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Management Functions - organization, levels, style, manager, school, company, business

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Encyclopedia of Business, 2nd ed. Management Functions: Log-Mar

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Do you believe that being in charge means you are in control? If you find yourself frustrated about losing power in situations, it's because leadership is not about taking control; it's about influence.

The best leaders know that their role is not to dictate, but to inspire and motivate others to act. When you surrender control, you invite people to discover their potential. You create a culture where your team looks to go above and beyond, not just do the minimum to meet your demand. You will draw out a culture of communication that fosters and encourages innovation.

However, if you fear that creativity and collaboration are a recipe for chaos, then you need to revisit why you chose to become a leader in the first place. Real leaders don't take on leadership roles to be in control of people or command them; the best leaders know that leadership is a privilege. The most influential leaders in history didn't achieve greatness with whips and force. The masses followed them because of their enormous influence. As the African proverb says, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
What You Do Have Control Over
As a leader, there are things you can control. In fact, you must if you want to be a better leader:

1. Your reactions: Learn to respond instead of react. Pause and consider all sides of the situation before you say something you might regret. Remember that your reactions aren't just your choice of words but also your body language. Don't scowl in disparagement or roll your eyes in criticism. Be in control of your emotional and physical reactions.

2. Your attitude: To have the most influence, focus on your behavior. Recognize the emotions you're feeling, and judge if they are positive or negative. If it's a positive emotion, work on amplifying it. If you're feeling negativity, focus on minimizing it. People look to you in times of confusion, disruption and especially change. Your positive outlook can help improve others' perspectives.

3. Your biases: Sometimes, leaders can find themselves favoring particular people on their teams. These are usually the individuals who leave their drama at the door. They work well with others. They don't whine about their work, but instead, they communicate well to express their disagreements. However, as you do have your favorites, it doesn't permit you to treat them better and ignore the other members of your team who require your guidance.

To become a better leader, you must recognize that your ability to influence is much more crucial than your power to control. Leadership is about service. Get out of your own way to guide the people you're meant to serve.

A controlling leader micromanages, signaling a lack of trust in the people they're expected to lead. And rather than delegate to help others learn, grow and take on more responsibility, they control results by taking everything on themselves.

Yes, you can control, and yes, you can lead. However, you will find that you will never do both successfully. You can either be an inspiring leader or a control freak. The controller ultimately causes more delay because of their inability to release their grip from the reins.

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You Can Control, And You Can Lead, But You Can't Do Both

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Do you believe that being in charge means you are in control? If you find yourself frustrated about losing power in situations, it's because leadership is not about taking control; it's about influence. The best leaders know that their role is not to dictate, but to inspire and motivate others to act.

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It's a constant struggle in any small business to improve operations, keep customers satisfied, grow revenues, and increase profits. But many times these very things that are so important to a small business cost money-just what a small business doesn't have! Here are 10 "no-cost" ways to accomplish these very important results:

1. Make a strong first impression

Customers can be finicky. Businesses have to make a good (or great) first impression because they never get a second chance to make that first good impression. Of course, we've all heard that before, but it is especially important when dealing with customers. Impress them the first time so they return. No cost, but a little effort.

2. Segment your marketing efforts

Different markets take different market approaches. Segment your business's marketing efforts for maximum penetration and effectiveness. Dividing and conquering takes the same amount of dollars but produces much greater results.

3. Don't hesitate with prospects

When a prospect is ready to act, strike while the iron's hot. Be prepared to "close the sale" by returning a call, having paperwork completed, being able to deliver-whatever it takes. Wait until tomorrow and the prospect might be your competitor's newest customer.

4. Hone your sales pitch

Buyers don't care about how a product is made or the intricate details of how a service is performed. Buyers care about satisfying needs, solving problems, and feeling good about a purchase. Make sure your pitch hits the right mark with customers, and sales will become much easier.
RELATED: 11 Ways to Make Sure Your Business Runs Smoothly Without You
5. Connect with customers

Customers love attention from owners and managers. A few seconds, a few minutes, a short note, or a quick phone call can turn a customer into a faithful company advocate. A little time and energy today versus long-term loyalty tomorrow is a great trade-off.

6. Exchange creative ideas with peers

Form a "no name" group with business associates to discuss whatever topic might come up. No set time or place, no agenda, nothing formal-just spur-of-the-moment invitations to participate in an informal small business "think tank." The possibilities for positive ideas are endless, all for just the cost of a cup of coffee.

7. Develop goodwill ambassadors

Other than you, the business owner, who knows your business the best? It's most likely your best customers. Ask them what they think, receive their honest feedback, and use this information to make your business better for them. This is a no-cost investment that will transform your most loyal customers into goodwill ambassadors.

8. Treat everyone like a customer

Ever notice the difference with some businesses in how you're treated one way as a prospect and another way as a customer? Which do you prefer? Which do you think your customers prefer? When you treat customers as prospects, they can tell the difference-just as you would. Don't lose customers over an attitude; taking the reverse approach and treating everyone they way you would treat a customer will mean an increase in customers at the end of the day.
RELATED: The 8 Least Productive Tasks Business Owners Do (And How to Never Do Them Again)
9. Treat all customers equally well

Do you treat customers the same way whether they spend $20 or $2,000? You should. You never know when the $20 customer is going to turn into a $2,000 customer, or how many $2,000 customers the $20 customer knows. Keeping all your customers satisfied is key to your business success.

10. Embrace positive change

Customers love positive change and seeing new offerings from the businesses they frequent. Never stop striving to make your business better; it's like building something new every year with the discarded parts from the old. Let your competition remain stale while your business projects a modern and up-to-date image to the marketplace.
Read all of Richard Weinberger's articles on AllBusiness.com.

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10 'No-Cost' Ways To Build A Better Business And Increase Profits

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It's a constant struggle in any small business to improve operations, keep customers satisfied, grow revenues, and increase profits. But many times these very things that are so important to a small business cost money-just what a small business doesn't have! Here are 10 "no-cost" ways to accomplish these very important results: Customers can be finicky.

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If you want your business to be more profitable you have two basic options; increase your revenue, or reduce your operating costs.

Raising prices will address the former, but in today's competitive consumer market, unless you do it gradually, it can cost you customers. Thankfully there are other ways to improve profit margins without compromising revenue streams.
Focus on priority offerings
Karlene Agard, senior risk and value management consultant and founder at ARAVUN, says business owners can increase profits by identifying the core functions delivered by their product or service.

"They'll find typically 80% of the benefits come from just 20% of the inputs, so they should focus on excelling in those priority areas," she says.

They then need to identify the core functions of the remaining 80% and find more effective ways of getting that same functionality from another, cheaper resource.

"Their customers will get an enhanced product or service and they can increase their profit," adds Agard.
Share buying power
Through shared buying-power and economies of scale businesses can lower their own costs, improve margins and become more competitive.

Hector Kolonas, founder of included.co began launching and promoting shared offices in the buildings left empty in the wake of the Cypriot financial crisis.

It was here that he realised how new entrepreneurs could build businesses faster by sharing the costs of office space, meeting rooms and kitchens. And if they could share workspace, why not share suppliers?

"This would push down the vendor's marketing spend, and we could all benefit from the lower costs associated with a larger aggregate order size," he says.

For example, a London-based creative agency that leveraged shared-buying power on the printed marketing material that it needed for their customers were able to to reduce their budgeted spend by over 50%.

"These savings, when coupled with other operational savings acquired through the platform, allowed the company to grow," says Kolonas. 'It is now expanding into more European territories at a time where many other agencies are fighting to make ends meet."

Another winner was a shoe brand, based in both Paris and London, that used shared buying power to reduce the costs of getting their premium footwear to their end consumer, and as a result increased their gross margin per product.

He says: "Using lower-priced but best-in-class solutions to provide better support, products, offerings to your customers, at a lower cost, will improve your bottom line."
Keep your customers coming back.
Another tactic, used to good effect by James Dunworth, co-founder of ECigaretteDirect, is setting a target to raise average transaction value (ATV) in an ethical way. Employees are trained to ensure that their customers have everything they need to get the most out of their product and won't run out of supplies before they next come back.

"At the same time, we train them not to upsell a product that the customer does not need, as the long term customer relationship is the absolute priority to us," says Dunworth.

Hunter Boyle, global business consultant and co-founder of Optimization Copilot, takes a leaf out of the big players' books. 'We test special offers by bundling related products and services, in a similar way to Amazon's two and three-pack offerings," he says. "This also saves on product shipping costs for additional margin."
Diversify and add value
Rebecca Newenham, founder of virtual agency Get Ahead VA, has made diversification a key strategy for driving profitable growth. Offering added more profitable services with added value, in addition to the core offering can increase profit per customer. It can also attract more profitable clients.

"For example, some of our clients come to us for telephone answering services," she explains. "We work hard at onboarding them to demonstrate them wide variety of expertise within our team. When they go on to use our marketing services, such as social media or blogging, we increase our overall return."
Engage employees in your offering
For business speaker Bryony Thomas, founder of Watertight Marketing, it's about focusing on the right kind of work; work that sustains both the energy and enthusiasm of the team and helps the bottom line.

In a push for profits, she explains, leaders will often run the numbers to determine which customer groups provide the most profit. If this is not cross-referenced with whether the people in the business actually enjoy serving these customers, the profit boost will be short lived.

"That's because it will result in employee churn and it's unlikely that people will do their best work for clients that sap their soul, leading to degradation in service over time," says Thomas.

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How These Six Entrepreneurs Improve Their Profits Without Hiking Their Prices

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If you want your business to be more profitable you have two basic options; increase your revenue, or reduce your operating costs. Raising prices will address the former, but in today's competitive consumer market, unless you do it gradually, it can cost you customers.

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Growing business revenue is top of mind for any business owner. It is what drives you every day and is likely the key reason you push harder than the day before to do better. Even with your continued efforts, you may feel like you are coming up short and not reaching your profit goals from month to month.

When your business' revenue is the sole factor in whether or not you can put food on the table -- not mention whether you can continue to make the business grow -- it is imperative that you stay on top of your sales to ensure you can pay your overhead, as well as yourself, at the end of the day.

Below, 13 members of Forbes Finance Council share the one simple change business owners can make to increase profits today.
1. Consider life insurance.
Many times, cash reserves in a business are held in low yielding, safe accounts. You can put cash reserves in a permanent life insurance policy with 3-4% guarantees while satisfying your reserve requirements dollar for dollar. Structured correctly, your cash value equals 100% of your premiums paid, making the policy a positive, revenue-generating asset on your balance sheet on day one. - Drew Gurley, Redbird Advisors
2. Get vendor discounts.
Ask your vendors about getting a discount for paying upfront or before your payment is due. You could save 2-5% on the fees they charge for extending you credit. Paying your vendors early may also improve your business credit score, which can save you money on interest rates whenever you apply for business loans and credit cards. - Greg Ott, Nav Inc
3. Ask 'Why?' to your expenses.
Profits are driven by revenue and expense management. Assuming a semi-mature revenue stream, business owners need to ask "why" to their expenses and underlying processes. This includes a comprehensive review or expense commitments, related levels (users/usage) and legacy processes that can be automated. Incentivize employees to surface cost savings and process optimization, as they know it best. - Collin Greene, ShipHawk
4. Be prudent with your hiring.
Employees are usually the biggest cost for a business, and overhiring or underutilizing them will quickly eat away at your bottom line. That's why you not only need to be extremely prudent about hiring, but you also need to ensure each existing employee is working to the best of his/her ability. This won't only slash hiring costs, but it will also create a happier and more productive workforce. - Elle Kaplan, LexION Capital
5. Learn to delegate.
Delegate some of your tasks to someone else who can do the job, and focus on what you do best. For example, if you are in the business of sales and that is what you do best, but you also have to be involved with day-to-day activities of marketing, accounting, etc., you must find someone else who can take care of those activities so you can focus on the sales. - Dmitriy Fomichenko, Sense Financial Services LLC
6. Reconfigure management compensation.
One of the biggest account misalignments is owner/management compensation. Often, the equity payouts and the owner's employee wages get commingled, and thus, it is difficult to actually assess true profit. Reconfigure owner/employee compensation to be reasonable based on the duties performed, and your profit margin will be more accurate. - Darryl Lyons, PAX Financial Group LLC
7. Assess key performance indicators.
The simplest change a business owner can make is to assess their key performance indicators (KPI). These show you how your business should perform based on past performance. So, the best way to increase profits is to implement metrics for the KPIs. Work with a consultant to help you make the necessary changes. - Justin Goodbread, Heritage Investors
8. Raise your prices.
Business owners often assume people won't pay more for their manufactured goods or service. They're generally mistaken. Unless you deal in a highly commoditized market, the consumers are not stalwartly encouraged by price. If you double your charges tomorrow, you may lose a portion of regulars -- but, due to the price upsurge, you may also make up for it. - Chad Otar, Excel Capital Management, Inc.
9. Understand what your time is worth.
Understanding how much your time is worth can lead to breakthroughs identifying tasks you complete that may be costing you money. If you work 60 hours a week, and you earn $250,000 a year, your time is worth $80 an hour. Let's say 10 of those hours are spent on tasks for which you could hire someone else at $30 an hour; you can save $500 a week, and now you have 10 hours to generate more income. - Alexander Koury, Values Quest
10. Manage what you measure.
Be sure to have forward-thinking metrics in place that you measure on a consistent basis -- either daily, weekly or monthly. Know what the metrics mean and how to read if the measurement is indicating a positive or negative trend moving forward. Then manage those indicators with your team.Examples of key metrics to track include the Net Promoter Score and the Lifetime Value of a client. - David Gass, Anderson Business Advisors, LLC
11. Focus on driving revenue.
Many entrepreneurs and business owners are stretched thin, spending too much time on tasks that don't generate revenue. The number one issue that this group has is lack of delegating. The most successful business owners we work with delegate, because they understand that their highest and best use of time is spent generating revenue, and everything else is a waste of their talent and time. - Michael Seltzer, Verite Group, LLC
12. Consider rebranding as a franchise.
The increasing trend of private equity groups buying into franchising, paired with a booming economy, should give small business owners confidence to rebrand their local stores as franchise locations. This offers serious cost benefits. In the short-term, a nationally recognized brand can help generate more revenue. In the long-term, opportunities to expand offer serious scalability potential. - Patrick Galleher, Boxwood Partners
13. Always be selling.
Everyone associated with your business should be a salesperson. By empowering employees to become sellers, you'll see an immediate increase in your business' profits. You can do this through continuing education and training, but it can start right away. When everyone is involved in web marketing, networking and in-person sales, your business will see increased profits. - Shane Hurley, RedFynn Technologies

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13 Changes Business Owners Can Make To Drive Profits Higher

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Growing business revenue is top of mind for any business owner. It is what drives you every day and is likely the key reason you push harder than the day before to do better. Even with your continued efforts, you may feel like you are coming up short and not reaching your profit goals from month to month.

