What to Ask as You Start 2012: Why Would Somebody Work For You?

As we enter the doors of 2012, the prognosticators have all given their respective thoughts on what is coming into focus for the year.These are all great readings, but if you have survived these past few years of economic turmoil (and the aftermath), you know that, really, who knows?

All organizations have basically put together their various strategies for either getting back into the game, moving to the next level, or something similar. Some of those strategies will be called into focus as the year progresses. Think Verizon and their slogan —  “Can you hear me now?”

As I read Sunday’s New York Times, there was an article that encapsulated IBM strategy that was devised by Samuel J. Palmisano, who is departing as IBM’s chief. In the article, Palmisano mentioned that he focused on four key questions to drive strategy and growth when he took the helm of IBM.

4 questions for business excellence

He says his guiding framework boils down to four questions:

• “Why would someone spend their money with you — what is unique about you?”
• “Why would somebody work for you?”
• “Why would society allow you to operate in their defined geography — their country?”
• “Why would somebody invest their money with you?”

The No. 1 question for HR executives and the C-Suite

I continue to read over these questions and marvel as to how these four powerful questions would frame a conversation about any organization. To me, the most powerful question in the group is the simplest — “just why would somebody work for you?” I would love to pose that question to any senior level executive as they embark on a 2012 that, by all accounts, will be another year of uncertainty.

Just imagine during the interview process if his question was posed to the interviewer, whether that is the recruiter, hiring manager or senior executive. “My question is why should I come to work for your company, what makes your organization so unique from a people prospective?” As Emeril Lagasse of Food Network, would say “ BAM.”

How would YOU answer the question?

In some companies, it would result in a deer-in-the-headlights look from the other side of the table, and probably, that powerful question would not derive a credible answer. But every person that you sit across the table from (yes, including all the employees in your organization) are asking that question in some way, shape, or form.

A low level of engagement in your organization is an incubator for these types of questions. The clarity of specific words may not be formed in this way, but they are hovering around in the employee mindset.

Can you sell your Employee Value Proposition?

This brings me to most important message that an organization must live, eat breathe and sleep — the Employee Value Proposition. This is the key link to your employer branding. Every organization should not only think through this powerful question, but also need to develop a mission statement the specifically focuses on why an employee would want to work with you.

So, what is unique about you and your organization?

• What are the major people policies?
• What processes and programs demonstrate the organization’s commitment to employees?
• How does your organization create and sustain employee growth?
• How are you developing your managers and employees?
• Are your employee rewards in balance with an employee’s performance level?
• Is your corporate social responsibility policy telling a compelling story? 

People plans need to relate to business strategy

The essence of the Employee Value Proposition  should be the central reason that people choose to commit themselves to your organization.

The branding message should be shouted from the mountaintop and used in all recruitment efforts as well as any other opportunity that offers the opportunity to tell others about your organization’s people strategy.

High performing companies know that their business strategy is viewed through the prism of their people strategy. Going forward into this New Year, there is simply no other way to get to your prescribed destination.

So, if you can’t answer the question as to why somebody should work for you, you may want to go back to the drawing board.

Believe me, everyone will be listening for your response.

Don’t Get Burned Passing the Torch

by Joel Koblenz, December 13, 2011


In the recent Atlanta Journal Constitution article from December 2011, “Don’t Get Burned Passing the Torch,” founding partner of the Koblentz Group, Joel M. Koblentz was quoted extensively on the importance of succession planning as “the” seminal responsibility of corporate boards.


These days, boards of directors at most large companies consider succession planning one of their key tasks, said Joel M. Koblentz, senior partner at the Koblentz Group.  Often, boards now formally monitor CEO’s efforts to develop their potential replacements, as well as candidates for other members of the senior executive team, said Koblentz, whose Atlanta firm advises companies on succession issues and helps them recruit executives and board directors.

“It’s only in the last few years that boards have taken it seriously,” he said. But now, in the wake of numerous financial scandals and corporate missteps over the past decade, company directors are “much more cautious” about vetting a CEO’s hand-picked heir-apparent, he said. They’re also insisting on a wider choice of candidates.

“Because it’s a lengthy process, they’re starting earlier,” said Koblentz. “The best companies are doing it continuously.”

He said it usually takes at least two years to set up a viable succession plan because it takes that long for the current CEO and board of directors to pick candidates, become familiar with their strengths and weaknesses, and rotate them through jobs to broaden their experience.

