Who Should You Hire – The Expert Or The Crony?

(personal note:  this is the longest I’ve gone without much blogging activity.  My apology — I had a little health set back {it seems ok now} — and I’ve been playing catch-up, not all that successfully, for a while.  Hopefully, by next week, I’ll be back to normal).

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cro·ny·ism noun \-nē-ˌi-zəm\: partiality to cronies…without regard to their qualifications (emphasis added)

The expert or the crony?

Here’s the thing.  We live in an interdependent, overly connected age.  What happens in one place, in one company, in one organization, has very far-reaching ripple effects.  So, whereas before, the hiring of a crony might hurt a few people, now, in this new world of so many intertwining connections. the hiring of a crony might hurt an avalanche of others.

So, here’s the story…  I have presented my synopsis of All the Devils are Here three times in the last couple of weeks.  I began each presentation with the story that opens the book.  It is about John Breit, the top risk manager at Merrill Lynch in the 00’s.  But Merrill Lynch was making too much money to pay attention to the risks – they just wanted to keep it going.   So, Breit was removed, and replaced with a friend of the CEO, Stan O’Neill.  A friend who did not have the right expertise, enough expertise – a friend who simply was not an expert at risk, he “didn’t seem to know anything about risk.”  And when some in the firm understood his value and begged him to come back, he came back, but was denied access, shunted aside, ignored… he was too much of a pain to those with money to make and warnings to ignore.

If only they had listened – earlier.

So, here is an excerpt of the account from the book, All the Devils are Here:  The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera:

It was September, 2007.
Slowly, over the years, John Breit had been stripped of his authority – and, more important, his ability to manage Merrill Lynch’s risk.  First (Stan) O’Neal had tapped one of his closest allies to head up risk management, but the man didn’t seem to know anything about risk.  Then many of the risk managers were removed from the trading floor.  Within the span of one year, Breit had lost his access to the directors and was told to report to a newly promoted risk chief, who, alone, would deal with O’Neal’s ally.  Breit quit in protest, but returned a few months later when Merrill’s head of trading pleaded with him to come back to manage risk for some of the trading desks.
In July, 2006, however, a core group of Merrill traders had been abruptly fired.  Most of the replacements refused to speak to Breit, or provide him the information he needed to do his job.  They got abusive when he asked about risky trades.  Eventually, he was exiled to a small office on a different floor, far away from the trading desks.
(After telling Stan O’Neal of the serious and massive exposure of Merrill Lynch) John Breit walked back to his office with the strange realization that he – a midlevel employee utterly out of the loop – had just informed one of the most powerful men on Wall Street that the party was over.
Merrill Lynch was in an awful lot of trouble—and the company was still in denial about it.

So, after one of these three presentations, a man  – a man who is used to paying attention to the fiscal health of large organizations — pulled me aside, and observed very simply that the opening story of the book is the most important part of the book.  The head of Merrill Lynch replaced the expert with a friend, and thus lost the voice, the wisdom, the clear thinking of the expert.  And when you replace the expert with a crony who is not an expert, the ball game is over.

And so, taken over by Bank of America because there were no other alternatives, the crony proved unequal to the task.  And the ripple effects are still being felt.

It seems like quite a choice, but it should be no choice at all.  The expert, or the crony?  There is only one answer that is right – but, sadly, it is an answer rejected time and time again.

What’s in a name?

More specifically, what’s in a domain name?

Organizations frequently register their name and add a dot com (e.g. Amazon.com or Microsoft.com) and that seems to work out just fine for them. My own is bobmorris.biz and others have dot net or dot org.

Some organizations have encountered unexpectedly serious problems when selecting a domain name. Independent sources have identified some of the worst.

Note that the name of each of these sponsors seems perfectly respectable.

