Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
History Part 1
I have been working in the Silicon Valley of California for many years. I have seen the ebb and flow of the corporate elite and the legacy of world renowned firms. No doubt many have left an indelible impression on me. Hewlett Packard was certainly one of the most notable. I joined H/P in the sunset years. This time is identified by the departure of the founders, the H/P Way and a serious and productive work culture where employees and the company had a desirable mutual respect for each other. I went right into the H/P corporate offices the last year of my MBA program.
I was given the opportunity to focus on management development through various methods: 1) Managing 6 day residential training programs focused on numerous cutting edge technologies and corporate intent described by the company’s executive leadership. 2) Conduct in-depth competency models on H/P’s elite worldwide performers. I spent hundreds of hours with the best and the brightest of H/P. I would conduct 1 to 2 our critical incident interviews that surfaced the actual behaviors and thought processes that made the employee exceptional. 3) The Horizon Project; this effort was the culmination of all the Organization Development effort to position the company’s workforce for the year 2000 and beyond. This meant developing training programs and technologies to get H/P as competitive as possible. We were well ahead and superbly positioned for the global market place. We were training using the Stanford Business School staff and Babson College. We were exploring the factories of the future, finance methods etc. Other H/P personnel around me worked on the 10 step product planning method, Hoshin planning and very specific functional training, for example adopting Peter Block’s “Flawless Consulting” for our internal consultants.
H/P’s light was fading and market pressures panicked H/P leadership into a rather schizophrenic and poorly focused profit center model. The brain trust was leaving the company, constant reorganizations and shifting of objectives provided the soil and detritus for the urgency addicted work place.
My H/P experience was without doubt one of the fascinating experiences in my life. In fact, from a simple learning perspective, I was an “Alice in Wonderland”. I was not from the Ivy League and I truly had the experience with working with the best and the brightest industry and academia had to offer. Many of the bleeding edge academics and consulting groups were present; people as well noted as Edger Schein, Peter Drucker, J.B. Karsgarian, Peter Block, Nancy Adler, Peter Galbraith etc. Unfortunately this time in the valley 1991, the likes of the Bob Peters and other business evangelists/despots appeared on the scene. Books like Thriving on Chaos appeared and sold by the millions. Attitudes in industry were prime dry grass driven by the winds of entrepreneurial opportunity and expanding technologies. Time to market was seen as paramount—and no cost issues mattered. Venture Capital was easy picking—even for some of the all time dumbest of ventures. The valley sense of urgency ignited and really started to burn!
To be continued…
I was given the opportunity to focus on management development through various methods: 1) Managing 6 day residential training programs focused on numerous cutting edge technologies and corporate intent described by the company’s executive leadership. 2) Conduct in-depth competency models on H/P’s elite worldwide performers. I spent hundreds of hours with the best and the brightest of H/P. I would conduct 1 to 2 our critical incident interviews that surfaced the actual behaviors and thought processes that made the employee exceptional. 3) The Horizon Project; this effort was the culmination of all the Organization Development effort to position the company’s workforce for the year 2000 and beyond. This meant developing training programs and technologies to get H/P as competitive as possible. We were well ahead and superbly positioned for the global market place. We were training using the Stanford Business School staff and Babson College. We were exploring the factories of the future, finance methods etc. Other H/P personnel around me worked on the 10 step product planning method, Hoshin planning and very specific functional training, for example adopting Peter Block’s “Flawless Consulting” for our internal consultants.
H/P’s light was fading and market pressures panicked H/P leadership into a rather schizophrenic and poorly focused profit center model. The brain trust was leaving the company, constant reorganizations and shifting of objectives provided the soil and detritus for the urgency addicted work place.
