High Velocity Culture Change

Most managers are not good at cultural change especially when they are the front line to lead changes in the organization. Changing the culture in an organization is hard, heavy duty, and battle intensive for those responsible to lead that charge. Most managers do it as well as employees by taking the lead from their managers because the have to. Not that they want to but it is part of the survival process in an organization.

I would recommend the following if you are the person(s)/group(s)/executive team leading this major effort to keep pace with the changing environment, business, and any successors and/or assignees in an acquisition:

• Use methods that are not standard operating processes - this will make people operate out of their existing cultural orientation;
• Change should be guided by where the organization needs to go rather than laborious cultural analysis and metrics. Make sure that the new highway for change is "clear to all employees" and that managers "get it and preach it"
• Blow up current understandings, destabilizing the organization so they have to move in a different direction. This will provide new energy in the organization;
• Each facilitator/manager/group/executive team member has to show that they care more;
• Change the reward system and the milestones along the way so people understand there is a payoff for the change;
• Communicate more than ever and often, clearly articulating the logic, acknowledging the changes, and their effects along the way;
• Promote what you want the end result to be and how it will affect the organization, revenues, and profits;
• Make sure the people feel free from the old system;
• You need to expect that there will be people who will not buy into the new culture, loosing some valuable human capital along the way;
• Make sure all employees are involved; set up project leads - interdisciplinary and cross cultural
• Blow up the bureaucracy along the way making structural changes that fit the final cultural goal;
• Lead by example and as in Field of Dreams, "they will come(follow)";
• Bring in new people and do not trust loyalty too much;
• Make sure each manager/group/executive team member surrounds himself or herself with strong supporters;
• Encourage people to think and act differently about their job, customer, and each other that builds on the culture you are creating;
• and finally make sure that you train people, re-orient the organization.

I hope this helps for those of you that have to change and lead cultural change in your organization.

Ten Top Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best Talent

Having worked in a large international company for many years I can attest to these reasons because I saw it first hand in my 20 years of experience. Needless to say I did preach as did my contemporaries that these issues had to be overcome through strong leadership from the HR team. So here they are:

1. internal and corporate bureaucracy;
2. creating leadership opportunities for top talent to lead projects or teams; 
3. poor performance reviews and where top talent sees and hears poorer performers getting the same reviews;
4. no career discussions taking place at the manager level ;
5. priorities and strategies continues to change taking the focus off talent management;
6. micro management and telling people how to do their job taking away accountability at the talent level;
7. top talent not having the ability to associate or work with other top talent ;
8. not seeing the vision of the talent management process, or should I say no process;
9. management not being open minded where top talent's ideas cannot be heard ;
10. no knowing who the real boss is, bailing out your superiors and not getting credit.

Top talent has to assume some responsibility and it is not all one sided. HR really needs to drive the process, have the accountability and responsibility to manage the process, and work with the CEO and executive team in developing career paths for the top talent. If these reasons are not addresses, YOU lose the competitive edge in retaining your top talent and attracting top talent. 

What are your thoughts?

10 Best Companies for Leaders: How Focusing on Leadership Development Creates a Competitive Advantage

January 18 2012 by ChiefExecutive.net

Chief Executive names 2012′s Best Companies for Leaders

Since 2005, Chief Executive and Chally Group Worldwide have been releasing the “Best Companies for Leaders,” a list of corporations who lead the pack when it comes to leadership development. These companies generate significant market share, make leadership development a high priority despite time and financial pressures, and their executives spend more personal time mentoring leaders. This year’s top company is Procter & Gamble, led by CEO Bob McDonald.

The Top 10 Best Companies for Leaders are:

1. Procter & Gamble, Robert McDonald
2. IBM, Virginia Rometty
3. General Electric, Jeffrey R. Immelt
4. 3M, George Buckley
5. Southwest Airlines, Gary C. Kelly
6. ADP, Carlos A. Rodriguez
7. PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi
8. Cardinal Health, George S. Barnett
9. Caterpillar, Douglas R. Oberhelman
10. Discovery Communications, David M. Zaslav

When Your Data's In The Cloud, Is It Still Your Data?

Your contract with a cloud provider should have language clearly affirming your ownership of your data.

By Thomas J. Trappler

Computerworld - When your data resides on a cloud provider's infrastructure, your ownership rights could be compromised. For example, what's to prevent the cloud provider from deciding to access your data and use it for its own purposes? That's why any contract for cloud services should include language clearly affirming your ownership of your data.