Who Represents: http://www.whorepresents.com
Experts Exchange: http://www.expertsexchange.com
Pen Island: http://www.penisland.com
Therapist Finder: http://www.therapistfinder.com
Italian Power Generator: http://www.powergenitalia.com
Mole Station Native Nursery: http://www.molestationnursery.com
Lake Tahoe: http://www.gotahoe.com

Linguists remind us that there is sometimes much more in a name than we may realize. When that fact was pointed out to Yogi Berra, he replied, “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”

Will there be an NFL lockout?

Although Jeff Fox is known for his business advice, and writings on business, he was recently approached by a start-up sports magazine to give his opinion on the looming NFL work stoppage and the future of the New York Yankees.

Here is what he had to say.

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There will not be an NFL lockout, as the players call the potential work stoppage, nor, if you are  a team owner, will there be players’ strike next year. No one can afford it, and the television networks will not allow it.  Who benefits when a company’s  employees go on strike?

Who  benefits when an employer locks out the workers?  The answer in the short run is nobody.  The answer in the long run is nobody.  Employees loses wages that, depending on the length of  the non-work period, they can never mathematically recover.  Often the employees lose their  jobs. The employer loses profits, customers, investment capital, market share, and the economic purse to hire people, pay well, give raises.

Professional football players have careers that last, on average, less than five years.  If a player is making a few million a year, one lost year is big money.

Team owners depend on non-ticket revenue to make it.  No football means no fans, no food sales, no advertisers, no beer and bratwurst money.  No money means bank loans  don’t get paid; interest on stadium bonds doesn’t get paid; player pension funds don’t get  funded; Eli and Peyton don’t do ESPN commercials; and Pepsi doesn’t win any advertising  awards.

The players and owners will snarl and growl and pontificate and threaten and and wail and gnash…and they will settle.  Both sides have leverage over the other.  Both sides know they are right and the other guys are wrong.  Both sides are praying to the same God to see it their way.  But both sides are greedier than Donald Duck’s uncle.  The current players won’t put a penny into funding pensions,  or into health care, for former players who made today’s good life possible. The current owners would play 52 games a year, as long as the fans  and advertisers showed up,  without even a fleeting care if all the players became permanently  mangled or mentally retarded.  Both parties know that greed is good.  Big money makes big men crawl.   And crawl they will.  Everyone of the participants would crawl through a mile of broken glass to get the money.  Show ‘em the money, and get ready for Monday, make that Money Night football.

My Take

I hope Jeff is right, if only to sustain part-time employment for thousands of people, many (most?) of whom are already in desperate financial circumstances.

As for the “major players,” owners of professional teams are not among the sharpest knives in the drawer and the average salary for an NFL player ($1.9-million for 2009-2010) is more than most NFL fans earn in a lifetime.

Before Gordon Gecko went to prison, he announced thst “greed is good.” After he was released years later, he discovered that greed had also become legal.  Those who doubt that need only consider the banality of NFL owners and players as their latest negotiations lurch along.

WordPress Theme Design: A book review by Bob Morris

WordPress Theme Design: A Complete Guide to Creating Professional WordPress Themes
Tessa Blakely Silver
Packt Publishing Ltd. (2008)

For the layman as well as for the high-skilled technician/designer, Tessa Blakely Silver really does provide a helpful explanation and demonstration of how to develop, create, and enhance WP themes.

Presumably many others are also in circumstances comparable with mine: I am working with people who have been retained to help improve my WordPress website and I thus need to understand the technical nomenclature, the interdependence of components, and other “basics.” Hence the importance to me of having volumes such as this one to fill in my information/understanding gaps.

As is also true of other Packt publications in its “WordPress” series, notably Heather R. Wallace’s WordPress 3 Site Blueprints, Tessa Blakeley Silver`s WordPress 3.0 jQuery, and Brandon Corbin’s WordPress Top Plugins, Silver again provides about as much information, insights, and advice that I need to in order to work effectively with my website team. Our shared objective: To co-create professional (i.e. “commercial strength”) themes.

