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  • The Ideal Organization

    Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones identified the six most essential imperatives for creating an ideal work environment. Let people be themselves. Unleash the flow of information. Magnify people's strengths. Stand for more than shareholder value. Show how the daily work makes sense. Have rules people can believe in. How can a manager create a work environment with the above 6 elements? To get more ideas, look at the following statements created by Goffee and Jones . How close is your organization to the ideal? To find out, check off each statement that applies. The more check marks you have, the closer you are to the dream. Let Me Be Myself ☐ I'm the same person at home as I am at work. ☐ I feel comfortable being myself. ☐ We're all encouraged to express our differences. ☐ People who think differently from most do well here. ☐ Passion is encouraged, even when it leads to conflict. ☐ More than one type of person fits in here. Tell Me What's Really Going On ☐ We're all told the whole story. ☐ Information is not spun. ☐ It's not disloyal to say something negative. ☐ My manager wants to hear bad news. ☐ Top executives want to hear bad news. ☐ Many channels of communication are available to us. ☐ I feel comfortable signing my name to comments I make. Discover and Magnify My Strengths ☐ I am given the chance to develop. ☐ Every employee is given the chance to develop. ☐ The best people want to strut their stuff here. ☐ The weakest performers can see a path to improvement. ☐ Compensation is fairly distributed throughout the organization. ☐ We generate value for ourselves by adding value to others. Make Me Proud I Work Here ☐ I know what we stand for. ☐ I value what we stand for. ☐ I want to exceed my current duties. ☐ Profit is not our overriding goal. ☐ I am accomplishing something worthwhile. ☐ I like to tell people where I work. Make My Work Meaningful ☐ My job is meaningful to me. ☐ My duties make sense to me. ☐ My work gives me energy and pleasure. ☐ I understand how my job fits with everyone else's. ☐ Everyone's job is necessary. ☐ At work we share a common cause. Don't Hinder Me with Stupid Rules ☐ We keep things simple. ☐ The rules are clear and apply equally to everyone. ☐ I know what the rules are for. ☐ Everyone knows what the rules are for. ☐ We, as an organization, resist red tape. ☐ Authority is respected. How could the above statements help you in your job search?

  • The Sharing Economy

    Managers scan the external environment to determine problems, opportunities, and trends. An important element in the external environment is the economy. In this video, Loic LeMeur states that people will share possessions instead of owning them. Can you imagine no possessions ? Is this a trend of the future? How might it affect business?

  • Business Roundtable CEOs are Optimistic about Sales, but not Hiring

    Business Roundtable (BRT) is an association of chief executive officers (CEOs) of the 200 largest corporations in the United States. The CEOs are surveyed about sales, capital spending, and hiring. The results are reported as a composite index used to gauge their economic outlook. The long run average of the index is 79. The current index is 81. According to the latest quarterly survey of Business Roundtable members, 72 percent of the CEOs expect sales to increase in the next six months. While the group is more optimistic about sales than in the past, they are not as optimistic about hiring. Only 29 percent of the CEOs expect to increase hiring in the next six months. (See attached press release.) Why does hiring not increase when sales increase? The BRT video at http://businessroundtable.org/corporations-101 explains how corporations work and the value they provide to the U.S. economy.

  • McDonald's Around the World

    McDonald's - Around the World from PosterBoy Edit on Vimeo . McDonald's has a strong identity around the world, as shown in this commercial. People in almost every country recognize the name. McDonald's legally protects its name or trademark to ensure consistent communications inside and outside the company, around the world. (See the " Global Logo and Trademark Standards Reference Guide " from 1999.) Why would McDonald's create a reference guide for its logo and trademark standards? How does McDonald's define trademark in the 1999 reference guide? What has changed about its trademark since 1999?