The good news is that well-established cloud vendors are beginning to include language along these lines in their standard contracts. For example, section 10.2 of the Amazon Web Services contract states:

"Your Applications, Data and Content. Other than the rights and interests expressly set forth in this Agreement, and excluding Amazon Properties and works derived from Amazon Properties, you reserve all right, title and interest (including all intellectual property and proprietary rights) in and to Your Content."

It hasn't always been this way with cloud computing, but as customers have voiced their ownership requirements, providers have made improvements in this area. As the cloud continues to evolve, if customers clearly state their needs, then smart cloud providers will listen and respond.

Other columns by Thomas Trappler

• When your data's in the cloud, is it still your data?
• Cloud adviser: Where's your data?
• Making sure your cloud provider can protect your data as promised
• Where there are clouds, there's lightning (and other cloud disaster tips)
• Why physical security matters, even in the cloud
• The Cloud Contract Adviser: Making sure your information is secure
• The Cloud Contract Adviser: Know your provider's infrastructure
• The Cloud Contract Adviser: Service-level agreements

Opinions 

Depending on the nature of your data and how it's processed in the cloud, it may also be necessary for the contract to include language affirming your institution's ownership of the results of any processing of its data that occurs while on the cloud provider's system.

With ownership clarified, the next step is to identify the limitations on how the cloud provider may use your data. In most cases, you'll want to limit the provider's use solely to that which is necessary for it to fulfill its obligations under the contract. It is also prudent to specifically exclude the provider from any mining of your data.

Be ready for the divorce

Once your data and processes have moved to cloud, you become more dependent upon the provider. You could be locked into its services, a situation that increases the cloud providers leverage over you in negotiating contract terms.

I know this sounds like advising someone to find a divorce lawyer before getting married, but to mitigate the risk of vendor lock-in, you need to plan in advance for the eventuality that you may decide to switch to a different provider or bring your data and processes back in-house. With this in mind, the contract should state your rights to access your data on an ongoing basis. Specifically, the contract should:

• Describe the process by which your data will be returned, whether done midterm or upon contract termination.
• State the amount of time the provider will have to turn over your data.
• Define how long after termination of the contract your data will remain accessible.
• Quantify the cost to you (ideally none) to export your data.
• Specify that the data must be provided in a commonly used format that is pertinent to your expected needs, and not in a proprietary or otherwise inaccessible format.

Some vendors have begun to embrace these ideas. For example, see Google's Data Liberation Front efforts and Microsoft's Office 365 commitments regarding Data Portability.

Other access issues

When codifying your rights to access your data, be sure to consider emergency situations. For example, e-discovery obligations to preserve, collect and produce data for litigation-related discovery actions can be more difficult to comply with when your data is in the cloud, because you do not have direct control. Yet your failure to produce pertinent data in a timely manner can result in significant fines. This risk can be mitigated by contractually requiring the cloud provider to establish mechanisms by which you can retrieve your data within a specified time frame.

Finally, the contract should obligate the provider to destroy your data after termination of the contract and should specify the manner in which this should be done, the time frame for doing so, the need for the cloud provider to produce certification of destruction, and your right to audit.

Peopleclick Authoria – A Perfect Merger or Act of Desperation?

Today, Authoria announce the merger with Peopleclick to create Peopleclick Authoria.  Bedford Funding, the private equity firm that owns Authoria is spending $100 million to acquire and merge the companies.  I’d love to say I had my crystal ball out when we recorded the Bill Kutik Radio Show a few weeks ago and predicted further market consolidation but this wasn’t one of the acquisitions I would have predicted.  Nonetheless, I do believe it is an early indication of what we can expect in 2010 – market consolidation.

The Good News

On paper, the merger makes sense.  It now puts Peopleclick Authoria as the #3 vendor in terms of market share (with Taleo #1 and SuccessFactors #2).  It also brings together one of the deepest talent acquisition vendors (Peopleclick) with one of the most robust talent management vendors (Authoria).  Although Authoria can claim talent acquisition capabilities today (via the acquisition of Hire.com), they are primarily limited to salaried recruiting only.  With Peopleclick, they now add hourly and contingent recruiting, onboarding, EEO/compliance solutions, candidate relationship management (CRM), and vendor management capabilities.  Peopleclick also give Authoria global presence which they really didn’t have previously.   As I recently noted, Peopleclick was newly recognized on the Gartner e-Recruitment Magic Quadrant, a significant accomplishment for the company.

From a pure financial perspective, assuming Peopleclick is a profitable, $60m revenue company, the $100m investment appears to be money well-spent.  Considering Taleo paid $128 million, or a 2.8x multiple of revenue, for Vurv 2 years ago (yes…I understand the market was much different 2 years ago), a 1.6x multiple for Peopleclick makes great financial sense. 

