Aligning HR to the CEO Growth Agenda
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Aligning HR to the CEO Growth Agenda Compliments of Accelare Accelare is the leading provider of operating model design and management tools on the Microsoft Share- point platform. Accelare’s WhatFirst toolset provides the fastest, lowest cost and most effective environment for developing and managing a modern process or capabil- ity based operating model and using it to manage the performance of the organization. Visit us on the web at www.accelare.com or contact Richard Lynch at 781.961.1760 to learn more about the role capabilities play in core business fitness and growth. Aligning HR to the CEO Growth Agenda Donald L. Laurie & Richard Lynch hroughout much of the 1990s and early of the bottom line, has shifted to the top line. 2000s, CEOs were rewarded for cost Covering the views of 658 CEOs from more than reduction and cost containment. To 40 countries, the 2006 Conference Board’s Sixth compete in the global arena, Boards Annual Survey1 found that: Tdemanded dramatic improvement in efficiencies. In the United States, the top future challenges Companies such as General Electric, Motorola, will be how to sustain and generate steady and Allied Signal fueled the trend by reporting top-line growth. Profitable growth and product 10 times or higher ROIs from their Six Sigma innovation were also high up on the list. programs. With a clear focus on the bottom line CEOs based in Europe are most concerned and tantalizing ROIs, companies invested heavily with speed, flexibility, and adaptability to to get lean, outsource nonstrategic work, improve change, followed by profit growth and quality, and introduce better products. sustained and steady top-line growth. The new CEO agenda, while not losing sight HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING 30.4 25 Spurring company growth has become a team. This is generally described as a financial shortfall, but the root cause is a gap in the enterprise’s capabilities and processes major CEO concern in Mexico and South to identify and exploit new opportunities beyond the reach of the America. core businesses. For example, in a $10B multi-business chemical company, its core businesses were able to generate 5 percent growth CEOs of Asian companies are more concerned though current know-how, but the board of directors and CEO with stimulating innovation, acquiring top talent, desired 10 percent growth in order to increase stock price and market capitalization. The size and reach of generating new businesses to and other people issues. Half of CEOs in close the $500M revenue gap made it the prime responsibility of the CEO and Executive Team to create new families of products Asia report that inspiring innovation is their and services. greatest concern. Almost 60 percent of respondents to the HRPS/i4cp survey list the primary objective for their organization as organic growth HR demonstrated in the earlier period that it (28.2% say this will come through new product and service platforms). Yet most companies believe and act as if this will be can be a strategic player in efficiency initiatives achieved by doing better at and more of the same things. Oyster by sourcing work and talent for better leverage, International research has found, however, that good strategy, understanding of markets and technologies, and analytical support outsourcing routine work, and moving some talent will not insure that the growth gap will be closed. Instead, the costs from fixed to variable. For HR to remain a most significant elements of success are found in the answers to the following questions: strategic partner in the new, growth-driven future, 1. Is there an enterprise growth gap? it must answer the call to support and systemize 2. Is the leadership team unified around growth goals and the path to them? innovations that achieve the growth goals now 3. Is the organization designed to achieve the growth that has been topping the corporate agenda. identified? 4. Is the source of growth clear? Many companies have a significant enterprise growth gap: the difference between the sum of the forecasted business units’ growth goals and the overall enterprise target. This next phase requires significant retooling, according to the 5. Can the innovation process deliver new businesses that will HRPS/i4cp 2007 survey “HR’s Role in the CEO Growth Agenda.” achieve the growth goals? This retooling and reinvention must come most dramatically in the areas of leadership development and organization design.2 The HR will be aligned closely to the CEO growth agenda only when survey highlighted several issues of concern to most HR leaders, it is actively involved in driving the organization to “yes” answers including: for these questions. This will require HR to adapt by adding the development of leaders who can identify and execute new ideas in Helping leaders to frame the growth challenge for the organization. new spaces and the realignment of the organization systems and Developing new learning programs that