Smaller companies are at a disadvantage, he added, because often their bench isn’t deep enough to allow such juggling of jobs to groom candidates.

“There are many emerging and midcap companies who struggle with this because the costs are so expensive,” said Koblentz. “But many are concluding that it’s more expensive not to do it.”

Sometimes, however, even the largest companies appear to stumble, either because they didn’t have a good replacement waiting, the board didn’t challenge the CEO’s hand-picked successor, or board members and other players become involved in internal power struggles.

“The process fails when the CEO designates the crown prince and the board just says, ‘OK,’ “ he said.

Even so, there is an advantage to appoint executives who are in the company today.

Koblentz commented that insiders naturally have an advantage over outside hires. “They know the business. They know the culture. They know how the trains run.”

Joel is a good friend and his sage advise is something that a;ll HR executives should listen to and read his blog on www.koblenzgroup.com 

5 Reasons to Use Job Boards in Your Job Search

The world of job search is a little like the current Republican race for the presidential nomination: the lead contender is constantly shifting. In job search, although networking has always been king, the ways to do it are constantly evolving along with technology.

While searching for a job and applying online through big boards was judged to be a worthwhile activity some years ago, now there are new big kids on the block: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, in that order.

What do we know about how effective job boards actually are at yielding new hires? Richard Bolles in What Color is Your Parachute 2011, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, estimates your job board success rate at 4-10%. CareerXroads found in a 1/2011 study that 25% of hires from external sources come from job boards. Why the difference? One reason is that a lot of hires come from within a company or from employee referrals, so a correspondingly higher percentage of hires come from job boards.

Still, whether the number is the 1% (est. # of hires from Monster.com), the 4-10% or the 25%, spending your time on job boards is not the best use of your time.

However...you will still find many (most) of job seekers spending a lot of time on job boards. So what is the seductiveness of using job boards? 

▪    It's easy. You can roll out of bed and open your favorite job boards and see some that look good to you. You don't have to pick up the phone and cold call or even call a networking contact. 

▪    It's simple. The jobs give you title, often name of company, job description, requirements, and instructions for applying. You can form a picture in your mind of the job and of you doing it. You don't have to network your way into an organization seeking one of the hidden jobs whose names or requirements you may not know. 

▪    It feels proactive. You can submit your resume to any number of positions and feel a sense of accomplishment (whether warranted or not).

▪    You can do it when you feel tired or discouraged. Job search is so hard. Let's face it. Networking, whether traditional or enabled by social media, requires enough moxie to actually do it. You may not always have the energy or the courage at that particular moment.

▪    Betting is fun. Yes, you say to yourself, the percentages don't look great, but I just might be one of those who gets hired this way.

I actually think these are all acceptable reasons to give job boards a shot, particularly the niche job boards or company job portals. Even though the percentages are dwarfed by the other, more effective methods, THERE ARE TIMES WHEN YOU NEED A BREAK. No one can be on their best game 100% of the time. It's simply not possible. Why not use the slack time to surf the boards and apply to a few jobs? It's a better bet than playing Angry Birds.

Just as the food police say that eating healthy fats should be a modest part of one's daily diet, so keeping an eye on job boards specializing in your function or industry can be a small part of a highly effective job search campaign. So keep networking and leveraging social media, but, when you need to, relax and do what's easy. Happy New Year!

from Careerhubblog.com 

How To Kill A Presentation

I am sure each of you have made presentations that you wish you could do over. I know there are a couple I sure wish I could turn back the clock and redo. Over the years, even though we have all mastered the presentation process we have to be reminded of things not to do. So I have compiled 10 of them for you as a reminder when you do your next executive, group, or company presentation:

1. don't "wing" it
2. being fake (not being real in your delivery)
3. Forget the name of the person who introduces you, taking a stab at him/her or get it wrong in the pronunciation
4. lean on the podium
5. contradict the previous speaker
6. apologize for not being prepared
7. read every word, slide and not making eye contact with the audience
8. tell a long story that has no relevance to your presentation
9. forget your opening sentence, and
10. show slides that were a repeat from a previous presentation.

I thought I would give you some helpful hints since January is usually a kickoff to the new year. Good luck. If you think I have missed a key point please email me at wgstevene2@gmail.com 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year  from Innovativehrstrategy

An Essential Characteristic of Winning Cultures: Allowing for Failure

by Ron Alvesteffer, December 19, 2011

There is a fatal mistake that too many organizations make when they grow. It happens quietly when leaders are unintentional about creating the right culture. The mistake is the formation of bureaucracy and a cultural aversion of risk.

