Organizational Transformation?

Organizational Transformation?
A Case Study You Won’t Want to Emulate
By Bob Moore, CMC, MCC, The Effectiveness Coach®

Word Count: 441 Words
Reading Time: About 3 minutes

The last issue of The Effectiveness Connection, Delivering Happiness: A Case Study,Best Practices that Really Work , is the story about the positive, (happy) results Zappos achieved by putting their workers first. The following is not a very happy story.

On June 1, 2010 The Wall Street Journal reported Hewlett-Packard (HP) plans to spend $1 billion to automate data centers and make other operational changes in its IT services business. This transformation will eliminate 9,000 jobs from their workforce of about 300,000.

About a year ago, HP jumped into the IT services area with the purchase of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) for $13.9 billion. Shortly after the purchase, HP laid off 25,000 EDS workers, and cut the salaries of some by more than 20 percent. A key driver in the success of their strategy to further accelerate its competitive advantage is locating employees in lower-paying areas.

These actions followed a similar pattern when HP acquired Compaq in 2001. Thousands of former Compaq employees were laid off along with employees from DEC and Tandem from prior acquisitions of those companies. Subsequently, HP stock price declined, projected profits did not materialize and in February 2005, the CEO was fired.

Historically, HP was considered a leader and a fantastic place to work. In the late 90’s, HP rose to #10 on Fortune's "Best Places to Work" list; however, under recent leadership, employee morale has plummeted. By 2001, HP dropped to # 63 on Fortune’s list and hasn't made the list since. Unless an emphasis is placed on improving employee morale, there is no compelling reason for top talent to work for HP, which will make it difficult for the company to be competitive.

On a more postive note, consider Johnsonville Foods mentioned on page 30 of my book, Turning Good People Into Top Talent. Their mission statement and philosophy says, "We here at Johnsonville have a moral responsibility to create and maintain an environment that requires each member to fully develop their God-given talents. We will change any objectives or goals that no longer require personal growth and superlative performance to ones that do. We understand that our commitment to stretch, grow and excel is an unending one. This is the Johnsonville Way."

I challenge you to recognize the importance of aligning human capital with your strategic objectives and turning your good people into top talent. Only with fully engaged top talent will your company grow, innovate, respond to and satisfy your customers. Top Talent is the competitive advantage.

I am facilitating three leadership and organizational transformation executive briefing webinars in July and August. Click here to learn more and to register.

Enthusiastically,

Bob

Bob Moore, CMC®, President
Effectiveness, Inc/The Effectiveness Coach®
Aligning Human Capital with Strategic Objectives

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