lead to clarity of roles structures for growth to its strategic competencies. The rest of our and responsibilities in managing growth and new executive article details how HR can make these required and rather dramatic team behaviors; and changes so it becomes a full partner in creating new, substantial Designing and staffing the growth-related organization. growth. The Growth Gap Closing the Growth Gap Growth, in many ways, is its own reward: Growth attracts talent, After studying 24 high growth companies such as Procter & creates the capital to grow faster, and can transform the market Gamble, UPS, and Medtronic, Oyster International identified two valuation of a company. Yet many companies have a significant major success factors in closing the growth gap.3 First, these com- enterprise growth gap: the difference between the sum of the fore- panies were successful in creating New Growth Platforms (NGP): casted business units’ growth goals and the overall enterprise target. material new families of products and services typically outside the In other words, it is the difference between what the core businesses reach of the current businesses. Opportunities lay within domains can deliver and the expectations of the CEO and top management at the intersection of technology, trends, and customer dynamics. 26 HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING 30.4 EXHIBIT 1 Sample New Growth Platforms Company Description Results UPS Domain: Service and repair $1 Billion business unit in 2005 NGP: Service Parts Logistics UPS’ capabilities in providing the physical connection between buyer and seller almost anywhere in the world, when juxtaposed with PC customers demanding same-day repair, led UPS to enter the computer repair business (with the acquisition of missing capabilities of such PCB repair) Apple Domain: Portable music Apple split into separate iPod and Macintosh NGP: iPod divisions in 2004 just three years after the iPod Known for stylish, elegant design, great user interface, cool was introduced. software, and intimate knowledge of its youthful customer base, Apple’s portable media players account for Apple projected these core capabilities into the portable music 71.5 percent of the market in 2007. domain, reshaped the digital music business with iTunes, and is now extending into the consumer electronics market. Analog Devices Domains: Automotive safety, musician’s studio The majority of 2005 revenue from micro- NGP: Accelerometer/ iMEMS machined products was derived from accel- A company with strong capabilities in making small devices erometers used by automotive manufacturers (micro-machinery) and analog and digital signal processing, in airbag applications (about 8% of total rev- Analog projected these capabilities into new domains such as enue). However, revenue from consumer and automotive (motion devices for airbags in automobiles opened up industrial customers is increasing as Analog by new regulations and customer demand for safety) and music develops products using this platform for appli- (“Hot Hand,” a device for a guitarist to manipulate sound effects cations in new end markets. without the need for pedals). Explorations into these domains are guided by the company’s demands skilled operators who are aligned around strategy and are core capabilities. Unlike new products, NGPs are the kernels to accountable for a share of market growth and cost containment. create new strategic opportunities that leverage company size and Their horizons are the next quarter and next budget cycle. position. (See Exhibit 1 for examples of NGPs.) Key attributes of good operators include: Second, the companies exhibited a common set of characteristics in innovation, leadership, and organization design to sustain the 1. A good knowledge of current markets and key customers; flow of NGPs. These characteristics include: 2. A highly analytical nature; 3. Ability to run lean operations; 1. A credible chief growth officer is in charge of a new unit; 4. Experience in product enhancements and product cost reduc- 2. A recognition that the team is more important than the idea; tions; and 3. NGP units are independent units and with strong interdependencies 5. Ability to expand into new geographical areas. to the core businesses; and 4. The process for screening, selecting, and building NGPs is disci- NGPs, on the other hand, demand a different breed of leader—a plined, systematic, and repeatable. business builder. Leaders here must be constructively dissatisfied; they turn things on their sides and see how things could work in a Herein lies the opportunity for HR to be a player in the company whole different way. Their horizon for building NGPs is the next growth agenda and not just sit on the sidelines. HR can help design three to four years. They rely on insight and intuition, not just the and build a more agile organization capable of identifying, designing, numbers. They see things others do not see and make connections and iterating a pipeline of NGPs. In other words, HR can help create others cannot make.