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Coaching Leadership Style Advantages, Disadvantages and Characteristics

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People who follow the coaching leadership style have one unique characteristic that other leadership styles don’t offer. Instead of showing their direct reports how to do something, or delegating work to them directly, the coaching

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As more and more companies realize the benefits of hiring a , they also realize the benefits of incorporating a coaching methodology into the management style of their leaders. After all, there's a difference between simply telling employees what to do and working with them on professional development.
1. Showing Empathy
Someone in a leadership role who does not have the ability to empathize will never be a leader. Empathy is about connecting with others without judgment or personal agenda. By growing this skill, leaders can make difficult or even unpopular decisions that their teams will support because they are trusted for their ability to lead to greater destinations for the common good. - Belinda MJ Brown, Equanimity Executive, LLC
2. Remaining Curious
Remember Curious George? I like to think that curious little monkey is a great leader today. Curiosity is the difference between knowing and discovering. Curiosity keeps judgment at bay and encourages consideration and inclusion. We are born naturally curious and learn to suppress our curiosity in favor of efficiency. Take a lesson from George - let your curiosity run wild! - Julie Colbrese, Hot Coffee Coaching
3. Being Able To Recognize Strengths
A great leader and coach will help their people find their light and brighten it. The conventional way of leading, which tells us we must find and fix our weaknesses, is outdated and disengaging. Today's leaders must embrace and capitalize on the uniqueness and strengths of each of their team members in order to ensure that they not only succeed wildly at work, but also succeed as leaders of their lives. - Monique Catoggio, Monique Catoggio, Inc.
4. Knowing How To Partner
Like a great coach, a great leader is in the front pulling for their team members' success. Great leaders are not directing but partnering for success. Leading is about creating an environment where individuals get heard, experience is valued and validated, and difficult decisions by the leader are then embraced by the team. They know the leader is their partner in having them win, too. - Janet Zaretsky, The Zenith Business
5. Asking Open-Ended Questions
Too often, leaders approach interactions from a problem-solving mindset. Asking open-ended questions can create openings for new action because they literally take people out of the problem. Try this one on for size: "If there were no constraints and anything was possible, what action would you take now?" - Lori Darley, Conscious Leaders LLC
6. Practicing Involved Detachment
Asking for feedback can trigger our inner critic and prompt emotionally charged responses. This can deny us the opportunity to develop as a leader and break the bond of trust between us and our employees. Involved detachment - being fully engaged emotionally while remaining completely non-judgmental and objective - is the most powerful coaching skill any leader can master to counteract this. - Lianne Lyne, PLP Coaching, LLC
7. Crafting Strategic Vision For Transformation
Leading and connecting people requires the ability to create transformational opportunities and guiding people to them. True leaders will create transformation and set visions for others to reach for and achieve greater for themselves, not just an organization. Inspiring and providing transformative steps through their interactions will shepherd people along the change cycle with little turbulence. - Jen Kelchner, TeenTrep.co
8. Knowing How To Develop Your Process
Developing a process for any task or service makes it measurable and replicable. From there, you can refine and polish your methodology to make it more efficient and relevant. After all, what is a franchise at its core but simply a book of proven processes? The right people with the right product and the right process equal a home run in building your business. - Cory Boyas, Cory Boyas
9. Taking Ownership Of Results
The ability to coach means the ability to know, apply and teach effectively. It also means taking ownership of the results for yourself and others. In other words, if your client does well - celebrate. If your client doesn't do well, other than they simply aren't doing the work, examine what can you do better, more effectively or differently. That way, you are always improving and growing. - Tracy Repchuk, InnerSurf International Inc.
10. Being Able To Pick Up On And Give Subtle Communication
Listening is only half of the communication equation. How you listen, what you say, how you say it, and when you say it impacts whether your message hits its target and whether you get the results you seek. Leaders who competently listen for both text and subtext, and who respond with inclusive language, pace and tone will improve performance and increase enjoyment at work. - Beth J. Masterman, Masterman Executive Coaching

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10 Coaching Skills Every Leader Should Master

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As more and more companies realize the benefits of hiring a , they also realize the benefits of incorporating a coaching methodology into the management style of their leaders. After all, there's a difference between simply telling employees what to do and working with them on professional development. 1.

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Transformational Leadership occurs where the leader takes a visionary position and inspires people to follow.

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Access the essential membership for Modern Managers

What makes a truly exceptional leader? Chances are we've all encountered them at some point in our careers: those leaders who stand out above the rest. Those who bring out the best in every one of their team members, and who consistently strive for greatness.

Take Molly for example. Everyone respects Molly. She inspires and encourages her team members, while expecting and demonstrating the highest standards. In return, her people are fiercely loyal, and they're highly successful - as individuals, and as a team. In short, Molly is a Transformational Leader.

By contrast, other leaders in the organization report that their people seem disengaged. They experience high staff turnover, and their results are often disappointing. So, what does Molly do that other leaders don't?

To begin with, Molly regularly reminds her team members of the purpose of their work. And she knows that she's a role model for her team, so she acts with integrity in all of her working relationships.

In this article and video, we'll explore what transformational leadership is, and discover what it takes to become a transformational leader.

What Is Transformational Leadership?

Leadership expert James MacGregor Burns introduced the concept of transformational leadership in his 1978 book, "Leadership." He defined transformational leadership as a process where "leaders and their followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation." [1]

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Watch this video to learn the definition of Transformational Leadership. Explore the theory behind this leadership style, and discover the characteristics of transformational leaders.

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If you speak with startup founders or large-company CEOs, they'll probably tell you that hiring good people is their biggest challenge. It's no wonder there are thousands of recruiting firms in the U.S., all vying to help companies get talent in the door. But which recruiters are the most well-respected?

Forbes worked with analytics firm Statista to compile two lists of America's best recruiting firms. The first set ranks 250 executive search firms, defined as companies that place executives in positions with at least $100,000 in annual pay. The second ranks 250 professional search firms, which place employees in roles with less than $100,000 in annual income.

Click below to view the full lists:

To see the 10 most highly-rated companies in each category, open the gallery.

To conduct its research, Statista first consulted with sources like trade organizations and company databases, identifying about 4,000 recruiters in each of the two categories. Then it invited thousands of recruiters, employees who have worked with recruiters over the past three years, and H.R. managers to take an online survey. The survey asked them to recommend up to 10 recruiting firms (excluding their own), and it gathered a total of 20,000 recommendations. The companies with the most recommendations ranked highest.

Robert Half, a recruiting firm based in Silicon Valley, was the only company to make the top 10 on both the professional and executive recruiters lists. It has 16,400 employees, made $5.3 billion in revenue last year and is a member of the S&P 500. Robert Half places candidates in a range of industries, including finance, law, technology and marketing.

Korn Ferry took the top spot on the executive recruiters list. The Los Angeles-based company has 7,000 employees and works with 93% of the highest-grossing companies in the U.S. It places candidates in dozens of sectors, ranging from investment banking to industrial manufacturing and education.

New York had more recruiters on the lists than any other city, with 41 executive recruiting firms and 18 professional recruiting firms. Chicago had the second-most, followed by Atlanta.

I cover cryptocurrencies, blockchain, fintech and investing at Forbes. I've also written frequently about leadership, corporate diversity and entrepreneurs. Before Forbes, I worked for ten years in marketing consulting, in roles ranging from client consulting to talent ma...
Follow me on Twitter @JeffKauflin or email me at jkauflin[at]forbes[dot]com. Get the most important news on crypto and blockchain straight to you inbox -- to Forbes' CryptoConfidential.

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There are thousands of recruiting firms in the U.S., all vying to help companies get talent in the door. But which recruiters are the most well-respected? Forbes worked with analytics firm Statista to compile two lists of America's best recruiting firms.

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Survey after survey highlight the importance of influencing and negotiating skills for achieving promotion and career progression. Influencing is much more than that. The ability to influence is a crucial skill in so many aspects of the modern working life - whether you are working in cross-functional teams, managing external supplier relationships or networking with potential new clients. Here are seven tips to help you to develop your influencing skills.

How to Develop your Influencing Skills: Let's Start with the Basics

We often have to persuade and influence those over whom we have no real authority. The question is how to do this in an effective and subtle way?

A subtle, empathetic approach is recommended rather than a more direct or forceful style

Influencing Requires Empathy

Give the other party the impression that you have met them half way or further

A subtle, empathetic approach is recommended rather than a more direct or forceful style.

If you can give the other party the impression that you have met them half way or further, that they have bought into or even come up with the idea themselves you will get real support and longer lasting results.

Successful influencing is about making a connection and appealing to the heart as well as the head. It is about identifying personal triggers and adapting your style to others' to get the best results from the people you are trying to influence.
7 Tips To Develop your Influencing Skills
A combination of communication and interpersonal skills will help you to get the results you need. Below are some practical hints to help develop your powers of influencing whether you need a decision from your boss, an "awkward" peer to help you or a client to accept your new prices.
1. Create rapport
Create rapport with the person you are trying to influence - it may sound like common sense but if they like and trust you there is a greater possibility that you will be able to persuade them
2. Listen
Listen and show you are listening. If someone feels valued they are more likely to be persuaded to your point of view
3. Ask the right questions
Use questioning techniques to lead people towards the answers you want

The art of influencing doesn't come naturally

4. Be Aware of Body Language
Mirror the other person's body language to create better rapport
5. Sell the Benefits
Sell the benefits of your argument to the other person and try to see your position from their perspective
6. Be relaxed
A relaxed and natural demeanour is more likely to achieve a successful outcome rather than an emotional or demanding approach. Demonstrating a natural confidence will help to persuade others that your ideas are good
7. Invest your Time
Influencing isn't a quick fix. It can take time to develop empathy and awareness but you are more likely to get what you want if you play a long game

The art of influencing doesn't come naturally to everyone. There are many sources of help for you to develop your influencing skills. Check out some great online resources and videos, LinkedIn groups and, of course, training is always an option to help you hone and develop your influencing skills.

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7 Tips to Develop your Influencing Skills

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Survey after survey highlight the importance of influencing and negotiating skills for achieving promotion and career progression. Influencing is much more than that. The ability to influence is a crucial skill in so many aspects of the modern working life - whether you are working in cross-functional teams, managing external supplier relationships or networking with potential new clients.

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To be an effective business leader it is important to understand the broad operations and processes that drive commerce and create growth. However, to be a successful Human Resource leader, it is not only critical to understand the basic principles of business best practices, it is also important to be proactive and strategically develop your influence over your organization.

Here are the five standout traits that today's influential Human Resource leaders all have in common.

1. Never Stop Learning

Deepening your knowledge of the expanding field of human resources will help you to better manage, support, and lead your HR team. Putting this knowledge into practice can serve to encourage growth and development of not only your HR staff but also of the larger workforce.

Pursuit of life-long learning through an advanced degree and professional certification is necessary to build and refine your HR knowledge. Successful HR leaders display a thirst for understanding the benefits of new HR research outcomes and stay connected to current trends in the HR field. By incorporating your knowledge of best HR practices into your daily life, you can more effectively support your organization's strategic goals and direction.

Whether you are already working in the HR field or are interested in joining it, The University of Scranton's MS in Human Resources Management will help you gain the foundational and strategic knowledge you need to excel.

2. Communicate Effectively

Clear, effective messages can boost morale, increase loyalty and even save the organization money. According to Watson Wyatt's "Communications ROI" 2011-2012 study, organizations that are highly effective in their communication practices are more than twice as likely to significantly outperform peers that are not. Many opportunities exist for you as a human resources leader to develop and demonstrate your communication skills. For example, strong writing skills lead to clearly understood policies and procedures that drive organizational results. Similarly, with outstanding verbal communication skills you can help your workforce to understand better their roles in driving organizational results and motivate them toward peak performance.

3. Practice Values-Based and Ethical Behavior

In today's highly competitive work environments, the pressure to succeed both personally and professionally is a powerful force. You can demonstrate your personal commitment to maintaining an ethical workplace in two important ways. First, lead by example and consistently adhere to the code of ethical behavior of the HR profession. Second, using the HR code of ethical behavior as your guide, take the lead in advancing your organization's espoused values to all employees. Because HR professionals often lead the process for fair and equitable treatment of all organizational members, you are uniquely positioned to help build a community of employees who will want to internalize and demonstrate your organization's values and ethical behaviors.

4. Think Strategically and Act Accordingly

It is tempting for HR professionals to focus their efforts narrowly on building the most productive HR function within their organizations. On the surface this concentration seems to make sense. Today, however, CEOs expect HR professionals to demonstrate more than just HR expertise. They expect their HR professionals to be key partners who help drive their organization's overall business strategies. To do so, HR professionals need to think strategically, connecting a robust HR function with an in-depth knowledge of their organization's core business issues and aspirations.

5. Mind Your Metrics

HR professionals have long recognized the value of developing outstanding practices that attract, leverage, and retain the best employees for their organizations. Determining the value of those practices on the organization's bottom line requires HR professionals to be able to understand and use metrics and key business statistics. From determining employee turnover rates to preparing a cost/benefit analysis for offering a wellness program to calculating the return on investment (ROI) of an employee suggestion program, metrics matter!
We live in a virtual world, and online courses provide a great way to practice leadership skills of working together in groups, which is a critical skill today's leaders need.
- William Wallick, Ph.D., SPHR, Associate Professor of the online Graduate Human Resources program

- Terri Freeman Smith, Ph.D., SPHR. Assistant Professor of the online Graduate Human Resources program and Director of the Undergraduate Human Resources Administration (HRA) program
" The greatest advantage in online courses is especially for those who may be apprehensive and lack confidence in their current communication skill. Being online, the structure offers the opportunity for students to express themselves more effectively in a group or individual discussion, and allows the time to craft well-thought responses that ultimately lead to developing long term strategic and analytical thinking skills.

Learn more about the online Master of Science in Human Resources Management from The University of Scranton or call us at 866-373-9547.

Rankings and Recognition

The University of Scranton is ranked among the 10 top universities in the North offering Master's programs by U.S. News & World Report's "Best Colleges" guidebook. The University of Scranton is also included among the "377 Best Colleges" by Princeton Review, among "America's Best Colleges" by Forbes magazine, among Barron's "Best Buys in College Education," and among Kiplinger's "Best Values in Private Colleges."

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5 Essentials Every Human Resource Leader Should Have

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To be an effective business leader it is important to understand the broad operations and processes that drive commerce and create growth. However, to be a successful Human Resource leader, it is not only critical to understand the basic principles of business best practices, it is also important to be proactive and strategically develop your influence over your organization.

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When we interview a potential new hire, HR professionals assess the candidate against a list of key skills and personal characteristics needed for the job. Let's turn the tables and see what that list of key attributes would look like for a human resources management professional.

In no way is our list authoritative, but it is the opinion of people, including BLR® Founder Bob Brady, who've spent decades meeting with HR professionals, supporting their goals, and reporting their achievements.

You may agree or not with our assessments, but either way, we'd like to hear about it via the "Share Your Comments" link at the end of the article.

That said, here goes:

HR Management Key Skill #1: Organization

HR management requires an orderly approach. Organized files, strong time management skills, and personal efficiency are key to HR effectiveness. You're dealing with people's lives and careers here, and when a manager requests help with a termination or a compensation recommendation or recognition program, it won't do to say, "I'll try to get to that if I have time."

HR Management Key Skill #2-Multitasking

On a typical HR day, an HR professional will deal with an employee's personal issue one minute, an intermittent leave question the next, and a recruiting strategy for a hard-to-fill job the minute after. And that's to say nothing of social media, wage/hour, engagement, retention, and a whole host of other things, every one critical to someone.

In HR, if it's not one thing, it's another. Priorities and business needs move fast and change fast, and manager A who needs someone hired doesn't much care if you're already helping manager B who needs someone fired. You need to be able to handle it all, all at once.

Take your career to the next level. Learn how to become a strategic business partner with our FREE Report: Top 10 Strategic HR Trends for the New Era.

HR Management Key Skill #3-Dealing with Grey

A surprisingly large percentage of the issues HR managers face are in "the grey area." Is it discrimination? Is it harassment? What's a "reasonable" accommodation? How far over backward do you have to lean to approve intermittent leave? HR managers have to be able to act with incomplete and "best available" information, and they have to know when to seek the professional help of colleagues, attorneys, and other experts.

HR Management Key Skill #4-Negotiation

Along with grey comes the need to negotiate-there are often two or more opposing views, and the successful HR pro can find an acceptable middle ground. Remember, the goal of negotiation is to end up with two parties that are satisfied with the outcome, and that's not often easy to achieve.

HR Management Key Skill #5-Communication

HR professionals have to communicate up to management, over to managers, out to potential employees, and down to all levels of current employees. And they have to do it in writing, while speaking to large and small groups and, increasingly, through social media. They have to be convincing, caring, and believable.

