Courtenay HR
HR Resourcing
"A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with bricks that others throw at him or her."
Its Good To Be Great...
On a recommendation from someone some years ago, more than I care to remember, I purchased a copy of ‘Maverick’ by Ricardo Semler. I was browsing in WH Smiths at Heathrow, pre flight, looking for something to ease the monotony of the next few hours in the air when I chanced upon a copy and decided to take the plunge. How glad I was. It was probably the most inspiring business book I had ever read and it changed my outlook completely. So much so that I probably became responsible, almost single-handedly, for the success of the book by buying multiple copies and giving it away to anyone that would take a copy.
Ok so that’s a bit excessive, maybe bordering on obsessive, but it really was that good. Why? Well it might have been the fact that it was so compelling to read about this guy that had, reluctantly, taken over his fathers company at the tender age of 21. You were right there with him when, after only a matter of days in the job, he fired almost all of the existing management team while his father was away on holiday. Captivating stuff.
Ultimately though, what really impressed me was Semlers total and utter dedication to finding the best way to run the business. He was so thorough. He tried everything, and I mean everything. From complete command and control to almost anarchy, from one extreme of management style to another. And the end result? Not what you would expect. For those of you who know anything about Semco, you will have heard that it is one of the most successful companies in Brazil, a notoriously difficult place to do business at any time. You will also know that it operates in a totally unconventional way, with everyone setting their own pay rates, everyone knowing what each other is paid, bosses being hired by their team, the list goes on and probably warrants a review of its own.
What has this got to do with the latest effort from Mr Collins? Well, lets just say that I’m having difficulty explaining to my wife the hole in my bank account this month due to a rather large order of one book in particular. So I have given the game away somewhat - we like this book. No, we LOVE this book. It’s the best thing I have read since Maverick and only goes to show that there is not only a lot of crap out there clogging up the shelves in your local Waterstones business section, but that so much of it is based on assumptions, notions and arguments that are paper thin and have no substance.
So just why is this book so damn good? Well, after completing his previous effort - ‘built to last’ which was essentially a diagnosis of how great companies sustained their leading position, he was challenged by a McKinsey consultant who commented that whilst this was interesting, it was not very helpful. The question on everyone’s lips was “what is the formula for becoming a ‘great’ company in the first place”. And so the idea for Good to Great was born.
The first thing that strikes you when you read this book is the sheer amount of research that has gone into creating the end product. A research team of 30 or so, millions of dollars and several years later out pops this gem of a book, which is actually a very well written research paper. The facts are laid out before you, piece by piece and its hard to argue with the outcomes.
There is also a strong sense of honesty in this book. No razzmatazz or cheese that so often emanates from pages like these. Instead you get a straight, no nonsense critique of leading organisations. If they were not great, he says so.
While the structure of his model might not surprise anyone, the findings will as they turn many conventions on their head. He talks about leadership, the most successful leaders being “self effacing, quiet, reserved.. blending personal humility and professional will… with ambition not for themselves but for the company”. Not what we might have expected, and a clear difference from what has historically been defined as the right qualities for a successful leader.
I suspect that many HR professionals already know what level 5 qualities are and when they read this book they will have been quietly thinking that somehow, their current CEO does just not stack up. His play on people - “getting the right people in the bus, the wrong people off the bus and the right people in the right seats” - demands a level of involvement in the people agenda that many organisations and leaders just do not, and don’t seem to want, to have.
As a result, this book is an absolute must read for any HR professional and I imagine that, like me, they will feel a little vindicated by the results of the research. This book provides a well researched and proven framework for the values and beliefs that many HR professionals already hold. Not only does it clarify the elements that lead to success, it validates the people agenda.
Yet again though, just like the Enron book reviewed earlier this year, Mr Collins findings have serious implications for the definition of talent management and leadership development in general. If I were back in HR I would be reviewing my assessment centre/selection criteria - are they designed to highlight level 5 leaders? I doubt it very much! I imagine that as we speak there are many potential level 5 leaders sloping out of assessment centres or selection processes, having been rejected because they didn’t show the ‘qualities of what we now understand to be a Level 4 leader.
This book should act as a reminder to us all that we are being sucked into a world that wants to measure success and performance on increasingly shorter timescales. There was a time when a company’s annual results were eagerly awaited. Then it became half year results. Now it seems, a quarterly statement is not often enough. What next? Weekly meetings with the analysts? CEO’s on tenures of 3 months or less? Isn’t it just getting a little crazy? It’s like looking at a map so closely when trying to find your way that you can't actually see where you are going!
At a time when the average CEO tenure is 2-3 years, compared with 10+ not so many years ago, we should be taking a serious look at this book and the underlying messages it contains. It would seem that changing the leadership within an organisation every two or three years actually undermines the process of true growth and with CEO’s feeling the pressure from investors and analysts, they have precious little time to make an impact. Consequently they focus on ‘making their mark’ at the expense of developing the right culture and business strategy, and it seems, the pursuit of true greatness.
If all this sounds familiar, you will no doubt share the frustration of having little or no time to implement or execute initiatives that you know will make a difference if only they had the time to be seen through. The message in this book is that building great companies takes time - a long time in some cases but the results speak for themselves in the very language the investor understands - exponential returns on investment verses the same investment in the general stock market. That’s the rub - we know all this already, but for some reason we have become obsessed with the short-term and forgotten all the principles of building great businesses.
The truth of the matter is that the interests of shareholders are actually, in many cases out of alignment with what actually is needed to make a company great. The short term view of many investors means the development of real propositions with longevity and the development of key people strategies is impossible in the time allowed. ‘Quick fixes’ and ‘low hanging fruit’ are the order of the day. What does shareholder value actually mean now anyway?
Most shareholders are not aware of the detail of what goes on inside an organisation and because of the nature of their shareholding, are not prepared to invest in the long haul. They do not appreciate the value of a level 5 leader, and why would they when a level 4 leader often delivers the goods required - short term change in the companies fortunes which delivers their short term returns. Ultimately though, this is not sustainable and it is this that is at the heart of Jim’s message.
We predict that this book will build significant momentum and change many businesses as it does so, but we also predict that there will be many cynics. Although we imagine the level 4 and below leaders will be the most prolific in their criticism!
Verdict?
Buy it - it could change your life.