reinventing: culture and managing change part two

After reading the 10 most-hated companies in America in MarketWatch a couple days ago another company totally entrenched in culture stood out – that being HP.

Way back in the olden days, I worked in the marketing department of an HP competitor. At the time, Tektronix was the largest employer in the state of Oregon. Like HP, Tek had a story of a couple founders, of which legend – and cultural identity – was formed. The company grew and eventually moved to a beautiful campus on 313 acres, a stone’s throw from what is now the Nike World Headquarters.

Tek had a very strong and friendly culture (the company of first names) that moved in a methodical, deliberate fashion. As I was frequently told, ‘that’s the way we do things here.’ My boss told me that we didn’t rush projects through – they had to go into the ‘queue’ first. It seemed contrary to what marketing should be.

I was young then, saw areas I wanted to improve upon, and wanted to make everything happen – fast. I learned quickly how a strong culture defined process. And that it could effectively stifle improvements – no matter how small they may be.

But at that time, profits were great, Tek was global, and who needed change? But technology was evolving quickly. Driven by the desire for growth, they started acquiring companies that appeared promising, but in hind-sight, were at the end of their lifecycle. It seemed to me that once they made an acquisition, something more revolutionary replaced it – immediately.

Sound familiar?

Perhaps they forgot who they were (unglamorous, but excellent products) and were fighting to stay relevant. But buying safety seemed…well, safe. And maybe, culturally, they weren’t up to cutting-edge technology. The ‘Silicon Forest’ is full of successful companies spun from ex-Tek employee’s talents.

Tek eventually got out of those businesses and went back to their core – test and measurement equipment. Tek was acquired by another company in 2007. Makes me sad because they made the Northwest a tech haven.

One area where Tek was light-years ahead was benefits – for women. Imagine that. In the ‘70’s they offered paid maternity benefits – plus held the employee’s position open. We had our babies, had excellent health plans, got paid during maternity leave, and got our jobs back. Methodical company, and they took care of their employees. Forty years later and we’re still fighting for this as a norm? Oy.

HP and Invent.
HP is big on re-Invent-ion. They’ve made some huge misguided acquisitions. They buy ready-to-wear and hope it makes them the hit of the prom. One has to wonder if it’s culture that keeps them looking outward for innovation. Because certainly, they cannot change from within.

I’ll bet that if they asked their thousands of engineers, there would be an ocean of ideas. The talent pool in HP could rival PARC (gasp or maybe Apple?). It’s hard to innovate when you’ve been culturally driven to comply.

The founding families have a lot to say about all things HP, and just don’t seem to get leading edge technology…That is the problem. Culturally, leading edge is scary. But they want it.

So, to get cool stuff, they hire someone, from outside the company (telling isn’t it?) and send them out to innovate – grow the business – because they are always on the Most Hated List.

New CEOs trying to be innovative, stay in the safe-zone and instead buy stuff that has out-lived its lifecycle, but may still have a little profit left, and then pay top dollar. Or are duped into buying truly worthless crap. And then take and $8.8 billion hit. Who makes that kind of mistake? If their books are showing a remarkable profit, then it must be safe – right?

HP’s Invent campaign was powerful – they hired a woman (gasp) CEO – and put her in front of the garage in an ad. A new company, a new way, a new bunch of crap. Just because you say it doesn’t make it so. Ask your culturally entrenched board.

At the end of the day, the CEO, Carly Fiorina, was fired (another hired/fired/so on) and they went about business the way the culturally stagnant board dictated. The old way. The HP way.

It’s just plain sad. Because this involves people’s livelihoods. Stockholders don’t live on their dividends (if there are any), if your stock goes down, or you are the Most Hated, they sell. But your employees do depend on you and are relying on your execs to make good decisions.

I have worked in several large corporations. Just a worker who actually cared about her job and the company she worked for.

I have had the privilege to have colleagues who soldered circuit boards, cleaned new cars at the end of the assembly line, and spent hours sending ads out via FedEx – and they loved their jobs. They had pride in their work and shook their heads daily when they heard about the latest hair-brained things the C-suite was doing.

It isn’t what I believe to be true, but the Absolute Truth when I tell you to, ‘ask the people doing the work.’ They will tell you exactly what needs to be done to make your company better. And much more profitably - they know your product really, really well.

And don’t give me any of that crap about your awesome culture. It’s killing innovation.

reinventing: culture and managing change part one

Sorry, this is a little long-form, but it ticks a couple boxes on my list of Things That Bug Me. Corporate culture and reinvention – which includes managing change.

The buggy issue is that corporate culture can prevent a successful transition. Old ways die hard when entrenched in culture. Especially when that culture influences how employees react to the day-to-day. It has become habit, dutifully enforced by all your colleagues. Defy the sacred practices, and you’re in for chakra realignment.

I am by no means an expert on corporate culture, nor on the process of reinventing a Very Large (Fortune 500) Corporation. However, I have lived both, personally shepherded transitions, and therefore have first-hand experience – and that makes me an expert on my experience.