HR Management Key Skill #6-Discrete and Ethical

HR professionals are the conscience of the company, as well as the keepers of confidential information. As you serve the needs of top management, you also monitor their actions toward employees to be sure that policies and regulations are followed. You need to be able to push back when they aren't in order to keep the firm on the straight and narrow. Not an easy responsibility!

Of course, you always handle confidential information appropriately, and never divulge it to any unauthorized person.

HR Management Key Skill #7-Dual Focus

Employees expect human resources professionals to advocate for their concerns, yet you must also enforce top management's policies. The HR professional who can pull off this delicate balancing act wins trust from all concerned.

There are times you must make decisions to protect the individual and other times when you protect the organization, its culture, and values. These decisions may be misunderstood by some, and you may catch flak because of it, but you know that explaining your choices might compromise confidential information. That's something you would never do.

HR Management Key Skill #8-Conflict Management and Problem Solving

News flash! Everyone doesn't always get along with everyone else. High productivity demands that people work together at least civilly. HR has to find ways to allow that to happen. And that's to say nothing of the myriad other problems that hit HR's in-box-you can't be effective without problem-solving ability.

HR Management Key Skill #9-Change Management

Most companies today are in a constant state of flux. Task forces, matrices, and teams spring into being, do their jobs, and disband as others form. Hierarchies have been squashed, and companies have four or five generations working side by side. A lot of people are freaked out by what's going on. HR has to help everyone cope with the constant changes.

Nine Skills, But Also One Caveat

"HR is a creature of, and serves, the business strategy," Brady says. "It's important for HR people to know what that strategy is and what makes the business tick so the approach to HR can be tailored accordingly.

"Never think of HR in isolation," he advises. "Because if HR professionals think of themselves as 'just HR,' that's what the rest of the organization will think, too."

Did We Get It Right?

How about our 9 skills? Do you have a different list? Please share it in the comments below. (This article was updated Thursday, August 22, 2013 9:40 AM).

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The 9 Essential Skills of Human Resources Management - How Many Do You Have?

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When we interview a potential new hire, HR professionals assess the candidate against a list of key skills and personal characteristics needed for the job. Let's turn the tables and see what that list of key attributes would look like for a human resources management professional.

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The key to a successful organization is to have a culture based on a strongly held and widely shared set of beliefs that are supported by strategy and structure. When an organization has a strong culture, three things happen: Employees know how top management wants them to respond to any situation, employees believe that the expected response is the proper one, and employees know that they will be rewarded for demonstrating the organization's values.

HR has a vital role in perpetuating a strong culture, starting with recruiting and selecting applicants who will share the organization's beliefs and thrive in that culture. HR also develops orientation, training and performance management programs that outline and reinforce the organization's core values and ensures that appropriate rewards and recognition go to employees who truly embody the values.

This article covers the following topics:

The importance of having a strong organizational culture.

HR's role in fostering a high-performance culture.

Definitions of organizational culture.

Factors that shape an organization's culture.

Considerations in creating and managing organizational culture.

HR practices to ensure the continuity and success of an organization's culture.

Communications, metrics, legal, technology and global issues pertaining to organizational culture.

Background

An organization's culture defines the proper way to behave within the organization. This culture consists of shared beliefs and values established by leaders and then communicated and reinforced through various methods, ultimately shaping employee perceptions, behaviors and understanding. Organizational culture sets the context for everything an enterprise does. Because industries and situations vary significantly, there is not a one-size-fits-all culture template that meets the needs of all organizations.

A strong culture is a common denominator among the most successful companies. All have consensus at the top regarding cultural priorities, and those values focus not on individuals but on the organization and its goals. Leaders in successful companies live their cultures every day and go out of their way to communicate their cultural identities to employees as well as prospective new hires. They are clear about their values and how those values define their organizations and determine how the organizations run. See What does it mean to be a values-based organization?

Conversely, an ineffective culture can bring down the organization and its leadership. Disengaged employees, high turnover, poor customer relations and lower profits are examples of how the wrong culture can negatively impact the bottom line.

Mergers and acquisitions are fraught with culture issues. Even organizational cultures that have worked well may develop into a dysfunctional culture after a merger. Research has shown that two out of three mergers fail because of cultural problems. Blending and redefining the cultures, and reconciling the differences between them, build a common platform for the future. In recent years, the fast pace of mergers and acquisitions has changed the way businesses now meld. The focus in mergers has shifted away from blending cultures and has moved toward meeting specific business objectives. Some experts believe that if the right business plan and agenda are in place during a merger, a strong corporate culture will develop naturally. See Managing Organizational Change and Managing Human Resources in Mergers and Acquisitions.

Business Case

If an organization's culture is going to improve the organization's overall performance, the culture must provide a strategic competitive advantage, and beliefs and values must be widely shared and firmly upheld. A strong culture can bring benefits such as enhanced trust and cooperation, fewer disagreements and more-efficient decision-making. Culture also provides an informal control mechanism, a strong sense of identification with the organization and shared understanding among employees about what is important. Employees whose organizations have strongly defined cultures can also justify their behaviors at work because those behaviors fit the culture. See Toxic Workplace Cultures Hurt Workers and Company Profits.

Company leaders play an instrumental role in shaping and sustaining organizational culture. If the executives themselves do not fit into an organization's culture, they often fail in their jobs or quit due to poor fit. Consequently, when organizations hire C-suite executives, these individuals should have both the requisite skills and the ability to fit into the company culture. See HR Can't Change Company Culture by Itself.

Culture plays a vital role in an organization's success. Therefore, HR leaders and other members of the HR team should foster a high-performance organizational culture. See How to Practice HR on Purpose.

HR leaders are responsible for ensuring that culture management is a core focus of their organization's competitive efforts. For HR leaders to influence culture, they need to work with senior management to identify what the organizational culture should look like. Strategic thinking and planning must extend beyond merely meeting business goals and focus more intently on an organization's most valuable asset-its people.

HR has been described as the "caretaker" of organizational culture. In carrying out this essential role, all members of the HR team should help build and manage a strong culture by:

Being a role model for the organization's beliefs.

Reinforcing organizational values.

Ensuring that organizational ethics are defined, understood and practiced.

Enabling two-way communications and feedback channels.

Defining roles, responsibilities and accountabilities.

Providing continuous learning and training.

Sustaining reward and recognition systems.

Encouraging empowerment and teams.

Promoting a customer-supplier work environment.

Recognizing and solving individual and organizational problems and issues.

What Is Organizational Culture?

For HR professionals to have any impact on culture, they must first have a thorough understanding of what culture is in a general sense and what their organization's specific culture is. At the deepest level, an organization's culture is based on values derived from basic assumptions about the following:

Human nature. Are people inherently good or bad, mutable or immutable, proactive or reactive? These basic assumptions lead to beliefs about how employees, customers and suppliers should interact and how they should be managed.

The organization's relationship to its environment.How does the organization define its business and its constituencies?

Appropriate emotions. Which emotions should people be encouraged to express, and which ones should be suppressed?

Effectiveness. What metrics show whether the organization and its individual components are doing well? An organization will be effective only when the culture is supported by an appropriate business strategy and a structure that is appropriate for both the business and the desired culture.

Culture is a nebulous concept and is often an undefined aspect of an organization. Although extensive academic literature exists relating to the topic of organizational culture, there is no generally accepted definition of culture. Instead, the literature expresses many different views as to what organizational culture is.

Organizational culture can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including leadership behaviors, communication styles, internally distributed messages and corporate celebrations. Given that culture comprises so many elements, it is not surprising that terms for describing specific cultures vary widely. Some commonly used terms for describing cultures include aggressive, customer-focused, innovative, fun, ethical, research-driven, technology-driven, process-oriented, hierarchical, family-friendly and risk-taking.

Because culture is difficult to define, organizations may have trouble maintaining consistency in their messages about culture. Employees may also find it difficult to identify and communicate about perceived cultural inconsistencies. and See Defining Organizational Culture Culture Conversation Starters.

Factors That Shape an Organization's Culture

Organizational leaders often speak about the unusual natures of their company cultures, seeing their domains as special places to work. But organizations such as Disney and Nordstrom, which are well-known for their unique cultures, are rare. See Viewpoint: 3 Steps to Cultivating a Customized Culture.

Most company cultures are not that different from one another. Even organizations in disparate industries such as manufacturing and health care tend to share a common core of cultural values. For example, most private-sector companies want to grow and increase revenues. Most strive to be team-oriented and to demonstrate concern for others. Most are driven, rather than relaxed, because they are competing for dollars and market share. Some of the cultural characteristics that distinguish most organizations include the following.

Values

At the heart of organizations' cultures are commonly shared values. None is right or wrong, but organizations need to decide which values they will emphasize. These common values include:

Outcome orientation. Emphasizing achievements and results.

People orientation. Insisting on fairness, tolerance and respect for the individual.

Team orientation. Emphasizing and rewarding collaboration.

Attention to detail. Valuing precision and approaching situations and problems analytically.

Stability. Providing security and following a predictable course.

Innovation. Encouraging experimentation and risk-taking.

Aggressiveness. Stimulating a fiercely competitive spirit.

See Trust Engenders Trust: A Q&A with Paul J. Zak.

Degree of hierarchy

The degree of hierarchy is the extent to which the organization values traditional channels of authority. The three distinct levels of hierarchy are "high"-having a well-defined organizational structure and an expectation that people will work through official channels; "moderate"-having a defined structure but an acceptance that people often work outside formal channels; and "low" -having loosely defined job descriptions and accepting that people challenge authority.

An organization with a high level of hierarchy tends to be more formal and moves more slowly than an organization with a low level of hierarchy.

Degree of urgency

The degree of urgency defines how quickly the organization wants or needs to drive decision-making and innovation. Some organizations choose their degree of urgency, but others have it thrust on them by the marketplace.

A culture with high levels of urgency has a need to push projects through quickly and a high need to respond to a changing marketplace. A moderate level of urgency moves projects at a reasonable pace. A low level of urgency means people work slowly and consistently, valuing quality over efficiency. An organization with high urgency tends to be fast-paced and supports a decisive management style. An organization with low urgency tends to be more methodical and supports a more considered management style.

People orientation or task orientation

Organizations usually have a dominant way of valuing people and tasks. An organization with a strong people orientation tends to put people first when making decisions and believes that people drive the organization's performance and productivity. An organization with a strong task orientation tends to put tasks and processes first when making decisions and believes that efficiency and quality drive organization performance and productivity.

Some organizations may get to choose their people and task orientations. But others may have to fit their orientation to the nature of their industry, historical issues or operational processes.

Functional orientation

Every organization puts an emphasis on certain functional areas. Examples of functional orientations may include marketing, operations, research and development, engineering or service. For example, an innovative organization known for its research and development may have at its core a functional orientation toward R&D. A hospitality company may focus on operations or service, depending on its historical choices and its definition in the marketplace.

Employees from different functions in the company may think that their functional areas are the ones that drive the organization. Organizational leaders must understand what most employees perceive to be the company's functional orientation. See Building a Customer-Centric Culture: Five Lessons Learned.

Organizational subcultures

Any organization can have a mix of subcultures in addition to the dominant culture. Subcultures exist among groups or individuals who may have their own rituals and traditions that, although not shared by the rest of the organization, can deepen and underscore the organization's core values. Subcultures can also cause serious problems.

For example, regional cultures often differ from the overall culture that top leadership tries to instill. Perhaps aggressiveness that is common in one area may not mesh with a culture emphasizing team building. Or an organization with a culture built around equality may have trouble if the national culture emphasizes hierarchy and expects people to bow to authority. Managers and HR professionals must recognize those differences and address them directly.

Creating and Managing Organizational Culture

An organizational culture tends to emerge over time, shaped by the organization's leadership and by actions and values perceived to have contributed to earlier successes. A company culture can be managed through the cultural awareness of organizational leaders and HR professionals. Managing a culture takes focused efforts to sustain elements of the culture that support organizational effectiveness. See Addressing the Six Sources of Workplace Cultural Conflicts.

How culture develops

An organization's customs, traditions, rituals, behavioral norms, symbols and general way of doing things are the visible manifestation of its culture; they are what one sees when walking into the organization. The current organizational culture is usually due to factors that have worked well for the organization in the past. See How to Create a Culture of Civility.

Founders typically have a significant impact on an organization's early culture. Over time, behavioral norms develop that are consistent with the organization's values. For example, in some organizations, resolution of conflicts is hashed out openly and noisily to create widespread consensus, whereas in other places disputes are settled hierarchically and quietly behind closed doors.

Though culture emerges naturally in most organizations, strong cultures often begin with a process called "values blueprinting," which involves a candid conversation with leaders from across the organization. Once the culture is framed, an organization may establish a values committee that has a direct link to leadership. This group makes sure the desired culture is alive and well. For values blueprinting to work, organizations must first hire people who live the values and have the competency needed to perform the job.

Sustaining a culture

The management of organizational culture starts with identifying a company's organizational culture traits or "artifacts." Artifacts are the core business activities, processes and philosophies that characterize how an organization does business day-to-day.

Identifying these traits-and assessing their importance in light of current business objectives-is a way to start managing culture. Three broad concepts help identify the traits specific to a culture:

Social culture. This refers to group members' roles and responsibilities. It is the study of class distinctions and the distribution of power that exists in any group.

Material culture. This involves examining everything that people in a group make or achieve and the ways people work with and support one another in exchanging required goods and services.

Ideological culture. This is tied to a group's values, beliefs and ideals-the things people view as fundamental. It includes the emotional and intellectual guidelines that govern people's daily existence and interactions.

Leaders and HR professionals within an organization should approach culture management by initially gaining an understanding of the common traits found in all businesses. Then, they should take the following steps to manage their organization's culture:

Identify common artifacts or traits, including those from the standpoint of an organization's social, material and ideological culture.

Convene groups of employees-representatives from all levels, functions and locations of the organization-to assess the validity, significance and currency of key artifacts.

Subject those traits to a rigorous assessment of their underlying shared assumptions, values and beliefs.

Summarize findings and share them with all participants to solicit additional insights.

Create a culture management action plan. The plan should enhance traits that support corporate growth or organizational effectiveness and correct traits that might hinder a company's advancement.

Typically, shared assumptions and beliefs originate with an organization's founders and leaders. Because those beliefs proved successful (otherwise the company would not exist and the leaders would not be in their positions), often they go unchallenged; however, those assumptions and beliefs might be outdated and may hinder future success. See 6 Steps for Building an Inclusive Workplace.

HR Practices to Develop Culture

HR has a special role in ensuring that an organization's culture will continue and thrive. When an organization does a good job assessing its culture, it can then go on to establish HR policies, programs and strategies that support and strengthen its core purpose and values. In aligned organizations, the same core characteristics or beliefs motivate and unite everyone, cascading down from the C-suite to individual contributors.

HR professionals have many tools for developing and sustaining a high-performance organizational culture, including hiring practices, onboarding efforts, recognition programs and performance management programs. HR's biggest challenge is deciding how to use these tools and how to allocate resources appropriately. See Taming the Savage Culture: A Q&A with Tim Mulligan.

Hiring practices

The central role that HR plays in helping an organization capitalize on its culture is in hiring. HR has the opportunity to select people who fit the way the organization operates. Traditionally, hiring focuses primarily on an applicant's skills, but when a hire's personality also fits with the organization's culture, the employee will be more likely to deliver superior performance. See Finance Sector Needs New Focus on Culture to Attract Talent and Candidates Choose Jobs Because of Company Culture.

On the other hand, ill-fitting hires and subsequent rapid departures cost approximately 50 percent to 150 percent of the position's annual salary. Unfortunately, nearly one in three newly hired employees' leaves voluntarily or involuntarily within a year of hiring, and this number has been increasing steadily in recent years. See 5 Unique Interview Questions Every Recruiter Should Ask.

