Q #86: Why is Ram Charan so highly regarded as a business thinker and author?

In this series, Bob Morris poses a key question and then responds to it with material from one or more of the business books he has reviewed for Amazon and Borders.

There are so many reasons. Here are three:

1. Common sense. Many business thinkers seem most comfortable developing theories and hypotheses. Although Charan earned an MBA and doctorate degrees at Harvard, he is a world-class pragmatist who focuses on real people in real-world situations. Make no mistake: he fully understands the “what” of major business issues; his much greater interest is on how to respond to them effectively. That is perhaps most obvious in three of his 12 books: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done co-authored with Larry Bossidy, Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right, and Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don’t.

2. Global Perspective. Born Ramcharan in 1939 in Uttar Pradesh, India, Charan worked in his family’s shoe shop in northern India while growing up. He earned a degree in engineering from Banaras Hindu University, then relocated to the United States to continue his formal education at Harvard. His consulting assignments take him all over the world. He seems to be “at home” almost anywhere, someone such as Benjamin Franklin whom the Europeans viewed as a “citizen of the world.” His most recently published book is Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times.

3. Wisdom and humility. His plainspoken, Socratic approach helps to demolish organizational silos or persuade entrenched executives to change their points of view. All of his business comes by word-of-mouth referrals, usually from one CEO to another. “He is an Indian guru who found that consulting was his life’s calling,” according to Noel Tichy who has worked with Charan for more than 25 years. His counsel and books are all about the companies and people that he is so determined to help, not about himself. Jack Welch speaks to this point when noting, “He has this rare ability to distill meaningful from meaningless and transfer it to others in a quiet, effective way without destroying confidences.” After Jeffrey Immelt succeeded Welch as CEO of General Electric, the first outside person he turned to for advice was Charan.

Comments, questions, requests, or suggestions? Please share them. They will be most welcome and I thank you for them. Best regards, Bob

Q #85: What are “business incubators”?

In this series, Bob Morris poses a key question and then responds to it with material from one or more of the business books he has reviewed for Amazon and Borders.

Opinions vary because definitions of the designation very. Some business historians claim that the formal concept of business incubation began in the USA in 1959 with the Batavia Industrial Center in a Batavia, New York, expanded in the U.S. in the 1980s and then throughout the UK and continental Europe in various related forms (e.g. independent innovation centers, pépinières d’entreprises, science parks, etc.). Other business historians include corporate research centers such for Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs (commonly identified as the “Skunk Works”) that was founded in 1943 and given the assignment to design the XP-80 “Shooting Star.” The P-80 was introduced in 1945 and the first operational jet fighter used by the United States Army Air Force.

With all due respect for the historical significance of these initiatives, I am among those who think it is more important to think about business incubation as a process rather than as a physical location. In fact, idea generation can occur anywhere if, as experts on the subject agree, certain conditions exist:

1. Constant and prudent experimentation. Everyone is strongly encouraged (if not required) and full advantage is taken of each “failure,” viewed as a precious learning experience.

2. Brainstorming. Sessions are frequently scheduled, with cross-functional representation (i.e. management, accounting, marketing, sales, production), to solve one specific problems, answer one specific question, or discuss one specific opportunity. (Only one per session.) Workers are also strongly encouraged to conduct informal brainstorming sessions.

Note: Over the years, I have helped client companies to establish a program for what I call “brown bag brainstorming sessions.” These are informal and can be scheduled by anyone, usually during the lunch hour in a room provided by the company.

3. Recognition and rewards. More than 85% of the improvements of Toyota’s processes (i.e. design, production, and distribution) are suggested by its workers and a majority of those workers are on the production line.

4. Workplace Environment. In The Art of Innovation and The Ten Faces of Innovation, Thomas Kelley explains how and why his firm, IDEO, created a workplace environment that is most congenial to and supportive of innovative thinking. Excellent advice can also be found in Gerald Sindell’s The Genius Machine, Michael Michalko’s Thinkpak: A Brainstorming Card Deck, Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, Doug Hall’s Jump Start Your Business Brain, and Paul Sloane’s The Leader’s Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills.

One final point: Keep in mind Ben Hogan’s assertion that golf is played between the ears and that is where competition is won…or lost. The human mind is the best business incubator and always will be. With innovation as with almost all other human initiatives, most limits are self-imposed.

Comments, questions, requests, or suggestions? Please share them. They will be most welcome and I thank you for them. Best regards, Bob

Q #84: What business lessons can be learned from The Wizard of Oz

In this series, Bob Morris poses a key question and then responds to it with material from one or more of the business books he has reviewed for Amazon and Borders.

