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2004 Hopkins and Company, LLC
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Jobberwacky
Between political primaries and the
State of the Union message, the rhetoric has been piled as high and as deep
as the snow in some places during recent weeks. So, with apologies to Lewis Carroll, or with thanks to his Through the Looking Glass, we found a
lead for this month’s issue: can we make any sense out of what’s going on
with jobs? Are we more or less likely to see job growth or job loss, and what
does that mean for your organization? In this issue, we call attention to
some of the perspectives about job growth and loss, the emergence of new job
roles within organizations and how some organizations are treating current
and potential workers.
Fifteen new
books are rated in this issue, beginning on page 5. One book is rated with
one star, five with two stars, eight with three stars, and one with four
stars. You can also visit our 2004 bookshelf at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2004books.html
and see the rating table explained as well as explore links to all 2004 book
reviews. You can also check this same bookshelf to see what other books we’re
reading or considering. If there’s something missing from the bookshelf that
you think we should be considering, let us know at books@hopkinsandcompany.com.
Gumby Workers
You may recall that
the definition of a recession is when your neighbor loses his or her job, and
a depression is when you lose yours. Finding the facts about job losses and
gains on a broader scale can be more confusing than this simple analysis. It
should come as no surprise that the AFL-CIO’s
John Sweeney had this perspective following President Bush’s State of the Union speech: “In his State of the
Union address last night, he offered no solutions to the urgent, immediate
job crisis that his economic policies have worsened. He did not address the
hammering of the middle class as a result of the loss of good, stable jobs
with benefits and the trend toward low-paying jobs that do not provide health
care or pensions.” (http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/pr01212004.cfm).
In a recent speech (http://www.federalreserve.gov/BoardDocs/speeches/2004/20040126/default.htm)
in London, Alan Greenspan called attention to
the reality that the ability of companies to fire workers more easily also
leads to hiring workers more readily in a flexible response to changing
economic conditions. Layoffs are good. In clear “Greenspeak” he said, “…structural
unemployment decreased because the broadened freedom to discharge workers
rendered hiring them less of a potentially costly long-term commitment. The
increased flexibility of our labor market is now judged an important
contributor to economic resilience and growth. American workers, to a large
extent, see this connection and, despite the evident tradeoff between
flexibility and job security, have not opposed innovation.” Where Sweeney
sees crisis, Greenspan sees strength. Who should arbitrate? We choose Peter Drucker, who had this to say in
an interview with Fortune (http://www.fortune.com/fortune/subs/print/0,15935,565912,00.html)
in recent weeks: “Nobody seems to realize that we import twice or three times
as many jobs as we export. I'm talking about the jobs created by foreign
companies coming into the U.S.
The most obvious are the foreign automobile companies. Siemens alone has 60,000 employees in the U.S. We are
exporting low-skill, low-paying jobs but are importing high-skill,
high-paying jobs. … American workers are more flexible. I don't just mean you
can move people out of accounting and into engineering here; I mean
physically moving people from Chicago to Los Angeles. Don't you
dare try that in Germany.
They won't go. That's one of the absurd byproducts of their huge and
restrictive employee benefits: It's cheaper to allow someone to remain
unemployed in the Ruhr than to move him to Stuttgart for a real job. The same thing is
true in Japan.
… For educated American young people there is no recession. But the
immigrants have a mismatch of skills: They are qualified for yesterday's
jobs, which are the kinds of jobs that are going away. This also is
especially hard on uneducated urban American blacks. Their great ladder of
opportunity since World War II is going away.” Perspectives about job gains
or losses vary, and executives are faced with key challenges in attracting,
motivating and retaining a talented workforce, capable of flexibility in
meeting emerging organizational needs. Perhaps it’s Gumby who’s the right
role model for successful employees whose jobs are becoming transformed.
What are the job or labor challenges facing your organization? How
important is worker flexibility to the success of your organization? How much
job security do you and your employees feel within your organization? Are
employees in your organization concerned about a job crisis? Will your future
workers have the skills that your organization will need? What are you doing
to help prepare people for tomorrow’s jobs?