Some hiring practices to ensure cultural fit include these:

Looking at each piece of the organization's vision, mission and values statements. Interview questions should hone in on behaviors that complement these areas. For example, if the organization works with a lot of intensity, then job applicants should display that natural intensity to be considered for hire.

Conducting a cultural fit interview. Ask questions that elicit comments about organizational values such as honesty or integrity. If a candidate's description of the worst place he or she ever worked sounds just like the organization where he or she is interviewing, the candidate probably will not be successful.

Leaving discussion of company culture for later. Do not tell candidates about culture up front. First,listen to what they have to say about their experiences and beliefs. This tactic will reveal more candid responses to help determine whether they are a fit for the organization.

Making sure at least three people are involved in the hiring process. Different people will see and hear different things. These varied perspectives give a clearer understanding of the person being considered for hire.

Searching for employees who will fit in seamlessly can have drawbacks. The biggest mistake an organization can make is to paint an inaccurate picture of itself as it tries to attract candidates. If new hires discover they have been sold a bill of goods, they will not be happy; they will probably not stick around, and, while they are around, morale will decline.

Another possible drawback is that people are more reluctant to take negative actions against people like themselves. As a result, mediocre workers are more likely to stay employed if they share the cultural values. Similarly, although an organization's comfort level is palpable when the culture is aligned, experts say, too much comfort can result in groupthink and complacency.

Onboarding programs

HR plays a primary role in socializing new employees by designing and overseeing the onboarding process. Onboarding teaches newcomers the employer's value system, norms and desired organizational behaviors. HR professionals must help newcomers become part of social networks in the organization and make sure that they have early job experiences that reinforce the culture. See Managing the Employee Onboarding and Assimilation Process.

Reward and recognition programs

These programs are key mechanisms HR can use to motivate employees to act in accordance with the organization's culture and values. For example, if teamwork is a core value, bonuses should value teamwork and not be based on individual performance. HR should also put the spotlight on those who personify the company's values. See Who's at the CENTRE of your recognition program? and Employee Recognition Tech Must Align with Company Culture.

Performance management programs

Employees who share values and aspirations tend to outperform those in environments that lack cohesiveness and common purposes. Performance management programs can greatly affect corporate culture by clearly outlining what is expected from employees as well as by providing a feedback tool that informs employees about proper behavior. See Performance Management That Makes a Difference: An Evidence-Based Approach.

Communications

Conflicting messages regarding corporate culture may create distrust and cynicism, which can prompt, or help employees justify, actions as deleterious as embezzlement. Experts say that cultural inconsistencies may also cause workers to grow discouraged, to believe management is disingenuous, to doubt statements from higher-ups and to be less inclined to give their best effort.

Organizations may be investing significant time and money in creating a culture but may not be reaping the commensurate rewards-especially if executives, supervisors and rank-and-file employees have differing perceptions of the company's culture. HR professionals must therefore ensure that the organization clearly and consistently communicates its culture to all employees. See HR's Role in Creating a Culture of High Trust: Q&A with Richard Fagerlin.

Metrics

Assessing organizational culture is a crucial step in developing sound HR strategies that support enterprise objectives and goals. But how do you measure something as potentially tough to describe as culture? After identifying the key dimensions of culture such as values, degree of hierarchy, and people and task orientations, performing these next steps will help organizations assess culture:

Develop a cultural assessment instrument. This instrument should enable members of the organization to rate the organization on the key cultural dimensions, as well as on aspects of the organization not covered on the assessment.

Administer the assessment. Survey respondents should include individuals at all levels, functions, divisions and geographical units of the organization.

Analyze and communicate about assessment results. Leaders and HR executives should discuss areas of agreement and disagreement about the organization's culture.

Conduct employee focus groups. Just because top management leaders agree on organizational culture does not mean that all employees see things that way.

Discuss culture until consensus forms around key issues. Focus on "Who are we?" and "What makes us who we are?" Organizations that decide that where they are now is not where they want to be may need to look at moving the organization to embrace a different culture.

Cultural assessments, and other activities such as cultural audits and 360-degree feedback, may also help uncover cultural inconsistencies. Then leaders and HR professionals can eliminate the inconsistencies. For example, if customer service is a focus of the company's culture, evaluate how much time employees spend visiting customer sites, how much interaction they have with customers, what customer service training they receive and other indicators of a customer service focus. See The New Analytics of Workplace Culture

Legal Issues

Employers that emphasize cultural fit in their recruitment and selection process can be vulnerable to discrimination claims if they are not careful. HR professionals should ensure that hiring practices and selection decisions based on a cultural fit rationale do not result in discriminating against any applicants who may not be "just like" the selectors.

Employers should also be aware that certain types of organizational cultures (for example, cultures that are highly paternalistic or male-dominated) may tend to perpetuate disparities in promotions, compensation and other terms of employment. Those disparities may violate anti-discrimination laws. See In Focus: Latest Lawsuits Shine Light on Racist, Sexist Workplace Cultures and Address the Small Infractions to Create an Inclusive Culture.

Global Issues

Research suggests that national culture has a greater effect on employees than the culture of their organization. Organizational leaders and HR professionals should understand the national cultural values in the countries in which the organization operates to ensure that management and HR practices are appropriate and will be effective in operations in those countries. National cultural differences should be considered when implementing organizational culture management initiatives in global businesses.

Managers must be able to respond to nuances in communication styles, as well as deal with different expectations that employees have of their leaders across national cultures. Not meeting those expectations may doom the global organization's chance for success in particular countries.

These issues become even more complex in global business mergers. Success in international mergers depends on the merged organization's willingness to enable people with different cultural perspectives to engage in meaningful and valuable discussions about the new business.

See:
Helping Expatriate Employees Deal with Culture Shock 3 Steps in Aligning Culture Across the Globe

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The key to a successful organization is to have a culture based on a strongly held and widely shared set of beliefs that are supported by strategy and structure.

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Why is it that when it's time for some managers to "take the field" with their teams to get the work done that they find themselves alone?

As I've worked with managers and their teams, I often find that the root cause is under-developed delegation skills. The symptoms of ineffective managerial delegation can be many including micromanaging, the constantly changing project outcome, lack of communication, and other undesirable results. This makes delegation an important development area for any manager who wants to improve their organizational effectiveness.

Maybe you can do the work yourself, but should you be doing it? Click To Tweet

By definition, both management and leadership involve working with and through others to achieve desired outcomes. (After all, there is a limit to what any one of us can do alone.) We all know effective delegation skills are important. They can make or break a manager's career! But, getting it right can be difficult.

What is it about delegation that makes this skill difficult to master for new managers and even for some experienced senior and middle level managers?

The root cause may come from one or more five common human barriers to effective delegation. Getting over these human barriers requires some emotional intelligence and personal development. It requires taking a good look at ourselves and evaluating how we are doing with the following:

Some organizations fail because their leaders cannot delegate work effectively. Click To Tweet

1. Fear of Failure

What if they fail? The reality is that everyone makes mistakes in the workplace and if managed appropriately mistakes can be excellent learning opportunities to improve performance, promote innovation, and improve operations.

To delegate effectively, managers must recognize their own fears and allow some room for their team to make mistakes. With adequate development and trust, team members will more often meet the challenge than fail.

2. Envy of Your Staff Member's Ability

So, you're a little bit green with envy at that talented staff member of yours whose ability in a certain area outshines your own. In your private thoughts, you know you are reluctant to delegate to her because she is so good at what she does. So what should you do?

Talk to yourself and get over it! Even laugh at your envy if you must! Once you have intelligently dealt with your own negative emotions, let your talented staff member do what she does best. Give her full credit as appropriate. The truth is she makes you look good! Let her excel and you'll be known as a manager and leader who can utilize the talents of your staff effectively.

3. I Can Do it Better Myself!

This is probably true! After all, your technical ability is part of the reason for your success in your organization. The correct question you should ask yourself, however, is the following:

Should I be doing the work myself or is it better for me to delegate this work to someone else?

Your role as a manager is one of process to achieve organizational outcomes through organizing, controlling, planning, communicating, etc. You can fulfill this role better when you are not bogged down with work that others should be doing. Invest the time in developing your people to perform these tasks.

Lower your standard to an acceptable level of performance. They do not need to complete the task exactly as you would do it to meet organizational goals. After all, there are many methods for accomplishing most tasks.

4. I Like To Do This Myself!

Understood! There are some aspects of any job that are more enjoyable than others are. The question here is the same as in item #3, however: Should you be doing the work yourself or should you delegate it to someone else?

There is a principle of delegation that says managers should delegate tasks that can be done by others. Some managers take this advice too far and delegate everything to their staff members. This is not what is meant.

Delegated tasks should be appropriate to the responsibilities and organizational level of the team member. Further, there are some managerial tasks that are inappropriate for a manager to delegate to others to perform. This human barrier to delegation addresses those tasks we like to do but really should not do because others can do them. Let someone else enjoy this part of your job!

Maybe you can (or like) to do the work yourself, but should you be doing it? Are you holding on to work that really belongs to someone else? Click To Tweet

5. I Better Not Give Him Too Much Authority for This Task or I Will Lose Control

Part of delegating effectively is picking the right person for the task. This requires assessing both their willingness and capacity to perform the task. Assuming they have the right attitude and skill level to perform the task, give them the authority they need to complete the task for you.

As appropriate, establish check-in points so you can monitor their progress. Don't over-monitor them however (particularly your superstars) or you will frustrate them. You have invested in their development and created a positive work environment for them to do their best--now you just need to trust them to give you the desired results.

Overcoming these DNA obstacles to delegation is critical to any manager's success. When a manager cannot delegate work effectively, organizational stakeholders criticize him for his inability to use his human resources effectively. Higher level managers take note of this manager's limitations and the under-utilization of his team and they exclude him from further promotional considerations.

When a manager can delegate work effectively, organizational stakeholders praised her for her ability to get the best out of her people. Higher level managers take note of this manager's ability to run a productive unit and they consider her for higher levels of management responsibility.

Fear of not getting the right result or of losing control gets in the way of delegation. Click To Tweet

Delegation is a critical skill that takes some time to develop. It requires emotional intelligence because it affects some of our human emotions. The better we become at recognizing these emotions and managing them appropriately, the more effective we will be as a delegator. With practice, self-awareness, and the ability to "give ourselves a talking to" when needed, we can overcome the five common human barriers to effective delegation.

So, if you're having problems with delegation, consider that the problem may not be your employees. Your real problem may be with with that person who looks back at you in the mirror every morning.

Do you need to talk to that person?

Delegation problems are not always due to process issues or employee skill levels. Sometimes problems with delegation are at a more human level. Click To Tweet

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Five Common Human Barriers to Effective Delegation

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Why is it that when it's time for some managers to "take the field" with their teams to get the work done that they find themselves alone? As I've worked with managers and their teams, I often find that the root cause is under-developed delegation skills.

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Or is it? That's an interesting way to put it.

The headline above was on my mind because of a note from a former colleague I received yesterday on LinkedIn. I'd recently written an article examining the role of empathy in management - How Important Is Empathy To Successful Management? - and he sent me this thoughtful comment:

"Great article. I once worked for a fantastic effective leader, who when I joined her organization shared her secret to success and said, 'Remember, it's only 10% work and 90% people.'"
The management balance
I'd be curious to know what others think about this "10/90" idea.

My own take? Management requires balance, to be sure. No doubt you need technical expertise (the 10% "work" component). Without the ability to demonstrate a solid level of competence in the field you're managing, you may well lack "street cred," which can impede your management success. You need the respect of those you manage, and part of that is earned by how well you know your business - whatever that may be.

But on the other hand you also need the "people" element, since management of course at its core is all about accomplishing work through others. Other people, that is. Not other cattle, dogs, cats or horses. But it does require a consistent level of working with other humans... collaborating, motivating, plain old forming productive working relationships. And making those humans willing to come back day after day and do the same thing all over again.
High tech, low touch
It's no secret I tend to tilt to the "people management" side. Often in my own career I saw hires made who were heavy on technical competence and light on interpersonal skills, and usually this was a recipe for problems. When managers have difficulty relating well to the people they manage, it generally leads to issues with communication, recognition, motivation, morale... and ultimately productivity and retention.

So what are the right percentages in this 10% - 90% construct? Should they be 10-90... or perhaps 20-80, 30-70...or maybe even 5-95? That's probably an impossible question to answer. Other than to say I believe it would be above 50-50 (weighted more to the people side), it's pretty hard to be too precise one way or another. Depends on the nature of the job and the business.

But I do know that I 100% like this sentiment from Peter Drucker, often called the father of modern management.

"The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me," Mr. Drucker once wrote, "never say 'I.' And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say 'I.' They think 'we'; they think 'team.' They understand their job is to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but 'we' gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done."

The words may be a little different, it's true, but the sentiment seems to me very close to the "10-90" thinking of my former colleague's successful old manager.

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Or is it? That's an interesting way to put it. The headline above was on my mind because of a note from a former colleague I received yesterday on LinkedIn. I'd recently written an article examining the role of empathy in management - How Important Is Empathy To Successful Management?

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Your first management opportunity - congrats! Managing people is one of the most important skills you'll need as you progress in your career, and getting a company or manager to take a chance on you when you don't have any prior management experience is a big accomplishment. What you may not realize is that even if you are still in the same "role" as before, it has just changed drastically. The objective of this article is to help you navigate the transition from superstar individual contributor to rock-star girl boss. Here are four ways to master your first management role.
1. Provide Structure
Acting nonchalant about management responsibilities is probably the most common new-manager faux-pas, and, in my honest opinion, it's the worst mistake you can make. Particularly when you're first starting out (and your team is likely small, maybe even just one direct report), it can feel silly to put formal meetings in place. But even with only one team memberit is super important to have structure. You may feel uncomfortable or awkward, particularly if your new report is someone who used to be your peer, but this is critical to your success and your team's. So put the structure in place and fake it 'til you make it. What do you need exactly?

Weekly "one-on-one" meetings with each member of your team. Even if you are in cubes next to each other and talk constantly about work progress throughout the day, do this. Use it to discuss day-to-day project updates and bigger picture goals.

If you have more than one direct report, hold a weekly team meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to accomplish goal #2: Set the tone, communicate the vision, and give a broader perspective on how the work your team is doing fits into the priorities of the larger organization.

2. Set The Tone
Culture. Is anything more important for team productivity? Well, you are now in charge of creating it. Your tone and attitude will have a big impact on morale and employee engagement your team. No matter how small your team is, you should have a vision for it. When I first had the opportunity to manage two new associates, I wrote out a description of the reputation I wanted our group to have - essentially what I wanted us to be known for. Our reputation, I explained, was that we were hard working and diligent. Partners knew that if a project was in our hands it would be done well. I wanted to build excitement - yes, this was the best team to be on and we were all(myself included) proud to be part of it. Admittedly, it felt a little awkward to tell these two individuals this grand vision with a straight face the first time. But it was important for them to feel like they were part of something bigger. With clearly articulated goals, they knew what we were working toward, and that makes any team so much more effective.
3. Be Accountable
It is insanely important to the psyche of your team that they know their fate is in capable and responsible hands. While in the moment it may seem easier to blame someone above you when you deliver a tough message (such as a low review rating, a less-than-stellar bonus, being passed over for a certain project assignment), your team needs to believe that you are in control of the situation. And guess what? You are! You are responsible for advocating for your team members in those situations. If someone deserves a plum new project or a promotion, you have to go get it for them. Make your case. If they don't deserve it, explain what they need to do better. When you deliver bad news, always own it.
4. Manage Performance
My guess is that of all the advice in this list, this is one thing you already knew you needed to do. So let's talk about how to do it well. For starters, one of the most impactful pieces of advice I got from one of my favorite managers was:fair does not mean equal. Trying to make everything a fair split between members of your team is the most unfair thing you can do. People are unique. You need to adapt your style to your team members and learn what motivates each as an individual. Think about what projects will play to their strengths and where there are opportunities for them to work on their individual goals. You'll also need to figure out what motivates your people. Giving top-performers visibility opportunities, positive accolades in front of your management chain, and more responsibility will keep them striving to do more. And at all levels of performance, make sure that you are making feedback a regular part of your 1:1 meetings. It's good for employees to know in real-time what they are doing well and what they need to work on developing further. This also ensures that no one is blindsided during formal performance reviews, which is another big no-no.