Lastly, Charles Jones, Managing Partner for Bedford Funding, and now Chairman and CEO of the combined company, has a strong track record for acquiring and merging companies.  If you really think about it, Peopleclick Authoria is the merger of 9 companies (6 with Peopleclick and 3 with Authoria) with a total investment over $130 million in venture investment.

The Bad News

The merger of Peopleclick and Authoria appears to be primarily a financially-driven merger.  Private equity firms like Bedford Funding focus on finding undervalued companies, putting in place some operational and financial discipline, and reselling those companies or assets at a premium.

Although they are now have arguably some of the deepest best of breed solutions for talent acquisition and talent management, the two products couldn’t be more different.   Most of Authoria’s products have recently been re-platforming their solution with a J2EE-based architecture (Authoria Communications has yet to be migrated to the new platform).  Authoria 10x, the new platform, has a streamlined and intuitive user experience. 

Conversely, Peopleclick is built on a .NET architecture and the discrete products have gone through varied levels of “modernization”.   Peopleclick’s usability, although intuitive, are process-driven and require significant user interaction.  Over the past few years, Peopleclick has some useful innovations including contact management, onboarding, interview scheduling and social network integration.  The core recruiting management engine though is still dependent on the deliberate complex that still overwhelms most recruiter or user.  What all of this means for either company’s customers is that Peopleclick products and Authoria products look different, act different, deploy different and demand a completely different user experience.  It also mean the distinct architectures will have integration challenges and longer-term cost implications.

No doubt the companies have very complimentary functionality and Peopleclick Authoria will get into many short-lists due to their “RFP-ready” capabilities (“RFP-ready” meaning they can now checkbox the capabilities listed in most generic RFPs out there).  The question, though, is will the depth of capabilities meet the needs of today’s buyer that demands a simplified and unified experience across all talent processes.  The combined Peopleclick Authoria is a technology stew.  Although both product lines are designed with multi-tenancy in mind, I would consider both vendors to be more hosted providers than true SaaS vendors.  Peopleclick Authoria will need to support many product lines, and many versions of those product lines, deployed uniquely across many customers.  Peopleclick Authoria will be challenged to economically support new innovation and deep customer support for all combined products!  The company has yet to share how they intent to integrate the product lines but considering it has taken Authoria 3+ years to re-platform their solutions, it would be a safe bet to assume the products will remain independent on their separate technology stacks and integration will be at the surface only.  While many other vendors will be focused on deepening the unification of their modules, building capability to support emerging “blended” talent management capability such as talent mobility and planning, and innovating in new areas such as social collaboration, Peopleclick Authoria will be focused on the often painful process of blending two companies and the unique complexities of their underlying technology. 

Authoria is getting a great customer base and an annuity stream that I’m sure became very attractive to Bedford (and as was similar with Sumtotal’s private equity buyers).  But with the talent management market continuing to be a replacement market and talent management buyers become increasingly demanding and cost-conscious, it will be no small task to successful managing the combined Peopleclick Authoria.

Will Peopleclick Authoria be good for customers?  Please share your thoughts and comments.

The 50 Best Places To Work In 2012

It’s that time of year again: Glassdoor has released its list of 50 best places to work in 2012! The list, “Best Places to Work — Employees’ Choice” is the fourth annual employee’s choice awards for best companies to work for. Below, see the companies and corresponding ratings.

1. Bain & Company: 4.7
2. McKinsey & Company: 4.3
3. Facebook: 4.3
4. MITRE: 4.1
5. Google: 4.0 
6. CareerBuilder: 4.0
7. Slalom Consulting: 4.0
8. REI: 4.0
9. Trader Joe’s: 4.0
10. Apple: 3.9
11. General Mills: 3.9
12. Rackspace: 3.9
13. Salesforce.com: 3.9
14. United Space Alliance: 3.9
15. Dow Chemical: 3.9
16. Chevron: 3.8
17. Southwest Airlines: 3.8
18. National Instruments: 3.8
19. Wayfair: 3.8
20. Citrix Systems: 3.8
21. QUALCOMM: 3.8
22. SAP America: 3.8
23. Costco Wholesale: 3.8
24. J. Crew: 3.8
25. Procter & Gamble: 3.7
26. Fluor: 3.7
27. Reachlocal: 3.7
28. Johnson & Johnson: 3.7
29. Monsanto Company: 3.7
30. NetApp: 3.7
31. Morningstar: 3.6
32. Intel Corporation: 3.6
33. Disney Parks & Resorts: 3.6
34. Starbucks: 3.6
35. NIKE: 3.6
36. Cleveland Clinic: 3.6
37. Coach: 3.6
38.  Ernst & Young: 3.6
39. Sephora USA: 3.6
40. Groupon: 3.6
41. Goldman Sachs: 3.6
42. Intuit: 3.6
43. Accenture: 3.6
44. Nordstrom: 3.6
45. PricewaterhouseCoopers: 3.6
46. Eli Lilly: 3.6
47. MTV Networks: 3.6
48. Scottrade: 3.5
49. NVIDIA: 3.5
50. FedEx: 3.5

