lot of smart people making some educated guesses and we’ve already started working on theoretical models for games that won’t appear in stores until 2007.
Warren Bennis (USC’s Leadership Institute): The basic skills are neither business nor technology. Both are important and a literacy in such matters as corporate finance and advanced technology is also important.
But neither would be defined as “basic.” What is basic is understanding your goals, what gives you meaning, what drives you and makes you feel most alive, what your strengths and weaknesses are, and how you can enhance the former and make the latter irrelevant, understanding yourself and whether or not you want to lead. Learning about these things are the basics, the necessary conditions for a successful career and life. Understanding both business and technology can be important or not depending on how you answer the first few questions.
I think it’s this ability to see the big picture and plan strategically that has been the most essential to my career.
On the other hand, our company has performed better than most of our customers’ so we aren’t complaining too much, and we have generated a lot of cash during this period.
We don’t see much evidence of improvement anyway, but business is pretty stable. Telecom markets continue to be very weak. We aren’t planning for an improvement in end markets for the remainder of this year.
It’s all about productivity-producing more for less. Any state, nation, global firm could help raise the whole boat with output. This is the history since the native Americans. (Saratoga, CA)
I need a job! (Kansas City, KS)
Jim Citrin (Spencer Stuart):The Five Patterns of Extraordinary Careers
The bad news is that due to layoffs, job insecurity, and the decline of new opportunities, many people feel less valuable than ever before. Unfortunately they are significantly less valuable since the peak. But as the saying goes, everything is relative. The good news is that, despite the recent downturn, you are likely to be more valuable than you think in the future. Looking out to the year 2020, we expect the value of executive talent to grow appreciably, even if substantial volatility continues. Many forces at work support this: demographics, underlying demand and growth, the power of productivity-enhancing technology, and the increasing role of intellectual capital in business today. You can assess the long-term attractiveness of any sector by looking at each of these.
Healthcare, for example, will benefit from a stable to shrinking supply of professionals, and dramatic increase in demand driven by the aging of the population over the next twenty years. Sectors undergoing great change, such as those deregulating, will also place a premium on talent. No sector is immune from underlying demand, but different sectors are influenced by economic pressures in different ways.
Some sectors, such as advertising and consumer spending, are cyclical with the economy. Other sectors such as basic materials are less cyclical. More specifically, health care is driven more by demographics, pharmaceuticals is driven more by R&D breakthroughs, and defense is driven by government spending and geopolitical events. The key is to make a thoughtful assessment of the attractiveness of different industries using a variety of factors.
Judith Briles (The Briles Group): Don’t quit your day job until your new one can pay the bills. Or, be smart and have at least one year’s expenses socked away to take care of your ongoing expenses—mortgage, cars, insurances, food, etc. Figure out what it will cost you to set up—you may start at the dining room table, but if you have a family, this won’t last more than a few days. Whether you start out of your home or secure office space (there are plenty of profitable businesses seeded in the basement), plot out what your true money needs for the business will be for the next year—from phones, printing, mailing, etc. You have to be willing to open your own mail, and answer the phone, and be self-motivating. If you need to be around people, working out of the home is a challenge. Plan on meeting colleagues and clients so that you have the people contact you need.
Since you don’t mention what type of business you are thinking of starting, it’s difficult to refer you to groups that can be of assistance. NAWBO (the National Association of Business Women) can be a good place to start. The local Chamber of Commerce is another source.
Check out both your city newspaper with business section and in many metropolitan cities, there is likely to be a Business Journal. It’s common for them to highlight the fastest growing businesses on an annual basis. For women, they often have a special section on women business owners. Either way, you have names of successful people, some who may have a business that could benefit from yours or one that has similarities. The Internet is a great resource to find these. Then call and ask for an appointment.