MarketWatch ran this little slide presentation titled 10 most-hated companies in America.  

Why are they hated? A lot of reasons, but in my opinion a couple major reasons come to mind. Company execs don’t listen to loyal customers and they don’t train and/or support their employees.

And of course, the all-knowing experts tell customers to hate them.

Just like me, the pundits can have any opinion they want. But they have a lot more reach, and therefore can influence public opinion. Imagine that.

All those experts may own more street cred, but in my world, they’re wrong. A couple of hated exceptions on the list, like Dish and T-Mobile, probably earned it because no one has ever liked their TV or phone service.

So what do I know about reinvention and culture? I’ll speak to the changes at JCP aka J.C. Penney through a little story of my own: 
I joined the Nordstrom corporate marketing department after they abandoned their “Reinvent Yourself” campaign. Customers hated it. All on their own. They didn’t even need the press to tell them.

Nordstrom diverted from their staple of print and direct mail that was created in-house, to a complete shift to broadcast – developed by their agency, Fallon. The corporate marketing department had major staff reductions as a result of this departure.

Nordstrom also changed their merchandise mix to reflect a more ‘hip’ style. Oh, and orange was the new pink.

A few months into the campaign, when same store sales dropped (up to 10% in one store), and alienating their core customers – they changed course, realizing how powerful (and profitable) a loyal customer can be.

Nordstrom may be a Fortune 500, but they are a family company – that has a very strong, uncompromising culture. The fact that they took a very expensive dive into a radical change was remarkable. And it didn't work. They forgot their customer – then they heard from them. And they reversed course.

JCP is truly reinventing. 
The reason they are Most Hated, as cited on MarketWatch, is the failed pricing structure. Simple pricing (aka Low Everyday Pricing), like $10 for a shirt. Doesn't that just make you hate?

Newsflash – that isn’t the reason they’re hated. People don’t care what the price tag says.

Wholesale changes were made to an old company, from top to bottom, and were not explained to the employees or their loyal customer base. Did they address corporate culture? How did the employees deal with the massive changes, other than accept that everything was going to be…better?

If the powers-that-be thought that advertising would explain everything then they are delusional. New store, new look, touch screens – where are my favorite socks?

When the changes came, which were significant, they weren't explained. What is this store trying to be – Target? I don’t know, but JCP, tell me. How about a meaningful PR campaign to rebut the dismal press? Push back Mr. Johnson, tell them what’s going on and turn this into a success story.

And then you have MarketWatch to support staying with the same old store with ‘modest challenges’. Simple pricing is the culprit that put JCP at Number One on their 10 most hated list? Oh, please.

And a word about pricing: JCP’s base was addicted to sales. Yep, the loyal shopped when there was a sale. I shopped there before the Big Change, and there was plenty of merchandise that was shop-worn due to endless rotation and mark-downs. Wasteful. Expensive. Time consuming. Dumb. Company and customers entrenched in that cycle. Do you ever pay full-price at Macy’s? Addicted to sales. I rest my case.

Bottom line – reinventing means you are going to change everything you do. And that means you are going to change the way people work, how you interact with your customers, and your product (output). That has to happen with thorough preparation which includes engaging and educating your employees, your customers, and perhaps, your culturally stagnant C-suite.

Nordstrom and JCP have been in business for a long time. Strong culture, familiar name, loyal customers.  One was working well – and decided to reinvent their product – didn't work. They adjusted. The other was barely surviving in aging mediocrity – and decided to reinvent everything – will it work? I hope so. I like the new JCP.

If there’s anything I know about managing change, it is this: plan, prepare, train, inform, roll-out – and re-group. Nothing is so awesome that you can’t make adjustments.

Transition is hard in an entrenched corporate culture. But it seems to be much harder to change culture that is no longer relevant. Culture is clingy and permeates everything. It bugs me when you ignore that.

open concept offices

Once again there’s an article touting how cool open offices are. The examples in the article are in fact, very cool.

Do you work in an ‘open’ office? The kind that encourages collaboration, “where hierarchy has been ripped out, that makes everyone feel part of something special.”

Are you able to get work done? I know I’m not. And by the way, you’re not so special that I want to hear you take every call over the speaker on your phone.

In the article, What Makes a Cool Office? The answer to cool is “It's more than just a billiards table and free soda. Design buffs weigh in on how to build a creative, collaborative, and innovative workspace.”

I do believe that an awesome workspace can inspire. I have worked in awesome and I have worked in miserable. And I have worked in the combination of the two. I love amazing architecture, new clean and modern, or historical buildings – each can possess an energy that is conducive to great creative collaboration.

So my issue is with distraction. No walls, no cubes, and lately, not even assigned desks. Everyone is portable all the time, sitting at the same table. If you want or need quiet you must either use headphones or take a walk over to the corner Starbuck’s / Peet’s / Coffee Bean. If you need to pull together a meeting, conference rooms – if they exist – are always booked.