  • New Mega Trends

    The book, New Mega Trends (by Frost & Sullivan Partner Sarwant Singh, published by Palgrave Macmillan) identifies 10 global trends that will have global impact in the future. The book gives readers the tools to identify and evaluate the trends, and to translate them into business and personal opportunities. Table of Contents E-Mobility Urbanization Health, Wellness and Well-Being Social Trends New Battlefields Virtual Connected World Innovating to Zero Value For Money Business Models Smart is the New Green From Planes to Trains For example, the chapter, "Smart is the New Green," discusses business opportunities to develop, use, and sell "smart" products which have information and communication technology embedded in them so that workers can use tablet computers to communicate as they move around the business facilities instead of being tied to a desk with a personal computer. View the slides below and think about the external environment which influences management decisions. How might the factory of the future use advanced technology and automation to improve product quality, monitor costs, adjust production, and "go green"? New Mega Trends - Implications of Mega Trends to Businesses, Cultures, Society and Careers from Frost & Sullivan

  • Frankenstorm Hurricane Sandy Stops Business in the East

    NASA timelapse of Sandy - Photographer: NOAA Yesterday, Hurricane Sandy, dubbed "Frankenstorm," hit a 1,000-mile-wide area of the East Coast, from Massachusetts to Virginia. The storm brought rain, flooding, cold wind, and power outages. Managers in the area decided to close or limit business hours. Retail stores and restaurants closed. Oil refineries in the Northeast shut down or cut production. Even the U.S. stock exchange closed for the first time since 1888. New technologies were used to communicate during the storm. Weather and News feeds on the Internet were enhanced for those situations where citizens might lose television or cable but have some access to Internet, especially through mobile devices. Utilities and police sent emergency update email and text messages. Need disaster information? There's an app for that! FEMA's app contains a checklist for an emergency kit and a page on what to do during a hurricane, including tips like "take refuge in a small interior room, closet, or hallway on the lowest level." The American Red Cross released a Mobile App that includes a request for help, a flashlight app, and weather updates. It has information about open shelters and an "I'm Safe" alert for Facebook, Twitter, and email so people can tell their friends and family that they are OK. People can follow key accounts on Facebook and Twitter ( @FEMA and @RedCross ) to track the storm. Even though businesses in the affected areas closed, several are running some of their technology operations through offices in other parts of the U.S., Europe, and Asia. How has the storm affected businesses where you live? Do you think the storm will have a significant impact on business? Photo source: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/national/frankenstorm-live-video-8-year-old-boy-among-at-least-16-dead-in-us-after-hurricane-sandy-havoc#ixzz2AnDsZhKz

  • Consumer Confidence

    Managers study the external environment or outside factors that may affect an organization. One of the directly interactive forces in the external environment that managers study is customers. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index is a tool managers can use to gauge consumers' collective confidence in the economy. The Conference Board is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization based in New York. The board's trustees include chief executives of leading global corporations. The Consumer Confidence Index is a number that fluctuates depending on responses to monthly surveys. The consumer confidence surveys are conducted on the first day of each month with 5,000 U.S. households. A different group is surveyed each month, and each is screened to try to represent a demographic cross-section of the nation. The same five questions have been asked since the survey began in 1967. The questions asked are to discern consumers' thinking about the economy, their place in it, and where it's headed. That consistency and long track record make the board's index highly regarded. Below is a graph of the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence index from September 2011 through September 2012. The September 2012 consumer confidence index stands at 70.3, up 9 points from 61.3 in August. The benchmark level is 100. Source: RTTNews Why is the Conference Board's survey closely watched? How can managers use it?

  • Crowdsourcing at Domino's

    Companies are outsourcing research by turning to crowds ( crowdsourcing ). In the past, focus groups were asked research questions. Today, many companies are asking consumers for ideas. An example is Domino's Think Oven, as shown in this video. Think Oven has two parts, projects and idea box. Projects ask for help on something specific. Idea Box asks people to submit their ideas for Domino's. Users can post ideas on Domino's Facebook page . Co.create reported that "customers aren't the only ones voicing their ideas: Domino's store managers and employees have taken to Think Oven with genuine suggestions. The idea for one of Domino's new products, Parmesan Bread Bites, came from Brian Edler, a Domino's store owner in Ohio instead of from product development types at HQ." How is crowdsourcing improving Domino's business?