Lessons from the Top
Warren Bennis (USC’s Leadership Institute): Yes, they are more tech savvy, as Cambridge says, and also more impatient. I did an informal survey some years ago about sibling order and discovered that only children tended to be more impatient than others with siblings. I wondered why and then realized that they had never had to queue up—for anything. Well, the computer/Internet has made us all impatient; just boot on and discover in a nano-second the meaning of life, cosmology and how many CDs K.D. Lang sold last year. But I don’t agree that those heroes and upstarts of the dot-com era were any less or more interested in “sustainable” companies than their grandparents or parents, for that matter. They just had more opportunities for failure. In fact, I would think that with the experiences of the young dot-commers, they have learned one helluva lot from their failures. And they will, in my view—with their entrepreneurial lust and the business literacy they have acquired— contribute to our economy in the years ahead in amazing ways. Call it the development of “intellectual capital.”
John Riccitiello (Electronic Arts): I don’t think there is a simple set of rules for being a successful executive. If I were to list some of the traits I think most successful (and happy) executives share, I would start with integrity. An executive who does what he knows is right can sleep at night, can answer any reasonable question of shareholders and can face his company’s employees with consistency and truth. Another trait common among successful executives is the ability to focus. Focus is critical to lead teams. Perhaps the most important thing a leader can do is to keep a team focused on key goals and help keep distractions to a minimum. I would say that most strong executives have a strong sense of drive. Drive is what makes them work hard and set high ambitions for themselves and the teams they lead. I think most everyone has the ability to develop these traits and that the most successful executives recognize this and work to improve themselves constantly.
Citrin: There are indeed common traits that the best performing business leaders possess. In fact, I am coming out with a new book entitled, The Five Patterns of Extraordinary Careers (Crown Business, August 2003 - check out www.fivepatterns.com), and after three years of research, and 1.2 million executives analyzed, we’ve determined that leadership is one of the key differentiators in creating extraordinary success. While that finding should not surprise you, what we found from our research about what truly great leadership is, may be surprising. The most effective leadership approach is something we call in the book, “Benevolent Leadership” —in the sense that the best leaders do not claw their way to the top, they are carried there. In our research, we learned that extraordinary success is achieved by making those around you successful. If you simply keep that simple but powerful rule at the forefront of your mind, you will be successful.
The biggest problem I see in all companies is that the CEO’s are overpaid. If these executives cut back on their salaries and perks, a lot of bankruptcies wouldn’t have happened. The workers are the lifeblood of any company. Abuse and destroy your workers, and you destroy your company. It’s all about common sense and logic and there is very little of it out there. (Wellsboro, PA)
Laureen Ong (National Geographic Channel): I’m not sure they do! I think leadership skills evolve as one grows professionally. It’s too easy to generalize about differences between the sexes—especially when it comes to business.
Judith Briles (The Briles Group): There are differences in styles. As a leader, you become the visionary for the organization. Women are more likely to invoke a consensus/inclusion type of leadership, involving multiple layers in their creation of vision for an organization. It is quite common for women to know who their key employees are (not just their executives) and something personal about them. Men are more inclined to create and execute their vision for an organization with an inner circle. Being personally connected isn’t as important to them as to women. They usually care more about the hierarchy and status of the organization and identify themselves with their position and title. Women usually view their jobs as just one part of the fabric of who they are and they value the voice of others in their leadership roles.
That said, being a leader takes guts. You have to be willing to step up to a challenge and not afraid to take the nay-sayers on. You have to be willing to bend, and in some cases, break the old rules of the workplace, of your predecessor. The great value that women bring to the workplace in their forms of leadership is multiple. Women have learned that leading from behind works—interact and consult with people you are responsible to; be able to listen closely and clearly as all speak. Leadership comes from example (yours) and directing others. If all a group hears, “I, I, I….” your leadership is dead in the water.
Good leaders aren’t threatened by ideas generated around them and from any level. They encourage input from others, coaching and motivating them to being involved and achieving what they envision. Leaders are human—it’s imperative that they tell their team when they do great . . . and when they screw up.
Michael Marks (Flextronics): I don’t think we will see too much improvement this year, but, of course, I hope so. For us, the signs are simple: it’s when our customers start increasing orders from what they have previously forecast, rather than the reverse, which has been happening for the last couple of years.
Steve Elterich (Fidelity eBusiness): Fidelity never tries to predict the market. As a technologist, I try to remain flexible for market swings, up or down. This is factored into our hardware and software decisions as well as application development decision.
