Is there such thing as too big in business? Can a company become too big and therefore too bureaucratic, thus limiting its ability to innovative entirely? To address this question, the easy answer is to just point you to reading The Innovator’s Dilemma. It answers this question thoroughly. But for the sake of this blog post, I’ll tell you, it depends. The book will tell you it depends on whether or not what you are creating is a disruptive technology or a sustaining technology. The best way I can describe the difference in the two is that sustaining technologies improve
“We have rules.” Was one of the first things a CEO of a highly innovative company that has also won several best place to work awards, said to me when I asked him what the secret sauce was for a best place to work. Honestly, at first thought, I wanted to say, “Really?” He went on to site some examples, but it took me a while to digest and understand, in my please-throw-out-the-employee-handbook type mindset, what he meant and why he was right. And rules don’t have to contradict the need for a certain amount of freedom that is necessary
“The competition to hire the best will increase in the years ahead. Companies that give extra flexibility (freedom) to their employees will have the edge in this area.” Bill Gates I can’t neglect (since I missed the window over the 4th) to make sure to make a point about freedom during our nation’s birthday month. And as by coincidence or actually, by what really makes a whole lot of sense, you can’t talk about what drives innovation without talking about freedom. America is a country that was built around the concept of freedom. Despite a presidential campaign grounded on “Making
“At Google, we front- load our people investment. This means the majority of our time and money spent on people is invested in attracting, assessing and cultivating new hires.” – Work Rules! Let’s face it, hiring is where your organization starts. It’s where HR starts its job and quickly proves or disproves its value, and it is where, as I saw through digging through lots and lots of research and writings by those who are winning in business, where you need to be focused on intently if you are going to be able to have an innovative workplace. But we’ve
We had a fun time at #ALSHRM16 learning from some HR thought leaders. In keeping with our tradition to learn more, not only from the conference presenters but also from attendees at the conference, we asked people to respond to the question, “What are your biggest HR pain points?” Although in no way a scientific study, here is what we got: First of all, as a comparison to last year’s pain points gathered at #ALSHRM15 we see: Compliance training lost the number one spot by a landslide to one of last year’s number two contenders- Employee Development (thank goodness, employee development as we call at Horizon Point, is “fun HR”