One of the fatal flaws of bureaucracy is the creation of rules that limit talent, including those that discourage talent to experiment for fear of failure. I once heard someone describe the fear of failure as a wet blanket that extinguishes the fire of innovation and I agree.

Great ideas are created by individuals- innovators- and organizations must not only attract innovators, they must keep them. Talent begets innovation, and innovation will only grow in cultures that embrace risk and have a tolerance for failure. If a culture is risk-averse, talent leaves and an organization is left with individuals who simply want to coast in a safe environment.

When I look back on many of the successes we’ve experienced at SEI, I see a clear and intentional process that gave our team license to fail forward.

Sometimes the process meant taking two steps forward and then one step back. But if we were to penalize individuals for having taken that one step back, as all too many bureaucratic organizations do, they would have been less inclined to take the next two steps forward.

Ideas and solutions are very rarely successful in their first iteration. Success is an evolutionary process of failing then refining; failure is an incubator of success.

Thomas Edison said, “I never failed once. It just happened to be a 2000-step process.” Failure is only failure when you don’t allow it to propel you forward.

At the SEI Technology Center, our team who tests complex computer servers rewards “extreme technical bravery” with an actual brick. “The intention is not to reward success or failure, but to encourage individuals to take risks in order to further their understanding of the technology they work with,” that according to Jake Blough, our Manager at the Technology Center. “The award is given to those individuals who take risks and “brick” machines, and is also given to those who miraculously bring the machines back to life. For us, success is having a better understanding of the machines and that can only happen when our teams feel like they have the freedom to test them to the breaking point.”

I encourage risk-takers who have a plan and who can articulate strategy to go after it. The key for leaders is understanding healthy failure from the unhealthy kind. The loss of a customer because an individuals doesn’t return phone calls is failure to be sure, but not the kind that should be embraced.

This person echoes my sentiments on how to manage and run businesses. Kill the bureaucracy so people can grow and add value to the business. 

Board Relationships

Every CHRO must have a good solid relationship with the board of their company. The CHRO must also be aware not to get caught in the middle between the Board and the CEO when it comes to strategy and performance issues with his boss. As you know, this happens more than is written about. 


HR leaders need to tread carefully when dealing with issues of their CEO such as compensation, executive perks, performance, abusive behavior, and management of talent just to name a few. If the CHRO does get into the middle it could be a career ending situation wither with his/her CEO or with the Board itself. I have a friend in Missouri who was in this exact situation and had to relay to the Board that his CEO was wrong for the job and had issues with the CFO what was hurting the company. He turned out ok, the Board trusted him and the CEO left the company. 


Word to the wise, when you are sitting at the table and I mean the Board table, be careful on how you interface with them when your CEO is there. Also word to the wise, never try to cover up anything. 


Have you been in between the Board and your CEO and how was your outcome? 

Is E-Mail Passe'

I a recent article in HR Executive magazine, Michael O'Brien writes that more and more companies are communicating internally through their own IM(instant messaging) or external IM providers. Although e-mail remains an important communication tool, the increased use of real-time technology is drowning out delayed communication methods. In a survey of over 1,400 CIOs say that extinction may soon be calling for the once revolutionary mode of communication. Part of the change in communication is being influenced by the growing human capital shift from "boomers" to Millenials and the Gen Ys. As they continue to populate the workplace this could have an escalation effect on emails' demise.

If this is true, as O'Brien says, HR must take the lead on training and communication to employees how to use the right mode of communication for a message.

How has your company adopted IM technology and is it a prime or secondary means of communication?

Does Telecommuting Hinder Your Career Growth?

a reprint form Computerworld's Eric Bloom on 11.28.11

I work within a large IT organization and the people in my department have been given the opportunity to work from home. If I do, does it reduce my opportunities for promotion and/or increase my chances of getting laid off?

First, thanks for asking. It’s great to get questions from my IT world readers. In short, the answer to your question regarding the effect of telecommuting on promotions and layoffs is that it depends on the following:

• Your company’s culture and norms regarding telecommuting
• The percentage of people at your company that work remotely
• How visible you can be on a day-to-day basis to your boss and others
• How effectively you can perform your job remotely

Now let’s discuss these items one at a time.