What makes a good workplace? A recent article, 4 Factors That Influence Employees’ Views Of Their Workplace, says that education, age, gender and geographic location are important to employees. Also, employees like feedback — see How To Communicate Appreciation To Employees, — and motivation — see Study Reveals The Secret For Motivating Workers.

by KATE D'AMICO on JANUARY 10, 2012

10 Mobile Apps That Will Keep You On Your HR & Social Media Game

Small business owners are always looking for ways to integrate social media into their already extremely busy day.  As a social media coach, I do try to help small business owners learn how to integrate social media into their marketing strategies. One of the most effective ways to do this is to take your social media strategy mobile. 

It’s predicted that by the end of 2014, mobile use of the web will have outstripped desktop access. It’s clear that taking social media on the go saves time and energy – you can tweet while waiting in line at the bank, you can blog while riding the train and you can read RSS feeds while sitting in traffic (when you’re not moving, of course). While most of us have the necessary and very helpful mobile apps for Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and Foursquare (and if you don’t – download then now!) there are many others apps that can help you stay on top of your social media game.

Ten Apps That Will Keep You On Your Social Media Game

●      HootSuite: This mobile dashboard allows you to manage your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare accounts while on the go. You can schedule posts and tweets, add updates, track click stats and set up tracking columns to monitor keywords, hashtags and lists. 

●      Google Search: This app allows you to search the web faster and easier. It has features like voice search to allow you to search while on the go without needing to type, Google Goggles, which allows you to take a photo of what you see to get more info about products or landmarks and it allows users to find places near them without typing their location. 

●      NetNewsWire: An RSS reader for your iPhone. This allows you to read the news from millions of blogs and sites that publish RSS feeds. A definite must for those who need to fill wait times – either in line, on the bus or waiting for clients. You can star items or send them to instapaper to save them for later. You can also e-mail articles or post the links to Twitter.

●      PitchEngine: PitchEngine is a web-based service that helps people create content-rich media releases.  The mobile app allows businesses and organizations to create portable, one-page PR sites, with images and videos and publish it to the world, all while being away from the office. 

●      Buffer: Like the desktop version, the mobile version of Buffer app lets you schedule both Facebook and Twitter posts while on the go. Buffer allows you to spread your updates throughout the day. You can add updates easily with the bookmarklet whenever you are reading an article in your browser. 

●      Card Munch: This app by LinkedIn is a great way to turn business cards into contacts, with LinkedIn integration. You can easily convert business cards by scanning the card with the card reader and uploading the information without needing to type. Very useful at business meetings, conventions, trade shows and networking events. 

●      Mobile Payment app: With the mobile age, it is critical for merchants to find new  ways for to close deals and accept payments when they’re on the go. There are many  mobile app tools that enable businesses to process transactions and payments, with next day direct deposit to your bank account. I didn’t include a specific app as it depends in which country you are doing buisness in. Square, Intuit GoPayment are for US based banking, while Payfirma is Canadian. It is well worth looking into a mobile merchant app for your business. 

●      Vignature: With most businesses going mobile, its important to be able to access and legally sign documents while on the go. Vignature lets you access your documents from email or dropbox and open it within the app. You tap to sign and pose for a photograph. Your image is integrated into your signature, along with a date stamp. You can then email the signed document to yourself and any other required recipient. 

●      Wordpress for iOS: With WordPress for iOS you can easily manage your WordPress blog or website from your iOS device. You can moderate comments, create or edit posts, add images and video. You can now write, edit and mangage your blog while waiting for the bus or riding the train to work. 

●      G-Whizz: This Google Apps Browser is a great way to access all your Google Apps, even from a non-android phone.  You have access to over 20 apps right on your smart phone including Google Docs, reader, Google Voice, Gmail, plus Facebook and Twitter. You can send free text messages, track your schedule with Google Calendar, get driving directions and stay up to date with Google News.

Posted by:Ali Goldfield

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