June is Innovation Month
June 5, 2009
…at least according to Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe. Scott is encouraging his readers to think about ways to revive the New England economy from its doldrums by supporting new innovators and innovations. You can visit his website for ideas on how to “make new connections, share your expertise, find out about and support new ventures. Help accelerate some of the important, cool, life-saving, world-changing innovations being developed here in New England.”
Having worked in high tech in New England for the past 28 years, here are my favorite innovations and innovators that I’ve had the opportunity to work with in no particular order:
- Our own Mark Ain - father of the computerized timeclock and founder of the world’s leading workforce management software company
- Lotus Notes - first in collaborative computing. Sharepoint is still trying to catch up!
- An Wang - a genius and a very gracious man.
- Wang Imaging - ahead of its time, but gave me the opportunity to travel the world educating hundreds of consultants on business process improvement.
- John Landry - a wild man on the dance floor and prescient force of nature. You called it on eCommerce in 1994!
- Mark Dane - visionary and pragmatic, you never forget the customer.
- My colleagues at BrassRing - we had a wild ride, leading the way to applicant tracking on the Internet
Who’s your favorite innovator today?
Climbing the Hourly Ladder - An Interview with Paul Facella
December 31, 2008
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Paul Facella, a former Regional Vice President of McDonald’s Corporation and now CEO of Inside Management. He is author of Everything I Know about Business I Learned at McDonald’s (McGraw-Hill, 2008). During Paul’s 34 year career with McDonald’s, he learned a lot about growing his own career as well as how to motivate and develop others to do so. He was kind enough to share some of those lessons during our discussion and in a guest blog he wrote for us (below).
Click here to listen to a podcast of our discussion and read on to enjoy Paul’s blog below.
(Paul’s blog post is presented here as he submitted it to us)
The jobless figures for the U.S. economy in November were the worst in 34 years. With more than 9.5 million Americans now out of work–and rising–many job seekers are wondering if the American Dream is fading. Is it still possible in today’s economic climate to work hard, rise up the corporate ladder, and get ahead?
No doubt about it. As someone with firsthand experience, I encourage you not to lose heart in this tough job market. There are opportunities hiding in some of the least likely places–namely, in the hourly workforce.
Like four out of seven McDonald’s CEOs and three out of four senior-level managers, I started my stellar career climb at the bottom rung–as a crew member. That scenario is as likely today as it ever was.
But there’s a caveat. If you want to grow in a company, you have to find one that has aggressive talent development policies and is committed to promoting from within. McDonald’s, for example, has created more millionaires–including more women and minority millionaires–than any other American company. That’s because the company culture is based on rewards and recognition. If you work hard there, you will be rewarded.
Job seekers who are willing to work for hourly pay initially, want to learn and develop, are ambitious, and have a clear vision of where they’d like to be in three to five years are good candidates for such jobs. But don’t waste your time at the bottom unless you are confident that the company hiring you has your best career interests at heart.
So how can you find out which companies have the right stuff for career advancement? The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out a detailed and excellent set of guidelines and resources, at http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco20046.htm, for finding out more about a prospective company before you say yes. Do as much homework as possible before an interview so you can be reasonably sure this will be a goal-and-growth-oriented job–not a dead-end job.
In your job interview, ask such questions as: What percentage of your mid- to senior-level managers are promoted from within? What programs and policies are set up for helping high-achieving employees develop new skills? Is mobility at your company limited, or could one apply for jobs for which one qualifies elsewhere in the company?
What types of companies have the peachiest low-end jobs that are likely to lead to bigger and better positions? One rule of thumb is size. Large Fortune 500 companies usually have well-developed promote-from-within policies and are dedicated to career advancement for their lower-end employees. Some of the names that consistently come up, in addition to McDonald’s, are Walgreens, GE, FedEx, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, and LL Bean. Each of these organizations has a track record for fast-tracking low-rung workers, such as store clerks, drivers, and low-end office workers into managerial positions. Also, the US military is well known for recognizing exceptional smarts and talents and promoting promising people quickly.
The take-away message is this: If you’re discouraged about the job market, don’t forget that a great job may be staring you in the face. Bottom-level jobs are not always dead-end jobs. In the right organization, they are a first stepping stone to rich career opportunities ahead.
What was your best hourly job? What did you learn from it?
Put Down the Technology and Step Away from the Keyboard
November 24, 2008
Our latest whitepaper, Empowering the Hourly Workforce Through Enterprise Workforce Management, comes to us courtesy of our board member Tim Lett of the Axsium Group. Tim addresses the importance of engaging employees as part of the implementation and ongoing use of workforce management technology.