My H/P experience was without doubt one of the fascinating experiences in my life. In fact, from a simple learning perspective, I was an “Alice in Wonderland”. I was not from the Ivy League and I truly had the experience with working with the best and the brightest industry and academia had to offer. Many of the bleeding edge academics and consulting groups were present; people as well noted as Edger Schein, Peter Drucker, J.B. Karsgarian, Peter Block, Nancy Adler, Peter Galbraith etc. Unfortunately this time in the valley 1991, the likes of the Bob Peters and other business evangelists/despots appeared on the scene. Books like Thriving on Chaos appeared and sold by the millions. Attitudes in industry were prime dry grass driven by the winds of entrepreneurial opportunity and expanding technologies. Time to market was seen as paramount—and no cost issues mattered. Venture Capital was easy picking—even for some of the all time dumbest of ventures. The valley sense of urgency ignited and really started to burn!
To be continued…
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Disaster, readiness and sustainability
The New Orleans disaster has little to do with partisan rhetoric and more to do with action. The USA could not have asked for a better scenario to test the Department of Homeland Security and general disaster preparedness. We ignored the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), thirty plus years of warnings plus 10 days to prepare for this drill. The USA could not have had a more perfect pitch over home plate.
The problem is no one was even aware of the field of play. The subsequent failure to respond in any cohesive fashion clearly demonstrates we feel no threat internally or externally. The simple fact is that FEMA was absorbed by the DHS. Surely the motive was operational efficiency. The truth is that a natural disaster would be managed no differently than a terrorist event. This makes perfect sense. It could have been a bomb that destroyed the levees as easily as the hurricane. All systems and personnel required are the same players—by design. There is no question that the Governor and mayor of New Orleans were incompetent. However it was FEMAs responsibility to test all assumptions and abilities at the state level. Back up planning is not about letting the first lines of defense fail. It is about ensuring that all is in place and the plan exists. FEMA should have been talking with the Governor and going through a preparedness plan and identifying where the critical problems were located. You then create mitigation scenarios and advise all of the strategy to fall back on if things worsen in contrast to the existing plan.It all starts with a phone call, a checklist and alerting all responders that we have a problem. The implementation is initiated that easily. So where was the DHS?
This raises a very serious question for the Bush Administration. If terrorism were as serious a threat as stated, then why not use the best possible situation to test or demonstrate that the Department of Homeland Security was up to the task? Now we have to wait for the unknown to test US preparedness whether it be an earthquake that tumbles California or a bombing that threatens a part of our infrastructure and well being. We squandered one of the biggest opportunities to test our response and infrastructure systems and save lives. We had the opportunity to show the terrorist world that we have are act together. Now we look feeble and utterly disorganized. The problem is the systems were not there nor was Bush and team. It is also fair to state that the democrats failed as well. I know of no one from the democrat party that tried to alert all that the sky was falling on New Orleans.
The problem is no one was even aware of the field of play. The subsequent failure to respond in any cohesive fashion clearly demonstrates we feel no threat internally or externally. The simple fact is that FEMA was absorbed by the DHS. Surely the motive was operational efficiency. The truth is that a natural disaster would be managed no differently than a terrorist event. This makes perfect sense. It could have been a bomb that destroyed the levees as easily as the hurricane. All systems and personnel required are the same players—by design. There is no question that the Governor and mayor of New Orleans were incompetent. However it was FEMAs responsibility to test all assumptions and abilities at the state level. Back up planning is not about letting the first lines of defense fail. It is about ensuring that all is in place and the plan exists. FEMA should have been talking with the Governor and going through a preparedness plan and identifying where the critical problems were located. You then create mitigation scenarios and advise all of the strategy to fall back on if things worsen in contrast to the existing plan.It all starts with a phone call, a checklist and alerting all responders that we have a problem. The implementation is initiated that easily. So where was the DHS?
This raises a very serious question for the Bush Administration. If terrorism were as serious a threat as stated, then why not use the best possible situation to test or demonstrate that the Department of Homeland Security was up to the task? Now we have to wait for the unknown to test US preparedness whether it be an earthquake that tumbles California or a bombing that threatens a part of our infrastructure and well being. We squandered one of the biggest opportunities to test our response and infrastructure systems and save lives. We had the opportunity to show the terrorist world that we have are act together. Now we look feeble and utterly disorganized. The problem is the systems were not there nor was Bush and team. It is also fair to state that the democrats failed as well. I know of no one from the democrat party that tried to alert all that the sky was falling on New Orleans.
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