Call Me Ishmael
It may have been Tom Peters who helped perpetuate
creative job titles during the 1990’s. If it wasn’t, we can blame him anyway.
Titles like “Galactic Sales Leader,” “Customer Champion,” and “Corporate
Energizer,” became laughable. Empowering employees to pick a job name created
only confusion, especially when managers still decided what the jobs
entailed. Today’s trend seems to involve corporate roles that may have been
missing in some organizations in the past, but are becoming necessary as the
work of organizations evolves. A Barrons
cover story (Jan 5) titled “Tomorrow’s Jobs,” (http://online.wsj.com/barrons/article/0,,SB107308631737881300,00.html)
contains some fascinating new roles. At amazon.com,
there’s been a Chief Algorithm Officer since 1992. According to Barrons, “ ‘The future could bring
such new job titles as “artificial-brain designer,”’ suggests Leonard Nakamura, staff economist at
the Philadelphia Federal Reserve.
‘Artificial brains,’ such as hearing aides wired to the gray matter, have
already cured deafness. Since blindness, dementia and poor sexual response
have yet to be adequately taken care of, ABDs should be in great demand.” We
read in The New York Times (Jan 4)
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/04/jobs/04jmar.html)
that “Corporate chaplains have long been employed by a smattering of
companies, mostly in the South and West, representing a range of mostly
Protestant denominations. But now the phenomenon is spreading as companies
add chaplains and companies that employ chaplains make acquisitions.
According to Rev. Robert Vickers,
the former director for chaplaincy evangelism at the Southern Baptist Convention, anecdotal evidence suggests that use
of chaplains in business and industry is growing more than 10 percent a year
in the United States.”
Finally, in the January issue of Fast
Company (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/78/helpwanted.html),
Lester Thurow recommends that all
companies should employ a Chief Knowledge Officer who provides an honest
assessment of how the organization measures up against the rest of the world.
According to Thurow, “In our increasingly knowledge-based economy, every
company will eventually have such an officer, and those that get there first
will have a competitive edge. Just what this person will do is still being
invented and will differ from industry to industry. The CKO's duties may be
as varied as recommending whether a company should buy, sell, or make its technologies,
or determining where technology is going and where new competitors may arise.
But there is no better example of the need for a chief knowledge officer than
the necessity for some companies to manage decline skillfully.” We have this
image of the CKO dressed as Diogenes trying to find the truth and explain it
to other executives.
Are there new job roles
needed for your organization? Are there information roles being performed
that now merit formal recognition? Do other organizations have employees
performing specific roles that might be used successfully in your
organization? Who serves as chief knowledge officer for your organization? Do
all appropriate parties hear that person’s voice? If you lead knowledge
workers, how to you convey to others what they know?
Crevices
There’s an increase in
the use of word-of-mouth marketing by major companies, according to the cover
story in the February 2 issue of Forbes
(http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2004/0202/084.html)
titled “Meet Your New Sales Force.” Proctor
& Gamble, Coca-Cola and SONY
are all using teens to promote their products among friends. According to Forbes, 1% of American teens are part
of P&G’s marketing arm, called Tremor that was created in 2001. “Their
mission is to help companies plant information about their brands in living
rooms, schools and other crevices that are difficult for corporate America to
infiltrate. These kids deliver endorsements in school cafeterias, at
sleepovers, by cell phone and by e-mail. They are being tapped to talk up
just about everything, from movies to milk and motor oil--and they do it for
free.” Forbes also describes the
reaction of critics: “George Silverman,
author of The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth
Marketing and an Orangeburg, N.Y. consultant, offers a caution: ‘It's
like playing with fire: It can be a positive force when harnessed for the
good, but fires are very destructive when they are out of control. If
word-of-mouth goes against you, you're sunk.’ Says David Godes, a business professor at Harvard: ‘If it gets too pervasive, there could be a consumer
backlash. It needs to stay on the periphery.’” Next, we’ll be reading about
crevice warfare by marketers.