Your company’s culture

Companies, like people, have specific values, strengths, weaknesses, prejudices, and, dare I say, personalities. That said, consider the following questions when deciding if you want to telecommute:

• Is the company technically equipped with conference room speakers, remote computer access, and tools needed to facilitate efficient work from outside the office?
• Does your company conceptually support telecommuting or does it simply tolerate it?
• Can you remotely participate in important department discussions?
• Is there an out-of-site-out-of-mind mentality for those working out of the office?
• Is your boss supportive of telecommuting or is he/she begrudgingly providing the option because it’s company policy?
• Are virtual teams at your company managed well or managed poorly?

Percent of people working remotely

The reason I ask this question is that if a high percentage of people work from home and/or business groups are generally spread over multiple physical locations, then needed work-related processes are (or should be) in place to accommodate remote workers. If, however, you will be the only team member working remotely, you will most likely often be forgotten, not with any animosity, just due to people forgetting to call you. As previously said, you will be out-of-sight-out-of-mind.

How visible can you be from home?

The reason for this question is that some jobs, by their nature, are more connected to the people you work with than others. For example, if you are a software tester and are continually communicating with programmers, users, and other testers by email, via formal bug reports, and by phone to discuss issues, you can be very internally visible. If, however, you write documentation or provide phone-based customer support, by the nature of your job, you will be less interactive with your boss and teammates. With this second scenario, it will be much harder for you to have high office visibility from home.

How effective can you be remotely?

Certain job types are better than others regarding working remotely. For example, generally speaking, it is easier for a programmer to work from home than for a business analyst if the business analyst needs to interview users as part of the writing a functional specification for a new software application.

There is one additional potential option for you. Instead of working from home all the time, consider splitting your time between telecommuting and working at the office. That is to say, work from home two or three days a week and the remainder of the time at the office. This could potentially give you the best of both worlds, some time working at home and some visibility at the office.

In closing, telecommuting can work out wonderfully for both you and your company if, and only if, the company and your job are structured in a way that facilitates its success.

If you have any questions about your career in IT, please email me at
eric@ManagerMechanics.com or find me on Twitter at @EricPBloom.

Until next time, work hard, work smart, and continue to grow.

CEOs' Top Priority: Talent Management

In the latest PwC 14th Annual Global CEO Survey of 1,201 business leaders in 69 countries CEOs said that talent management is their top priority up from 3rd place last year. 55% of US respondents said they were going to increase their headcount in 2012. In contrast 51% globally said they would increase headcount. In addition, 75% of US CEOs plan to make major changes to their talent management strategy over the next 12 months.

This response ties into the Kiplinger Letter forecast that the private sector will add 100,000 to 150,000 jobs a month during 2012.

This is hoping that HR executives are on the same wave length as their CEO and that they have already developed their hiring and talent management plans of the coming year.

Edge - Check Your Sharpness

Every HR professional thinks they are on the cutting edge of something new. Well, almost everyone, there are the 60% who are in this field because they like people. The other 40% are in it for much more. So this is directed to the 40% group.

When I say, "have you checked your edge" I mean just that. How sharp are you today, and for that matter everyday. To be in the inner circle your "EDGE" has to be sharper than the majority of the other C-Suite members. How do you do that you say? Here are some thoughts for you to check your "EDGE":

• have you changed your thinking to reflect the current environment, and I mean, business, cultural, human capital, and external forces
• are you situated correctly on the right side of the CEO
• do you understand the meaning of thoughtware
• can you react correctly to a disaster (and I don't mean business continuity)
• can you execute flawlessly
• do you know your staff's abilities if you were absent
• are you on the same page that you should be with the C-Suite executives
• can you think freely - uninfluenced
• can you heard cats
• can you distinguish what is legitimate and what is not?

Think about these things and check your "EDGE" against them. If you cannot execute these effectively you are not as sharp as you should be and will get caught in a cultural and business crossfire someday.

EDGE is extremely important and should be evaluated daily to keep at the top of your game.

Disaster Recovery 101: What You Need to Know

Computerworld, 11/16/11 - With various parts of the country still reeling in the wake of tornadoes, earthquakes, too-early snowstorms, hurricanes and wildfires, the past few months have taught us that no geographical area is safe. There's never been a more compelling time to develop or fine-tune a disaster recovery and business continuity plan for your business.