The common theme across all four of these tips? Recognizing the power of being in a leadership position and owning it. You've done your homework -now make like Khaleesi and lead, girl!

--
Jessica S. Desjardinsis an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management where she is changing the way financial advisors interact with the firm and their clients through technology. Jessica is part of the leadership team for Ellevate New York where she runs programming for Young Professionals, creating opportunities for young women to connect in authentic ways over relevant career topics and become a little braver in the process. Ellevate Network is a global women's network: the essential resource for professional women who create, inspire and lead. Together, we #InvestInWomen.

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4 Ways To Master Your First-Time Manager Role

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Your first management opportunity - congrats! Managing people is one of the most important skills you'll need as you progress in your career, and getting a company or manager to take a chance on you when you don't have any prior management experience is a big accomplishment.

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Walmart is quite significantly changing its labor model. Moving from a near hire any live body and let them get on with it one to something where people are well trained, well paid and presumably of rather higher productivity. This is what many have been crying out for the company to do for years of course: move to something closer to the Costco model than the one that Walmart has traditionally pursued. However, as some like me have been pointing out all along there is a flip side to that change in models. Which is that the end aim is of course to employ fewer of those more productive people at those higher wages. The point being that if one can raise productivity levels by more than the increase in cost then of course profits will rise: that being the end goal for all shareholder owned companies. The interesting question is going to be how many people either lose or don't get jobs as a result of this strategic change: and I'll suggest a method by which we can calculate this a little later.

There's two prongs to Walmart's new approach. The first is to take a leaf from Henry Ford's book with that $5 a day thing:

One motive is better public relations at a time when inequality is a hot-button political issue. But bottom-line calculations also play a role. Employee turnover costs money-by industry estimates as much as $5,000 per front-line worker, or 20% to 30% of an entry-level salary. Standard turnover in retail is 50% in the first six months. If Wal-Mart can reduce this churn, persuading people to stay at least 12 to 18 months, it will save "tens of millions of dollars a year," according to Ms. Oliver.

As I explained way back here, Henry Ford's $5 a day was not what most people think it was. It was most certainly not, as all too many would have it, so that the newly richer workers could all buy a Model T. That would have been a great way to lose lots of money. A company cannot pay its own workers more, then see profits rise as they spend that cash on the company's products. This is trying to raise yourself by your bootlaces. It also wasn't about trying to create a vibrant midle class. What it was about was reducing the job churn on the assembly line. Ford was getting through 50,000 workers a year in order to have 13,000 working on the line at any one time. That had vast recruitment and training costs. So, that's what Walmart is doing here. Let's see if we can reduce those costs by having less churn. That, in turn, means perhaps not bottom fishing in the labor market but improving pay relative to others so that people will stick around a little longer.

This could well be a good move too but only time will tell.

There's also a second prong to the new strategy:

Front-line employees-cashiers, cart pushers and sales associates-will now spend their first months at the company in a supervised on-the-job training program. In the past, they sat through a few days of orientation and safety drills, many of them focused on compliance with environmental and health regulations. The only real job training happened in the store-knowledge passed on by more experienced employees.

There's two sides to this. One is the obvious point that if you're expecting your workers to stick around longer then you're also going to be willing to invest in them rather more. Because you'll be able to amortise your investment in them over that longer period that they're working for you. And there's the more obvious point of that end goal: better trained workers will be, ceteris paribus, more productive. And thus we can see that Walmart is trying to move from one labor model to another:

Economists who study retail distinguish between "low-road" and "high-road" employers. One group keeps labor costs down, the other invests more in workers and reaps the benefits in higher productivity. Cost-conscious Wal-Mart is trying to move toward the high road.

This is all entirely traditional labor economics by the way, there's nothing mysterious about any of it. However, there is a sting in the tail here.

For well over a decade now I've been pointing out that yes, sure, Costco pays its workers very much better than Walmart does. But it also uses, per unit of sales, about half the labor that Walmart does. Thus the shouting that Walmart can and should pay its workers like Costco does comes with that sting in that tail: for moving to the same pay structure would entail at least attempting to move to the same productivity levels. Meaning that Walmart would employ about half the number of people per unit of sales than it currently does. And now we're seeing that Walmart is taking at least baby steps to that higher road labor model. And the interesting thing is going to be, well, is the prediction about employment levels going to come true too?

Just in a little more detail. Productivity is the amount of work (really, the amount of value added) that we get from one hour of labor. Raising productivity thus means getting more value added from one hour of labor. And if sales are static that then obviously also means using less labor per unit of sales. Thus raising productivity is the very same thing as saying that less labor is going to be used. This still holds even if sales or output rise: there's still less labor going to be used than there would have been at the earlier, lower, level of labor productivity.

And the way to test it is pretty simple, because we can find the numbers we need to measure labor productivity in the Walmart accounts. We know the number employed in the US....some 1.4 million....and we know what sales are in the US...$288 billion....so labor productivity is $205,000 and change per worker. That's actually sales not value added but that still gives us what we want, a number to compare over time (Costco's sales per employee are about double this). As labor productivity rises as a result of more training and lower churn from the pay rises then we would expect to see this number rise. More sales per employee. And then we will also be able to calculate how many jobs have been lost to this rise in productivity. For, say, that sales rise to $250k per employee. We can then calculate how many employees would have been needed if productivity was still the old, lower, number. The number of jobs lost will therefore be the difference between the number actually employed and the number who would have been without the productivity gain.

Yes, obviously, we would need to discount this for the general inflation rate.

My prediction is that productivity will indeed rise at Walmart in the coming years. And also that sales per employee will rise, meaning that the number employed will fall. Not fall necessarily from the current absolute level, but fall relative to where it would have been absent the productivity increase. Anyone want to bet against that prediction?

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Walmart Is Changing Its Labor Model: How Many Workers Will Lose Their Jobs?

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Walmart is quite significantly changing its labor model. Moving from a near hire any live body and let them get on with it one to something where people are well trained, well paid and presumably of rather higher productivity. This is what many have been crying out for the company [...]

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Someone already has been.

Her name was Elaine Herzberg . She was 49. Four months ago, she was struck and killed in Tempe, Arizona, by an Uber "self-driving" vehicle taking a second lap of a test route on regular streets. In that vehicle was a "safety driver" who was supposed to, but allegedly failed to, compensate for failings of the computer at the wheel.

The investigation into the pedestrian's death is demonstrating once again that if the combination of artificial and human intelligence is going to make us safer, we're going to have to better figure out the division of labor. The future of technology-enabled safety relies on better understanding how humans think, how computers compute, and how the two systems should be connected to avoid the kind of simultaneous failure that led to this first-of-its-kind fatality. In no endeavor is getting the synchronization right more important than on the roads, the place where the most lives and jobs - from long-haul truck to pizza delivery - are at risk.

Shortly before 10 p.m. on March 18, Herzberg decided to walk her bicycle across Mill Avenue in Tempe. She was well away from any crosswalk. She was wearing dark clothes. The bike had no side reflectors. She did not look to her right to see the oncoming car. She had methamphetamine and marijuana in her system, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Uber vehicle, a Volvo XC90, was traveling 43.5 miles per hour in a 45 zone. Its computer - fed with information from 10 cameras, radar and LIDAR - "registered" Herzberg roughly six seconds before impact. But the computer didn't know what to make of her. It first classified her as an unknown object, then as a vehicle, then as a bicycle. The computer's system for predicting where an object is going had "varying expectations" of where Herzberg was headed.

One-point-three seconds before the collision, the Uber system "determined that an emergency braking maneuver was needed to mitigate a collision." But to avoid "erratic vehicle behavior," the self-driving system was not programmed to hit the brakes. The Volvo itself came equipped with a collision-avoidance system that would have braked, but that system was disabled to allow the Uber system to take precedence.

The fail-safe precaution was a person in the car - part driver, mostly passenger. The NTSB calls her an "operator." Uber employee Rafaela Vasquez's job was to monitor the autonomous vehicle and intervene if there was a problem. From the video of Vasquez, Tempe police determined she looked down more than 200 times during the drive, adding up to about a third of the drive. Vasquez maintains she was monitoring the self-driving system. Cellphone records show an episode of NBC's "The Voice" was streaming on her phone before the crash, according to investigators.

"The vehicle operator is relied on to intervene and take action," the NTSB reported. "The system is not designed to alert the operator." Temple police say she was looking down 5.2 seconds of the last 5.7. The agency concluded Vasquez turned the steering wheel less than a second before impact and that she did not brake until after the car hit Herzberg. "This crash would not have occurred if Vasquez would have been monitoring the vehicle and the roadway conditions and was not distracted," the Tempe Police Department determined .

In the wake of the accident, Uber parked its self-driving cars, and only put them back on the road this week in "manual" mode. They are currently in the hands of one human - a "mission specialist" - with another observing in the passenger seat, both having extra training in defensive driving and the dangers of distraction. The Volvo collision-avoidance system will be switched back on. For a while, at least, the computers will monitor the humans rather than vice versa.

Hopefully, enough will be learned from the Uber fatality that it will not be repeated. The risk of serious accidents will persist whenever people and machines share responsibility for safety. Because of the idiosyncrasies of each in a constantly evolving relationship, we have not yet cracked the code on collaboration between the ourselves and the robots .

While a great deal is yet to be discovered about how people and machines can combine to further reduce serious accidents, several crucial truths have already emerged.

Robots will eventually become the better drivers. People have a tendency to quit technology when it fails and forgive humans when they do. Yet machines - whether iPhones or autonomous driving systems - are exceptionally amenable to successive improvements. People cannot improve their cognitive capacities. Computer processing speeds can be upgraded. People cannot electronically choreograph their driving with dozens of vehicles miles ahead or add infrared sensors that would "see" a pedestrian in the dark. Robots can or eventually will. New York Times contributor Malia Wollan foresees a time when autonomous vehicles "are equipped with 360-degree-sensing technology that can see farther than the human eye and react more quickly," saving not just human lives, but those of the animals that so frequently dash across roads. This difference portends a time in the future when computers are the superior drivers.

For now, an alert person is the superior driver. How could Herzberg have been seen, recognized as a pedestrian and saved in time? Tempe police carefully reconstructed the accident at its scene. They determined that if she had been looking at the road, "the driver in this case could have reacted and brought the vehicle to rest 42.61 feet prior to the pedestrian." What flummoxed the Uber computer is a relatively simple puzzle for an experienced and alert driver. Our brains are exceptional at the type of pattern recognition engineers are attempting to encode into computers.

Human nature won't change. Evolved as it did over hundreds of thousands of years, human nature is a stubborn thing, exacerbated by the fact that every year, we put a fresh supply of 16-year-old novices on the road. The aggregate failures of human drivers will remain consistent. Last year, 40,100 people died in the United States in non-robotic vehicle accidents. This year, next year and the year after that the number and the proportions of root causes won't be much different.

We risk relying too much on technology. To what degree people become less vigilant when new safety technologies are introduced remains an open question. It's called "risk compensation" - the propensity to take greater risks when safeguards are added, sometimes neutralizing the hoped-for effects of the technology. It's clear that when robots help, some people are tempted to turn over too much responsibility to the machines, as apparently happened in Tempe. If the car is driving itself, does someone really need to monitor its driving? For now, the answer is yes. If the car has anti-lock brakes, do you still need to drive as if you don't have them? Yes.

Screens kill. If we've learned anything from the advent of smartphones, it's that we are deeply psychologically maladapted to driving with our devices within reach. We seem nearly powerless to resist looking at an alert, responding to a trivial test, or looking down at the screen when stopped at a red light, despite the dangers and the illegality. Faster than engineers can add new safety features to vehicles, drivers are getting worse, much of that degradation because of our electronics.

Humans have blind spots technology can fill. We like to think we perceive everything around us, but the research is clear that we miss important elements. The phenomenon is so common it has an established term in the research: "Looked but did not see." In the United Kingdom, it has an acronym: ("Sorry, Mate, I didn't see you"). Advances such as blind spot detection systems and rearview displays have the potential to save lives, so long as people don't use them in lieu of traditional safe-driving habits.

With or without technology, anyone can cut his or her risk. The vast majority of roadway deaths are avoidable. The persistence of fatalities is rarely one of ability to avoid a crash, but of personal investments in doing so. While the aggregate patterns are unlikely to change anytime soon, any individual can substantially reduce his or her risk of dying on the road by getting enough sleep, turning off the phone, leaving early enough to avoid the urge to rush, slowing down a bit, and using technology as an augmentation to his or her vigilance rather than a substitute for it.

The fatality in Tempe will interrupt but not stop the trend toward greater automation on the highways. We will be increasingly sharing the roads with robots and driving with more assistance from them. As good as our skills are when we're fully attentive, enough of us persist in bad driving habits that sooner than it would otherwise be, autonomous vehicles, without any human backup, will be the safer choice. In the meantime, the safest people will be those who have the advanced technology, but drive as though they do not have it.

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Robots Can't Make Us Safer Until We Figure Out The Division Of Labor

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Someone already has been. Her name was Elaine Herzberg . She was 49. Four months ago, she was struck and killed in Tempe, Arizona, by an Uber "self-driving" vehicle taking a second lap of a test route on regular streets.

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Zappos is considered a leader when it comes to customer experience, but it hasn't always been that way. When Rob Siefker, now the Senior Director of Customer Loyalty, started representing the company at conferences years ago, he estimates only 10% of people had heard of Zappos. Now that number is around 99%, and the company has become a model of how to create a customer-obsessed culture. However, the road to Zappos' success wasn't without hiccups.
Listen to Zappos Senior Director of Customer Loyalty Rob Siefker, on the Modern Customer Podcast.
Zappos has been an evolving company from the start. When Rob started in 2004, he was working as a temp in the call center on a job that was only expected to last a few days. That didn't end up being the case, and he has grown with the company over the last 14 years. As Zappos has grown, one thing that has stayed the same has been the company's customer-obsessed mindset. Although customer trends, expectations, and technology have changed, Zappos has been able to stay true to its brand and respond to a changing environment.

One of the biggest changes for Zappos occurred when the company shifted to a Holacracy model in 2013. Instead of using the traditional top-down organizational system, Zappos wanted to encourage innovation and empower employees by flattening the structure and distributing power. Zappos is now a leader in Holacracy, and it has been a great fit for the company, but it there were challenges along the way. There were a lot of unknowns with the initial transition, especially because no company of Zappos' size had ever tried Holacracy before. One of the things Rob said the company didn't anticipate was how to process the natural tensions that come with change. The new system was a bit disorienting at first, simply because it was something employees had never experienced before. Some of the early growing pains could have perhaps been mitigated if leaders had better anticipated the challenges and taught employees how to use the new system to instigate change.

Rob suggests that other companies that move to Holacracy or make any sort of big structural change should recognize that people will likely have a hard time with a significant change and will need time to adjust. Rob recommends involving employees from the beginning of the process and answering their questions right away so they can see how the change will affect them before it actually takes place. Zappos considered its employees when moving to Holacracy and trained them on the new system, but it also wanted to move quickly, and there were areas where it could have been better to slow down and make sure everyone had a firm understanding of the new principles.

However, the challenges of moving to a new system only solidified Zappos' customer-first culture, and the company came out stronger. Zappos Insights is a consulting arm where Rob and other employees mentor other customer service companies on running contact centers and putting customers first. The key thing for these companies to remember is that every business is different and there isn't one single playbook for success.

