Human-capital

Participating as a senior manager in my first large merger (Prudential/Wachovia), I found this book a helpful guide. It is a bit of a primer, so it will probably not appeal to old M&A hands; however, any MBA can tell you about discounted cash flow analysis, but few CEOs have mastered the art and science of integration, which is the focus of this book.

The glamor is in the deal making: late nights with the lawyers and bankers. But most (most!) mergers fail to yield their expected value because the unglamorous job of integration is largely ignored during the deal and often mishandled afterwards.

Schweiger's theme is that integration is paramount to ultimate success and it must begin at or before valuation and due diligence, and it must be integrally woven into every step and every process.

The book is readable, logically organized and helpful.

As David Schweiger is the first to admit, M&A activity often turns out to be a source of value only to shareholders in the acquired company. In other words, it is much easier to put a value on potential synergies, increased market share and cost-savings than it is to capture any of these items. This book, written with both pragmatic bottom-line sense as well as compassion for the millions of employees affected by M&As each year, offers an extremely practical guide to capturing that elusive value. M&A can be a bad case of the Emperor having no clothes - a strategy based upon benefits that simply won't ever materialise, something the individual memebers of the crowd may be able to see perfectly well but which they would never dare to admit. Here is an alternative to the cynicism that often accompanies M&A; following Schweiger's methodology might just end with the Emperor being more than halfway decent... There is also an excellent guide to personal survival in an uncertain corporate world. Every manager should have a copy.

The main idea of the book is that HR strategy has to be matched to business strategy. This has been a view that HR people, dissatisfied with their traditional 'support' role have been hankering for. In this book Ulrich and company actually give them a tool to manage HR as a strategic asset, demonstrate HR's contribution to the bottom line, and to create and measure the degree of alignment between both the strategies.

So in a way the book is a very narrow sense of aligning HR to business results...but does not look at the things Ulrich himself has spoken of in depth earlier like "HR as the employee champion" and the conscience keeper of the organisation, where the 'performance measures' are much more softer and fuzzier in any great detail.

The HR scorecard is a useful additional reading to those who already have a general idea of the HR management. There are some good examples and concepts but it is not easy to read.

As a seasoned HR professional, I have spent the last decade looking for the "Holy Grail" of H.R. Metrics. My quest is not over after reading The HR Scorecard, but the book presented many helpful concepts and tools that we can use to measure the effectiveness of HR as a function, to measure R.O.I. on talent and talent initiatives, to measure the impact of HR on organizational performance, and as a basis for business case development of our deliverables.

Three well respected thought leaders in the HR field have conducted extensive research of more than 2500 companies to uncover a model for implementing HR strategy and measuring results. If fully employed HR will deliver results linked to higher functional and organizational performance.

To transform the structure of HR into a strategic function, HR leaders must:

1.Clearly define the business strategy.
2.Build a business case for HR as a strategic asset.
3.Create a strategy map (with leading and lagging indicators, and tangibles and intangibles.)
4.Identify HR Deliverables within the strategy map.
5.Align the HR architecture with HR deliverables.
6.Design the strategic measurement System.
7.Implement management by measurement.

The concepts in this book are useful but may not be practical for all HR leaders. This book is for organizations that have the resources to implement an in-depth system of measuring their HR performance. It is not a way to create a simple snapshot to be included in business reviews. While the authors suggest using no more than 25 measures so as not to create a burdensome systems, many of the examples in the book are quite complex and can by used only by the largest of organizations. It is also difficult to pick just a few efficiency measures and performance drivers from the comprehesive list prepared by the authors.

Real life examples of scorecards are shown from organizations such as Verizon/GTE, General Mills, and General Electric. While these examples can help any size HR department think through how to measure the performance of their function, I would like to see a smaller organization profiled with more simple measures.

This book should be in the library of all serious HR practitioners. It is well written, well researched, and well presented. If the tools and concepts are implemented, the HR function can rise to a new level. For those in smaller organizations, a few HR efficiency measures can be gleaned to build a simpler scorecard based on the key HR deliverables for the enterprise.