Jim Citrin (Spencer Stuart): I am not an economist so I can only give you my opinion based on what I hear from companies as they think about hiring executives. I do believe that, assuming the war [in Iraq] is (hopefully) successfully concluded in the coming weeks, things will be stable into and through the summer. But my sense is that there is a lot of pent-up demand for hiring and getting companies growing again. Therefore I think September could be the beginning of more than “back to school” season—it can be the beginning of the next great employment expansion phase. And I think that both companies and individuals will keep the lessons from the aftermath of the dot-com bubble fresh in mind for years to come. Companies will be much more prudent with their investment and hiring and individuals are going to be more mature, less greedy, and less arrogant than they were when everyone thought they could just write their ticket to easy fortune.
Frank Hood (Krispy Kreme): Wow…if wishful thinking on my part is any indication of the future…then Yes. Outside that, it’s a wait and see. From a technology perspective, I think the general consensus is that things will improve toward the end of the year, but time will tell.
(MA)
Citrin: We at Spencer Stuart are definitely seeing hiring now, even in this uncertain market. Some industries are healthier and growing more strongly than others, and obviously these are where more of the jobs are. But even in troubled sectors, there are jobs. To be specific, some of the most robust industries, and those where key jobs seem to be, include pharmaceuticals, defense, technology/software, and interactive entertainment (videogames). Other industries, such as telecommunications, particularly long-distance and wireless, are hiring now because they were so decimated in the telecom bust of 2001 and 2002 and all of the layoffs. In addition, we at Spencer Stuart lead the market in CEO recruiting, having recruited more than half of externally recruited Fortune 500 CEOs in the last five years, and one category of companies that tend to hire aggressively is when a new CEO takes over. So whether it is an industrial, retail, publishing, hospital supply, or even financial services company, when there is a new CEO, chances are there will be new hiring as they build their own team. Finally, while not jobs in the formal sense, one area where we are seeing extraordinary activity is in recruiting board directors. Our firm recruits over half of externally recruited board directors in the United States and our board recruiting activity is up dramatically over last year. We have placed nearly 200 corporate directors in the past year and are currently working on over 150 board director searches at present.
John Riccitiello (Electronic Arts) : Throughout my career, I’ve learned the importance of listening, hard work and focus. In more senior management roles, other attributes begin to play a role; most important of these is being comfortable in hiring people smarter than you are yourself and then giving them the freedom to do what they think is best for the company. I think these lessons are right no matter the company or the industry.
At EA, we’re blessed with a team of nearly 4,000 employees who are very, very smart. The challenge here is to have us all pull in the same direction to achieve the big things we need to in order to continue to get better and meet the high demands of our shareholders and of ourselves. This means a huge amount of communication. When our people feel like they have been heard and truly understand what we all need to do to win, we succeed as a company. Last year, I was very happy when Fortune Magazine, The Times of London and other publications voted EA one of the best places to work in the world.
Warren Bennis (USC’s Leadership Institute): Well, through the shining ether of time it’s pretty easy to discern the mistakes that could have been avoided. But most couldn’t. Yes, there were some false prophets. Yes, there wasn’t enough consideration for the time innovation takes. Yes, there was lack of the basic business savvy, you know, the blocking and tackling. But for the most part I don’t think anyone could have predicted the timing and the extent of the market swing. There were a few [Warren] Buffetts out there, but most of us weren’t. Who could have predicted the 9/11 tragedies, the over-supply—especially in the telecom sector—the Iraqi build up, and so on and so on? That said, I wonder if those of us who are ‘geezers’ could have taken the same risks, seen the enormous potential of the internet, could have been evangelists of the future and had the chutzpah to do what these ‘geeks’ were able to pull off.
I’m a high-tech worker, well educated, skilled in the latest technologies, and in my early 40’s. Because it is easier than several years ago to find high-tech workers, my employer is demanding work hours and on-call rotation, which leave me with precious little free time for my family or other personal business. I want my life back! I hear this workload backlash from every co-worker and from acquaintances at other firms both large and small.
