Back during the Spring (that somehow seemed to circumvent the entire Northeast), Fortune ran, if you'll pardon the expression, a very "unfortunate" cover story titled “50 and Fired,” about which I have already expressed a point of view both here and in a letter to their editor.
I bring it up again only to say that by way of what I think is a far more reasonable and realistic perspective, the June 27th issue of BusinessWeek has a cover story titled: "Old, Smart. Productive. For those "boomers" who feel they are in need of a better understanding of what the other side of the coin can and should be, I commend this to your attention.
Every job search – at any age -- has its share of challenges, but what we at ExecuNet – and, apparently, BusinessWeek – have found is the unique value that the senior workforce brings to the corporate landscape. The intellectual capital and business expertise older workers possess is a great resource that shouldn’t be overlooked, and some companies are beginning to capitalize on that knowledge base. If we are to continue to compete in the flat world that Tom Friedman talks about in his new book, we had best be utilizing every resource we have on the human capital front.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
The World Is Flat Keeps Playing In My Head
I have really been having a hard time putting what Tom Friedman had to say in The World is Flat out of my mind which is probably what Tom had in mind in the first place.
If the flatness of the Internet, with its reduction of all sorts of barriers to entry, I keep asking myself what is the key to a competitive advantage be it locally, domestically, or globally. I know it's an over simplification, since one really does have to consider things like money, and the ability to scale up, etc., but even when I make allowances for that stuff, the one word that keeps running through my head is commitment.
It is the one thing that I think is the most powerful weapon a business has in closing any gap they may have with a competitor. As they say, we all have access to money and technology, but it is the commitment level that our people bring to work every day that really makes the difference. I guess that is why we have seen the cliché phrase "people are our most important asset" all of our adult lives. I guess they are called clichés because they're trite but true.
Talking about commitment, however, and getting it is, to throw in yet another cliché, "easier said than done."
As a recovering HR person, I have had lots of people ask me about what I thought the key to gaining commitment really is. It is, or course, more than simply one thing, but if you held a gun to my head and said you could only pick one element that leads to commitment, I would say the answer is communication. I think it is more important than anything in bringing an organization (large or small) together.
If you talk to me and share information with me, I will feel that I am truly part of the enterprise, and once I start to feel that, then what happens to the enterprise is very important to me, and I will work harder than you know what to help it succeed because if it doesn't succeed then I take it personally. When people start to take it personally, they are really prepared to fight because they feel it is their integrity and honor that is being challenged.
If the flatness of the Internet, with its reduction of all sorts of barriers to entry, I keep asking myself what is the key to a competitive advantage be it locally, domestically, or globally. I know it's an over simplification, since one really does have to consider things like money, and the ability to scale up, etc., but even when I make allowances for that stuff, the one word that keeps running through my head is commitment.
It is the one thing that I think is the most powerful weapon a business has in closing any gap they may have with a competitor. As they say, we all have access to money and technology, but it is the commitment level that our people bring to work every day that really makes the difference. I guess that is why we have seen the cliché phrase "people are our most important asset" all of our adult lives. I guess they are called clichés because they're trite but true.
Talking about commitment, however, and getting it is, to throw in yet another cliché, "easier said than done."
As a recovering HR person, I have had lots of people ask me about what I thought the key to gaining commitment really is. It is, or course, more than simply one thing, but if you held a gun to my head and said you could only pick one element that leads to commitment, I would say the answer is communication. I think it is more important than anything in bringing an organization (large or small) together.
If you talk to me and share information with me, I will feel that I am truly part of the enterprise, and once I start to feel that, then what happens to the enterprise is very important to me, and I will work harder than you know what to help it succeed because if it doesn't succeed then I take it personally. When people start to take it personally, they are really prepared to fight because they feel it is their integrity and honor that is being challenged.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Making Lemonade
I recently attended the annual conference of an organization I belong to called Association of Career Management Professionals International. This year's meeting was in Chicago (great town). The keynote speaker was comedienne Kathy Buckley. For those who may not be familiar with her background, here's the short version:
Since birth she's been hearing-impaired. As a child, she was misdiagnosed and labeled as retarded. She was sexually abused and seriously contemplated suicide throughout her teens. Then she was run over by a Jeep while sunbathing on a beach, which resulted in broken bones and intermittent paralysis in her legs (not to mention being pronounced dead by the attending paramedics). And after five years of recovery, once she could walk again, she discovered she had ovarian cancer.