I thought this book was okay. It was very interesting trying to figure out if Shawn's dad was really going to kill him or not. But I didn't think that it was a book that most teenagers would like to read. I would reccomend this book to anyone who likes adventure and a little mystery

I thought this book was a great way to show kids our age how hard it was to live in the situation that he was. I recomend that all students should read this book if look down on other people.

I thought this book is awesome a very entertaining! I kept interested in the events and the plot. A sumary of the book is about a boy, Shawn, with crebral pralsie and he thinks his father is trying to kill him. He trys to figure out if his father really wants to "end his pain". Shawn knows that if his father doea try to kill him his brother and sister will do their best to try and protect him. I would rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars because it catches your attention and keeps you interested.

I read articles on this book for those are assigned in a graduate class. But far from the title implies, The class has no relationship with knowledge economy which is the buzzword in the business community. But this book was used to make us to be familiar with the concept of ¡®social capital.¡¯ Indeed this book tells less about knowledge but much more about social capital. Part I of this book contains introductory articles on the conception of the social capital and Part II lists real world application of the concept. 5 Articles of Part I voices cacophony, however. Reading through the articles only gives confusion to us. Nonetheless, it¡¯s inevitable and intentional for there is no consensus about the very basic conception. So editor deliberately put those conflicting perspectives in one volume. In turn, this way of editing reveals the fact that this book is not suitable to beginners. If you are already known to the word, social capital, reading through competing perspective doesn¡¯t baffle your nerves. But if you haven¡¯t heard the word at all, this book should not be recommended. Overall, the quality of articles is good enough. Indeed those are well-known ones. But if you want to see what the word, social capital at all, this is not your choice. If so, I recommend Nan Lin¡¯s ¡®Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action¡¯. This book does not only overview the various conflicting positions comprehensively, but also systematically define the concept from the network approach. In fact, Nan Lin is a eminent figure in the social network theory.

I enjoyed this book very much. It presents a very different pictue of Siberia than I received from the general press. My old impression was of a frontier society living in a vast northern wilderness. I was surprised to learn that 75% of the population lives in large cities. The author nails down, with firsthand observations from his prolonged stays there, that major cities of Pacific Russia have become quite livable, and many -- perhaps most -- people born in Siberia and locally educated do not hanker to move to western Russia unless financial distress finally forces them to leave. That marks a significant change in the last 2 or 3 decades which even Muscovites might not accept, much as a native New Yorker might still assume that people from Denver would really prefer "deep down" to live in New York. This urban surprise simply sets the stage for the author's report on his firsthand research on higher education -- and its products -- in Pacific Russia, a term which he invents and defines. Through the pivotal decade 1986 - 1996 this author spent months in seven cities of Pacific Russia, interviewing repeatedly at two dozen universities and other instutions of higher education, noting great changes occuring in them during this perion. Throughout one winter term he taught regular classes in two universities, thus observing, like an anthropoligst, "from inside." The key fact today is the central government's financial neglect of its universities and colleges "farthest out" but the second startling fact the author points out is that they survive, and their numbers even increase! Heckman, who spent a previous career researching and writing about California's higher education system for state government, continues his present inquiry as an independent scholar. His style is engaging and pleasant even though the content is jammed full of information. He conducts interviews in Russian, and provides a helpful glossary of technical higher education terms in Russian and English. The book also has a list of over 60 institutions of higher education in Pacific Russia, which extends from the Irkutsk / Lake Baikal region eastward to the Pacific. The concluding chapter about graduates of these institutions tries too hard, I think, to show that they're O.K. and ready for American entreprenueurs to hire. Several major corporations from North America alrady have offices on the Pacific end of Russia, and experience with Russian partners or on-site managers. In fact he draws from their experiences. Those companies, at least, know by now that they are not dealing with bumpkins. Yet the intercultural observations in the chapter may provide important tips to American companies newly venturing into this little-known corner of the Pacific rim. This short book provides a whole new perspective on the people -- not merely the spaces -- of Russia closest to America.