Zappos has grown and evolved over the last decade, and it will continue to evolve as demands and technology change. However, Rob says that the focus always has been and always will be on building an emotional connection between customers and the brand. The company will continue to elevate its customer experience in new ways, including its Zappos Adaptive program that curates products for people who have disabilities or limitations that makes it harder for them to put on clothes and shoes. Zappos aims to provide better service to an underrepresented customer group and to all customers.

Although it hasn't always been a smooth road, Zappos' ability to focus on customers and empower employees has allowed the company to take risks and come out stronger and smarter than ever before. Although every business is different, every company can learn from Zappos' customer-focused culture.
Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker and author of "More Is More." Sign up for her weekly newsletter here.

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Stronger And Smarter: A Look Back At Customer Experience With Zappos

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Zappos is considered a leader when it comes to customer experience, but it hasn't always been that way. Although customer trends, expectations, and technology have changed, Zappos has been able to stay true to its brand and customer-obsessed mindset while responding to a changing environment.

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Zappos, the Las Vegas-based footwear and clothing retailer, has been at the forefront of defining the role community plays in a branding strategy.

Tyler Williams is the firm's "head of brand aura." He recently took the time to share his insights on how brand and community intersect.

Paul Talbot: What role should community play when a marketer works on the brand?

Tyler Williams: At Zappos we have three main targets when it comes to marketing: employees, (the local Las Vegas) community, and customers. Each one like a ripple effect directing outward from an epicenter.

We like to imagine Zappos as a person and our employees as our immediate family, our community like our close friends and extended family, and our customers are the people we interact with in a business capacity.

Similar to an individual, if you invest in each of these pillars they will become an organic source of support for your brand. We feel this support when we have a marketing initiative.

Our employees and local community are huge champions of what we are doing.

Talbot: Is there a symbiotic relationship? Does the brand shape the community, the community shape the brand? In a strategic sense, how is this aspect of the relationship best understood by the marketer?

Williams: They should definitely shape each other.

As a company, having a pulse on what matters to the community is way more important than just investing money in your community. Helping build the success of your community through awareness outperforms a funding source.

You don't want the community to be reliant upon you as a brand. You want to help connect them to the right resources, so their support is spread out and they are more resilient.

Talbot: When the community changes, does the brand change? If so, how does the marketer guide this process so that the core values of the brand aren't negatively impacted?

Williams: We like to think of our core values as the DNA of our brand. We even have a strategy statement that states Core Values > Everything Else.

As the community changes, your hope is that it comes in line with your core values through your continued influence and inclusion.

If the opposite is happening, I would recommend changing your approach to how you include your community in what you are doing.

If the gap continues to widen, you're at risk of your employee base being affected. The human capital available will be less likely to embody your core values.

Talbot: When the community believes it is not being heard, is the brand at risk? If so, how can this be avoided?

Williams: Depending on how far-reaching your brand is, it may not be a risk from a business/consumer side, but it could be a risk from a local support and recruiting side.

A vibrant local community is critical in attracting top talent to your company. Employees want to work, play, and live in a community where when someone finds out where you work, it's an energizing conversation for them and not a defensive one.

Talbot: Do you expect the role of community on shaping the brand to grow? If so, what might we see?

Williams: We think we are already seeing that take place today. Zappos is a service brand. Because of this we aligned with a 24/7 hospitality/service community (Las Vegas).

We didn't stay in San Francisco to be a tech company. We chose to be all about customer service. A community that's whole existence is based in customer service made sense for us.

You will see more and more companies sprouting up that are already aligned with their communities' core values, and others companies moving to align with them. The two go hand in hand and nurture each other.

Talbot: Any other thoughts on this you'd care to share?

There is a really great book called Community: The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block.

What I and others loved about Peter's book is how he focuses on bringing about the qualities of an authentic sense of belonging over a visionary for people to live up to.

In the end people want to feel like they belong.

If a company can open its arm and include the community it will get a lot in return.

If they have shiny ivory towers and high walls with the best security, the community will grow to resent them. The amount of money you bring to the table will not matter.

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Engaging A Brand's Community The Zappos Way

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Zappos, the Las Vegas-based footwear and clothing retailer, has been at the forefront of defining the role community plays in a branding strategy. Tyler Williams is the firm's "head of brand aura." He recently took the time to share his insights on how brand and community intersect.

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SWOT is a handy mnemonic to help corporate planners think about strategy. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. What are an organisation's SWOTs? How can it manage them in a way that will optimise its performance? A second four-letter acronym is sometimes brought into play here: USED. How can the Strengths be Used; the Weaknesses be Stopped, the Opportunities be Exploited; and the Threats be Defended against?
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Wikipedia credits the technique to Albert Humphrey, an academic at Stanford University, who based it on an analysis of Fortune 500 companies that he carried out in the 1960s and 1970s.

The process starts by listing a firm's attributes under the four headings; a particular strength, for example, might be a dedicated workforce or some currently valuable patent. These are then given scores according to what is seen as likely to be the company's business environment over the next few years. If a recession is beginning and employees have to be laid off, a dedicated workforce might be a weakness. If a boom is about to begin, however, it will be a strength.

The four features can be divided along two main dimensions:

* Internal/external. The internal features are the company's own strengths and weaknesses. Analysing them is a matter of analysing the state of the company. They are things that already exist. The external features are the organisation's opportunities and the threats to its future performance. These exist only on the horizon, and they are less easy to assess and measure. They arise from things like changes in technology, demography or government policy.

* Positive/negative. The positive things are the strengths and opportunities; the negative ones are the threats and weaknesses.

A SWOT analysis can be applied to different aspects of a company's business, such as its it capability or its skills. The simplicity and intuitive wholeness of the framework have helped to make it extremely popular with both corporations and governments. An analysis of the competitive advantages and disadvantages of Germany in 1999 found that the country's strengths lay in its educated and skilled workforce. Among its weaknesses were its high labour and social costs.

Nevertheless, there has been no shortage of critics. One of the main criticisms is that, in the end, such an analysis invariably relies on subjective judgments. Objective measures of all the ingredients in the balance simply do not exist. Some say that this does not matter, because the process of doing the analysis is more important and revealing than the results of the analysis themselves. The journey is more important than the destination.

Further reading

Hill, T. and Westbrook, R., "SWOT analysis: it's time for a product recall", Long Range Planning, February 1997

Pickton, D.W. and Wright, S.W., "What's SWOT in strategic analysis?", Strategic Change, Vol. 7, No. 2, March-April 1998

More management ideas

This article is adapted from "The Economist Guide to Management Ideas and Gurus", by Tim Hindle (Profile Books; 322 pages; £20). The guide has the low-down on over 100 of the most influential business-management ideas and more than 50 of the world's most influential management thinkers. To buy this book, please visit our online shop.

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SWOT is a handy mnemonic to help corporate planners think about strategy. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. What are an organisation's SWOTs? How can it manage them in a way that will optimise its performance? A second four-letter acronym is sometimes brought into play here: USED.

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Business students are all exposed to the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis tool. This last week I came across several interesting stories - or in one case a presentation - that all centered on different aspects of SWOT in the supply chain realm.

First, STRENGTHS: Greg Toornman - the Director of Global Materials, Logistics, and Freight Management at AGCO - spoke last Wednesday (February 14 th) at s 22nd Annual Industry Forum. AGCO is an $8.3 billion farm equipment manufacturer. Greg gave a great speech, in my opinion, the best I saw at the forum. AGCO has won awards for their accomplishments over the last few years, including winning the 2017 European Logistics Association Award. That award was well warranted; they did a worldwide integration of their inbound supply chains across their various brands - Massey Ferguson, Challenger, Valtra, Fendt, and GSA. Their key tools were a transportation management system (TMS) from 4flow, SAP's Supply Network Collaboration tool, and a supply chain risk management solution from risk methods.

The result? Freight savings of over 20 percent while maintaining service levels! Putting in a TMS and achieving freight savings is not all that unusual, but AGCO's freight savings - on a percentage basis - are the greatest I've ever come across.

But the risk management capabilities they have developed are particularly groundbreaking. Greg told the story of an important supplier to the industry having a fire at their plant. AGCO knew about the fire before the owner of the company! Their call to his house to discuss the situation woke him up! By getting to this supplier first, they continued to get their full allotment while their competitors were forced to go on allocation. That is a supply chain strength!

Now let's move to WEAKNESSES. In the news yesterday (February 19 th) fast-food chain KFC has had to close hundreds of outlets across the UK after they ran out of chicken. Until last Tuesday, KFC's chicken was delivered by South African-owned distribution group Bidves. But to save money, they switched the delivery contract to DHL, which blamed "operational issues" for the supply disruption. Eventually, they will get this straightened out, but this division is unlikely to hit its revenue targets this year; not just because of the business they've lost, but because existing customers who were disappointed will be less likely to risk eating at the restaurant for some time.

OPPORTUNITIES! An interesting story in the Wall Street Journal last week discussed 3G Capital, a Brazilian investment firm. 3G Capital is expert at buying mature companies and then wringing savings out of the acquisitions. 3G owned H.J. Heinz and Heinz, in turn, took over Kraft in 2015. When Heinz finalized the deal, they put many of their executives in control of the newly merged company whose name changed to Kraft Heinz. Their goal was to drive two billion dollars in savings by closing some plants, adding automation to others, running lean on inventory, and running a far more efficient supply chain network. Their acquisition/cost cutting playbook had been honed with a previous acquisition that created Anheuser-Busch InBev and the acquisitions of the Burger King and Tim Hortons fast food restaurant chains.

A couple paragraphs caught my attention, "'A lot of times products are basically ... shoehorned into a factory,' said Mr. Shannan, the supply-chain chief. 'It's not always an optimized design of how things should work.' In the broader overhaul of nationwide production, the company used computer modeling to analyze where it sourced ingredients, where it needed to ship finished products, and the cost and availability of labor and other resources. The model spit out ideal locations for factories and warehouses ... Product lines were grouped more logically. The bologna line in the old Davenport plant was shifted to join the chopped ham line in Kirksville, Mo., which uses similar ingredients and processing techniques."

The software that drives this kind of analysis is known as supply chain design. Llamasoft is the best-known supplier of this type of software, and they have several case studies on their site about how their software has been used in just to drive network efficiencies after a merger or acquisition.

Kraft Heinz now has the highest operating margins among its peers. But because Kraft Heinz sells foods like bologna which are going out of favor among more health-conscious consumers, their challenges are not over. It is unlikely that marketing can goose sales for these types of products, so financial analysts are pressuring the company to continue to grow by making more acquisitions.

Finally, THREATS! It is no secret that Amazon has used an innovative supply chain to steal market share from retailers. A new category of retailers has been threatened. Amazon announced they have introduced free, two-hour delivery from Whole Foods stores to its Prime members in four cities. Amazon purchased Whole Foods last year and this move was expected. Nevertheless, grocery chains face the same threats other swaths of retail have faced for some time.

Success is by no means guaranteed. Delivering refrigerated and frozen products is more challenging, consumers may reject produce deliveries which drives up returns costs, and over the past few decades, several companies have tried to crack the home delivery grocery market unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, traditional groceries would be foolish to ignore this new threat.

Finally, it is perhaps obvious that every organization should do a SWOT analysis of their supply chain at least once a year; but many companies don't.

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In The News: Supply Chain Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities And Threats

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Business students are all exposed to the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis tool. This last week I came across several interesting stories - or in one case a presentation - that all centered on different aspects of SWOT in the supply chain realm.

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amburger Lane is a quarter-mile, palm-lined stretch of Baldwin Park, California, 30 minutes east of Los Angeles. Halfway down the block, a low-slung building covered in gray siding sits behind a security fence. Knowing what's inside the little structure helps explain the street's unusual name. It's the top-secret corporate test kitchen for In-N-Out Burger, the iconic West Coast chain.

Lynsi Snyder, the company's billionaire president, hovers over a set of double fryers and stove-top griddles. "To be honest, I don't come here a whole lot," she says. Given the clean counters and neatly tucked-away cooking utensils, it doesn't look like anyone comes here often.

Which is probably not far off the mark. While McDonald's and Burger King serve well over 80 different items, In-N-Out famously serves fewer than 15: burgers, cheeseburgers, fries, soda, milk shakes and the signature two-patty Double-Double. Snyder has added just one thing: hot chocolate in 2018. The company will make tweaks from time to time, like switching to a premium Kona coffee and healthier sunflower oil for cooking fries.

But Snyder, who at 36 debuts on this year's Forbes 400 as its youngest woman, with a net worth of $3 billion, fiercely embraces an imperviousness to change. "It's not [about] adding new products. Or thinking of the next bacon-wrapped this or that. We're making the same burger, the same fry," says Snyder, wearing black lace-up combat boots and stacks of silver bracelets on both arms. "We're really picky and strategic. We're not going to compromise."

In-N-Out is a culinary anachronism. It hasn't evolved much since Snyder's grandparents founded it in 1948. Buns are baked with slow-rising dough each morning. Three central facilities grind all the (never-frozen) meat, delivering daily to the 333 restaurants. Nearly all its locations are in California, and all are company owned. (In-N-Out does not franchise.) Heat lamps, microwaves and freezers are banned from the premises. The recipes for its burgers and fries have remained essentially the same for 70 years.

Consistency has earned it a passionate following. In-N-Out has become a fixture at Oscars after-parties. Its secret menu, like the option to order a burger "protein style"-lettuce leaves, no bun-is the least well-kept secret since the WikiLeaks cables. Top chefs like Gordon Ramsay, David Chang and Thomas Keller are all enthusiastic fans. The actor-cum-rapper Donald Glover has rhapsodized about In-N-Out in his lyrics. And in 2006 Paris Hilton got a DUI because, as she later explained, "I was just really hungry, and I wanted to have an In-N-Out burger."

"They have a loyalty and an enthusiasm for the brand that very, very few restaurants can ever obtain," says Robert Woolway, who handles restaurant deals for the L.A.-based investment bank FocalPoint Partners.

That loyalty is lucrative. An In-N-Out store outsells a typical McDonald's nearly twice over, bringing in an estimated $4.5 million in gross annual sales versus McDonald's $2.6 million. (In-N-Out, which is private, won't comment on its financials.) In-N-Out's profit margin (measured by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) is an estimated 20%. That's higher than In-N-Out's East Coast rival Shake Shack (16%) and other restaurant chains that typically own their locations, like Chipotle (10.5%). Revenue should surpass $1 billion this year, roughly doubling in eight years, and the business is debt-free, according to the company. In-N-Out is conservatively worth $3 billion, and Snyder now owns virtually all of it after receiving chunks on her 25th, 30th and 35th birthdays (she got the last slice in 2017).

Snyder is an unlikely shepherd of her family's business. By all rights, her uncle should be running In-N-Out, if not for his untimely death. She never graduated from college and lost her father to drug abuse. As a young woman, she battled through a period of alcohol and drug use and three divorces. Snyder, a devout Christian who sports tattoos of Bible verses, came out of those experiences drawn to In-N-Out's long-standing stability-determined to change the company as little as possible, particularly the brand's image of 1950s wholesomeness. After taking over in 2010, she embarked on a slow, steady expansion across the West, opening more than 80 stores in the same period that Five Guys, a close competitor, added more than 500 across America.

"I felt a deep call to make sure that I preserve those things that [my family] would want. That we didn't ever look to the left and the right to see what everyone else is doing, cut corners or change things drastically or compromise," says Snyder, who has spoken with the media only a handful of times. "I really wanted to make sure that we stayed true to what we started with. That required me to become a protector. A guardian."

n 1948, Harry and Esther Snyder, Lynsi's grandparents, opened the first In-N-Out, in Baldwin Park. It had no indoor seating, so Harry installed a two-way speaker box connected to the kitchen, creating an early drive-thru window. As Americans flooded the new U.S. highway system, In-N-Out, which was placing its restaurants alongside the new roads, took off. In southern California, In-N-Outs became a hangout for hot rod racers. From the early days, Harry and Esther were keen to keep as many aspects of the business in-house as they could. They butchered their own meat, started a wholesaling firm to stock up on paper supplies and used their own construction crew to build new stores.