When the economy gets rolling again, companies like mine—which take excessive advantage of the law of supply-and-demand now—won’t be pleased with the turnover. I plan to participate in the job change process. In the tech workplace, turnover can be a insurmountable roadblock to new product introductions, timely product deliveries, service improvements, or corporate expansion, and hence profits. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. (Minneapolis, MN)
Judith Briles (The Briles Group): If you haven’t already secured an internship with your chosen field prior to graduation, do all you can to obtain one now. Just a few years ago, college students obtained internships and received compensation for them. College grads stepped out with multiple job offers. Today is different. I would take any internship, forget about being paid—you are after two things: experience in your chosen field and the opportunity to check out/hook onto a potential employer. In looking for a position, the single best thing is the schmooze factor. Employers see unbelievable numbers of resumes-they all look and sound alike. Your connections, and your connections’ connections, will be the hot ticket to get you in the door for interviews.
Recently, I wrote an article in my column ,“Career Moves,” for the Denver Business Journal. I referred to the recent hiring of Chelsea Clinton by the consulting firm of McKinsey & Co. at a six-figure salary. Granted she’s smart—a graduate of Stanford University and Oxford—but where is her “real life” corporate experience? As an employer seeking consulting services, thanks, but no thanks. The former first daughter’s most valuable asset is her pedigree.
An employer is not a parent—it is not going to stand by you and take care of you forever.
Your boss is first and foremost your boss, not your friend.
Loyalty is redefined—you do the work, the employer pays you. It may not need your work tomorrow.
Laureen Ong (National Geographic Channel): Don’t be influenced by stereotypes. Pursue a career in an industry that interests you, no matter what it is. When you’ve learned about the business, choose a career path within that industry that will provide the incentives and rewards that will keep you excited…and motivated.
Briles: Either gender can do just about any job that the other can do, including the Presidency. The question is, will they have the opportunity to do it? Barriers and prejudices still exist—and they are generated by and from both genders who serve as roadblocks.
Ong: I think the corporate boardroom is probably the last frontier. Yes, there are examples of women at the top of the business world—but they are few and far between. As I said before, the glass ceiling is real. That said, it’s hard to think of any profession that a woman can’t do!
Warren Bennis (USC’s Leadership Institute): What do you mean by “Is it worth it?” Do you mean more dollars in your paycheck or do you mean providing you with knowledge you will need to reach your goals or do you mean will it widen your network or broaden your outlook or, well, what? I suppose any of the above would be worth it but you should be more certain or clearer than you sound right now about “worth it”—worth it for what? If you don’t get clearer about your goal(s) for an MBA, you’re probably going to wonder if it is worth it. Additionally, it also depends on the particular interest you have and the university that offers the degree. If you’re not interested in finance, then I suspect Wharton or the University of Chicago wouldn’t or shouldn’t be high on your list. If you are interested in general management, then I wouldn’t give M.I.T or Carnegie Mellon a second look.
Generally speaking, an MBA is not a sine qua non for success in business—many of today’s top business leaders do not have MBAs—but it sure can help. It can open doors, provide essential skill-sets, give you an opportunity to reflect and wonder and to augment and enrich your business literacy. But first you have to answer the question I asked up front: “Good for what?”
Jim Citrin (Spencer Stuart): As an MBA myself (Harvard Business School 1986), I may be slightly biased. But I have always thought a little differently about an MBA than many people. Sure you can make assumptions about what it will take to achieve an attractive financial return from the significant investment in tuition and employment opportunity-cost that is required to pursue an MBA. And there are different studies that support the contention that an MBA is or is not a worthwhile financial investment. But I would urge you to evaluate from a different perspective as well. The key returns for an MBA, in my view, are that they create more career options in the short and medium term and just as in financial markets, options create value in the human capital market.
In addition, just as a stint in the military builds lifelong bridges and friendships, so too does the intense two-year experience of an MBA. The relationships and networks that are built from an MBA program are a key part of the value proposition and more importantly, they create the richness of experience.
Finally, some of the most important skills in the marketplace have to do with teamwork and communications. Having team projects, field study opportunities, presentation and class participation requirements, and the interpersonal dynamics associated with a class or section, you will develop skills far beyond accounting, finance, marketing, and operations.
