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Title: Hidden Value: How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People by Charles A. O'Reilly, Charles A. O'Reilly, Jeffrey Pfeffer ISBN: 0875848982 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: August, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8
Rating: 1
Summary: The "Value" of this book is certainly "Hidden" from me......
Comment: This book is merely a compilation of case studies. There are few -- if any -- check lists, tables, charts, bullet points, or step-by-step methodologies to help you implement the concepts within your own company or organization. In fact, THERE ARE ONLY 21 PAGES not dedicated exclusively to either a case study and/or an analysis of the various case studies presented within the book. Save your money and purchase "The HR Scorecard", "The Talent Solution", or "Aligning Pay and Results" instead. Very disappointing...
Rating: 5
Summary: Detailed case descriptions of high performing companies
Comment: This book tells the story of eight extremely successful companies that manage to bring out the best in their people. The stories are detailed descriptions of the company's backgrounds, strategies, systems and management practices. The stories are also larded with quotes from the company's CEO's, HR managers and employees. Following this approach the authors provide the readers the opportunity to form their own hypotheses about the companies' successes. But the authors also present their interpretations of the case studies.
What these studies show is how these high performing companies have achieved their success by aligning their values, strategies and people. This is something which is easy to understand but hard to do. It requires consistent articulation and implementation of the values and vision and a relentless attention to detail in ensuring that all policies and practices support the company's values. In order to be able to show this kind of consistency a real belief and commitment are needed and a willingness to persevere.
This book shows how high performing companies consciously turn a lot of the conventional management wisdom upside down. For instance:
1. Contrary to what many people now think, recruiting, selecting and retaining unique talent is NOT the prime source of competitive advantage. Although these activities are important, the examples of these extraordinary companies show that it is much more important to build a culture and work system that enables all people to use their talents and develop their talents. A byproduct of this will be that your company will also be better at attracting and retaining people.
2. Values first instead of strategies. The conventional view puts competitive strategy on top and derives from that what structure is needed, what competencies and behaviors are needed and so on. The companies described here work differently. Although they do have competitive strategies these are secondary to their set of guiding values and to the alignment of these values with their management practices. In other words: they have a values-based view of strategy.
3. Respectful and trusting way of dealing with people. Many companies monitor, check and try to control employee behavior. The hidden value companies work differently. In the spirit of Douglas McGregor's book The Human Side of Enterprise, they seem to understand that if you begin by designing systems to protect against the small unmotivated minority, you end up alienating the motivated majority. So they put their people first by treating them respectfully, involving them and trusting them.
Lessons like the ones presented in this book can be found in several other books by for instance Jeffrey Pfeffer himself, David Maister and Jim Collins. What makes this book different and interesting to me is the presentation in the form of detailed case descriptions.
Rating: 5
Summary: Acorns, Oak Trees, and Common Sense
Comment: One of the greatest challenges facing organizations today is attracting and then keeping "the best and the brightest" people they can. Then, there is another great challenge to develop their talents and skills. Here is one of the best books I have read thus far which addresses the second challenge directly...and indirectly, addresses the first challenge as well (pun intended). O'Reilly and Pfeffer organize their material within a series of chapters, each of which (presented as a case history) focuses on eight exemplary companies (e.g. Cisco Systems, The Men's Wearhouse, and Southwest Airlines). The authors utilize a basic format (introduction, background, values, philosophy and spirit, etc.) which enables their reader to draw relevant comparisons and contrasts. They also summarize key points at the end of each chapter.
After extensive involvement with several of the exemplary companies, I can personally attest that organizations such as they which effectively develop the "hidden value" in their employees achieve at least three highly desirable (indeed imperative) objectives: they create a workplace environment in which people at all levels are much happier as well as much more productive; as a result, they have less attrition of their "best and brightest"; and finally, they are much more successful when competing for the "human capital" they need. To their credit, O'Reilly and Pfeffer do not promise to offer all manner of "secrets" to simplify the process of attracting and developing talent. Everything they suggest is common sense and much of it is obvious. The "hidden value" of their book is revealed only as you correlate all the ideas and experiences it provides within the context of your past and current circumstances.
If you agree that an organization should be value-driven and that values are driven by people, almost everything O'Reilly and Pfeffer share can be of substantial assistance. But I presume to conclude with three caveats. First, what they recommend is relatively simple to explain but will be immensely difficult (if not impossible) to implement without a firm commitment, sufficient time, and (yes) patience. Second, given the wealth of information provided, beware of massive adoption of what may have been effective elsewhere. Rather, select only what is most appropriate to your organization's needs when formulating a model. Finally, keep in mind that all of the eight exemplary companies have changed, some quite significantly, since the period during which this book was written. So must yours in months and years to come.
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Title: The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action by Jeffrey Pfeffer, Robert I. Sutton ISBN: 1578511240 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First by Jeffrey Pfeffer ISBN: 0875848419 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: January, 1998 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins ISBN: 0066620996 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 16 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: All the Right Moves: A Guide to Crafting Breakthrough Strategy by Constantinos C. Markides ISBN: 0875848338 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: December, 1999 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: A Primer on Organizational Behavior by James L. Bowditch, Anthony F. Buono ISBN: 0471384534 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $55.40 |
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