She has turned all this adversity and more into becoming a highly sought after stand-up comic and, as I and my colleagues discovered, an incredibly powerful motivational speaker.
I am sure that all of us have marveled and been motivated by individuals who have overcome barriers in life that are so far beyond anything that any of us have ever faced and that once having heard their stories our own "troubles" pale so much by comparison that it's embarrassing.
That being said, Kathy has such a powerful way of putting this sort of thing in the right perspective that unlike most of the motivational speakers I have heard over the years, this is one I won't forget. If you are having an event where those attending need to gain that perspective, I would recommend you check to see if
Kathy is available.
Since birth she's been hearing-impaired. As a child, she was misdiagnosed and labeled as retarded. She was sexually abused and seriously contemplated suicide throughout her teens. Then she was run over by a Jeep while sunbathing on a beach, which resulted in broken bones and intermittent paralysis in her legs (not to mention being pronounced dead by the attending paramedics). And after five years of recovery, once she could walk again, she discovered she had ovarian cancer.
She has turned all this adversity and more into becoming a highly sought after stand-up comic and, as I and my colleagues discovered, an incredibly powerful motivational speaker.
I am sure that all of us have marveled and been motivated by individuals who have overcome barriers in life that are so far beyond anything that any of us have ever faced and that once having heard their stories our own "troubles" pale so much by comparison that it's embarrassing.
That being said, Kathy has such a powerful way of putting this sort of thing in the right perspective that unlike most of the motivational speakers I have heard over the years, this is one I won't forget. If you are having an event where those attending need to gain that perspective, I would recommend you check to see if
Kathy is available.
Monday, April 18, 2005
A Perspective Not to Be Missed
A colleague here in the office gave me some plane reading last week as I was on my way to a conference in Chicago. It was a copy of a recent the NY Times magazine that comes with the Sunday paper. Tom Friedman had an article in it called The World is Flat. Pretty powerful stuff. Essentially he laid out the challenge facing our country if we are to remain competitive in a world which (thanks to cyber communication) has removed the barriers to the application of intellectual horsepower.
His point is that if we as a county (and that really means we as a business community) don't really get behind a genuine, consolidated effort to push up the educational standards soon, we are in big, big trouble. As he points out, by the time our students get through the 12th grade, they are last in the educational rankings of all the industrialized countries. Not a happy list to be on to say the least.
When you look at the achievement level of students coming out of the educational system in places like China, South Korea, and India, particularly as it relates to math, the sciences, and engineering, and then superimpose the degree to which they outnumber the U.S. in population, the issue seems pretty clear. Just to give you an idea, in China, he says, there are already more people using cell phones than the population of the U.S.
Bottom line, Friedman's point is that in the not too distant future, if we don't get things fixed in this arena, it isn't just going to say Made in China, etc., it will say "Designed in China."
I think he's right.
His point is that if we as a county (and that really means we as a business community) don't really get behind a genuine, consolidated effort to push up the educational standards soon, we are in big, big trouble. As he points out, by the time our students get through the 12th grade, they are last in the educational rankings of all the industrialized countries. Not a happy list to be on to say the least.
When you look at the achievement level of students coming out of the educational system in places like China, South Korea, and India, particularly as it relates to math, the sciences, and engineering, and then superimpose the degree to which they outnumber the U.S. in population, the issue seems pretty clear. Just to give you an idea, in China, he says, there are already more people using cell phones than the population of the U.S.
Bottom line, Friedman's point is that in the not too distant future, if we don't get things fixed in this arena, it isn't just going to say Made in China, etc., it will say "Designed in China."
I think he's right.
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