Judith Briles (The Briles Group): No and No. Although I hold both masters and doctorate degrees in business administration, I’ve always said that my real degrees are in life. Granted, some career paths demand degrees; some don’t. Years ago, the Harvard Business Review published an article on “The Myth of the Well Educated Manager.” Truth be told, great leaders, and managers, in corporations don’t always have a formal education. Theirs came from working in the trenches.
I personally would rather have someone come to me with a variety of experiences, and if a company is growing in a direction that demands further education of its employees, then seek it at that time. Some will pay for additional training and education.
I got my MBA in 1980 and my DBA in 1990. Each of degrees was sought when my business was in a major shift, and in one case, crisis. Because I was able to enter a program that encouraged me to use the business as a laboratory, everything I learned I was able to immediately apply.
Would having my doctorate have helped when my partner embezzled money that I became personally responsible for? Most likely not.
Depending on your career path, you may need degrees up front, or you may be able to acquire them along the way.
Sometimes I think we put too much emphasis on degrees and not enough on real-world experience. (Raleigh, NC)
Laureen Ong (National Geographic Channel): While I won’t say a degree isn’t important, nothing beats experience. When I look at potential employees, I want to see what they have accomplished in the past that I can use to help me tomorrow.
John Riccitiello (Electronic Arts): Getting a good education is critical, but it doesn’t have to be an MBA. At Electronic Arts, our people come from a wide variety of backgrounds, with advanced degrees in business, engineering and art. It’s hard to get in the door without a good education but after that, the most important success factors are hard work, high integrity, a bent toward action and a great imagination.
Steve Elterich (Fidelity eBusiness): An MBA is helpful but not required. Education, in addition to work experience, and personal characteristics are each important to success. We work closely with colleges and universities through our systems division to identify internship possibilities and understand what is being developed in different research labs at academic institutions around the country.
Frank Hood (Krispy Kreme): The traits we look for in candidates for a technology role at Krispy Kreme are a passion and respect for the brand, past experience in some IT role that has required a certain degree of entrepreneurial skill and the appropriate undergraduate degree. We obviously want people that are technically qualified and have a strong “work ethic,” but we pride ourselves on being business people first and technologists second.
Laureen Ong (National Geographic Channel): When I interview someone fresh out of college, I look for someone who likes a challenge and pursues a wide variety of interests. Just about anyone can learn to do a job and get by, but it’s those people that have demonstrated an ongoing love for learning and an ability to achieve that are special.
Citrin: There is absolutely no certainty in our economy any longer. What can seem conservative and blue chip one day can look shaky or worse the next. And the person who seems untouchable from risk can soon find themselves out the door. The statistics about job mobility are well known. Therefore the first step in making sure you are on as solid footing as possible, is to acknowledge the reality that there are a lot of things that you cannot control. But there are critically important things that you can control that will put you and keep you in the most solid position in the shaky economy. First and foremost, if you are working, make sure you have a keen understanding of what and how value is created in your organization. Then find away to align whatever it is that you are doing as closely as possible to where value is created.
Let me give you one example. Say you are a financial manager in a heavily sales driven company. If you understand that this is what drives the company’s results, think about ways that your work, analyses, or activities can support the sales effort. Which clients or segments are most profitable? Can you help develop a new financial information system that will make the sales force or sales management more effective? Build bridges across your company so that your internal network is more robust.
In addition to specific professional skills, including industry experience and functional expertise, the most important and therefore marketable skills are intangible interpersonal skills. In the interconnected world that all of us work in, skills such as flexibility, adaptability, listening skills, empathy, responsiveness, teamwork, and communications are more important than ever before.
Bennis: No one is safe; at least, no job is safe. Never will be. The half-life of any particular skill set is, at the most, five years. And that’s on the long side, I promise you. What will keep you alive is to think about the characteristics of both geeks and geezers in the study: learning, curiosity, risk prone, being a first-class noticer, having a moral compass and knowing what gives you meaning.