My high regard for this volume and rating of it are explained by the fact that I have learned so much that I needed to know from material that includes:

• Basics that introduce the WP blog system
• The essential elements if template design and approach (e.g. finalizing XHTML and CSS mockup)
• Adding WordPress PHP template tag code to final XHTML and CSS mockup
• The basic techniques of debugging and validation
• Setting up the WP theme’s CSS style sheet
• Key reference information (e.g. two CSS class styles)
• Enhancing theme under development with dynamic menu
• Further enhancing theme by leveraging AJAX techniques
• Review of tips from previous chapters, supplemented by others

You can obtain even more information about this book by visiting https://www.packtpub.com/wordpress-theme-design/book. It is also worth noting that those who purchase this book with its multi-format deal will receive free access to the book on PacktLib. So what? PacktLib offers access and search across its entire library of more than 400 books, finding practical solutions to searches at the click of a button.

I also highly recommend the aforementioned Tackt WP titles: Heather R. Wallace’s WordPress 3 Site Blueprints, Tessa Blakeley Silver`s WordPress 3.0 jQuery, and Brandon Corbin’s WordPress Top Plug Ins.

3 Ways to Become a Talent Magnet

Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR online newsletters, please click here.

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The most successful businesses often thrive because of their talent.

Getting the best people should be at the top of every manager’s list.

To become a talent magnet, try developing these three habits:

Get to know talent before you need it. Spend time networking in your industry. Figure out who the shining stars are and what excites them about their work. Fostering these relationships early will pay off later.

Sell yourself, not the business. The most talented people get excited about working with leaders they can trust and learn from. Be sure people know why they should want to work for you.

Take time to cultivate. The best talent is likely busy with other projects. Think of recruiting these people as a long-term game: regularly update them about your business and vision for the future.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “The Six Habits of a Talent Magnet” by Tsun-yan Hsieh with Anthony Tjan.

To read the full post and join the discussion, please click here.

Examining Engagement: Are Employees In Love With Your Company?

Here is a recent article in the “Industry News” series posted online at Talent Management magazine’s website (February 14, 2011). To check out all the articles and sign up for a free subscription to Talent Management and/or Chief Learning Officer magazine, please click here.

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A committed relationship requires two individuals who are completely involved, enthusiastic and act in a way that furthers their partner’s interests. An employee’s relationship with his or her company requires the same level of engagement between employee and employer.

According to a recent survey by Workplace Options, a global provider of work-life benefits and employee support services, 59 percent of workers believe their employers keep them fully engaged in the workplace. Research from the Gallup Organization, which has studied human nature and behavior for more than 75 years, shows that engaged employees are more productive, more profitable, more customer-focused, safer and more likely to withstand temptations to leave.

But how does a company fully engage their employees? The Workplace Options poll reports 61 percent of employers use regular feedback and dialogue with superiors to increase engagement and 57 percent use reward or recognition systems. Furthermore, 53 percent use career advancement or improvement opportunities to increase employee engagement. Two-way feedback and shared decision-making are additional ways to engage the workforce.

“Employee engagement is more than just an initiative or program started by human resources,” said Dean Debnam, chief executive officer of Workplace Options. “Keeping employees engaged should be a key component of every business strategy. An engaged staff is a productive, happy and profitable staff.”

According to the survey, three out of four respondents (76 percent) are highly committed to their jobs. High levels of commitment and retention are a direct result of keeping employees engaged in the workplace. In order to create this high level of commitment, employers must first identify how well they know their workforce and how they relate to their employees. If they know what motivates their staff, they can introduce creative programs or initiatives to keep employees engaged at all levels – such as coaching programs for new hires, career training or large group brainstorms and staff meetings.

“If employers do not place importance on having a two-way conversation with their staff, they may be in danger of losing highly valuable employees,” said Alan King, president and chief operating officer of Workplace Options. “When you allow an employee to have control over their career development and play a part in the decisions of the company, they will become more committed to the organization and its goals.”

The national survey polled 642 working Americans and was conducted by the North Carolina firm of Public Policy Polling from Jan. 14 to 16.

For more info: http://www.workplaceoptions.com