How can you
improve the ways your organization presents itself to your potential
customers? Would you be willing to take the risk of using unpaid volunteers
to spread the word about your organization?
Compassionate Capitalism
We read about shifts
in corporate social responsibility from reactions to protests to philanthropy
in The Economist (Jan 22) (http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2369912).
Mark Benioff, CEO of salesforce.com, “advocates ‘the 1%
solution’: 1% of salesforce.com's equity, 1% of its profits and 1% of its
employees' paid hours are devoted to philanthropy, with workers volunteering
their time either to company-run schemes or to charitable activities at their
own initiative … ‘Employees seeking greater levels of fulfillment in their
own lives will have to look no further than their workplace.’ As well as
doing the right thing, the firm will attract and retain better people, and
they will work more productively. He makes it seem plausible.” Other
executives are watching governments return to their proper duties and letting
companies get back to business.
What does corporate social
responsibility mean for your organization? What do your various stakeholders
expect you to do as a corporate citizen? Do your employees want to link their
charitable activities to your workplace? Do you want that link to occur? Is
the expectation of corporate social responsibility another form of
jobberwacky?
Follow-up
Here are
selected updates on stories covered in prior issues of Executive
Times:
Ø
If
you didn’t read enough about Dick
Strong in the January 2004
issue of Executive Times, be
sure to read the cover story in the Barrons
January 26 issue (http://online.wsj.com/barrons/article/0,,SB107490185422110442,00.html),
titled “Mercurial Man: Dick Strong's story is the stuff of legend; some of
its chapters don't look pretty.”
Ø
We
last called attention to Bank One
CEO Jamie Dimon in the August 2002
issue of Executive
Times when we noted
that one strategy that usually succeeds is to bet on the jockey, not the
race. Followers of that advice were rewarded recently when J. P. Morgan Chase and Bank One
announced plans to merge. Now some business pundits are framing the return of
Dimon to New York
as a planned revenge battle with Sandy
Weill who fired protégé Dimon from Citigroup.
While we accept Dimon’s view that he has nothing to prove and didn’t need to
return to New York,
it will be fascinating to watch this jockey’s next ride, and maybe even bet
on him.
Ø
Readers
of Executive
Times know how much we
value the benefits of vacation. Just browse back to July 2003,
July 2002,
or June
2003 for some of our views, which usually hit us in the Summer. Imagine
the pleasure when we read in The Wall
Street Journal on January 6 (http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107335198016257200,00.html)
some ways to help jumpstart brains following vacations. If you need some
extra boost to your re-entry, read that article.
Legacy
Bright Light
Admirers of Jack Welch and what he accomplished
as CEO of General Electric Company
may not recall that he would have done nothing had it not been for his
predecessor, Reginald Harold Jones.
Revenues and earnings more than doubled from 1973 to 1981 while Jones led GE.
His attention to world trade increased the company’s penetration of global
markets. During his tenure, planning became an art form at the company. Named
“most influential man in business” by U.S.
News and World Report in 1980, when he turned the GE reins over to Welch
in 1981, he never looked back. Confident in his selection and recommendation
of Welch, Jones knew that the disadvantage of a former CEO hanging around outweighed
any advantages. Jones knew that Welch had the skills that GE needed at the
time in a CEO, and that the greatest freedom in performing the role would
come if Jones was out of the picture. So Jones left GE for the first time
since 1939, when he joined the company with his fresh degree from the Wharton School, which he attended on
scholarship. Following his retirement, he served on the board of overseers at
Wharton, endowed scholarships, and GE financed the Reginald H.
Jones Center
for Management Policy, Strategy and Organization which opened at Wharton in
1983.
Jones
died at home in Connecticut
in early January, at age 86. Thousands of GE stakeholders as well as those of
other corporate boards on which he served, continue to benefit from his
legacy.