Doesn't that tell you something? Your colleagues are either working in small groups off-site or have snagged one of the precious conference rooms.

And if you need to make a personal call, you have to walk out of the office.

So how much work do you actually get done in that cool office?

I worked in an agency in a historical building and everyone had offices. It never hindered collaboration. In fact, people were in each other’s’ offices all the time. They could shut the door and get work done, or leave it open – and we could always hear what was going on with open doors. Imagine that.

Then, I worked in an open office – which was quite large – and to mask conversations, ‘white noise’ was added. Nice. I had a white noise speaker right over my desk. It was deafening, and at 5:30pm when it shut off, everyone relaxed. Go figure. And as the one who had to follow-up on all active projects, the pure joy of having everyone within earshot – or in view – was a huge waste. My colleagues were usually out for coffee.

If you want successful open concept offices, here’s a challenge for your architects and space planners: make it cool, but please provide space where staff can really work.

Collaboration is not always a happy accident.  It can be a major distraction – for others. You can be a part of something special by being able to get your work done – at the office. 

organization = love / hate

Everyone has some sort of New Year’s resolution… until they have to maintain it.

Like exercise: I will get up at 5am and go to the gym five days a week. It takes 40 days to create a habit. And commitment is easier because I have a partner to motivate me.

How does this relate to your agency or department? A commitment to getting organized, creating a process that everyone follows is like a resolution – with benefits. You just have to do it, stick with it, and get over the grief you will surely get in the process.

I have been hired by firms and worked with clients that were in the midst of chaos. I proposed a logical process solution, built it, trained and rolled it out – they loved me.

Let’s face it, a CEO, VP, partner, owner or manager hates it when simple things go wrong. Things that should have been routine. I completely agree, and when I see something going sideways, my first reaction is to fix it. I am a hero and they love me.

So, fixing it requires a process that is workable for the organization; tools that are solid and collaborative; people who are willing to put forth the effort to become the solution; and management who will NOT BACK DOWN.

That last point is for you – the C-level guy or gal, owner, partner – because someone (or more than someone) will complain.

You now have a choice:
- Give in because complaints (whining in my book) are too much trouble, and your team is so brilliant
- Tell them to buck-up, and a little structure won’t hurt anyone

I have been on the other side – when the complaints come in, they hate me. Then management wonders why they hired me.

So the bottom line is this:
What do you hate more – expensive errors, missed deadlines, creative that has gone off the rails and requires complete rework over a (holiday) weekend – OR – a bunch of whining (but brilliant) staffers who don’t like to follow some basic structure.

For my paycheck, profit sharing or bonus, I’ll take the second choice and tell them all to just do their jobs. Culturally (and I’ve heard this just about everywhere I have worked) structure just doesn’t fit them. They have to be free to create, collaborate, and move as fast as possible, and logging into a central system to note something, or notify someone (not in email!), what’s going on is…too hard. (All this, and timesheets too?)

I can guarantee that when you have a little structure, and a centralized place for everything related to a job, things will actually run smoother. You can find stuff, you know what’s coming up, there’s a budget, and a schedule! No one will admit it, but they will love me.

It can be done in forty working days. I am the partner to motivate you. 

Listen to Complaints

We know the adage that if you listen to a complaint you become part of the problem. The problem with that thinking is that complainers still complain. And make life difficult for those around them. And hold up progress.

But on the flip-side, they may have a valid complaint. Maybe there is something wrong, we’re not looking at it the right way (their way), or they actually have a suggestion for an improvement but no one is listening.

And then again, there are chronic complainers. That’s for another post.

When I work with a client, I like to get right into the complaint department. The fastest way to solve a problem is to find out what is wrong. Listen without preconceived ideas (such as – this person is NEVER happy), and get all that stuff out of the way. If there is something wrong, assess it and address it. It may be one of the Trifecta of Issues: process, tools or people.

Process can be modified (do get everyone compliant on the program). Most issues are with those who skirt process and cause others to have to either cover the gap or run around trying to figure out what’s going on.

Tools you use can be a huge issue. Just like process, get everyone using the same tools – the same way. Consistency is key to ensure everyone has access to ALL the information.  There could be issues with tools like software that isn’t configured right or hard to use – or staff was never properly trained to use it. (My pet peeve).

People is often the tough one. Once expectations are clear, training is done, and everyone understands what and how they should work – those who don’t want to work with the program will surface quickly. Those who don’t understand will surface as well. Not everyone is cut out to be a PM or producer. And as I truly believe, this is not a job for beginners.

In the end, experienced staff should be able to manage work without complaints (other than the minor daily crap). If complainers continue, check the top two items (process and tools), then address the third item. Hear them out, and provide them with an opportunity to fix their attitude.  Without the fix, they demoralize everyone around them. Keep in mind, there are a lot of great, experienced people who would love to work for you – without complaint.