‘You'd better return that call'
From Road to Power by Laura Colby. Copyright ©2015 by the author. Published by Bloomberg Press, a Wiley imprint (www.wiley.com/go/bloombergpress).
One morning in 1997, Mary Barra got an odd telephone message — the chief executive of General Motors, Jack Smith, wanted to interview her for a position as his assistant. “I thought it was a joke,” recalls Barra. She didn't reply to the message, and left the light blinking on her answering machine. Later in the day, she called her boss, Ken Varisco, over and played it for him. Come on, she asked him, who is trying to trick me?
He looked sheepish and apologized. “I didn't get a chance to talk to you about this yet,” he said. “You'd better return that call.”
Barra had returned to GM from Stanford to a job that was less than her dream role, as a senior staff engineer in operations services for what was then the Chevy-Pontiac-Canada group. Essentially, it was another facilities management job, not too far removed from the post she'd held at the Fiero plant.
She let her boss know that she wanted something that would involve working more with the cars themselves rather than plant facilities. “It was great that I had a frank conversation with my manager,” she recalls, “but I didn't get what I wanted right away.” And, she adds, “You've still got to do a good job at the job you have.”
Laura Colby is a reporter for Bloomberg News, covering women in the global economy and education.
Big Data's impact on exec comp
From The Compensation Handbook (Sixth Edition) by Lance A. Berger and Dorothy R. Berger. Copyright ©2015 by McGraw-Hill Education. Published by McGraw-Hill Education (www.mhprofessional.com).
Data have been central to the compensation practice since its inception. Data on jobs, employee pay, market pay, and numerous other areas of talent management have now exploded with the advancement of technology and data-collection devices into what we refer to as big data.
Big data combines multiple data elements into a cogent process that enables better compensation decisions faster and more accurately. It is now easier to combine business, culture, talent management, and compensation data elements into understandable decision points. Although big data is becoming an integral part of the business operations for a growing number of organizations, many compensation practitioners and line managers find it to be ambiguous, confusing, and intimidating. It appears to them that big data is an insurmountable barrier. This barrier, however, is not insurmountable, and this edition is designed to help readers find and use the level of big data that is appropriate to their organizations.
It is clear from the big-data section [of this book] that the expansion of big-data technologies and their pervasive adoption by organizations of all sizes and practitioners at all levels will be an integral component of state-of-the-art compensation practices in the future.
Lance A. Berger is managing partner and Dorothy R. Berger is a partner of Lance A. Berger & Associates. They have collaborated in producing previous editions of The Compensation Handbook (http://lanceberger.com). Directors & Boards Publisher Robert Rock contributed a chapter on the compensation committee of the board to their new book.
A vision of the ‘perfect' internal auditor
From Lessons Learned on the Audit Trail by Richard F. Chambers. Copyright ©2014 by the author. Published by The Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation.
Not so many years ago, the “perfect” internal auditor was considered the one with twenty-twenty hindsight — the one who could go back in time through skillful use of records and interviews to uncover every mistake and report each misstep in exacting detail. Back then, we thought we best added value when we helped our organizations recognize past mistakes and avoid making them again in the future. At most companies, our primary role was finding out what had gone wrong. We were the hindsight experts.
As the rate of change continues to accelerate, I can say with some certainty, based on the decades that I've been a part of this profession, that internal auditing has seen more changes in the past decade alone than at any other time in its history. And while clear hindsight continues to be important, one of the most fundamental ways in which we have changed recently is that we are no longer focused mainly on the past. In today's relentlessly evolving business environments, yesterday's ways of doing things are often not good enough. Our vision of the “perfect” internal auditor has been transformed: we have advanced from providing twenty-twenty hindsight to offering real insight into our organizations' risks, controls, and operations.
By moving from hindsight to insight, internal auditors exponentially added to the potential value of their services. With insight, internal auditors are no longer content with after-the-fact reviews. Instead, we are at the front end of our organizations' strategic undertakings, helping with acquisitions, systems redesign, multinational business expansions, and other initiatives that can mean the difference between success and failure for our clients.
Yet I believe internal audit's greatest opportunity to add value for its clients lies ahead. That's because we are only now beginning to explore the potential of moving beyond both hindsight and insight — and positioning ourselves to provide foresight.
Richard F. Chambers is president and CEO of The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the global professional association for internal auditors (www.theiia.org).
