Checked my iphone early today – looks like lunch will be interesting – there’s a talk on cultural differences in global e-mail tagging strategies. Never could understand why I couldn’t google up all of the old messages about the global procurement system update. I hear the speaker’s the great grand-daughter of the inventor of those yellow sticky notes I used to post all over my cubicle. It’s nice not having cubicles anymore – just grab a mobile desktop when I choose to come in, and then search out a comfortable place for the day. Today I’m arriving early so I can sit in the area that used to be the walled-in corner office of the CIO – what a view!

I’m glad I read Anne Field’s article before that huge restructuring that took place just after the dust settled on the subprime mortgage crisis [1]. Those were dark days around here. But our company was following her advised strategy – sending new talent (the ‘high potentials’ or Hi-Po’s) off for frequent short-stretch assignments in other countries so they could handle being pulled in multiple directions. And they’d give groups of Hi-Po’s a challenging problem – like applying new leadership thinking to test different structuring alternatives to better align our human capital resources with our new strategy. Hi-Po’s were also tasked with learning from experts through both formal and informal mentoring programs. It seemed at the time that they were really hand-holding those Hi-Po’s. For example, it seemed like they were always sitting down to make sure they understood the leadership development objectives for every task they were given. I didn’t know at the time, but one of those Hi-Po’s was destined to be my boss.

Since she took charge of my group and announced she was a proud Millennial, things have changed for the better. It didn’t happen overnight, but I can’t believe how well she managed change in a group composed of tough-minded people representing multiple generations. One day she both e-mailed and snail-mailed (to make sure everyone got it) an article written way back in March of 2003 by David Stauffer [2]. It helped me realize how difficult a problem it was to manage our group, and it made me appreciate how she’d taken the time to understand what motivates each different generation and what the typical sources of inter-generational conflicts might be. As a borderline boomer, I was pretty disillusioned at the time – but then she made sure I was getting plenty of training in the hottest new areas.

Today we do business much differently than back then. Things move at such a high velocity – you have to have the right information systems in place to keep you in the game. For example, when there are new jobs put out for bid, the most lucrative contracts are for quick-turnaround projects - where if you don’t get it done before anybody else who might of made a competitive bid – you lose it all. That’s right – if another bidder beats you to the deadline, everything you’ve done is lost, and there’s no pay - $0.00. It’s that simple. Of course, you can still bid for standard fixed contracts, but the margins are razor thin. So, to be in the game for these fast-paced, high pay, high risk, knowledge intensive ventures, you learn to communicate efficiently, assign people with the right skill sets to tasks with little slack, and you track your prior wins and losses to harness as much business intelligence as you can. The information systems help you predict your suitability for a win, they facilitate coordinating the schedule and exchanging the necessary digital work products, but you need 110% of the brains of your people on task at all critical times. The stakes are high – but when the pressure backs off – there’s time for some fun.

Well, that’s it for today’s blog – will be interesting to see how it get’s interpreted by the company’s IDEA (Innovation Detection and Expert Advisor) system. Our group has learned a great deal from that system. As I recall, it came from a field of study called ‘text mining,’ and it was sold worldwide by a company founded by Harvard drop-out – I hear he is a Millennial, too - and a very rich one at that.

There are two terrific antidotes for preventing a leader from morphing into an untouchable icon. Antidote one is schlubbing. Iconic leaders need to walk their dogs, take out their garbage, and wait in line once in awhile. The idea is not to breathe only the rarefied air because that kind of isolation skews perspective and lets the untouchable arrogance grow. A student shared a story with me about an interaction her friends had with the late Ken Lay and his wife, Linda. Just after all the news about the Enron fraud broke, Mr. Lay was on the cover of Time magazine as the very symbol of corporate greed. During the week that cover appeared, my students’ friends were on a flight with the Lays. The flight was awkward as the passengers realized who was with them there in first class. The passengers all avoided eye contact and conversation with the Lays. However, after the plane had landed, my student’s friends turned to Mrs. Lay and said, “This must be a very difficult time for you.” Mrs. Lay responded, “You have no idea. Just arranging this trip was awful. We had to fly COMMERCIAL!” A wee bit of perspective and the view from the retail level had long been lost on them.

The second antidote is a combination of self-deprecation and humor. When Herb Kelleher eased up on his role at Southwest Airlines, there were actually two officers, general counsel Jim Parker and executive vice president, Colleen Barrett, who took over Herb’s duties. Parker and Barrett acknowledged that it did indeed take two people to replace Herb, with Parker commenting, “"Well, Colleen's going to handle the smoking, and I'm going to handle the drinking." That two officers felt comfortable enough to use humor involving the founder of their company speaks volumes about Mr. Kelleher’s willingness to listen. Human, approachable, and, well, a schlub. Regal treatment means little or no dissent. Little or no dissent means the icon continues to push the envelope in the gradual descent into ethical and legal missteps.

Judi Hand, president and general manager of Direct Alliance, a business process outsourcer, visited the W. P. Carey School of Business recently to speak to an audience of students attending the Executive Luncheon Series. Her message -- that success depends on your ability to keep learning and keep questioning -- is as true for mid-career practitioners as it is for students.

=> Read more!

Telecom giant Sprint-Nextel recently decided about a thousand of its customers were just a little bit too demanding, so it went ahead and fired them. The remarkable move made headlines nationwide and since has left business analysts to ponder two questions. First, was Sprint justified? Second, is Sprint's bold, controversial move a sign of things to come? The answer to the first question, say experts from the W. P. Carey School of Business, isn't so easy. As for the second? That's a resounding "Yes."

=> Read more!

Two-thirds of all bills introduced in state legislatures are filed at the request of state or local government agencies, business associations, social activist groups, companies, or individual citizens. Most of those are brought to the legislature by legislative advocates, or lobbyists. Indeed, for businesses, having an advocate at the legislature -- both in Washington, D.C. and at the state capitol -- is a crucial part of staying competitive, according to Gerry Keim, associate dean, W. P. Carey MBA.

=> Read more!

Social responsibility is not just about handing out money, or establishing a charity or a fund, said Huaqing Wang, assistant chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission and director-general of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), Shanghai office. In his keynote address to the Fourth Annual Executive Forum, hosted by the W. P. Carey School of Business and the Shanghai National Accounting Institute, Wang argued that banks must take a broader definition of "service."

=> Read more!