The RBL Review: Institute Insider

Making Strategy Happen

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:14:34 +0000

An RBL Institute Mini Forum White Paper
By Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood & Justin Allen

Participating RBL Institute Members:
Brian Miller, Wal-Mart | Douog Bryant, Cardinal Health | Quinn Wilson, Flextronics | Conor Mollohy, British American Tobacco | Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, Kellogg | Hallstein Moerk, Nokia

In an effort to clarify the role HR should play in making strategy happen, HR leaders from The RBL Institute's member companies joined Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood and Justin Allen on a one-hour conference call. After sharing challenges, ideas, and potential solutions, we developed the following framework and identified various viruses that impede successful implimentation.

Download the RBL Institute mini-forum whitepaper "Global Talent" in .PDF format.

Organization Capabilities: Innovation

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:37:42 +0000

One of the most critical capabilities we see in markets today is the ability to innovate. Innovation can occur in multiple areas including products, services, distribution, administrative systems, strategy, etc. But what is the discipline of innovation and how can you, as an HR manager, bring it to a company?

Dave Ulrich introduces an innovation protocol - a framework that HR professionals can bring to management teams to drive a disciplined discussion about building innovation as a capability.

Additional Resources

	Many of the capabilities discussed in this series were first introduced in the book, How Leaders Build Value by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.
	View videos on each of the organization capabilities.

Organization Capabilities: Customer Connectivity

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:54:11 +0000

All companies must understand and respond to the needs of their customers if they are to be successful. HR professionals are ideally positioned to build that capability by bringing customer information into the firm, disseminating that information throughout the firm, and using that information as the basis for integrating and coordinating the activities of their organization.

In this video, Wayne Brockbank describes the role of HR in developing a "Customer Connectivity" capability within the organization and provides examples of HR organizations that have achieved success in this area.

Additional Resources

	HR's role as a "Strategic Architect" is discussed in the recent book HR Competencies (Ulrich, Brockbank, Johnson, Sandholtz and Younger) Click to learn more.
	View videos on each of the organization capabilities.

Introducing The Leadership Code

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:47:35 +0000

No one disputes that leadership matters. We recognize good leadership firsthand when a leader we admire inspires, excites, engages, or even leaves us. Beyond our personal awareness, research has shown that the quality of leadership helps meet the expectations of investors, customers, and employees. While we can stipulate that leadership matters and that we know it when we encounter it, it is much more difficult to find the elusive answer to the simple question, "What makes an effective leader?"

In their forthcoming book Leadership Code, Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood, and Kate Sweetman, attempt to answer that question. In a brief and clear way, the authors synthesize existing scholarly and applied research on leadership to identify the essential rules that govern what all great leaders do.

In this video, Dave Ulrich introduces The Leadership Code and describes the Leadership Code model.

Additional Resources

	Pre-order Leadership Code before Nov 30, 2008 and get a free Leadership Code self-assessment, plus access to the author videos and online tools. Visit www.LeadershipCodeBook.com/offer to find out how.
	Learn more about The Leadership Code. Visit www.LeadershipCodeBook.com and download an excerpt from Chapter One.

Employee Value Proposition

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:39:08 +0000

An RBL Institute Mini Forum White Paper
By Dave Ulrich & Justin Allen

Participating RBL Institute Members:
Jane Howard, BAT | Keith Lawrence, P&G | Bob Moresy, Cambell Soup | Carole Watkins, Cardinal Health

Imagine this: You are the Chief HR Officer of a Fortune 500 company and every morning, every single one of your 100,000+ employees wakes saying, "I absolutely love my job. I'm going to get in to work and give my company everything I've got to add value for our stakeholders!"

An impossible dream? Perhaps a bit exaggerated, but in the daily battle to add value for multiple stakeholders, companies are increasingly acknowledging the importance of creating and embedding an integrated, simple, and strategically-aligned employee value proposition. Whether faced with mergers and acquisitions, downsizing in a tough economic environment, or simply working to ensure employees are engaged and dedicating high levels of discretionary effort, a solid EVP can have an immense impact if leaders can make it real.

In a lively conversation on May 29, 2008, four senior HR leaders from some of the world's premier companies discussed the challenges, opportunities, and best practices in employee value proposition delivery. The following sketch provides key points from the discussion. We first list challenges currently faced by senior HR leaders, and then outline insights on (A) WHY employee value proposition (EVP) can be beneficial, (B) WHAT a good EVP must be, and (C) HOW we can make it real for our employees.

Download the RBL Institute mini-forum whitepaper "Employee Value Proposition" in .PDF format.

Doing Business in Emerging Economies

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:18:50 +0000

As global trade continues to increase sharply, general managers and HR professionals must understand what is required to do business in emerging economies. In this video, Wayne Brockbank talks about two key questions that global organizations must consider: First, what are the basic requirements of doing business in emerging markets? Second, how do we leverage these countries as sources of competitive advantage? (8 min)

Additional Publications

What knowledge and abilities distinguish successful HR professionals? Learn about the six competencies identified in the largest study of global HR competenices in HR Competencies by Dave Ulrich, Wayne Brockbank, Jon Younger, Kurt Sandholtz, and Dani Johnson.

Innovations in Staffing

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:15:26 +0000

An RBL Institute Mini Forum White Paper
By Dave Ulrich, Wayne Brockbank & Justin Allen

Participating RBL Institute Members:
Diane Gherson, IBM | Brian Moore, Cardinal Health | Rick Vanasse, Bon Secours | Lori Weber, Intel

Since McKinsey and Co. published their famed study titled "War for Talent" in 1998, there has been an increasingly popular debate around the reality of a talent war, the location of the battle grounds, and who the "talent" we're all fighting for really is. In an RBL Institute mini forum facilitated by Dave Ulrich on July 3, 2008, HR Leaders from IBM, Cardinal Health, Bon Secours and Intel discussed the challenges they currently face in staffing and outlined the best practices that they are using in their organizations.