Quite a few. Although there are some significant differences between L. Frank Baum’s tale and the film version of it, both demonstrate the importance of:

1. Teamwork. Dorothy and her companions (including Toto) combine their quite different talents to achieve their respective goals despite all manner of obstacles. The most successful (i.e. productive and efficient) teams in the business world are comprised of members who have diverse talents, skills, and experiences.

2. A clear sense of destination. It is important to remember that Dorothy’s goal is not to reach Oz, the Emerald City; rather, to return to her home in Kansas.  In business, some organizations must often reach one or more interim destinations in order to reach their ultimate destination. Each “journey” requires a specific itinerary, strategies, tactics, etc.

3. Mutual trust and respect. I agree with Fred Reichheld that trust is the “glue” that holds any organization together. It takes time to earn respect as well as trust and each can be lost with a single comment or action. Despite all manner of dangers (some of them literally life-threatening), Dorothy and her companions share mutual trust and respect.

4. “Luck.” I agree that luck is the residue of preparation. (Branch Rickey once said, “Luck is the residue of design.”) However, there is no rational explanation for what sometimes happens in the business world. Granted, Baum devised the plot but consider the symbolic significance of these developments: the house fell on the Wicked Witch of the East, Dorothy threw water on her sister (the Wicked Witch of the West) without realizing that it would kill her, and Toto pulled back the curtain to reveal an old man struggling to project an image of an all-powerful wizard. In fiction, they are contrivances. In real life, we would call them “good luck” or “fortuitous.”

5. Appreciating what you already have. Only after surviving all her ordeals does Dorothy realize that “There’s no place like home.” That’s Russell Conwell’s key point in Acres of Diamonds. Frequently, organizations already have the talent they need; the challenge is to recognize it and then leverage it. The same is true of individuals. Almost everything they need to succeed is between their ears. According to Ben Hogan, that’s where golf tournaments are won…and lost.

Comments, questions, requests, or suggestions? Please share them. They will be most welcome and I thank you for them. Best regards, Bob

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Q #82: How important is it to have “fun” at work?

In this series, Bob Morris poses a key question and then responds to it with material from one or more of the business books he has reviewed for Amazon and Borders.

Opinions about that are all over the proverbial “map.” My own is that it is unrealistic to expect to enjoy everything we must do to earn a living and everyone with whom we are associated at work. Much of what we do is tedious and at least a few of the people we work with are irritating, if not insufferable. That said, those who are doing what they do best and enjoy most are the happiest. I agree with former Southwest Airlines chairman and CEO, Herb Kelleher, that if you take good care of your employees, they will take good care of your customers. Hence the importance of being in a civilized work environment that strictly enforces what Robert Sutton calls the “The No Asshole Rule” in his bestselling book with that title.

Those who have invested 10,000 hours in what Anders Ericsson characterizes as “deliberate practice” do not describe that as “fun.” In school, at Ohio State, and then during his first several years on the PGA tour, for example, Jack Nicklaus practiced until his palms bled…and then he practiced some more. That’s obviously not “fun.” Jason Jennings asserts that the best-performing CEOs (without exception) “get dirt under their nails.”

Nonetheless, I think there is a time and place for “fun” at work. In the most highly-admired companies, however different they may be in most respects, all of them take full advantage of every opportunity to celebrate success. It could be winning in competition for a major contract or adding an especially important new client but it could also be an individual’s outstanding achievement. Although I dislike “Employee of the [Whatever]” awards because there is only one winner and everyone else loses, I am a staunch advocate of a “Going the Extra Mile” award that is given to anyone whose efforts to serve a client or to the support the company are exceptional, far beyond “the call of duty.”

Comments, questions, requests, or suggestions? Please share them. They will be most welcome and I thank you for them. Best regards, Bob

Q #81: What do you hope to accomplish with these Q&As?

In this series, Bob Morris poses a key question and then responds to it with material from one or more of the business books he has reviewed for Amazon and Borders.

In recent weeks, this is a question that several people have asked in e-mails sent to interllect@mindspring.com. The objectives I have are the same three that I have for writing book reviews:

1. Helping people to decide which business books to consider reading.

2. Sharing my own thoughts about those books.

3. Sharing the thoughts of those who read the reviews and Q&As.

Paradoxically, technologies have created almost instantaneous access to an almost unlimited number of sources of information during what is now called “The Age of Information” and yet we seem to have little (if any) time for discretionary reading, much less for extended reflection and meditation.

So, hopefully, the reviews and the Q&As will help at least a few people to obtain the information they need, and meanwhile stimulate a thought or two.

Comments, questions, requests, or suggestions? Please share them. They will be most welcome and I thank you for them. Best regards, Bob