  • Job Polarization and Jobless Recoveries

    The National Employment Law Project released a report, " Tracking the Recovery after the Great Recession ." It found that lower wage occupations are growing faster than higher wage occupations and middle wage occupations are decreasing. During the recession (2008 Q1 to 2010 Q1), employment losses occurred throughout the economy, but were concentrated in mid-wage occupations. By contrast, during the recovery (2010 Q1 to 2012 Q1), employment gains have been concentrated in lower-wage occupations, which grew 2.7 times as fast as mid-wage and higher-wage occupations. Specifically: Lower-wage occupations (in fields like retail and hospitality with median hourly wages of $7.69 to $13.83) constituted 21 percent of recession losses, but 58 percent of recovery growth. Mid-wage occupations (in fields like construction, manufacturing and information with median hourly wages of $13.84 to $21.13) constituted 60 percent of recession losses, but only 22 percent of recovery growth. Higher-wage occupations (in design-oriented fields with a median wage of $21.14 to $54.55) constituted 19 percent of recession job losses, and 20 percent of recovery growth. Nir Jaimovich , Henry E. Siu discuss how job polarization and jobless recoveries are related in their National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, "The Trend is the Cycle: Job Polarization and Jobless Recoveries." They define job polarization as the recent disappearance of employment in occupations in the middle of the skill distribution and jobless recoveries as the slow rebound in aggregate employment following recent recessions, despite recoveries in aggregate output. They found, "job polarization is not a gradual process; essentially all of the job loss in middle-skill occupations occurs in economic downturns. Second, jobless recoveries in the aggregate are accounted for by jobless recoveries in the middle-skill occupations that are disappearing." Economic conditions influence management decisions. Some companies reorganize in response to financial pressures by automating jobs or by sending jobs offshore. Thus, managers know that many of the jobs that disappeared during the recession are not coming back. How can managers influence their external environments, especially the economy?

  • Happiness Studies

    Last April, I wrote about " Gross National Happiness " as a measurement, instead of gross national product, of Bhutan's progress. (Bhutan is a tiny Himalayan country east of India.) In a speech on Monday, Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, said, " We should seek better and more-direct measurements of economic well-being ." What contributes to happiness? Surveys have found the following consistent answers: health, family and community, control over one's life, and opportunities for leisure. Bernanke wants to know answers to the following questions. How secure do Americans feel in their jobs? How confident are Americans in their future job prospects? How prepared are families for financial shocks? Since "happiness" is a subjective emotion, most managers want to measure "satisfaction." They may not be able to make you happy , but they can influence your satisfaction . Customer satisfaction is measured using the Net Promoter ultimate question (How likely are you to recommend this product or company to your friends and family?). This results in a Net Promoter score (essentially the number of survey respondents with positive outlooks on a brand minus those with negative outlooks.) Interview several of your employed friends and family members. Ask them Bernanke's questions-How secure do you feel in your job? How confident are you in your future job prospects? How prepared are you for financial shocks? Then, ask them a version of the Net Promoter question-How likely are you to recommend working at this company to your friends and family? What did you find? Happiness or satisfaction?