We have a good product, but the labor force (which I am a part of) doesn’t seem to have a clue just how important it is to put out 110%—especially in hard times. Many people give less than their best and now is not the time for that. (Rockford, IL)
Riccitiello: Everyone agrees that there is no substitute for persistence — so if you want something just keep trying. Beyond that, I like to see candidates that have shown a strong sense of ambition and focus in their lives to date. Those that have used their summers productively, either in work or even in learning and travel, will stand out relative to those that stayed home for a sunny lazy summer. Those that join competitive sports and find a way to succeed are better candidates than those that have not. Those that invest time to improve themselves, which could be running a marathon, working for a worthy volunteer group or going to school at night in addition to a day job stand out.
One thing I cannot emphasize enough is for the candidate to invest time to really understand the company and industry they want to work in. If you want to work for the New York Yankees, I suggest you learn everything about the Yankees, their current players all the way back to Babe Ruth. Study what you can about their management, their financial position and their challenges. If you want to work in the game business, go out and play the games, get good at them, study the competition and the technology and, of course, learn all that you can about the company you are to interview with. If you know your stuff, it will show in both your questions and your answers.
John Riccitiello (Electronic Arts): I think most business leaders didn’t really see the downturn coming until it was too late. And once we were into the downturn, I think too many believed the slowdown would be shallow and short. Unfortunately for many industries, this has not proven to be right. Electronic Arts is fortunate because our industry (Interactive Entertainment) has continued to grow throughout the larger economic slowdown and because as the leader in the interactive game business we have been able to grow our market share in most major countries worldwide. EA is enjoying the benefits of years of technology investment, by EA, Sony, Microsoft and others, that make it possible for us to produce games that are far superior to what we were offering just a few years ago.
Warren Bennis (USC’s Leadership Institute): Well, of course experience helps. But it can also hinder. There is a great line in Waiting for Godot when Gogo says to Didi, “Habit is a great deadener.” Well, successful habit is an even greater deadener. Experience can be helpful if those with it continue to learn from it and advance, build on, keep adapting and moving on. And there is also something to be said for the “beginner’s mind” as well. Berlioz once said about Saint Saens, “Saint Saens knew everything. Everything. All he lacked was inexperience.” The question really isn’t: the flush of the new vs. the wisdom acquired through experience, which is how your question is framed. It’s about how open one is to learning. Are one’s eyebrows raised in curiosity? Eyes unopened are no different than wings not unfolded. Young is nice, speaking as a 78-year-old, but hubris is rotten for the old as well as the young.
Jim Citrin (Spencer Stuart): The most important qualities we look for in candidates are a track record of success and relevant skills relative to the position being recruited for. But those are just tickets to the dance. Companies tend not to make actual hiring decisions based on skills and experience. Those have to be a given. The best candidates are those that have the interpersonal strengths of being great listeners, having their egos in check, having empathy, being good communicators, and demonstrating genuine passion for what a company does and a position requires.
In our forthcoming book, The Five Patterns of Extraordinary Careers, we write that one of the keys to achieving great professional success and genuine personal satisfaction, is to find the right fit. By right fit, we mean putting yourself into a position where you genuinely like and respect the people with whom you would be working, where the position plays to your natural strengths, and where you are comfortable in the culture of the organization. When you can migrate yourself to working in these conditions exist, you will be both successful and happy, for sure.
Steve Elterich (Fidelity eBusiness): In addition to the requisite business and technical skills, Fidelity has always sought out individuals that are capable of taking multiple views on an idea or issue. We also want someone that is both flexible and dedicated to high levels of service, something our customers have come to expect from us.
Frank Hood (Krispy Kreme): Wow, that’s a hard one. I think in total the best advice I have ever been given personally or professionally was from my father, who said: “It’s not what you say. It’s what people thought you said.” Short and sweet, but it all shakes out to mean perception is the “absolute reality” and if you stay true to your convictions then more often than not, success awaits you.
Judith Briles (The Briles Group): Take calculated risks and be willing to fail. As a woman, I’ve found that women can be harsher upon women who fail than men are on women (and men). Women often view women as having “cooties” if they fail; especially publically…men view it as part of the “notching” of life. And no matter what business path you choose, determine up front if it something you feel passionate about . . . or is it something others have told you you ought to do? When failure happens, and it will at some time, one of the painful truths is that people distance themselves from you. People that you thought are friends, aren’t and weren’t. They were parasites, riding your coat tails and taking from you what they could. In my book The Confidence Factor, one of the steps in building confidence is to learn and build from a failure. Those in the study reported that having “friends” exclude them was something that took a long time to get over. Being passionate about one’s work was the # 1 way to build confidence.