In-N-Out grew gradually, reaching 18 locations, all in California, by the time Harry died in 1976. His younger son, Rich, took his spot; the elder son, Guy, Lynsi's father, had been passed over. He had an ongoing problem with opioids after a motorcycle accident left him with chronic pain. He spent his days away from the company, drag racing or on his 115-acre ranch in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where Lynsi grew up.

In December 1993, Rich flew to see his niece Lynsi in a play at a private Christian school and then continued on to the opening of store No. 93 in Fresno, California. On the way home, the ten-passenger plane crashed, leaving no survivors. After his death, Esther became president, and Guy, who had separated from Lynsi's mother earlier that year, took over as executive vice president and chairman.

During Guy's six years as chairman, In-N-Out grew to 140 stores, with over $200 million in revenue. Yet he struggled personally. On Christmas Day 1995 he was arrested for public intoxication and illegally carrying a loaded firearm, which he had along with a switchblade knife and marijuana. Over the next few years he survived a drug-related heart attack and three drug overdoses before dying of heart failure (with hydrocodone in his system) in December 1999, at age 48.

"When he was sober, he was the best dad in the world. We had our time cut short," says Lynsi, who has a scroll with the words "Daddy's Girl" tattooed on her right shoulder.

Before her father died, Lynsi had worked for a few months at an In-N-Out in Redding, California, separating leaves of lettuce and working the register. Soon after, the 18-year-old married and moved close to the company's headquarters in Baldwin Park to take a job at In-N-Out's corporate merchandising department, approving projects like T-shirt designs. Lynsi fell into a year-long stretch of alcohol and marijuana use, and she and her husband divorced after a few years. A second short-lived marriage followed.

"It was like a black-sheep era of my life," she says. "By the time I hit 22, it was pretty much over."

Lynsi rotated through departments at In-N-Out to learn the business. As Lynsi educated herself on how it worked, Esther, then in her 80s, ran day-to-day operations. Then Esther died too, in 2006.

Mark Taylor, a longtime In-N-Out executive (who is also Lynsi's brother-in-law), became company president, turning over the role to Lynsi in 2010. At age 27, Lynsi was running In-N-Out, which was generating an estimated $550 million in sales at 251 locations.

Her third marriage came soon after, this time to a race car driver. (It's in the blood: Lynsi also drag races competitively.) They divorced in 2014, followed by her fourth marriage. "The things that I've been through forced me to be stronger," she says. "When you persevere, you end up developing more strength."

n In-N-Out restaurant is a time capsule. The red-and-white color scheme hasn't changed since the 1950s, and the chrome tables and vinyl chairs are poodle-skirt-era throwbacks. Palm trees are a frequent motif-printed on the company's plates, painted onto restaurant walls-a nod both to In-N-Out's California roots and to Grandpa Snyder's favorite movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, from 1963. Bible verse numbers have appeared on burger wrappers and cups since 1985, and Snyder has added two more: Proverbs 24:16 (for those unfamiliar: " ... the wicked shall fall into mischief") to the fries container and Luke 6:35 ("But love ye your enemies, and do good") to coffee cups.

Over the past 30 years, the price of the Double-Double hasn't even kept up with inflation. In 1989 the sandwich cost $2.15, or about $4.40 in current dollars. It costs $3.85 today. A combo meal (Double-Double, fries, drink) goes for $7.30, compared with $10.94 for Shake Shack's standard double-burger patty and fries.

So how does In-N-Out maintain its margins? To start, the limited menu means reduced costs for raw ingredients. The company also saves money by buying wholesale and grinding the beef in-house. By doing its own sourcing and distribution, it likely saves 3% to 5% in food costs a year. It cuts out an estimated 6% to 10% of total costs by owning most of its properties-many bought years ago-and not paying rent. In-N-Out picks its locations carefully, clustering them near one another and close to highways to lower delivery costs while also avoiding pricey urban cores. It has just one location within the city limits of Los Angeles and one in San Francisco, while many Shake Shacks are smack in the center of town.

While much has stayed the same at In-N-Out, Snyder has made some changes. She moved the company into Texas for the first time in 2011 and into Oregon four years later. Last November, In-N-Out announced it would expand to Colorado-once it finishes building a new regional headquarters and a patty-making facility there, likely by 2020. New Mexico may be next, a few years after Colorado, Snyder says, since the new supply center is nearby. Snyder still abides by the long-standing In-N-Out rule that all new restaurants fall within a day's drive from the nearest warehouse, so meat and other ingredients stay fresh.

"I don't see us stretched across the whole U.S. I don't see us in every state. Take Texas-draw a line up and just stick to the left. That's in my lifetime," Snyder says. "I like that we're sought after when someone's coming into town. I like that we're unique. That we're not on every corner. You put us in every state and it takes away some of its luster."

No matter where In-N-Out goes, it has to deal with competitors with entrenched positions. In Texas it faces 68-year-old Whataburger. The $2-billion-in-revenue company has 674 locations in the Lone Star State-In-N-Out has just 36 there-after opening 116 more in Texas since In-N-Out came in. "Certainly we'd love for them to go somewhere else. But they're welcome to compete," says Preston Atkinson, Whataburger's CEO. "They're doing something different than we are. In-N-Out has got a limited menu." But In-N-Out is betting that its small number of offerings and higher-quality food will help win over Whataburger customers. It has launched a highway billboard campaign outside Dallas-where Whataburger has 20% of its stores-with the tagline "No Microwaves, No Freezers, No Heat Lamps."

On its California home turf, In-N-Out must defend against incursions. Shake Shack, the popular $359-million-in-sales burger chain founded by the New York restaurateur Danny Meyer, has come west, opening nine locations in southern California during the last two years, with plans to open three in the Bay Area starting this fall. Shake Shack burgers, made with meat from the famous high-end butcher Pat LaFrieda and served on potato-bread buns from Martin's, have their own loyal following. "We wanted to bring our own spin to California," says Andrew McCaughan, Shake Shack's vice president of development. "It's absolutely a key market for us, and we continue to really want to invest deeper and deeper in the market."

At In-N-Out, Snyder's "goals are not for us to be the biggest," says executive vice president Bob Lang, a 45-year In-N-Out veteran. "Really, it's about maintaining the legacy of her family and a family environment."

Snyder is popular with her 26,000 employees. She has a 99% approval rating on Glassdoor.com, the job-reviews site, and is ranked No. 4. on a 2018 Glassdoor list of top bosses at large companies, ahead of CEOs like LinkedIn's Jeff Weiner, Salesforce's Marc Benioff and Microsoft's Satya Nadella.

In-N-Out and Snyder get high marks for a reason: good pay and career development. Restaurant workers, or "associates" in In-N-Out speak, make $13 an hour, versus the $9 to $10 or so that's typical at most national competitors, including McDonald's and Burger King. Part- and full-time restaurant workers can enroll in dental, vision and life insurance plans through the company, and full-timers can get health insurance and paid vacation, accruing time off after two weeks of employment.

The average In-N-Out manager has been with the company for 17 years and makes $163,000, more than the typical California dentist, accountant or financial advisor. Managers get profit-sharing, too. "They're simulating an ownership mentality at the restaurant," says John Glass, a restaurant-industry equity analyst at Morgan Stanley. "That manager now has skin in the game."

ne idea has been firmly held in the minds of the Snyders. It might as well be the family motto: The company isn't for sale.

Back when he was chairman, Rich Snyder summed up the thought of selling In-N-Out this way: "I would be prostituting what my parents made by doing that," he told Forbes in 1989. "There is money to be made by doing those things, but you lose something, and I don't want to lose what I was raised with all my life."

Over the course of a month, Lynsi Snyder routinely gets offers to take In-N-Out public or sell. "We've had some pretty crazy offers," says Snyder. "There's been, like, princes and different people throwing some big numbers at us where I'm like, 'Really?' " The plan never changes. "We will continue to politely say no to Wall Street or to the Saudi princes. Whoever will come," says Arnie Wensinger, In-N-Out's longtime general counsel.

The idea of an In-N-Out IPO leaves bankers like Damon Chandik, the head of Piper Jaffray's restaurant M&A team, salivating. "I get calls all the time on In-N-Out. It would be the hottest IPO out there," he says. "I admire her and the whole company for not going down the path. You do have that risk of ultimately changing the culture of the business."

Given the investor appetite for Shake Shack, whose stock trades at almost 100 times earnings, a public offering would undoubtedly hand In-N-Out tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars in working capital-and give Snyder a way to cash out part of her stake in the business.

"It's not about the money for us," she says. "Unless God sends a lightning bolt down and changes my heart miraculously, I would not ever sell."
Reach Chloe Sorvino at csorvino@forbes.com. Header image by Ethan Pines for Forbes.

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Exclusive: In-N-Out Billionaire Lynsi Snyder Opens Up About Her Troubled Past And The Burger Chain's Future

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amburger Lane is a quarter-mile, palm-lined stretch of Baldwin Park, California, 30 minutes east of Los Angeles. Halfway down the block, a low-slung building covered in gray siding sits behind a security fence. Knowing what's inside the little structure helps explain the street's unusual name.

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Fortune: The big surprise is Enterprise - Jul. 14, 2006

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There are a couple of things you might not know about Enterprise Rent-A-Car of St. Louis.

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What is Global Marketing? See 13 Businesses with Brilliant Strategies

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A global presence is possible for any business with a creative strategy and an understanding of world markets. Here’s how.

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Hanging in the office of each of Marriott International's 1,200 I.T. employees is a framed document titled "Information Resources Operating Values." Executive Vice President and CIO Carl Wilson brought this statement of principles to Marriott in 1997 to guide IT decision making, and Marriott has issued it in ready-to-mount form to every new employee since then.

The Spirit to Serve, Chairman and CEO J.W. Marriott Jr.'s management book published that same year, is also required reading for new hires. It covers everything from how his father bought his first A&W Root Beer stand in 1927 to how to do just about anything involved in running a hotel in the best way possible, of course. It includes, for instance, J.W.'s famous 66-step process for cleaning a room. Talk to an IT associate, and you'll inevitably hear him recite from the book chapter and verse. (The next time you stay at a Marriott, check it out. The Spirit to Serve is in every room.)

All this may sound more cult than corporate culture. And within the hospitality industry, Marriott does indeed come in for its share of teasing about its almost religious adherence to the tenets of the "Marriott way." Yet many of these precepts revolve around one word: resourcefulness.

Now it might seem that following strict, documented rules would inhibit innovation. But in practice, the fact that Marriott and its IT department have documents and systems, policies and procedures, and even history and philosophy to guide their decisions frees them to focus on real resourcefulness: creativity combined with the commitment to wringing the most value from every IT dollar.

It seems to be working for the $8.4 billion hotel management company. Marriott has just experienced the worst two years in its 75-year history. Yet thanks largely to the resourcefulness of its IT, last year the Bethesda, Md.-based company was able to add more than 31,000 rooms and sustain an occupancy rate of 70 percent, well above the 59 percent industry average.

"Resourcefulness has to do with a mind-set and a culture. Our fundamental operating values define our culture here," Wilson says. "One of the things we always say is that we'll never be satisfied with the way things are today. We'll continue to improve them to make them better."

No tree grows to the sky.

-The Spirit to Serve

After the early '90s hit the hospitality industry with the one-two punch of recession and the Gulf War, Marriott was quick to spin off its real estate business in order to focus on managing hotels. But once the company returned to growth mode in 1994, its executives started to believe that happy days had come again and for good. "When times are tight, you struggle for ways to cut costs. Then all of a sudden you have a great year, like those we had in the mid-1990s, and you tend to start adding a lot of extra support functions," admits President and COO William J. Shaw. "When we had some of our best years, we let those costs slip back in there."

"No tree grows to the sky," one of the company's directors was fond of pointing out at Marriott board meetings. Or as J.W. Marriott says, Growth can't go on forever; inevitably, it slows.

So when Shaw, a 29-year Marriott veteran, became COO and hired Wilson as CIO in 1997, they started working to get those costs back out. Shaw began to sell off more of the company's noncore businesses, including food service, senior living communities and distribution. Wilson evaluated the systems the business was running on to see how the company could streamline operations and boost revenue, and decided that Marriott's single biggest business application-the enormous Marriott Automated Reservation Systems for Hotel Accommodations, better known as Marsha-needed a complete and immediate overhaul.

"Even in the good times, you ought to behave like you're in the bad times," Wilson says.

In the wrong hands, such a corporate outlook could create a pessimistic, "sky is falling" kind of culture. But at Marriott, that belief is spun in more positive terms: Employees are expected to improve the way the company operates no matter what the balance sheet says.

Reuse if possible, buy if available, and build for competitive advantage.

-"Information Resources Operating Values"

As Mike Keppler, vice president of sales, marketing and revenue management systems, explains: "In the IT business, the pressure is always there to do more with less and bring things to market faster."

Keppler hit the ground running in 1998 on the Marsha overhaul. Marsha's importance to Marriott is best understood, says Misha Kravchenko, senior director of Marsha systems and performance measurement, by thinking of it as a "supply chain system for the hotel industry." Much more than a database of reservations, it connects in real-time to Marriott's customers, partners and suppliers and contains more than 6,000 programs.

Some questioned Wilson's rush to refurbish a system that seemed to be working. Marsha was 14 years old and outdated, but most companies in the industry were content with their similarly dated systems. Nonetheless, Wilson's department embarked on an upgrade, taking as its guide the "Information Resources Operating Values" that decreed, "Reuse if possible, buy if available, and build for competitive advantage." So Wilson kept much of the original system while adding functionality and reducing the cost of operation.

"Some people said, Why are you pushing so hard to make this happen? We don't have any issues right now," recalls Wilson. His response was this: "It wasn't raining when Noah started to build the Ark.

"Resourcefulness," Wilson continues, "is actually a journey that starts way back here somewhere-you have to be continually doing it even when you don't need to."

Some of the work to transform Marsha had a looming deadline: Y2K. But Marriott had another, earlier Armageddon in mind. With the advent of the Internet, the look-to-book ratio (the number of times a traveler browses the system before buying) had skyrocketed from 5-1 to 100-1. If that held, Kravchenko calculated that Marsha would run out of capacity by September 1998. In addition, Marsha ran on just one processor, so Marriott was forced to buy ever bigger and more expensive single processors.

Kravchenko and his team converted all the application components and systems middleware so that Marsha could run on parallel processors. "It was like performing open-heart surgery on a marathon runner while he's running the race," Kravchenko says. The move allowed the IT department to take advantage of the plummeting prices of new, smaller disk storage devices.

The team expanded Marsha's network capabilities to respond to increased Internet demand, moving from the older IBM SNA network infrastructure to open TCP/IP architecture. That took three years.

"We had so many connections to so many partners, from our hotels to booking companies to banks and rental car companies, and they all had to be moved from the legacy architecture," says Kravchenko. But it was a boon in terms of cost savings as the older IBM system was much more costly to maintain.

Marriott plowed those savings into additional upgrades to Marsha. Keppler replaced a decades-old DOS front end with a Windows application called Merlin for call center operations; Merlin typically captures more than $15 million in revenue each weekday. This was a situation in which it was worth it from a competitive standpoint for Marriott to build its own application, Keppler says.

The final upgrades to the operating system and network infrastructure are being implemented this year, but Marsha handled 59 million reservations last year, and its processing capacity has increased 300 percent. The cost per transaction (which Marriott charges to hotel owners and wants to keep flat) has dropped 16 percent since 2000. And Marriott can now boast a single image inventory (one view of all rooms across all channels and 17 Marriott-owned hotel chains). "We've been able to reduce costs and deliver more power while increasing the scale, scope and functionality of the system," Keppler boasts.

Preserve change amid order.