Whenever guru-accented statements like "leveraging human capital to produce results" I feel a quiver, not of excitement, but of caution. However, management trainees and schools like label-accented seminars and books, so this title, Play to Your Strengths, isn't anything that will offend anyone.
People are generally any company's core area asset. Despite the company's product, service, busines strategy, market share and management structure and reorganizations,it's people who ultimately make the differnce. People who are at the top, bottom, and between.
Apparently, this book is backed by a $10 million study. Hopefully, it was money well-spent. Human capital, in all of its forms - internal, external, management, labor and regulatory, is vital to understand, to appreciate, and to show appreciation for. As well, in today's world, the ethical element of conducting business is one that needs to be mentioned more often.
Frank G Anderson
MBA, Information Management
Korat, Thailand
Tel. 044-274972
mobile: 01-8773981

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...

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.

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.

An easy to read, simple description of the basics of people management in knowledge organisations. It brings together well established principles and practices and puts them into a 'knowledge' context. Could be useful for managers in the early stages of movement from a 'traditional' to a 'knowledge' mind-set.

A lot of the business books that I read offer theory that sounds promising, but that I have a hard time using in my real world. This book takes the theories of knowledge management and gives practical, usable ideas for how to make them work on the ground with today's generation of workers. There are even actual dialogues showing effective and ineffective ways of dealing with situations that ring very true (sometimes uncomfortably so). The author clearly knows her field and has a breadth of real-world experience behind her...and a sense of humour to boot! (That's a breath of fresh air in my business book library.) I found this book well-organized, a pleasure to read and full of practical wisdom. I heartily recommend it.

This is an excellent, useful book. It provides practical, down-to-earth applications of knowledge management concepts to the real world of the manager. It is obvious that the author has solid management experience and can speak with authority on what works and what doesn't. Fortunately, it is not a dry, academic treatise. It is, rather, a humourous and highly readable blend of theory and practice which would appeal to senior managers who want to learn how to create the conditions for high productivity from well-educated workers.

This book is basically a summary of a whole bunch of management books. None of the ideas offered any new insights into productivity.

In certain chapters of the book, the author(s) lack of real-world experience is clearly visible. From my years of experience in human-resource management, I find many of the ideas and suggestions offered in the book are already well known management methods that do not work in today's world. At best, the book is suitable for the consumption of naive business students.

Does not deserve the 4 star rankings. Who wrote the earlier reviews? The authors?

Not helpful for someone who knows a lot about hiring, recruiting, and retaining. It has nice concepts, but most would be difficult to apply without completely changing the organizational culture. There are a few nice tables and diagrams, and the paper is nice, but that hardly adds up to its being a great buy.

"For most of the twentieth century, the primary tools for the creation of wealth were physical: land, natural resources, human labor, and machines. The worth of a company was determined in large measure by the sum of its tangible resources." Gregory G. Dess and Joseph C. Picken write, "In recent years, however, companies like Microsoft, PeopleSoft, America Online, and Amazon.com have turned this model inside out. These companies, dealing in software and services and built on a foundation of intellectual capital with little or no tangible investment, have created extraordinary value for their investors, far in excess of the worth of their physical and financial assets. Traditional industries based on tangible assets, such as oil, autos, steel, and financial services, have lagged far behind, reinforcing the argument that value is determined not by the sum of an organization's resources but by how efficiently those resources are used and redeployed into new opportunities over time...(Thus, today) management faces two key challenges. The first is to address the quality and capabilities of the human capital resource itself: to recruit, develop, and retain the best talent available. The second is to design and configure the organization's structural capital- the key processes and structures that link its human, knowledge and information, and tangible resources to each other and to its core value-creating processes- so as to maximize the potential and performance of the entire entity. Our focus throughout this book is on how leading companies are meeting these challenges in a changing competitive environment" (from the Preface).

