Monthly Archives: June 2012

What Is a Millennial to Do?

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Lately, I have been thinking about Anne’s blog post from a few weeks ago called Next Practices with “Generation Next.”  In the article, she talks about Millennials (folks born between 1980 and 1995), and since I was born in 1980, I guess I fit into this category. Anne talks about the needs and wants of people of my generation. She listed things like flexibility, good pay, work/life balance, and interesting work as factors that are important. Her article was spot on. But my question is this – is the ability to get positions that offer these benefits realistic in today’s market?

I am sure many of you have seen the “You Are Not Special” Commencement Speech.  In the speech, David McCullough Jr. says “Do whatever you do because you love it and believe in its importance.” This is a fantastic sentiment and fits in with much of the Millennial rhetoric. But then Google “College Graduate Unemployment” and article after article pops up stating that one in two college graduates are either unemployed or underemployed.  Add to that the student loan debt and lower median wages and it looks like dreaming will need to wait. Many talk about the student loan bubble, but what about the emotional toll created from such a job market?

There is a lot of doom and gloom and an apparent disconnect between expectations vs. reality. The general feeling seems to be that we are too pampered and expect too much. That might be the case, but my generation is also resourceful, intelligent, and hard working. I see a big shift happening. Where the job market is not providing opportunities for my generation, we seem to be pretty good at going out and creating our own.

I moved to Chicago a year and half ago for various reasons. I knew no one, but I realized that I had to put myself out there. I started networking and meeting people at various functions. Many people I talked to have gotten tired of trying to navigate through a nearly impossible job market and have decided to make it go on their own terms, whether through tech startups or bakeries started out of kitchens. For these folks it is more about doing what they believe in and succeeding on their own terms. I am not saying that all of these ventures will become multibillion dollar companies, but maybe that isn’t the point.

I see this as a shift as my generation ages and gets more experience. If the old rules aren’t working for us, we will create our own. Perhaps we all still have the rebellious teenager inside us. The same teenager that sat in the hot sun one June day, diploma in hand, feeling like she could take on the world.

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The Value Trap

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I often pose these questions to senior executives from software companies and their reaction is invariably quite amusing.

If they were to ship the identical software to three different customers, would the customers have achieved totally different value from the same software if we went back two years later?  If so, why is that, given that all three received   the same exact software?  And would any of them have achieved the intended value from the software?

Let me illustrate my point.  Let’s say the software is designed with 100 units of value.  Of the three customers, will any of them achieve the 100 units?  If not, why not?  The second question is why do all three achieve different units of value from the same exact designed value (100 units)?  Let’s assume that customer A achieved 80 units, customer B achieved 70 units and customer C achieved 60 units.

The value gap of 20, 30 and 40 units is caused by the Adoption and Implementation of the software and clearly not because of the software itself.  Yet, the gap is often blamed on the software itself because most organizations fail to grasp the importance of Adoption and Implementation.  Customer C could easily have made sure that they achieved more than the 60 units had they done at least as good a job as B or A.  And what’s even more interesting is that the software companies keep making enhancements to their product, thus increasing the designed value from 100 units to 110 to 120 and so on.  What they fail to realize is that by doing that, they are actually increasing the value gap unless they are also focused on helping their customers increase the achieved value, which has very little to do with the software.

Let me use another example.  How much of the designed value of a smart phone is actually achieved by the average user?  Would you be shocked if I told you it’s in the single digits?  And by the way, the phone companies keep adding to the designed value every six months and therefore keep increasing the value gap.  Steve Job’s genius was in focusing on how customers were actually going to use the product and get the most value out if it.  He clearly recognized the importance of the ”vowels” which actually help reduce the value gap and not the “consonants” which do nothing but increase the value gap.

 

This simple yet powerful concept needs to be recognized by the software companies so that they can focus on the achieved value and not the designed value.  If they do that, it will actually have a significant impact on how they enhance and design their products.  All future enhancements will be focused on reducing the value gap and increasing the achieved value.  Increasing the designed value and not doing anything about the Adoption and Implementation will only increase the value gap.

The same applies to any solution that you are working on.  Developing the best Supply Chain strategy or the best contract with a supplier is the designed value.  The achieved value has to do with Adoption and in reality a sub optimum contract may actually deliver more achieved value for the organization because it focus on the vowels thus reducing the value gap.

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Take Care of Your Best People or Someone Else Will

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Take care of your best people or someone else will.  I’m sure you have heard this saying many times; I know that I have.  How many of us really internalize the meaning to ensure that we are indeed doing everything we can to retain our very best people?

I have been writing a lot about people, competency and talent management over the last few months.  But nothing hit closer to home (no pun intended) than when my 24 year old millennial son quit his job last week for a new career opportunity.  The response he got was exactly what I expected but I was still dismayed nonetheless.  His immediate boss was shocked, hurt and told him he was making a big mistake. She also told him that he was unprofessional by not letting her know that he was looking for another job.  Huh?  His boss’s boss told him that since my son had given them two weeks’ notice he had two weeks to get him a promotion.  Sound familiar???

