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"It is very hard for people who have enjoyed success to face reality and accept the fact that certain things
they do could be signicantly improved. It goes against their pride and self-image."
Robert J. Herbold |
Having clocked in over 26 years in various levels at Proctor & Gamble, with an additional 7 years as the Chief Operating Officer at Microsoft, along with being a council member of various institutes and organisations, as well as being a director of Agilent Technology and running the Herbold Group, Robert J. Herbold is one of today's authorities on managing corporate success and profi tability.
Herbold's latest management doctrine addresses the 9 landmines or traps that beset even the most successful corporations. In this interview with Herbold, MANAGEMENT offers readers a glimpse of what to expect at the MIM National Management Conference on 5 December 2007 in which Herbold would be the keynote speaker.
How do you manage so many roles and obligations?
You have to be very disciplined with your schedule. You need to make sure you that with each task you take on; you have a clear view on how it will fit into your schedule. Most importantly, only take on those things that you clearly will really enjoy. That way, you are assured your motivation will be very high.
With thousands reading your books for guidance, whom do you yourself look up to as mentor, guru or role model? What attributes does/do this person/people have that attract your admiration?
There are a lot of people that I look up to in the business world and really admire. I have been lucky to get exposed to some real giants in industry, such as my Microsoft boss Bill Gates, and my last P&G boss Ed Artzt. While at P&G we worked on a project in the late 1980's with Wal-Mart, and I worked with Sam Walton. In organising and executing the annual Microsoft CEO Summit, I got a lot of
exposure to Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon, Hank Paulson and Jack Welch. My Microsoft responsibilities caused me to get exposure to Lou Gerstner, Steve Jobs and many others. The common attributes I have always admired in these people were objectivity, reliance on facts, and the total focus on problems, not accomplishments, and a huge sense of urgency to solve those problems.
As a successful author in your own right, which authors or books interest you?
I enjoy business books of all types. I am also fascinated by governments and how they run their affairs as well as books about important trends. A book I am currently reading is called The Coming Generational Storm by Kotlikoff and Burns which discusses a forecast of America's economic future. I also enjoy some of the classics; I just finished re-reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest
Hemingway, which I had not read for 40 years, but I enjoyed being reminded what a great writer he was.
Did working at Microsoft and P&G for so many years give you some of the insights on the success traps you outlined in your book Seduced by Success?
Yes. I worked for 26 years at P&G and 9 years at Microsoft. Also, the consulting and public speaking I have done over the past 5 years has been very interesting and educational. My book Seduced By Success is based the accumulated "battle scars" from those 40 years, plus the in-depth research I did into 44 specific companies that had been successful, with some being able to sustain that
success whereas others could not.
Were they also guilty of committing these `sins'?
Of the 44 companies that I thoroughly probed, which included P&G and Microsoft, I would say they really were not in the group I would classify as the "sinners." P&G has this incredible culture focused on always finding new and exciting ways to enhance their products, or launch new versions, in order to delight consumers. The P&G culture is all about excellence in consumer satisfaction and consumer
excitement. They seldom stop to realise they are successful. That model has worked for over 150 years for them. Microsoft is totally focused on finding new ways to provide valuable new capabilities for software users. In meetings, Bill Gates would never want to talk about any aspect of their success; he wanted to talk about what was not going well and how it was going to be fixed quickly. That
mode of operation has helped them not be seduced by their success.
What were the biggest hurdles you had to face in those companies (Microsoft and P&G being such ubiquitous household names) in terms of disposing legacy practices (if any)?
The hurdles are always the legacy people, the people who have been in specific jobs for a while and they have their routine way of doing things and don't want to change. As you spot problems, you need to organise to tackle the problem and you need to explain to the troops why change is needed, get their ideas, confirm the need for change, develop the plan, get more input from those impacted, and
then make the tough decisions and implement. Sometimes the legacy people participate and end up providing valuable input and assisting with the change. Other times they are a real problem, and you have no choice but to move them to other roles or out of the organisation.
Out of the 9 traps you described in Seduced by Success, which is the most common or most deadly?
The first two are probably the most common: sticking with yesterday's business model and allowing your products to become outdated. Here are two examples of what I am talking about. Sony invented portable music with the Walkman and they completely missed the digital revolution. Apple came along with the iPod product and took the portable music business away from them. General Motors went from
being the giant in the automobile business to being a struggling organisation fighting hard to avoid bankruptcy; their products became boring and their labour practices became completely out of date.
Tell us a little bit more about your company The Herbold Group.
The Herbold Group represents what I do, now that I am retired! It houses the consulting, writing and public speaking I do, which is all focused on helping companies perform better. The intent is not to grow The Herbold Group. The intent is for me to do fun things in my retirement! I am very selective with my time. Remember, the objective is fun!
"Too seldom do people take the time in their work to really step back and question what they are doing and how they are doing it."
How extensive is your experience with Malaysian managers, leaders and corporations, and what is your impression of them?
My experience with Malaysian managers is very limited. On the other hand, I have worked with a lot of different companies in various countries and the thing that impresses me is that there are very few differences. Naturally, there are huge differences in the cultures of the countries and hence, companies need to be sensitive to that in their products and their marketing, but in general, the
things that make businesses successful are very similar country to country: exciting products, efficient processes, clever and superior business models, etc.
What can participants of the MIM National Management Conference on 5 December 2007 expect at your keynote lecture?
My goal with presentations on success, like the one I will provide MIM, is to offer the audience real life examples of companies, some of which have sustained success and some of which have run into big problems. These examples lead to some specific tips on how to be success and most importantly, how to sustain that success. People should walk out of the room with a lot of ideas about how they can
do better work and about how their organisation can be more successful.
Please feel free to share or add anything else.
Too seldom do people take the time in their work to really step back and question what they are doing and how they are doing it. That should be a regular part of how any individual operates and how any organisation operates. Toyota is probably the master of this. Their culture is all about continuous improvement. It has served them well year after year in avoiding being seduced by success.
The best-selling author of The Fiefdom Syndrome: The Turf Battles That Undermine Careers and Companies and How to Overcome Them (2004), and Seduced By Success (2007) is earmarked to give a keynote presentation at the National Management Conference organised by the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM), scheduled to
be held at the end of the year on 5 December 2007. Call Customer Service at 03-2164 5255 or e-mail enquiries@mim.org.my to register today!