Our business community has lost sight of what produces success. Effective management, cost controls and face-to-face contact can never be replaced by “off-the-shelf programs,” “out-of-the-box-thinking” and, of course, “business solutions.”
The greatest business advice I ever received was from my father: “A salesman who covers a chair instead of a territory, always remains on the bottom.” If we keep looking for excuses, we will find them; the key is to go out and get the business, don’t wait for it to find you. (Wichita, KS)
Laureen Ong (National Geographic Channel): Overall, I’d say the “glass ceiling” is as real today as it was when I first entered the work world. There’s really no questioning the fact that the top jobs overwhelmingly still go to men. All you have to do is look at the Fortune 500 list of CEOs to prove that point. But certainly, women have made significant progress. While it’s not a level playing field yet, I see more and more women in senior management positions every year - which is encouraging.
Briles: I don’t believe it’s harder for women to be successful in business, if they will allow/enable themselves to be so. Saying that, let me expand. Women are terrific—they have enormous stamina, they are smart, creative, and innovative. It’s easy to say that men are the primary culprits in their advancement—that’s too much of a cliché carried over from past discriminations.
Some women take exception when I say this, but what holds many women back is sometimes themselves. It is not uncommon for women to cover all bases. If a parent, even with a spouse or partner, she usually does the majority of the domestic duties. She works long and hard hours, and it doesn’t matter if she works for someone else or is her own boss. She is Superwoman . . . and she is super exhausted.
If a woman wants to be successful, she has to prioritize. She can’t do it all . . . at least, all at the same time. If the goal in business is to be successful—very successful—then she has to concentrate on making that happen. Knowing and understanding the competition; accumulating the needed funds to grow the business; having the physical and mental energy to commit to its success; and the moxie to know what works, is working and what doesn’t. This means she needs help—on the domestic side, and if she has kids, there too. Forget about being the taxi driver and the gourmet cook.
Success can also be defined as merely making enough money to cover business expenses and pay a decent salary. That can be achieved with lots of work and time or a fraction of it.
Citrin: In this market, it has never been more important to do your homework prior to an interview or a meeting. Know the company, its competitive position, recent announcements, stock-price history; listen in on the recent earnings conference calls (usually available on the company’s web site). And know the person you’ll be meeting with. Do a Google or Yahoo search on the person and you should be able to find something about him or her. Then, even more importantly, do everything you can to be the solution to someone else’s problem. From your homework, develop an “outsider’s view” of their key needs and opportunities. Are they in cost-cutting mode? Are they fighting to grow the top-line? Are they overhauling product lines? Are they switching from back-office to front office customer service strategies? And use your conversations to listen well and get more input on their problems. With that in hand, find ways to pull elements of your experience and background that will help resolve their problems. And finally, even though this is saying the obvious, write a thoughtful thank-you note by email or physical letter. You would be surprised how powerful and rare this common courtesy is.
Elterich: Fidelity has withstood the market downturn fairly well. While we have worked hard to control costs, we still continue to push forward with new projects, both customer-facing as well as internal systems enhancements. One of the benefits of being a privately held company is that we have the ability to continue to invest in our different lines of business in both up and down markets and take a longer-term approach.
In each downturn of the economy, as a business executive, I have beefed up the sales department and marketing. This has taken us to the next level of business, as most companies seem to cut back on sales staff and marketing. We have not had a lay-off in 25 years. (Keokuk, IA)
I work as a sales manager for a medical supply company. What we have continued to focus on is micro-managing our services to our customers. Service, Service, and more Service.
The days of easy money are gone; our mindset has served us well. Our staff and team leaders keep a close track on the satisfaction of our most important assets: our customer base and customer satisfaction.
Thinking outside the so-called “box,” our company has taken it to the next level: “Forward Thinking.” We monitor all our resources, and track the company’s successes and recover quickly from costly mistakes.
Back to basics, we make our money the old-fashioned way in the modern world! (Atlanta, GA)