Be ‘in the theater'
From Business Model Validation by David Wanetick. Copyright ©2015 by the author. Published by Business Development Academy (www.bdacademy.com).
Yogi Berra once remarked, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” Walt Disney refused to air-condition the Anaheim, Calif., offices because he wanted his people out in the amusement park, learning about the operation firsthand rather than being cool and comfortable but out of touch. If first-hand research is not conducted, the intensity of customers' relationships with products and companies cannot be understood.
A powerful story about detecting subtleties whilst conducting first-hand research comes from Bill George. When Mr. George became the CEO of Medtronic, that company was functioning abysmally and its products were unreliable. Rather than relying on reading reports prepared by his staff or outside consultants, Mr. George insisted on going to the operating rooms where Medtronic's medical devices were used in surgeries. To his horror, Mr. George saw that Medtronic's fluoroscopes were breaking. He learned the intensity of the surgeons' ire when surgeries were delayed because Medtronic's instruments were malfunctioning. During one operation in which Medtronic's products failed, a surgeon threw a catheter at Mr. George.
By being in the theater in which the subject products are used, you can observe how the products are performing — not only with your ears but with all of your senses.
David Wanetick is the CEO of Business Model Validation, a research firm with an expertise in assessing the investment merits of emerging companies (www.businessmodelvalidation.com).
A chronicle of triumph and struggle
From American Mojo: Lost and Found by Peter D. Kiernan. Copyright ©2015 by Peter Kiernan III. Published by Turner Publishing Co. (www.turnerpublishing.com).
I began to see dead people as they truly are when I toiled as a young obituary writer for the Hudson Register Star, a daily afternoon broadsheet in upstate New York. While more experienced reporters chased Watergate stories and their own tunes of glory, I compiled these small daily histories and in the process came to a basic conclusion about life that formed the premise for this book.
Even the grandest sweep of history turns on the role of individuals and their contributions to events of their day. In the story you are about to read, individual histories play a vital role in one of the greatest forces ever conceived — the American middle class. This is a chronicle of triumph and achievement, sickness and struggle. It is a tale of a shared quest where high peaks were scaled, momentum faded, and direction was lost. It is also the story of rebirth and an exciting journey we are about to share. It's your rendezvous with reality — the brilliant prospects we face, together with fresh challenges the world will bring to our door.
Peter D. Kiernan is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and advisor to businesses, nonprofits, and government. His previous book, Becoming China's Bitch, was an award-winning bestseller.
How history has shaped employee pay
From American History's Impact on Employee Pay and Benefits by Bruce R. Ellig. Copyright ©2015 by Bruce R. Ellig LLC. Published by the author.
This is a unique book. The author knows of no other book that traces the evolution of employee pay and benefits within the timeline of American history. There are many books on pay and benefits, and there are hundreds of books on American history. But it is believed this is the first book that puts the pay issues within the context of the ebb and flow of American history.
It is critical such an examination be made. Employee pay and benefits did not develop within a vacuum. They emerged and changed within the context of political actions, business events and other key developments. They were shaped by laws (especially tax-based) and regulations (especially APB and FASB), as well as IRS tax rulings and SEC disclosure requirements that are included in this book. The consumer price index and the stock market also have a very definite impact on the evolution of pay and benefits, and they are included as well.
Bruce R. Ellig, a former senior executive at Pfizer Inc., is a noted authority on executive compensation. He is the author of nine books, including three editions of The Complete Guide to Executive Compensation (the most recent edition published in 2014 by McGraw-Hill Education).
Not an easy role: trustee
From Pankauski's Trustee's Guide by John Pankauski. Copyright ©2015 by the author. Published by Author House (www.authorhouse.com).
Welcome to the world of being a trustee. Where your every action is questioned, and every beneficiary believes that they can do a better job than you can.
Being a trustee is a great responsibility. Perfection is not required, but incompetence shall not be tolerated. You must know what you are responsible for, to whom you owe duties, and how you must carry out those obligations. Being a trustee is serious business and definitely not for everyone. The point is this: there is a lot more to being a trustee than understanding the financial markets or whether to purchase stocks or bonds. You need to recognize this. Understand it. Accept it. And act accordingly. You need to understand what you are in for, and why you want to serve.
John Pankauski leads a boutique law firm in Palm Beach, Fla., that specializes in litigation of family-wealth matters (www.johnpankauski.com).