Archive for July, 2007

Archives for Employment

There’s a pretty good package of articles in Inc. magazine on the topic of small businesses “going global.” The article I find most insightful is an American businessman’s view of Vikas Goel, CEO of eSys Technologies of Singapore.

Setting aside the fact that Goel never really struggled and became an overnight, global business sensation, the well-educated, Indian born leader has shown in eight years that he is one of the world’s most innovative businessmen. In 2000, his first year of operations, Goel’s component and hard-disk drive distribution firm became a profitable US$130 million business. Flash forward to present day: eSys is a $2 billion company operating in 33 countries.

Goel, the go-getter, is 36. His company has introduced a US$264.00 PC that is considerably less expensive than many other hardware vendors are able to produce.

What’s most impressive about Goel’s eSys company is the way it operates in the black with exceptionally low profit margins buoyed by high volumes. Not many $2 billion companies can boast having only 1,100 employees.  And, yes, there are job openings at eSys.

The one part of Goel’s near-legendary business success story that is somewhat in dispute is whether he arrived in Singapore “with no capital and no contacts,” as told by Jack Stack, CEO of SRC Holdings, who co-authored the Inc. article. Goel, who has received several awards for his entrepreneurial acumen, may actually have been wealthy and well connected according to at least one of his award sponsors in Singapore.

Goel’s next goal? Outsourcing. Watch out IBM!

Archives for Employment

The worldwide talent shortage, one that may eventually constrain corporate growth, is once again in the news. BusinessWeek ponders the question, “Where Are All the Workers?” The authors note that the global labor crunch is striking unusual places such as Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and in Peoria, Illinois.

The authors argue, quite correctly, that corporate downsizing has run out of gas (except of course at Citigroup) and that demand for labor even in Asia is outstripping the supply of workers with marketable skills. Labor constraints have spurred some employers to boost in-house training and slacken skill requirements for new hires.

In a poll, Manpower, the staffing giant, said 41 percent of employers it polled worldwide are finding it hard to fill jobs. “There are specific skills shortages throughout various economies, rather than a labor shortage,” said Varina Nissen, Manpower SVP of Global Marketing & Communications.

Interestingly, employers, particularly in the U.S. and Japan have not sought to boost pay just to fill vacancies, according to BusinessWeek. That could change, but mainly for skilled labor in my view.

Archives for Workplace

This has been a rough year for lousy bosses. First we were empowered by Robert Sutton’s book, The No Asshole Rule, then we were amused by Stanley Bing’s Crazy Bosses, and now there’s a website called eBossWatch that allows us to call out the bastards.

What do these works have in common? Call it bad boss transparency.

Bing, the Fortune columnist with a light touch, has a funny quiz about crazy bosses, too.

Asher Adelman, the brains behind the recently launched eBossWatch, believes “Nobody should have to work with a jerk.” That’s the appealing tagline of eBossWatch and pretty much the high point of the implementation thus far.

I love the idea of telling on bad bosses. Not telling their mothers, of course, but warning future employees - watch out! Adelman’s site allows you to rate your bosses - by name.

The site was inspired by Adelman’s “painful experience” several years ago in which he lost a job after confronting an abusive boss about his behavior.

I asked him via e-mail (he was in Israel) about some of his policies regarding the rating system. What happens, for instance, if a boss wants to appeal a terrible rating? “No,” says Adelman. “It is extremely difficult to monitor thousands of comments for accuracy or even to verify that the comments were indeed submitted by the bosses themselves (and not by someone impersonating the boss).”

Archives for Coaching

We look for star quality in politicians and actors, but rarely do we find it among corporate leaders. And, no, we’re not just talking about good looks. The quality known as charisma is an intangible, but valuable career asset, too.

Does it translate well from one culture to another? “The notion of charisma is extremely culture-specific,” says Olivia Fox Cabane, executive director of Spitfire Communications, who coaches leaders on this topic. “Be cautious with taking what has worked at home and trying to work it abroad. A big part of American charisma is making yourself look human and vulnerable - that can be suicide in Germany.”

Cabane, a 28-year-old entrepreneur, lawyer and author, who has two passports (U.S. & France), holds three degrees from two countries and is fluent in four languages, is one of the few among us who has shopped on different continents for where to live. Cabane, who has lived and worked in seven countries on three continents, says she evaluated countries on the basis of where her personal charisma would work best. She loves France, but felt that “lacking gray hair” she would never be taken seriously there.