Disaster recovery is, quite simply, being able to continue your mission-critical business operations after an interruption of some kind. Companies must be able to resurrect their applications and processes -- their entire business operations -- at the point they were before the outage occurred, says Robert Amatruda, research director for data protection and recovery at IDC. And this is true whether the outage resulted from a natural disaster, a server or storage system malfunctioning or "someone pulling a plug they shouldn't have," he says.

While business continuity is about being able to keep functions going, disaster recovery means being able to get everything back to whole again, explains Carl Pritchard, senior risk-management consultant at advisory firm Cutter Consortium. "The difference is business continuity is keeping the patient alive. Disaster recovery is getting them back to being healed and walking again," says Pritchard, who is also the author of Risk Management, Concepts and Guidance, 4th Edition.

Fantastic Quote to Remember!

"There is no such thing as can't, only won't. If you're qualified, all it takes is a
burning desire to accomplish, to make a change. Go forward, go backward. 

Whatever it takes! But you can't blame other people or society in general. 

It all comes from your mind. When we do the impossible we realize 

we are special people." --Jan Ashford

CEO Confirmation

Last week I met with a good friend of mine to discuss his business and what I have been doing since I left the corporate world. This person is a CEO of a couple of Internet business all linked to the same type of information. Needless to say he is ultra successful and has capitalized on data streaming over the Internet.

Our discussion went from business strategy, to joint ventures, to new opportunities, and to HR. The discussion on HR really re-enforced what I have been saying since 1978. An HR professional needs to be head deep into the business, know all the ins and outs, products, development, and how to market. This person and I worked together for a couple of years after we bought his company. Since I had an opportunity to meet him early on doing the due diligence and acquisition of his $300+M company, he forged a great working relationship and respect for one another.

His comment to me said it all" you are a business person with great knowledge and understanding on how to run a successful business". This is what a CEO should say about his/her CHRO. Does your CEO say that about you and what have you done to fully understand your business and integrate yourself into the day to day operations? Oh, don't forget talent management, succession, and all the other CHRO duties!!

Employee Engagement? In a Business, It Needs to Start at the Very Top

A fish rots from the head down, as the saying goes from my friends in Maine. While the word rot sounds offensive, let’s just say it starts from the top.


This week, I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine who is the CEO of a major company , an a true entrepreneur when I mentioned employee engagement. This is a topic I have blogged about now for over 3 years and is still top of mind in the HR world as it should be. This friend jumped on the topic and went on for 40 minutes on what CEOs should do to drive employee engagement from the top. 

This CEO met with the senior staff and employees daily and kept in front of them on the business climate, strategy, and new product development. He also had many teams of employees testing products, and asked them to act like consumers. Employee surrounded themselves with the business, and I will tell you even during these economic anemic times his business is going strong at 15% year-over-year growth. 


How does your CEO engage employees? 

Traditionalists Will Not Succeed in HR In Today's Environment

This is not a controversial subject at all I would think given the environment today. If you want to get into HR today, you need to understand business and economics, and I do not mean just the rudiments. You also still have to be people oriented but that is not why you get into this field. Here is why traditional HR people will not succeed today:

• Your CEO wants business people, not just people people,
• You have to have a close and intimate working relationship with your CEO and executive team,
• HR should not be focused on administration like it was 10, 15 or 20 years ago,
• You have to think like a business person and understand the economics of business,
• You have to talk business speak, not HR speak and people need to know you can back up your business speak,
• You have to add immediate value and ROI in everything you do,
• If you do not understand and grow and retain talent, you are out,
• You need to be smart about social media and how to attract the right talent to your business,
• If you do not understand global competition and exchange you lose,
• You have to know how to adjust to changing environments like driving a Formula One race car,
• You need to be flexible, act with speed, and decisiveness and have the RIGHT answers and solutions,
• You need to be compassionate yet honest in your discussions with people, not beat around the bush like most HR people,
• Phoneys will not make it today and that will cut out about 50% of the HR people in corporations today,
• You have to be someone who could potentially take the COO/CEO position some day.
• You need to understand and explain balance sheets and corporate accounting & finance.

And you can fill in all the other blocks on how to make it today in HR. This is just the tip of the iceberg on what it will take to be in HR today. Do you agree? 

Have You Hardwired Your Workforce?

