Inspiring Ideas June 2008

JUNE 2008

"Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Accordingly a genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework"

- Thomas Edison

TIPS FROM THE TOP

Bill Conaty spent 40 years at GE. For 13 of those years he was Senior Vice President of Corporate Human Resources, working directly for CEOs Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt. He is credited with creating the talent management machine that produces the leaders who drive the future of GE’s business strategy, performance and succession plans. Here, he reveals the HR secrets that brought him success for so many years.

1	Dare to differentiate: Differentiation is what drives a company. Employees must be constantly judged, ranked, and rewarded or punished for their performance. You have to know who are the least effective people on your team and then you have to do something about them.
2	Constantly raise the bar: The one reason executives fail is that they stop learning. The job grows, the accountability grows, and the people don’t grow with it. Continuous learning is so valued that GE training courses are considered high-profile rewards.
3	Don’t be friends with your boss: Too often HR executives make the mistake of focusing on the priorities and needs of the CEO. That diminishes the powerful role of being an employee advocate. If the HR leader locks in with the CEO, the rest of the organization thinks the HR leader isn’t trustworthy and can’t be a confidant.
4	Become easy to replace: Great leaders develop great succession plans. Insecure leaders are intimidated by them. It all comes down to having an executive who doesn’t want to admit that someone else could do their job. If they kill two or three viable successors along the way, you have to start looking at the person who’s doing the killing.
5	Be inclusive: Within every organization, there’s a tendency to favor people you know. That habit can undermine success. When GE acquired Borg-Warner’s chemical business, they thought that their sales force team didn’t look as energized as GE’s team, so they decided to replace them with people from GE. They ended up losing most of their sales force and lost the business with it.
6	Free others up to do their jobs: When it comes to working with CEOs, one the most important jobs for an HR leader is to take things off his desk, not put things on his desk. That attitude extends to giving everyone in the company the tools and permission to work on their own terms.
7	Keep it simple: Most organizations require simple, focused, and disciplined communications. Leaders succeed by being consistent and straightforward about a handful of core messages. And the best don’t get derailed when times turn tough.

MILLION DOLLAR TALES

GATORADE
At a Glance

$5 billion estimated brand value

$1.5 billion in sales in 2007

1,200 employees

Controls 80% of the US sports drink market

GATORADE – The athletes’ choice

In 1965 an assistant coach of the University of Florida’s football team, the Gators, was perplexed as to why so many of his players were being affected by heat and heat-related illnesses. A group of physicians discovered that the loss of carbohydrates and electrolytes during physical exertion were causing players to wilt, and they set about developing a precisely balanced beverage that would replace the key components lost by Gator players during exercise. They called their concoction “Gatorade”. The drink was so successful that by 1969 the drink was being used by professional NFL teams and would go on to become synonymous with sporting success across all fields and at all levels.

In 1988 the Gatorade Sports Science Institute was opened as part of the brand’s commitment to be the best thirst-quenching product in the world. It is here where new Gatorade products and flavors are developed. The association of the Gatorade brand with an array of top sportsmen and women, from Tiger Woods to Maria Sharapova, is part of a well-targeted strategy which has helped position the brand as the athletes’ choice. More than just a beverage, consumers view and use Gatorade more as a piece of sports equipment than a beverage – an essential part of their workout routine. And the brand is not standing still. Reacting to the proliferation of products in the soft-drinks market, Gatorade launched Propel – an “off-field” hydrator for athletes in their down time. And although the competition in the sector is growing, Gatorade is well placed to maintain its winning position in the sports drink battle

DELVING DEEPER

Among the many practices that brought Jack Welch such success as CEO of GE was the building of strong business foundations and the creation of winning teams. But what were the principles that allowed him to do this? Click here to find out.

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MULTIMEDIA TOOLBOX

SIXTY SECOND INSIGHT

William Ury – Best-selling author and Director of Harvard Law School’s Global Negotiation Project, Ury is one of the world’s most renowned negotiators, helping to mediate in conflicts around the globe. Although he made his name with the book, Getting to Yes, here he talks about why the ability to say “no” can be of even more importance.

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PODCAST

How important is intelligence in business? Sydney Finkelstein is the Tuck Professor who wrote the best selling book, Why Smart Executives Fail. Here, Finkelstein looks at the extent to which someone’s IQ really acts as a differentiator in the workplace.

Click here to listen