As a backdrop, my son was a high performing sales associate AND not shy (he gets the “not shy” part from his Mom).  He let his boss, her peers and her boss know for months that there were major issues in the way the sales associates were being managed starting with the VP (who knew no one by name and never left his office) to the Sales Managers who refused to juggle territories to make it more beneficial to long term employees (“we just don’t do that here”) to the Regional Manager who had other issues. Eight sales people left within an eight week timeframe.  My son’s boss is spending most of her time recruiting, recruiting and recruiting because her experienced people are walking out the door left and right.  Perhaps more time spent on retaining, retaining and retaining would curtail the need for recruiting. More retaining would result in less time and money spent on bringing new people in (which is extremely costly) and could result in more time spent on building customer relationships and increasing the bottom line.  It’s time for someone to realize that the old way of managing sales people just isn’t working.  Wake up people!!

The scenario I am illustrating is not only a real one but happens more often than we like.  I know numerous Supply Chain professionals that leave because promises made – “we are going to do more sourcing”, “we are going to lead the entire supply chain”, “we are going to provide you training to help increase your skills”, “we are going to help you manage your career”, “we are going to give you more exposure or more responsibility”- just never seem to happen.  There is nothing more frustrating than going to an organization where you believe you can make a real bottom line impact only to find yourself expediting P.O.s.  Sound familiar???

In many organizations the employees that get the most attention are those that are NOT doing their job as opposed to the ones that have real potential.  Why is that?  It just doesn’t make any sense?

I was recently at a conference and listened to Jeff Silver, the CEO of Coyote Logistics, speak.  His company is not only one of the fastest growing transportation and logistics companies in North America but has also won a number of awards for being one of the best workplaces as well.  Mr. Silver hires young professionals and provides them the training, tools and guidance they need to flourish and grow their careers.  There are no offices, except for HR and he knows all his employees by name.  My son has several friends that work there and they all feel like valued employees.  This is a talent management model to replicate.

To all those bosses out there that have forgotten that your best employees are your greatest asset and deserve to be nurtured and valued; consider yourself warned.  Employees that feel like they are being treated fairly (or more so) will give back to the company ten-fold.  Take this post  as a wake-up call to act now before someone else has the opportunity take care of your best and brightest.

Not realizing that your “stars” are out looking for another galaxy is almost as bad as forgetting your partner’s birthday . . . . . .

Join the conversation and give us your thoughts . . . . . .

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Where Has All the Inspiration Gone?

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This weekend my parents were in town from Pittsburgh, PA. They visit every summer during my dad’s vacation. Because my dad is using his vacation time, I always try to plan something special and have him pick what he would like to do. This year he wanted to visit SC Johnson’s headquarters located in Racine, WI to see the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Administration Building (you can read some of the history here).

I was surprised that he didn’t want to see some of the architectural treats Chicago has to offer, but my dad and I are similar in that we are always trying to find things that are interesting and different. We love going to antique stores and flea markets looking for that neat little piece of history, those hidden treasures that sometimes get overlooked. So last Saturday the four of us (mom, dad, my husband, and myself) pile into the car and head to Wisconsin.

We start our tour promptly at 10 a.m. with a group of people from all over the world. I must admit that I didn’t realize the headquarters had that much draw. As we walked the grounds, I promptly realized what attracts people. As you walk into the Administration Building the space expands in front of you. Built to house 200 people, it consists of the Great Workroom, an encircling second-story mezzanine, an adjoining second-story theater, and third-story executive offices. The Great Workroom is open and airy. The day was sunny, so light came in from the skylights made from Pyrex tubing. The space is supported by large columns that resemble trees; Wright’s way of bringing the outside in (I feel that it is impossible for me to give it justice. You can look at some images here). As we walked around I couldn’t help but be inspired, especially when we entered the office space originally designed for the marketing department. The space was round allowing the ideas to flow to the middle. I don’t know about you, but I get tired of dusty blinds, fluorescent lights, beige walls, and cubicle farms.

The Administration Building isn’t the only impressive piece of architecture on the grounds. SC Johnson’s headquarters also features Fortaleza Hall, which opened in 2010. The Hall was designed by Norman Foster and several artists that worked to capture the company’s culture, environmental commitment, and “spirit of adventure.” In the middle of the large glass building is a replica twin-engine S-38 amphibian plane that Sam Johnson flew to Fortaleza, Brazil in 1998.

When I think about what SC Johnson makes, well-known products like Pledge, Windex, and Ziploc, I couldn’t help but be more amazed. These brands aren’t what most would call glamorous. These are everyday items that most of us have in our cabinets at home. This shows that the company you work for does not need to make the sexiest or coolest products to be inspirational. Work isn’t about what you produce, but who you work with and for. If you work with inspired people, you will be inspired and motivated. When I walked through the buildings, I felt like they were working towards something greater. It gave me the impression that they cared about their people, and that they take their values and company culture very seriously.

With companies getting into trouble and news of the C-suite behaving badly, it sometimes seems that business has lost its inspiration, its drive towards something greater. With economic news mixed, we are facing an atmosphere of fear and doubt. Who is willing to take a risk? In 50-100 years who will be our great business leaders? What companies will still be around? Will they be the ones that made the most money, or the ones that gave the most back and created the greatest legacy?

“Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.” Samuel Johnson

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