In an economy like what we are experiencing today, good news today, bad news in Europe tomorrow after the bell,  one of the first budget cuts we see is usually in training & development. As all HR and astute CEOs know, training is one of the key life bloods of an organization that builds your workforce skills and is a launch pad for growth.One of the key elements for continuing training of your human capital is instilling that training is important to them and that they should take the time to expand their skills, grow their competencies, and make it a ritual in their working lives. It is an investment in their capital assets. So how do you do this? Here are a couple of important guidelines:

1. make sure there is a solid training strategy that ties to the corporations' goal/objectives
   keep the training budget as much in place as possible
2. make sure your managers buy into the training strategy
3. managers must emphasize that training is important to them
4. offer eLearning options for your employees through companies like SkillSoft
5. provide time each week for learning
6. show the outcome of skills training so people see the end result
7. post notices on your intranet regarding skills training
8. make sure that you subsidize if not pay in full the training that people take that is relevant to their current position or one that in next in line for them. There has to be a solid ROI.

These are just a few areas where you as managers and leaders of organizations can ensure that you build and maintain the most competent workforce that will help you drive revenues and profits. It will also help reduce turnover and build loyalty within the organization.

How Quick Can You State Your Strategy?

I have had a couple of exchanges on Linkedin regarding my post that if you cannot explain your strategy in 20 minutes you don't have a coherent strategy plan at all. Larry Bossity said this 10 years ago ""If you can’t describe your strategy in twenty minutes, simply and in plain language, you haven’t got a plan."


The comments from my Hr practitioners and constituents have said that if you cannot explain your strategy in 5 minutes you don't have a plan. well, I disagree because I be neither of the two who said it should only take 5 minutes couldn't even talk fast enough to get the strategy plan out in 5 minutes. I am not totally contradicting them but questioning how comprehensive their strategy would be  if they had 5 minutes to tell it to the board or executive team. 


Now, I will say that I am talking about an HR strategy not an overall corporate strategy. I am also not saying that an HR strategy should take any longer but when you piece all the components together that will take more time as they weave into the corporate strategy. 


Tell me what you thoughts are on this issue either on Linkedin (www.linkedin.com/williamgstevensjr)  or at wgstevens2@gmail.com 

CHROs Leadership

Courage, Now...

No doubt, CHROs and their leadership teams are facing unprecedented pressure to make decisions and deliver results in uncertain and vexing times.It made us think of Harry Truman as he as he contemplated actions to end WW II. 

"To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone."

Courage, not a fear to act, is at the top of the agenda for CEOs and their CHROs. 

The Koblentz Group, wish to share two leadership trends that we are observing in our most forward thinking and courageous clients. Each trend suggests opportunities for CHROs to deliver tangible value.

**CEOs are under increasing pressure from their boards to become truly serious about succession planning and talent management.

Many CEOs speak about the value of leadership capital but few have supported the investment of organizational commitment and funding, to make it work. Boards are demanding tangible plans and now are tying CEO compensation to talent accountability.

CEOs are taking notice! And, CEOs are looking for your guidance.

This creates a real opportunity for CHROs to create significant value by advising their leadership on all the elements of developing and instituting an effective process, investment and benefits.

**As the economic malaise continues, our clients are laser focused on leveraging the basics.

CEOs are asking CHROs to provide key insights on the strategic use of their organization's associates.

"Do we have the "right" talent, in the "right" place to “leverage” the current uncertainty?"

"Can we, as company leaders, put aside politics, personal ambitions and corporate fiefdoms to assure we see issues, challenges and opportunities with clear optics?"

These questions are often over looked or too easily dismissed as simple. This introspective exercise creates opportunity for CHROs to create value with their leadership by reexamining what is presumed to be obvious.

It takes courage for any CHRO to challenge the "givens" and the "simple." Yet, Koblenz's clients who are willing to invest in digging deep on fundamentals have found this type of "examining our basics" approach, yields significant results.

No doubt 2012 will be challenging.

Times will not always be as in the current.

reprint from the Koblenz Group Blog 

One More Great Lesson From Steve Jobs: Innovation Begins As A Social Movement

Why is the loss of one CEO the cause for universal mourning? Because he symbolized the kind of entrepreneurial capitalism that generates the fun that comes with creating the new.


Hardly anything unites Americans anymore--except for the death of Steve Jobs. His passing and the deep mourning for him across political, generational, and cultural divides remind us that we all can agree on one thing--that it is Jobs’s kind of capitalism, entrepreneurial capitalism, that we love, because it generates the incredible fun that comes with creating the new. His death reminds us that the big, disruptive innovations almost always come from entrepreneurs who embody their following and enable the dreams and talents that they have inside and haven’t yet expressed. It reminds us that all net new job growth in the U.S. comes from startups and businesses five years old or younger that begin in garages, college dorm rooms, or Starbucks cafés.