In this context, in Chapter One, they firstly define two key management challenges:

I. Structural Capital: They argue that the principal role of structural capital is to link the resources of the organization together into processes that create value for customers and sustainable competitive advantage for the firm. And hence, they identify key components of structural capital as follows:

1. Core Value-Creating Activities

* Core business processes

* External relationship with customers, suppliers, and alliance partners

* Reputation, brand loyalty, image, and legitimacy

2. Organizational Structure, Systems, Processes, and Culture

* Organizational and reporting structures

* Operating systems, processes, procedures, and task designs

* Information and communications infrastructures

* Resource acquisition, development, and allocation systems

* Decision processes and information flows

* Incentives, controls, and performance measurement systems

* Mechanisms to promote sharing, collaboration, and organizational learning

* Organizational culture, values, and leadership

II. Human Capital: They argue that our definition of human capital focused primarily on capabilities, knowledge, skills, and experience, all of them embodied in and inseparable from the individual. And hence, they identify eight key categories, or elements, of human capital as follows:

1. Motor skills: The ability to grasp, place, move, and manipulate objects in coordinated movements

2. Information-gathering (perceptual) skills: Sensory, perceptual, and interpretative capabilities

3. Information-processing (cognitive) skills: The ability to reason, analyze, and make decisions

4. Communication skills: The ability to listen, communicate, and share information and ideas

5. Experience: Know-how from having done the task before

6. Knowledge: Knowledge of self, the job, the organization, and the environment

7. Social skills: The ability to interface, coordinate, and collaborate productively with others

8. Values, beliefs, and attitudes: Personal values that shape perceptions, performance, and attitudes

I highly recommend to executives and HR practitioners.

I was extremely disappointed by this book.

My most serious concern was the failure of the authors to cite John Thorpe's "The Information Paradox: Realizing the Business Benefits of Information Technology". Results Chains were first developed in the late 80s and early 90s by DMR Consulting and Fujitsu Consulting. Basically, Strategy Maps are simplified Result Chains with a Balance Scorecard flavor. Harvard professors MUST do a review of the literature BEFORE they publish.

This is important because a Results Chain avoids 3 problems that will bedevil Strategy Map users.
1) A Results Chain is more much explicit about the role that assumptions play in achieving business outcomes. Assumptions are either statements about uncertainty (e.g. price is an important criteria for customers) or they are things that are outside of your control (e.g. a competitor will not enter this market). Strategy Maps DO NOT talk about risks or assumptions. This is bizarre.

2) The book continually mixs up inputs, outputs (from internal processes), and outcomes. (Osborne's "Reinventing Government" has a nice appendix about the differences.) It is not clear whether the elements on the Strategy Maps are actions to be taken or the results of these actions.
The failure to understand these distinctions will cause confusion down the road.

3) Results Chains are much more explicit about the contributions that one element plays in achieving business outcomes. In contrast, all the Strategy Maps have many-to-many relationships.
What will happen if the benefits are not achieved? How are you going to do any kind of root-cause analysis with a Strategy Map?

As the other reviewers have noted, the Strategy Maps in the book are very generic. This may provide a starting point for developing your own Results Chain.

Take a look at Thorpe's book.

"Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes" by Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton is a great third addition to the trilogy - "The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action" and "The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment"

The book goes into extraordinary detail of how both private and public organizations have succeeded in today's competetive environment by using the Balanced Scorecard to transform into what Kaplan and Norton call "Strategy-Focused Organizatons."

I particularly like the fact that the authors do not rely on theoretical "what if" examples like many academic theorists do -Kaplan and Norton have tested their ideas with real organizations that now endorse the concenpt (indeed, they created a Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame to recognize those organizations that achieve exemplary results). The authors provide many examples of how such organizations have achieved breakthrough results through case studies.

This is a must have for all Balanced Scorecard enthusiasts and a great tool for managers to have to help think through the articulation of strategy, a pre-requisite to its actual implementation.

Kaplan and Norton co-authored an article which was published in the Harvard Business Review (January/February 1993). In it they introduce an exciting new concept: the balanced scorecard. They have since published three books: this one, preceded by The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action (1996) and The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment (2000). Here's some background on the two books before we shift our attention to Strategy Maps.