  • Managers Use GDP

    Managers are interested in the economy. So, they look at the gross domestic product (GDP), which is the broadest gauge of economic output. The United States Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reports on GDP. The bureau defines real gross domestic product as the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States. BEA released its first-quarter 2012 advance estimate of GDP August 27, 2012. The New York Times prepared a chart based on that report and previous reports, as seen below. Recession and recovery or growth can be seen in the chart. According to the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research , the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. A recession is a period of declining real GDP and rising unemployment. During the recession real GDP dropped by ~3 % and unemployment rose from 4.7 % to 10 %. The recession (2007-2009) included a housing bubble, financial system losses, and a commodity boom. From 1995 to 2007, the U.S. housing market was booming, which encouraged many households to borrow money to buy real estate. Some of these new homeowners' loans were subprime. In other words, given their down payments, incomes and credit histories, they were at a high risk of loan default. Since 2007, many of the new homeowners found themselves underwater , owing more on their mortgages than their houses were worth. As a result, mortgage defaults and home foreclosures increased. In 2008, the financial institutions that held these subprime mortgages faced large losses. Bear Stearns was purchased by JP Morgan Chase Fannie Mae and Freddie mac were taken over by the U.S. government Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy Bank of America purchased Merrill Lynch American International Group (AIG) received $85 billion from the federal government JP Morgan Chase purchased Washington Mutual, the biggest bank failure in history In July 2008, oil peaked at $147.30 a barrel and a gallon of gasoline was more than $4.00 across most of the U.S., driven in part by increased demand from China and other rapidly growing emerging economies. Economic contraction in the fourth quarter caused a dramatic drop in demand. Prices fell below $35 a barrel by the end of the year. Since the second half of 2009, the economy has been growing, coming close to 4 % growth in early 2010. Then growth slowed, but accelerated the rest of the year. The most recent report says that growth has slowed to 2.2 %. How might this affect decisions by managers? Will they increase or decrease production? Will they hire or lay off employees? What other decisions might be affected?

  • Crowdsourcing as Management Strategy

    In the external environment of fast-paced technological change, nimble competitors, and demanding customers, world-class firms have adopted an integrated product development (IPD) process to provide best-in-class new products. IPD is a management strategy that uses customer inquiry, cross-functional teaming, and technology integration to improve the performance of product development lifecycles. The U.S. Department of Defense first proposed IPD as a name that better reflected the participation of manufacturing, design, marketing and finance in product development. IPD improves an organization's ability to quickly respond to market demands with high quality new products. Increasingly diverse needs of customers are met by exercising speed, efficiency, and quality in the development of new products. It makes sense that the next evolution of IPD can be conducted faster with the use of the Internet. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) hopes crowdsourcing will speed up the design-to-production cycle. According to Steve Lohr in a New York Times blog, " Pentagon Pushes Crowdsourced Manufacturing " (April 5, 2012), "The crowdsourcing effort will rely on a software initiative, called Vehicleforge.mil, which will be a Web portal for gathering, sharing and testing ideas." General Electric (GE ) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are collaborating on the project. "Pictured is a schematic of the crowdsourcing platform GE and MIT are building to support DARPA's ongoing Adaptive Vehicle Make (AVM) portfolio. The idea of this platform is to help connect data, design tools and simulations in a collaborative environment to accelerate the design of highly complex industrial systems." The integrated, or concurrent, development process has easy access to management, with a centrally networked information system in place that is readily accessible by everyone. David R. Wallace, a professor of mechanical engineering at M.I.T, told Steve Lohr that "the Vehicleforge.mil program will allow solo inventors or small teams to tap into those capabilities. A vehicle body and chassis design, submitted as code, could be plugged into the Vehicleforge.mil platform and tested for aerodynamics by in a virtual wind tunnel, for example." Simulation services for complex designs allow researchers to "predict problems earlier to get a better design faster." Why do you think these managers believe that crowdsourcing will accelerate all of the processes that link the activities for designing and building what the customer requirements specify? How else can crowdsourcing be used as a management strategy?

  • Newspapers Search for a New Business Model

    Environmental forces create challenges and opportunities for a business. For example, new technologies arrive, which create new product and market opportunities. An important technology, the Internet has changed the way people get their news. Instead of reading a printed newspaper, many people read news online and share it with friends. Traditionally, newspapers have made money by selling print advertisements. A new study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (" The Search for a New Business Model, How Newspapers are Faring Trying to Build Digital Revenue ") found that the papers studied are losing seven dollars in print advertising for every one dollar they are gaining in new digital revenue. Thus, newspapers need a new business model to survive. The study found that successful business models for papers incorporated new categories of revenue. One newspaper sold local digital advertising targeted and customized based on customer online behavior. Another sold consulting services helping businesses promote themselves digitally. Technological developments are the most manageable uncontrollable force faced by managers, but managers need to be aware of new technologies in order to turn these advances into opportunities and a competitive edge. But, they must act quickly to adapt. The digital revolution is not that new. It has been around for many years. How can newspaper managers chart a faster digital course? What would you buy from a newspaper?