Above all, Jobs’s passing reminds us that entrepreneurial capitalism is not simply some rational economic market phenomenon but a social movement that binds groups of people together in communities of like interests and deep emotions. Think of the important innovations of our day that are changing our lives--Facebook, Twitter, Zipcar, YouTube, eBay, Amazon, iTunes/iPod/iPhone/iPad--and you find new social communities interacting on new platforms. Add them all up and you see entrepreneurial capitalism itself as a social movement that we join, participate in, and help create ourselves.





Contrast that to the crony capitalism that Occupy Wall Street is protesting against. This kind of capitalism has Wall Street no longer allocating capital to businesses so they can grow--which is its central economic and social function. With crony capitalism, banks and hedge funds trade for their own account--often with government-guaranteed savings and with government safety nets if they fail. With crony capitalism, big businesses, with a handful of exceptions, stop innovating and no longer generate jobs, income, or taxes for America. What crony capitalists have come to excel at is to game the political, regulatory, and tax system to favor their special interests. This anger against crony capitalism crosses the political spectrum.

Both Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, on the right, and Occupy Wall Street protesters, on the left, specifically decry crony capitalism and celebrate entrepreneurial capitalism. Nearly all of my socially liberal design students at Parsons support Occupy Wall Street and, at the same time, want to launch their own startup businesses. And that is where the role of design in capitalism is becoming ever more important. The new surge in startup culture among the young, the turn of design toward new business, not just big business and the overall collision of creativity with capitalism now under way, is the best way for us to rebuild our country. This will require reframing capitalism as the space for creators, not traders, for risk-takers, not risk managers, for community-builders, not destroyers.

Steve Jobs, like all entrepreneurs, had an entirely different set of competencies from CEOs and managers of big corporations. His ability to be attuned to his following, his framing of the problem (it’s people’s experience with the product, not the functionality and technology, that’s key); his obsession with the look, feel, and materiality; and the charisma of his leadership generated an “aura” around Apple products. That aura extended to Jobs himself, which is why we feel so emotional for the passing of this particular CEO and not any others.

The most successful entrepreneurs, from Thomas Edison, who was called the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” to Steve Jobs, portrayed as a secular prophet holding the iPad as a religious tablet on the February 2, 2010 cover of The Economist (“The Book of Jobs”), are often described in transcendental terminology. They have an aura that directly connects them to their followings whom they embody. These “visionaries,” “prophets,” “wizards,” “oracles” (the “Oracle of Omaha”) have a secular priest and laity relationship with their following. The priest promises the laity a coherent vision of the world, a way to release inherent hopes and talents while curbing existential angst, and a community to which to belong. The laity offers fealty in return. Prophets, religious and secular, tend to arise in moments of social and economic breakdown, which helps explain why there is a surge toward entrepreneurialism today.

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber says that Calvin believed that people lived in a radical state of uncertainty about going to heaven. So they had to work extra hard to get there. Work becomes a calling. Today, we are living through yet another state of uncertainty. Innovation and entrepreneurship are our calling.

It is not an accident that so many of our startup founders (Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, Airbn, Slideshare) have design backgrounds and share so many of the competencies we associate with Jobs. The fact that design is being recognized in the startup space is a major victory for the field. But the real power of design may well lie in its reform of the venture capital process, which has traditionally been defined in terms of technology and functionality. Bringing design into the VC process early to define opportunities (identifying those who embody new groups and new cultures) and keeping it through the business development phase, has the potential to increase the dismal 10% success rate dramatically. India’s innovation and design consultancy Idiom has an 80% success rate in “designing out” new companies.

The movement of design toward big business led to a focus on process and a promise of rationality and routinization of inspiration into products. In the end, we didn’t get much real innovation or the economic value that comes with it. The recent turn of design toward new business is leading to a focus on capitalism as social movement, and a promise of charisma and embodiment generating spectacular experiences that enable and delight. That’s why Steve Jobs and his entrepreneurial capitalism are so important--and why we mourn for him.

BRUCE NUSSBAUM

Bruce Nussbaum blogs, tweets and writes on innovation, design thinking and creativity. The former assistant managing editor for Business Week is a Professor of Innovation

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