Innovation often is defined narrowly as invention… creating something that has never been. But there are other forms of innovation. I can improve existing technology or products and gain a competitive advantage. Or I can integrate features that already exist but have not yet been combined into a single device. Jobs led the creation of … Continue reading Creativity & Innovation: How Critical Are They?

Using teams to perform work continues to increase in frequency. The more complex work of today requires skill sets that fewer individuals possess on their own. And processes like the concurrent engineering of new products necessarily involve knowledge in a wide variety of fields, such as Finance, IT, Production, Marketing and the like. A team … Continue reading The Problem With Teams: They Are Made Up Of People

To determine if two employees in the same occupation are paid equitably relative to each other three comparisons should be made: Competence: capable of doing work of the same complexity, difficulty and variety? Contribution: perform at the same level? >Compa-ratio: their pay rates compared to their pay range midpoints the same ratio? If the answers … Continue reading Pay Equity: The 3 C Test

Employment is a contractual relationship between two parties… an organization and an individual. The contract may be emotional and not legally binding, which makes if more of an agreement about a relationship. Both parties want the conditions of employment to be fair, competitive and appropriate… from their perspective. The organization wants to get as much … Continue reading The Employment Contract: Let’s Make A Deal

Formulating the right strategy is critical. But an inadequate investment in training everyone on strategy execution will negate the value of having the right strategy. And if management has not ensured that people understand and adhere to the policies and practices that are required for execution not much that is good happens. If managers and … Continue reading Is It The Strategy… Or The Execution?

Professionals and managers are exposed to an avalanche of information about what is going on in their field of practice. Some of it is derived from discussions with others, some from practitioner journals and some from ideas presented at conferences. Continuous environmental scanning is a prudent strategy, particularly in the kind of dynamic environment that exists today. … Continue reading Following Trends: A Good Idea?

An organization’s talent is potentially its most valuable asset. But this statement is only true if the workforce is made up of the right people, with the right knowledge/skills and the right motivation. In addition, it must be managed effectively. The talent management strategy provides a framework for creating the right talent pool. Staffing and … Continue reading Aligning Talent Management Strategy With Organizational Strategy

When research informs us that a practice is not viable it would be expected that organizations would avoid relying on it. Yet one on one unstructured interviews continue to be the most widely used basis for selecting new hires from groups of candidates. Since research has shown that the practice has virtually no validity or reliability there … Continue reading One On One Unstructured Interviews: A Flawed Selection Tool

The title of my third book, published in 2018. is “The Most Important Asset: Valuing Human Capital.” Although I believe what that title suggests it does not mean other assets are not critical. Financial, customer and technological capital are the vehicles through which people work to achieve organizational objectives. Of late there seems to be a belief that … Continue reading Managing The Human – Technology Interface