Latest Books
Read and Reviewed:
(Note: readers of the web version of Executive Times
can click on the book covers to order copies directly from amazon.com. When you order through these links, Hopkins
& Company receives a small payment from amazon.com. Click on the title to read the review or
visit our 2004 bookshelf at http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/2004books.html).
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Title
(Link to Review)
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Author
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Rating
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Review
Summary
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Purchase
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Trojan
Odyssey
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Cussler, Clive
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••
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Predictable. Heroes are good and win, villains are bad
and lose. Familiar characters, formula and dialogue provide entertainment
for Cussler fans.
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Rumsfeld: The
Making of An Artful Warrior
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Decter, Midge
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•••
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Lovesong. Flattering portrait of current Secretary of
Defense, long on his public service, and short on his business career. Look
elsewhere for more critical or balanced portrayal, but come away from this
book convinced that Rummy is a great guy.
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The
Wrong Stuff
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Fiffer, Sharon
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••
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Wheeling. Third mystery in the Jane Wheel series. Good
writing, holes in plot, protagonist whose lack of focus can become
infuriating to some readers.
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The
Great Fire
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Hazzard, Shirley
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•••
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Losses. Lyrical novel set after World War II when
characters struggle to reinvent their lives and recover from suffering and
the lack of love. The fire cleanses some and immolates others.
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A
Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency
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Helms, Richard
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•••
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Epitaph. Comprehensive memoir by late Director of
Central Intelligence. Strong opinions, recognizing that perspectives can
vary. Inside view of historic events over three decades.
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The
Complete Far Side
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Larson, Gary
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•••
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Whimsy. It took longer to read both volumes of this cartoon
collection than to read some books this month. Could be pausing to laugh
too much. If you can handle the 2-volume heft, we guarantee you’ll laugh on
many pages.
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The
Exact Same Moon: Fifty Acres and a Family
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Laskas, Jeanne Marie
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•••
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Shines. Brilliant writing of creative non-fiction that presents
insights into relationships and community life. Lifts your spirits and
calls attention to the opportunities of each day.
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What
Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response
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Lewis, Bernard
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••
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Generations. Concise review of six hundred years of
transformation in the role and place of the Middle East in the global
community.
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The
End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip on the American Car
Market
|
Maynard, Micheline
|
••
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Stalls. American car lovers will hate this book, and
fans of Japanese and German imports will smile and nod. Often dull,
somewhat interesting stories of what Detroit did wrong and what the others
did right in recent decades.
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William
McKinley
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Phillips, Kevin
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•••
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Progressive. Much of the reform attributed often to
Teddy Roosevelt was begun by McKinley, and thanks to this new biography,
readers can learn how this often overlooked leader accomplished remarkable results
without drawing much attention to himself.
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Winfield: Living
in the Shadow of the Woolworths
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Randall, Monica
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•
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Haunting. The rare reader with a love of historic
preservation, an interest in reading personal stories of individuals
obsessed with the past, and a tolerance for weird ghost stories will love
this book. All others: do not trespass here.
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In
An Uncertain World: Tough Choices From Wall Street to Washington
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Rubin, Robert E.
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•••
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Reality. According to Rubin, “…reality is always more
complex than models.” That perspective and others fill this thoughtful book
about public policy. The bonus is finding out more about Rubin. Seekers of
cabinet-level kiss and tell need to look elsewhere.
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Everyone
Else Must Fail: The Unvarnished Truth About Oracle and Larry Ellison
|
Southwick, Karen
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••
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Rough. Same stories as Softwar,
without as many perspectives. More anti-Ellison throughout, so greater appeal
to Oracle-haters Often repetitive and full of unnecessary phrases.
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Softwar : An
Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle
|
Symonds, Matthew
|
•••
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Intense. Triple treat: good writing; unprecedented
access without whitewashing; revealing footnote reactions from Ellison to
what Symonds says about him and Oracle.
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The
First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
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Watkins, Michael
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••••
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Turbo. Great approach for making transitions faster and
more effective by moving beyond sink or swim toward well-structured steps
based on what’s worked for others. Get copies for both manager and new
hire.
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