  • Upward Leadership

    Michael Useem is director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management, and William and Jacalyn Egan professor of management, at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Leading Up: How to Lead Your Boss So You Both Win . In the book, he talks about how upward leadership impacts leaders and the people around them. He states that upward leadership is about taking charge when managers are not formally in charge and, rather than undermining authority or seizing power from superiors, stepping in when superiors need help and support in ways that benefit everyone. Leading up is a matter of offering a manager strategic insights or persuading him or her to change directions before it is too late. It requires the ability to work in two directions at once; stepping into the breach when nobody above you is doing so; and listening to those below you before you make a mistake. To come forward when a manager does not encourage it can be risky. But when upward leadership works, it can help turn disaster into triumph. Upward leadership needs an organizational environment where people feel comfortable challenging and giving input. To create this environment, a manager must expect subordinates to support his or her leadership and step up when needed. In order to do this, they will need to understand the manager's strategy, methods, and rules. This requires repeated restatements of principles and consistent adherence to them. If a manager wants subordinates to offer their best advice, the manager must value and make use of it, and listen, as well, to what subordinates are implying or communicating through other means. Professor Useem shares an example of when upward leadership proved invaluable. On 9/11 (2001) when the World Trade Center collapsed, Meg Whitman, then CEO of eBay, was out of the country and chief operating officer, Brian Swette, was out of state. In their absence, eBay's top team acted on its own. The first priority was to establish that all employees were alive and well. (They were.) The second priority was to secure the eBay Web site. (It did.) The third priority was to create a way for eBay to support the massive relief effort. (Auction for America emerged). "By the time I was able to call in from Japan," said Ms. Whitman, "our team was already thinking about and acting on the big issues." Managing the boss is necessary for your career advancement. Think of some situations where a manager might be on the wrong path. How will you help your manager to see the right goal and find the right path before it is too late?

  • Kodak Restructures

    Recently, I was at a dinner party and we asked the waiter to take our picture. We all reached for our phones. No one had a camera! When we shared family pictures, we didn't take pictures from our wallets or albums; we all used our phones. How times have changed! For more than 100 years, many Americans captured their memories ( Kodak moments ) with Instamatic cameras and large photography prints. So, we were saddened to hear Eastman Kodak Company's announcement January 19, 2012 that it had filed for Chapter 11 business reorganization. On its Web site, Kodak posted , "The business reorganization will enable Kodak to bolster liquidity in the U.S. and abroad, monetize non-strategic intellectual property, fairly resolve legacy liabilities, and enable the Company to focus on its most valuable business lines." George Eastman founded Eastman Kodak in 1880. Kodak firsts included flexible roll film in 1888 and the $1 Brownie camera in 1900. Kodak never had a union. Eastman helped pioneer profit-sharing and wage dividends for employees beginning in 1912. But, corporate fortunes change. Some blame Kodak's problems on the shift to digital technology. Kodak invented the digital camera, but couldn't move quickly enough to capitalize on it. Others blame competition from the Japanese film companies in the 1980s. Chairman and CEO Antonio Perez discussed the restructuring on Kodak's Web site. He said Kodak will emerge as a more competitive company. Kodak will transform from a film business to a new digital business by leveraging brand strength and unique knowledge of digital imaging and material science. A company's success can be directly linked to how rapidly and effectively it absorbs and adjusts its operations and outputs to the latest technologies. Kodak managed to stay in business for over 100 years. The managers made business mistakes. Which of today's largest technology companies, like Google, Apple, and Microsoft, will be around in the 22 nd century?
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