Excerpts A Troubled President The Numbers Do Not Add Up Sleepless Nights Torn in Half! The Military Understands Already Beyond the Value Chain Aspirations and Opportunities Emboldening Customers and Strengthening Their Capabilities Boxes and Lines Distrust Bigger than the Boxes Rethinking the Model

Excerpts #3 of Chapter 1 Excerpts: Next | Previous Sleepless Nights Frank continues, "There's something else that doesn't add up, and it goes beyond these numbers. This 'something' has given me many sleepless nights. "For all our good investments in the past, for all our good efforts and for all our good people . . . why, why, why do we seem to be so slow in responding to the market? "Why do we have such a hard time mobilizing our resources when opportunities spring up? "Why do we seem to be so rigid and inflexible?" Wesley Schroeder, VP of engineering, smiles. "You know, Frank, it's not surprising; people don't know how to work together. When's the last time we offered 'team-building' training? It's essential if we're to move to an Integrated Product Development Process, using concurrent engineering." Frank does not smile; the pain is too deep. "Wesley, I wish it were that easy. We have been working with teams for some time under our Total Quality Management program. They've helped, but there's something more. . . . " Vincent Gutierrez sees his chance. "You know, Frank, if we can complete our work and qualify for ISO 9000, we will have come a long way toward straightening out our processes. In addition, we're almost finished re-engineering our product development and order processing activities. Soon we'll be an industry-recognized benchmark site for the 'art-to-part' and 'order-to-delivery' processes. I can just see the flocks of journalists we'll have to turn away when word gets out." Marjorie Callahan, VP of finance, notices that Frank's face is not lightening up. She wonders whether Frank is bothered by all the layoffs that are a fallout from the re-engineering. She knows that under Frank's tough exterior is a person who cares a lot for his people. "I wonder," reflects Alan Tanaka, VP of human resources, "if I've been too slow in updating our reward systems. All our surveys show people are dissatisfied by the way they're rewarded. Frankly, it's tough to know what to do." Frank looks at Wesley, Vincent, Marjorie, Alan, and the others, catching them by surprise with his comment. "Have you been walking the halls and the shop floors lately? Have you noticed, as I have, that there is relatively little laughter these days?" "This is a business, and people are serious about their work," responds Gregory Kasmirian. "I'd expect laughter at a party, but at work . . . hardly." Marjorie has been quiet, listening, not to the words, but to what's below the words. "Frank, I understand what you mean about the information systems capital expenditures, and I know you support our efforts in quality and re-engineering, but your comment about laughter caught me. You're right, there is little laughter, much less than when I first joined the company eight years ago. I wonder . . . laughter . . . it occurs at the intersection of the expected and the unexpected. Are we drowning in the expected? Has routine taken over this place?" She continues, "As Carol will agree, the market is full of surprises. Our customers are always up to something new. Our MIS director has just given me a crash course in the Internet and I noticed that three of our competitors already have Home Pages and the ability to sell directly through the Internet." Carol Soo, VP of sales and marketing, quietly smiles. "Our competitors are moving on the Web, but look at us. Sometimes I wonder who we serve, our bosses or our customers? It seems the rules of business have just undergone a major revision and we've hardly noticed. We're still worried about departmental politics when other companies are reaching out to their customers in new and innovative ways." "Carol, you're right," responds Frank. "We spend so much time looking up and down that we hardly look out at the rough and tumble excitement of the market. We expect your people, Carol, those in sales and marketing, to be in touch with the outside, but when they bring new ideas back inside, we hardly listen . . . or even laugh. "In fact," he continues, as he points to the organizational chart, "people have put walls around both their boxes and their departments that give them comfort and shelter, but at what price? "At one point in time I looked at our organization chart with awe. It showed everything so orderly and neat. It gave a sense of accountability. It motivated people to want to climb the ladder. We knew who to go to for what. "Recently, I have been having second thoughts," continues Frank. "It started with the tremendous flood of literature on the 'learning organization,' inspired by the work of Peter Senge. Why should people be so excited about learning? Then I realized that our existing hierarchical organizations have been designed not to learn. I then thought of all we've spent on outside consultants to help us communicate our thinking. Then I realized that our company is designed not to communicate. There is too much incentive to manage the news. And then I looked at our yearly Quality surveys that touch on people's attitudes, and realized how frustrated people are with the lack of effective decisions. Are we also designed not to make decisions? Learning . . . communicating . . . deciding . . . all critical, yet these three attributes do not come easy. Why?" "I've been wondering that too," notes Vincent. "Why is it?" Frank looks at Vincent and says, "Funny thing--I have a feeling the very way we describe ourselves to ourselves has something to do with our problem. I was recently reading in a CEO magazine the story of Eastman Chemical and how they spent a year working to discover their core competencies. Once they had done this, they found they had outgrown their hierarchical organizational chart, and substituted instead what they call their circular 'pizza' chart, a large round circle with smaller circles nested in it." Excerpts: Next | Previous