Tim’s company helps organizations deploy a wide range of workforce management technology solutions. While the products they work with may vary, the time tested advice Tim offers is consistent. Take the time to scope your requirements fully and involve representatives of the relevant stakeholders in your project to ensure project success. Here are a few tips:
- Involve representatives of the end user community in your pre-implementation requirements gathering. Incorporate returns related to employee empowerment and self service in the business case for the project.
- You need to have an executive sponsor with sufficient authority to push a project through the normal obstacles to any change effort. To make that sponsorship work, you need to arm that executive with communications support to ensure that all stakeholders are informed and persuaded to participate and cooperate throughout an implementation project.
- Establish a balanced scorecard of relevant metrics that will be used to measure progress and success over time.
- There is no such thing as over communication during a major change effort.
Read the whitepaper and listen to a podcast of my discussion with Tim to learn more.
> Listen to the Podcast with Tim Lett of the Axsium Group
Goodbye HR Tech, Hello KronosWorks 2008!
October 18, 2008
This has been a very busy week – Dallas Sunday through Tuesday for our annual Sales and Service kickoff and Chicago Wednesday through Friday for the HR Technology show. I wrote this post sitting at Gate K8 at O’Hare waiting for a flight to Orlando where I’ll spend the next 5 days at our annual customer conference, KronosWorks.
I don’t travel a lot in my current job, and it’s energizing to get out of the office and have the chance to talk to coworkers, customers and old friends in person. HR Tech, in particular, was old home week for me as many friends and former colleagues and partners from my BrassRing days were there.
Mitzi Adwell, James Sale, Kelly Cartwright and Ed Newman of the Newman Group– thanks for the fun dinner and great conversation Thursday night.
Tom Kramer, John Haworth and Mark Lange – you were all great marketing leaders in your turn at BR. It was wonderful to catch up with you.
Mike Hennessey – looks like Smashfly is taking off. I’ll keep watching and wishing you great success!
Gary Gang of HRMC– Keep on keeping on – in Phoenix or Atlanta.
Starr Tincup Lads – thanks for the drink and for the introduction to Jerome Ternynck from Kronos partner MrTed. I hope Hilary Clinton makes it home safely!
George Larocque, sales leader extraordinaire – I wish you well at Arbita
Elaine Orler of Knowledge Infusion – looking forward to talking to you more about the Workforce Institute board of directors.
Judy Duff and Amy Tatarka of Salary.com – even though you didn’t win the Talent Management shootout, your application looks great and I was truly impressed with the breadth of your offering.
Now, off to KronosWorks. If you’re going, or wish you were, join our Facebook group.
Why We Need Skype Now More than Ever
September 30, 2008
Perhaps many of you have been Skype-ing for a while, but I’m a recent convert. I mentioned in one of my first posts that I’m a big fan of technology and often an early adopter. Skype’s been around for a while in the UK, but only recently began advertising in the US. I’d heard about it a couple of years ago, but didn’t get serious about trying it until my daughter went to London for the semester and the reality of long distance phone call bills drove us to this VOIP wonder.
Skype allows you to make free (yes, that’s right, free) telephone calls via the Internet. You download Skype to your computer and can connect for free with anyone else who’s got Skype installed on his/her computer. You can also make competitively priced calls to cell phone or landlines from your computer via Skype. If your computer doesn’t have a built in microphone, you need to add that, but otherwise you’re good to go with no big investment. The best part of all - add video! With a cheap webcam attached to your computer, you get a pretty good real time video of the person you’re talking to.
Why now more than ever?
- Whether you’ve got kids living abroad or not, pinching pennies is becoming second nature for all of us whose savings may be shrinking as a result of the current turmoil in the world markets.
- In tough times, it’s more important than ever to stay connected to those we care about - and Skype makes that easy to do.
- As more and more workers are working remotely from their management, this could be a great tool to forge and sustain a more personal relationship with co-workers than the phone alone permits.
Are any of you using Skype (or similar VOIP) technologies at work to support remote workers?
Back to the Future
March 23, 2008
Last Wednesday, I attended an all day seminar hosted by IDC, a technology oriented analyst firm. The seminar was focused on topics that those of us who work for high technology firms care about; i.e. what’s the next big thing that our firms should capitalize on in order to continue to thrive. I attended sessions on Software as a Service (not so new), Software Appliances (still pretty new), Social Networking (kind of new), Innovation (not new at all), and a session on “The New Customer”.