Download the RBL Institute mini-forum whitepaper "Innovations in Staffing" in .PDF format.

Organization Capabilities: Collaboration

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:16:06 +0000

Organizations merge, make acquisitions, or simply reorganize in an effort to make the whole better than the sum of the individual parts. In organizations, we refer to this capability as "collaboration." Companies that succeed over time learn to collaborate well.

In this video Dave Ulrich discusses the two parts of the collaboration capability: Managing for Efficiency and Managing for Leverage.

Additional Resources

	Collaboration as an organization capability is discussed in-depth in the book, How Leaders Build Value by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.
	View videos on each of the organization capabilities.

The Business Partner Model: Past & Future Perspectives

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:09:07 +0000

An article by Dave Ulrich & Wayne Brockbank
The RBL Group | Ross School of Business at The University of Michigan

The informal business partner model has existed for well over 100 years when effective staff support functions, including HR, contributed to business results. Formalizing how HR professionals create more value as "business partners" has been of increased interest in the last 10-15 years. Given the emerging importance of HR as a contributor to business success, we suggest that it might be useful to pause and reflect on what we have learned in the past decade about the relevance of the business partner model and on the challenges that lie ahead. (Click on the icon below to download the entire article.)

Download the article "The Business Partner Model: Past & Future Perspectives" in .PDF format.

Investing in Leadership Brand

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:12:21 +0000

Each year, organizations spend millions of dollars on leadership development. In some companies that money is well spent. In others, the investment is wasted. What is it that makes the difference? Why are some organizations in a continual fight to find the money and time for leadership development while others receive funding readily?

In this video, Mark Nyman discusses the value of starting with a leadership development architecture when investing in leadership.

Additional Resources

	The ideas in this video are explored in-depth in the recent book Leadership Brand by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood published by Harvard Business School Press.
	View other videos on "Leadership Brand"

Innovations in Compensation

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:00:19 +0000

An RBL Institute Mini Forum White Paper
By Dave Ulrich & Justin Allen

Participating RBL Institute Members:
Deborah Beckmann, Goldman Sachs | Bob Bloss & Colleen Meurer, Hallmark | Chris Altizer & Kevin Duffy, Pfizer | Wendy Butler, Royal Bank of Scotland | Keith Lawrence, Procter & Gamble

Amidst a slowing economy and turmoil in financial sectors around the world, leading companies are finding innovative compensation strategies increasingly important as they seek to ensure high performance and high retention. This paper outlines challenges companies are facing in the area of compensation and innovations they are deploying in order to stay afloat as the business environment becomes more and more volatile.In collaboration with compensation experts from Goldman Sachs, Hallmark, Pfizer, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Procter & Gamble, we outline five key challenges leading organizations face today, and six innovative compensation solutions they are using to surmount the challenges.

Download the RBL Institute mini-forum whitepaper "Innovations in Compensation" in .PDF format.

Organization Capabilities: Strategic Unity

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:07:56 +0000

As we talk to senior business leaders, one thing we find in common is that most leaders wish they had more alignment in their organization. Alignment means having all people, systems, and processes taking the organization in the same direction. When alignment occurs, we say that an organization has the organizational capability of "Strategic Unity."

In this video, Mark Nyman discusses the first half of the Strategic Unity capability - the clarification of the corporate organization strategy. He describes how to answer questions like: "How many businesses do we have" - "What are the relationships between those businesses" - "What is the role between the corporate office and individual business units?"

Additional Resources

	Strategic Unity as an organization capability is discussed in-depth in the book, How Leaders Build Value by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.
	View videos on each of the organization capabilities.

HR Transformation (Part 3): Tips for Transformation

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:00:00 +0000

We've uncovered a few Do's and Don'ts while watching HR departments go through the process of transformation. In Part 3 of our series on HR Transformation, Mark Nyman shares a few of his favorite tips that will help you make your HR Transformation a real success:

Link HR Transformation efforts to the company's strategy and business model and to the needs of external customers
Benchmark against organizations that share a similar business model
Separate transactional HR work from transformational HR work
Think about outputs not departments
Remember that "Strategic Work" is not the same as "Level in the Organization"

Click the play button below to watch Mark Nyman explain each of these tips in detail.

Additional Resources

	Watch "HR Transformation (Part 2): Four Steps to HR Transformation" by Dave Ulrich.
	Watch "HR Transformation (Part 1): Making the case for HR Transformation" by Jon Younger.

Organization Capabilities: Learning

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:12:17 +0000

Our research shows that companies with "Learning" as a capability had much higher business performance, not because they were right the first time, but because they were right over time. When you can generate new ideas and generalize those ideas across boundaries, you impact the performance of the organization and deliver sustainable value. In this video segment, Dave Ulrich talks about how to build learning as a capability in your organization.

Additional Resources

	Learning as an organization capability is discussed in depth in the book, How Leaders Build Value by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.
	View in-depth videos on each of the organization capabilities.

Organization Capabilities: Accountability

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:12:56 +0000

Accountability means that high performance counts. Accountability becomes an organizational capability when it becomes ingrained in the culture. In this video, Norm Smallwood explains the four requirements that create an accountable organization: Clear Goals, Measures, Consequences, and Feedback. He highlights common weaknesses in the system and important areas to focus efforts in order to build accountability as a capability in your organization.

Additional Resources

	Accountability as an organization capability is discussed in depth in the book, How Leaders Build Value by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.
	View in-depth videos on each of the organization capabilities.