She has gone to some extremes to win people over. “When I first started lecturing at the United Nations I was 24-years-old,” says Cabane. “I knew that I couldn’t go in there with my 24-year-old face and be listened to with any degree of respect - so I wore stage makeup.”  

Archives for MNC

Recruiters and hiring managers say that the demand for executives to globalize business operations and tap worldwide markets has exceeded the supply of globally experienced executives - at least in America.

As business schools race to add global curriculum, dozens of new alumni-education programs and executive education courses suggest that there is a market waiting to be served - expensively and immediately.

One of the more interesting new programs stems from a firm that has been evangelizing the discipline of global leadership for years, the Center for Creative Leadership, a non-profit executive education group. CCL, as it is known, is launching a program in October called Advancing Global Leadership.

“What makes this program unique is a business simulation,” says Mike Kossler, CCL Senior Enterprise Associate. He says the US$3,500 program will run simultaneously in Brussels, Greensboro, N.C. and Singapore. The three sites will collaborate to “simulate what it’s like to work in a global environment and lead a dispersed team.”

This won’t be just another day at the MNC office. The simulated company will be in a crisis and the teams will have to respond in real-time - distributing the workload as needed.

As CCL’s own research illustrates, global business might better be called undomesticated for the stresses it places on participants. I don’t think organizations prepare their managers and leaders to be effective global leaders,” asserts Kossler, who consults on global leadership issues, often for MNCs. “A lot of people learn their global roles by trial and error.”

Of course, as we have reported, there are other intriguing global executive programs available. The Global Leaders Program: Growing and Innovating in a Flat World is a global executive leadership program launching this summer in India and the U.S. Produced by two of the world’s top business schools, Global Leaders is staffed by professors from the Indian Institute of Management - (IIM-A) and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Students will spend eight days in Ahmedabad, India, followed by eight days in North Carolina.

Sounds cool but the price tag is a lofty US$19,000. Do you have that much headroom on your AmEx?

For more information about global careers, check out our free Global Ready? skills assessment test, and Global Virtual Management, a free, self-guided Careers Primer that identifies best practices in globally-distributed enterprise.

Archives for Salary

Unless you’re an HR compensation wonk, you may be unaware that most published salary studies utilize data provided by corporate sponsors. The data in employer-based studies is solid, but there’s always something missing. That missing ingredient is the employee’s perspective about their satisfaction with their employer, and their commitment to their career.

That’s precisely the kind of data woven into the DNA of InformationWeek’s 2007 National IT Salary Survey, which is based upon survey results from 7,281 full-time IT professionals.

As my former colleague Chris Murphy reports in a recent issue, “Previously, base salaries were in lockdown mode. In 2004, 2005, and 2006, the median base for staff and managers moved about 1 percent a year–a net decrease considering inflation. This year, the median base pay is up 6.6 percent for managers and 5.7 percent for staffers, well above inflation.”

The study finds that the typical IT manager makes $105,000 in salary and cash bonuses, while the average staffer earns $78,000.

One of the things I like about the study is it asks employees to agree or disagree with psychographic statements such as “I’m highly valued as a business technology professional, and I’m put in a position where I can share my deep experience with colleagues.” Interestingly, only 40 percent of staffers agree with this statement compared to 54 percent of managers.

Among the IT staff and managers currently looking for a new job, more than two-thirds are interested in earning more money. No surprise there. Two in five IT professionals dislike their present employer’s management & culture, which is a fairly high percentage, except when you consider the turmoil this field has experienced the past five or six years.

In a separate item, Marilyn K. McGee points out in The IT Battle of the Sexes, that women in IT who earn .85 cents for every dollar made by their male counterparts, actually have it better than many women in other careers. You have to wonder why women don’t stage a walkout over unfair and unequal compensation policies, but that doesn’t appear to be on anyone’s front burner.

Archives for Perfect Job

In a CNET article called “Wooing Interns to Silicon Valley,” we learn that there’s a “shrinking pool” of tech graduates who are spoiled by MiGoYa (Microsoft, Google, Yahoo) among others in summer internship programs that are fueled by mass quantities of ice cream, baseball tickets and dodgeball tournaments.

How much coddling is enough?

Will these employers draw the line at in-your-cube spa treatments? Perhaps telecommuting internships will become de rigueur in Silicon Valley? But more power to these interns. If an employer spoon-fed me Heath Toffee ice cream, I wouldn’t be rude enough to turn them down for a job.