-The Spirit to Serve

When questioned about Marriott's current fiscal condition, company executives quickly turn to the positive effects of the negative forces at work. They believe the current downturn comes with a gift: the discipline to take a hard look at what's not adding value to the company. The slump just makes it easier to, as J.W. Marriott writes in his book, "preserve change amid order." That is, the best time to shake things up is when things are going smoothly.

Just before the recession settled in, in early 2001, each department cut its budget by 10 percent. After Sept. 11 that same year, each department trimmed its budget by another 20 percent. Marriott IT was asked not just to cut its own costs but also to help the rest of the business units cut theirs.

"You have to stop doing things that aren't adding value," Wilson emphasizes.

Like using two separate yield management systems.

Marriott wants to sell its rooms at the highest price possible. But if it doesn't book a room (which has a shelf life of 24 hours) because it's overpriced, that revenue is lost forever. In order to sell the right product to the right customer at the right time for the right price, the company uses software: a yield management system.

But Marriott was using two different architectural platforms: one for full-service hotels such as Marriott, the other for less upscale properties such as Courtyard. IT had to employ almost twice as many people to maintain the two systems and reply to requests from two separate user communities. In addition, franchisees who owned both types of hotels had to invest in both systems.

In 2001, Senior Vice President of Information Resources Howard Melnick and his team began to work on a unified system.

Rather than replace the two apps, Melnick employed IBM WebSphere to combine the best of each and introduced a new standard desktop. In the resourceful spirit of "reuse before buy before build," he explains that he used as much of the existing batch architecture and code base as possible and bought the WebSphere to combine them in a more flexible Web-based environment.

The final product enabled the IT department to reduce the number of support personnel and integrate the hardware the system required. At the corporate level, collapsing and upgrading the two independent systems has enabled Marriott to improve the accuracy of its reservation forecasts and lift lodging revenue 20 percent, according to Amy McPherson, senior vice president of global revenue management and the business owner of the system.

"These systems are hugely important and a key part of our competitive advantage," McPherson says. "Last year we had the worst year in our history, yet we were able to grow revenue and maintain our costs."

Success is a team sport.

-The Spirit to Serve

If a company is going to be resourceful, IT and the business better be aligned. Marriott's IT employees receive a crash course in the hospitality industry; Marriott's businesspeople are intimately involved in IT projects. They must sponsor any new initiative and retain ownership for the life of the system. The result: Marriott employees, whether in IT or marketing, are on the same page.

"Sometimes when I'm in a meeting, I can't tell if the person speaking is in IT or on the business side," Wilson says. "We've developed a culture of IT-literate, business-knowledgeable professionals. You don't find people in one department saying to people in another that the hole's in your end of the boat. We're all in the same boat."

In fact, the phrase "IT project" has been banned; Wilson's team works only on business projects. "We're not a technology business. We're not even a technology shop." says Melnick. "We're a lodging business, and we want to do things that move Marriott forward as a lodging company." Thus, the IT department focuses on business results, not technology.

COO Shaw contrasts the current joint IT-business approach with mistakes made in the 1970s. Marriott would start to build a hotel, and then the business would say, I want a different kind of restaurant or room layout, and people just kept changing things around. Today with IT, says Shaw, "the business has to put a stake in the ground" to prevent that costly and time-consuming back and forth.

Therefore, as resources become scarce and the IT department has to become hyper-resourceful by, say, halting certain projects or introducing new cost-cutting systems, the business is already on board and changes can be made quickly and effectively.

When hard times hit recently, this teamwork came in handy. For example, Marriott had nine help desks that "weren't providing the level of satisfaction required by our business partners," Wilson explains. So IT rolled those systems into one, adding some automated self-service capability that would help them support the 24/7 global operation they had become and, more important, cut costs.

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Long before the economy went south, Marriott had a reputation for finding creative ways to wrest the most value from every IT dollar.

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We have a long way to go to close the venture capital gender gap.

In 2017, only 2.2% of all venture capital in the United States went to companies founded solely by women, only 4.4% of transactions went to female-founded companies and only 11.3% of partners at venture capitalist firms were women, according to PitchBook data. If the number of female venture capitalists increases, it's likely that the number of female-founded companies receiving funding - and the dollar amount they receive - would increase.

But how do we encourage more women to become the decision makers and change the statistic? That was the topic of conversation at the Funding the Funders panel on the first day of the 2018 Forbes Under 30 Summit in Boston. Moira Forbes, the executive vice president of Forbes Media, moderated the conversation with Anu Duggal, a founding partner at Female Founders Fund, Ita Ekpoudom, a partner at Gingerbread Capital, Heather Hartnett, CEO and general partner at Human Ventures and Samantha Katz, cofounder and CEO of Left Tackle Capital.

Here are some of the key takeaways and pieces of actionable advice from the conversation:
Show the value of investing in female-founded companies:
The best incentive for investors will be the proven financial returns, according to Duggal. She believes that as more women raise capital, scale their businesses and go public, more investors will focus on female-founded companies. "These are the events that I hope will cause the venture capital industry to really take pause and realize that by ignoring these opportunities or not taking them seriously or thinking about the size of the total addressable market [they] are missing out on returns," she says.

Katz also emphasized the economic benefit of investing in female-founded businesses. She cited the 2018 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, commissioned by American Express, which found that an average of 1,821 new businesses a day are founded by women. She also noted that the fastest growing subset is women of color, and in particular African American women, only 34 of whom have raised more than $1M in capital, as previously reported. "It is the biggest arbitrage opportunity of our lifetime. And the reason you see four women sitting on this panel to talk about it is that when we see an opportunity we hustle and we do something about it," says Katz.
Start investing in companies early:
Human Ventures' strategy is to make investments early in a company's trajectory. They start working with founders pre-concept because they believe in them and their skills and expertise and want to help the founders build their teams and the company. "We incubate the company and we are the first check in," she says, "If you co-build the company you can be the first check in as well," says Hartnett.

It's also beneficial on a personal finance level. Ekpoudom shared an anecdote from her early career as one of five women, and the only woman of color, on the trading desk at Goldman Sachs. Her male colleagues started making investments in companies then, but the women she worked with didn't. Ekpoudom's advice to the women and men in the audience was to start making investments of any size into companies they value. "The ability to have money is the ability to give you the opportunity to then choose what you want to do. You don't want to be stuck in the same place because you are tied to a paycheck. I'd say to everyone in the audience, think about where you want to be in five, 10, [or] 20 years from now," says Ekpoudom, "You have the opportunity right now from right in your seats to write the checks that will change the landscape."

Many people choose to become an investor after selling their first company, says Katz. "When should you become an investor? The day you got your first paycheck," she says.

"That's a great point and it totally shifts people's perception in terms of the landscape and experience they can have, and also on the personal side, it helps women close the investment gap with their own finances," says Forbes, "You can have some meaningful returns and opportunities to grow financially."
Advocate for yourself and your business:
When Forbes asked the panel for their advice for entrepreneurs interested in raising capital outside of the traditional venture capital ecosystem, Ekpoudom stressed the importance of promoting yourself and your business. Be able to talk about three milestones about what you've done with your business and have three concrete asks when you meet someone who can help you move your business forward.

Skip the 'humble brag' and get comfortable sharing your team's success - it will be essential when you pitch venture capitalists to raise funding.

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Meet Four Female Investors Who Are Trying To Close The VC Gender Gap

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How do we encourage more women to become the decision makers and change the statistic? That was the topic of conversation at the Funding the Funders panel on the first day of the 2018 Forbes Under 30 Summit in Boston. Here are some of the key takeaways from the conversation.

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Google employees around the world walked out today, demanding changes from the internet giant on its handling of harassment and discrimination. The Googlers listed their calls for change in today, and while the Google employees' demands are a great start, they're not transformative. Here's what they asked for, and what's really needed to transform the workplace.

Googlers demand a publicly disclosed sexual harassment transparency report. The employees are requesting that a report containing the number and type of harassment claims at Google over time, the number of victims and accused who left Google and their exit packages.

What would be even better is a sexual harassment climate survey. The problem with reporting on sexual harassment claims is that most sexual harassment victims do not report the harassment. Therefore, there could be rampant harassment at Google, and if employees were reluctant to report, it would not show up on the report the Googlers are requesting. Instead, a climate survey would allow Google to survey all of its employees to determine if they have been harassed themselves or witnessed others being harassed. The survey could also tap into other climate issues like whether employees feel respected, and whether they believe they have faced discrimination in pay or promotions. The survey could also be repeated annually to determine whether the atmosphere at Google is changing.

Googlers demand transparent data on the gender, race and ethnicity pay gap. The Google employees basically want statistics on promotion rates, project and job ladder change opportunities, and compensation aggregated by gender, race and ethnicity. They want these statistics to take into account the employee's level and years of experience.

What would be even better is fully pay transparency. The transparent data summary is a great start, but full pay transparency is really the only way to eliminate pay gaps. Finding out exactly what all your coworkers earn makes the pay gap problem self-correcting. There can be no statistical manipulation or hiding of problems. All the data would be there for everyone to see. Those who were not being paid fairly would be aware of the issue immediately.

Although Whole Foods adopted pay transparency several years ago, and some smaller tech companies have also jumped on board, it's not an easy transition. In the mean time, if Google decides to go the easier route of releasing statistical analysis of pay, I would urge them to outsource the analysis to increase the credibility of their findings.

Googlers demand an improved process for reporting sexual misconduct. They feel that the current process forces HR to put management's interests ahead of the interests of employees who are reporting harassment and discrimination.

What would be better is outsourcing the reporting of sexual misconduct. Technology is Google's area of expertise, not handling sexual harassment claims. Outsourcing the reporting of harassment and discrimination allows Google to focus on what it does best, and allows an outside organization to be in charge of processing any claims. The outside organization can be in charge of investigating the claims and may be less likely to defer to the wishes of Google's management. Outsourcing also may make it easier for employees to report sexual misconduct, because employees may feel more comfortable speaking to someone outside of Google about their experiences with Google employees.

Googlers make yet more demands. The Googlers also demand an end to forced arbitration in cases of harassment and discrimination. They also requested that the chief diversity officer report directly to the CEO and that he or she be able to make recommendations directly to the board of directors. In addition, they would like an Employee representative appointed to the board.

What the Googlers are missing. Several of the allegations of Google employees that were released by the New York Times last week regarding consent and consensual relationships. Google needs to teach its employees how to deal with attraction at work and how to have relationships in a professional environment.

Google has the opportunity to really transform the norms for business in this country. They could do the minimum required to keep their employees satisfied and coming to work each day, or they could take this opportunity to exceed the demands of their employees and to become a leader in creating a hospitable workplace and offering career potential to men and women of all races and ethnicities.

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Google Women's Five Demands: Here's What Else They Should Ask For

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Google employees around the world walked out on Thursday, November 1, demanding changes from the internet giant on its handling of harassment and discrimination. Their demands are a good start, but not transformative. Here's what they asked for, and what's really needed to transform the workplace.

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Inspiration can come to us from a number of different sources, in a variety of different forms. Inspiration can be vital to us. It is what makes our visions and ideas stand out from the competition. Yet if we are not cautious, in a blink of an eye, the inspiration can vanish like the sun descending on the day, giving way to the vast nothingness of the black of night.

There are a number of different ways of finding inspiration. They could be, taking a walk, talking to a friend, reading a book, or even by reading some inspirational words of wisdom and advice from others.

That is where we come in, if you are struggling to find your mojo, then why not take a look at some of these quotes to live by, given by famous CEO's of multi million dollar fortune 500 companies.

In this article, we will give you 25 of the most awe inspiring, moving, and motivational quotes by famous CEO's and business leaders, as a way of motivating you to go out and better yourself, and maximise your full potential. Every single one of the millionaire's, or even billionaire's that we are quoting in this article, had to start from somewhere, and who knows, with a little motivation and inspiration, maybe you can too. Here we go:

Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo

"I always did something that I was a little not ready to do. I think that, that is how you grow. When there's a moment of 'Wow, I'm not so sure that I can do this, and you push through those moments, it's then that you have a breakthrough. Sometimes that's a sign that something really great is about to happen. You're about to grow and learn a lot more about yourself."

Denise Morrison, CEO of Campbell Soup

"Balance suggests a perfect equilibrium. There is no such thing. That is a false expectation.... There are going to be priorities and dimensions of your life, how you integrate them is how you find true happiness."

Pete Cashmore, CEO of Mashable

"We are really competing against ourselves, we have no control over how other people perform."

"The question I ask myself like almost every day is, 'Am I doing the most important thing I could be doing?'... Unless I feel like I'm working on the most important problem that I can help with, then I'm not going to feel good about how I'm spending my time. And that's what this company is."

Sam Walton, CEO of Walmart

"High expectations are the key to absolutely everything."

Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour

"There's an entrepreneur right now, scared to death, making excuses, saying, 'It's not the right time just yet.' There's no such thing as a good time. I started an apparel-manufacturing business in the tech-boom years. I mean, come on. Get out of your garage and go take a chance, and start your business."

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

"Life is fragile. We're not guaranteed a tomorrow so give it everything you've got."

Donald Trump, CEO of the Trump Organization

"Without passion, you don't have any energy, and without energy, you simply have nothing"

Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

"Rule No. 1: Never lose money; Rule No. 2: Don't forget Rule No. 1."

David Sarnoff, CEO of RCA

"No man can be successful, unless he first loves his work."

Ellen Kullman, CEO of Dupont

"It's not about having a specific set time; both personal and professional lives are 24/7. It's simply, more about making the right allocation to each one and recognizing that it's going to be different every single day"

Michael Dell, CEO of DELL

"You don't need to be a genius or a visionary, or even a college graduate for that matter, to be successful. You just need framework and a dream."

L.A Reid, LAFACE records co-founder & CEO of Epic Records

"Find your passion, and it's no longer work."

"In business, what's dangerous is not to evolve."

Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon

"I've been very lucky, from the beginning. I've found that as long as you're fundamentally good - as long as you're not being bad to people - people give you a lot of room to be yourself, because being yourself is being honest. And that's what people want to see."

Robert Iger, CEO of Walt Disney

"The heart and soul of a company is creativity and innovation."

Frederick W Smith, CEO of Fedex

"Leaders get out in front and stay there by raising the standards by which they judge themselves - and by which they are willing to be judged."

Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of Yelp

"You have to be very nimble and very open minded. Your success is going to be very dependent on how your adapt."

Larry Page, CEO of Google

"If you're changing the world, you're working on important things. You're excited to get up in the morning."

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric

"Surviving a failure allows you more self confidence. Failing is a great learning tool, but it must be kept to an absolute minimum."

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft

"Great companies with the way they work, first start with great leaders."

Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle

"When you innovate, you must prepare yourself for everybody to tell you that you're nuts."

Samuel R Allen, CEO of Deere

"Pessimists may be right in the end, but an optimist has a much better time getting there."

Klaus Kleinfeld, CEO of Alcoa

"Only successful businesses can create and secure jobs."

Steve Case, CEO of America Online

"It's not about how to get started; it's about how to get noticed."
So there you have it, certain people have been known to say that these are quotes to live by, not just to be inspired by. Why not have a read and see what you make of them. Hopefully they will be just what you need to have you leaping out of bed in a morning, ready to tackle whatever lies ahead of you head on. Good luck with whatever your goals and aims are for the future, and until next time. Thanks for checking out these Unforgettable CEO quotes.

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Joel Brown (Founder of Addicted2Success.com)

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25 Inspirational Quotes By The Highest Performing CEO's

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Here are 25 of the most awe inspiring, moving, and motivational quotes by these some of the top CEO's and business leaders to maximise your full potential.

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Steve Jobs: How to live before you die | TED Talk

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At his Stanford University commencement speech, Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple and Pixar, urges us to pursue our dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks -- including death itself.

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GM CEO Mary Barra: We see an all electric future

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CNBC's Brian Sullivan reports the highlights of his conversation with General Motors CEO Mary Barra including comments on trade and the future for electric vehicles.