It’s this last topic that I find fascinating - mostly because the attributes of “the new customer” seem pretty darned similar to the attributes of the majority of the customers I’ve served in 26 years of working for high technology companies. Specifically, customers purchasing high dollar technology solutions want to know that once the implementation is done, the solution they bought actually achieves the outcome they were shopping for. Sometimes that’s true business transformation, often it’s cost savings, but in all cases there is a project sponsor on the hook to find the right solution and make sure it works for the business. During and after the sales process, that project sponsor wants to talk to people who understand their business and the technology. They don’t want their relationship “managed”, they want the straight scoop they need to ensure they choose the right tools and partner to get the job done. People who’ve taken the risk to introduce a vendor’s solution into their organization want that vendor to be standing by their side as a partner who shares in solving the hard problems that inevitably accompany change.
The closing speaker at this conference was Tom Kelley, General Manager of IDEO, and author of “The Ten Faces of Innovation”. While there are ten faces in his framework, he focused on “The Anthropologist” as the most important. His point was that organizations can’t truly service a customer’s needs, and definitely won’t discover new markets around unmet needs, unless they do the field work to observe the problems firsthand. He was a great speaker, and definitely a hit with an audience of high techies who love to be associated with the next big thing, but are often frustrated that their firms aren’t willing to take more chances when it comes to innovation.
In a related blog post last week, Bob Sutton talks about risk taking as key to innovation. Ironically, in many organizations risk taking isn’t as encouraged as it should be to drive innovation, yet the implicit risk associated with a failure to focus on ongoing customer success is rampant. What’s been your experience with the technology vendors who are important to your success at work?
Infotriever is a fickle friend
October 12, 2007
OK - I said I had a passion for technology, but that’s cooled a bit this morning. As any good BlackBerry addict does, I take advantage of all possible opportunities to manage my life within its cheerful interface. That includes downloading flight information from our travel agent via Infotriever. Normally, this works like a charm for me. Today, for reasons I’ll detail, the ‘Berry failed me. The good news, however, is that a number of wonderful human beings did not. I’m sure they feel they were just doing their jobs, but they salvaged me from a potentially very bad day.
Travelogue so far today:
- Get to Dallas Fort Worth at 5:00 am for 6:30 am flight to Philadelphia with connection back to Boston. Calendar view on ‘Berry tells me I’m on United 2036. Stand in line for 30″ to self check.
- 5:30 am - Self check kiosk tells me I need to be at USAir, not United. Having not clicked through to the details of my reservation, I have failed to note important “operated by USAirways” information.
- 5:40 am - Waiting on curb for airport shuttle - takes a while to come. Finally get shuttle at 5:55. Driver tells me 10-15″ to make the loop and get to my terminal. I explain my situation. First Angel of the Day: Driver calls his supervisor, tells him he’s going to skip all stops and get me to my terminal asap.
- 6:05 am - Arrive at USAirways terminal. Hike to ticket counters. Bypass all fellow travelers and get attention of Second Angel of the Day: Ticket agent. Mind you, this is all my fault because I didn’t check the complete info on the ‘Berry. I am polite, but clearly distressed when she tells me there’s no way to get me and the bag on my scheduled flight. She spends 10″ trying to book me on an alternative flight, with the poor outcome that all alternatives include flying standby. She is unfailingly polite and truly sorry for my troubles. I thank her for her time and efforts.
- 6:15 am - Call Third Angel of the Day: After Hours Operator at Travizon. She hears my tale of woe, and quickly gets me on an American flight back to Boston at 9:00 am (I hope, bad weather in Boston right now).
- 6:30 am - Got Starbucks and wireless access and hoping for the best.
Lessons learned:
- Read the fine print on the Infotriever download.
- Terminal Link at DFW, USAirways, and Travizon should be proud of the great customer service I received from their employees today.
Old Home Week at HR Tech
October 10, 2007
Today I visited the HR Technology Conference and Exposition at the Navy Pier in Chicago. I spent a few hours traversing the exhibit hall and catching up with old friends. I had conversations with about a dozen former colleagues and contacts who have moved on to new ventures in the human capital management space.
Deb McGrath (HR.com) introduced me to a new virtual conferencing tool that HR.Com will be using to host a few of their upcoming conferences. Check out InExpo. I hadn’t seen this tool before, but it appears to be a more user and business friendly alternative to Second Life. I’m looking forward to attending one of Deb’s upcoming online conferences to check out the user experience.
I had lunch with Mike Hennessey, founder of SmashFly Technologies - an innovative approach to marketing jobs to your candidates via traditional job boards as well as the social network. Mike and I worked together at Brassring. He’s a brilliant and innovative engineer, and I bet we’ll hear a lot more about SmashFly in the months to come.
There was lots of audience traffic around Workday, Dave Duffield’s software as a service alternative to the ERP’s. The application demo’d nicely, and is a contender in the HR shootout that will be conducted during the conference tomorrow.
Whether you had the chance to attend HR Tech or not, I’d love to hear from you about new applications in the HCM space that are impressing you.
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