In The Balanced Scorecard, as Kaplan and Norton explain in their Preface, "the Balanced Scorecard evolved from an improved measurement system to an improved management system." The distinction is critically important to understanding this book. Senior executives in various companies have used the Balanced Scorecard as the central organizing framework for important managerial processes such as individual and team goal setting, compensation, resource allocation, budgeting and planning, and strategic feedback and learning. When writing this book, it was the authors' hope that the observations they share would help more executives to launch and implement Balanced Scorecard programs in their organizations.

Then in The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton note that, according to an abundance of research data, only 5% of the workforce understand their company's strategy, that only 25% of managers have incentives linked to strategy, that 60% of organizations don't link budgets to strategy, and 85% of executive teams spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy. These and other research findings help to explain why Kaplan and Norton believe so strongly in the power of the Balanced Scorecard. As they suggest, it provides "the central organizing framework for important managerial processes such as individual and team goal setting, compensation, resource allocation, budgeting and planning, and strategic feedback and learning." After rigorous and extensive research of their own, obtained while working closely with several dozen different organizations, Kaplan and Norton observed five common principles of a Strategy-Focused Organization:

1. Translate the strategy to operational terms

2. Align the organization to the strategy

3. Make strategy everyone's job

4. Make strategy a continual process

5. Mobilize change through executive leadership

The first four principles focus on the the Balanced Scorecard tool, framework, and supporting resources; the importance of the fifth principle is self-evident. "With a Balanced Scorecard that tells the story of the strategy, we now have a reliable foundation for the design of a management system to create Strategy-Focused Organizations."

Those who have not as yet read The Balanced Scorecard and/or The Strategy-Focused Organization are strong urged to do so. Brief comments about them in commentaries such as these merely indicate the nature and extent of the brilliant thinking which Kaplan and Norton provide in each.

What we have in Strategy Maps are two separate but related components: Further development and refinement of core concepts introduced in the earlier two books, and, a rigorous examination of new ideas and new applications by which to convert intangible assets into tangible outcomes. In the Introduction, Kaplan and Norton explain that their direct involvement with more than 300 organizations provided them with an extensive database of strategies, strategy maps, and balanced scorecards. This abundance of material has revealed a number of strategies and tactics by which literally any organization (regardless of size or nature) can create and then increase value. The strategies and tactics are embraced within three targeted approaches for aligning intangible assets to strategy:

"1. Strategic job families that align human capital to the strategic themes

2. The strategic IT portfolio that aligns information capital to the strategic themes

3. An organization change agenda that integrates and aligns organizational capital for continued learning and improvement in the strategic themes."

Kaplan and Norton carefully organize their material within five Parts. I presume to suggest that Part I be read and then re-read before proceeding to Value-Creating Processes, Intangible Assets, and Building Strategies and Strategy Maps. Part Five provides a number of case files generated by private-sector, public-sector, and nonprofit organizations. In fact, I strongly suggest that Chapter 2 be re-read several times because it offers an invaluable primer on strategy maps. When reading and then re-reading Chapter 2, be sure to check back on Figure 1-2 (Page 8) and Figure 1-3 (Page 11) in the Introduction.

One word of caution from Kaplan and Norton: "It is important (if not imperative) to describe an organization's strategy with word statements of strategic objectives in the four linked perspectives BEFORE turning to measurements. Many organizations building BSCs attempt to go directly from somewhat vague strategy statements to measures without this step, and often omit critical aspects of the strategy or else select from measures that are already available, rather than selecting measures that quantify their strategic objectives."

This is a much longer review than I usually compose because I am convinced that only what is measurable is manageable. Also because, after extensive prior experience helping corporate clients with formulating process maps of various kinds, I am convinced that organizational "journeys" to increased sales, profits, and value need maps by which to reach those destinations just as those who drive vehicles do when seeking their own destinations. One of the greatest benefits of strategy maps is that the process by which they are devised helps to ensure that the most appropriate destination is identified. Think of Kaplan and Norton as travel agents and cartographers, to be sure, but also as consultants whose services you can retain merely by purchasing their three books, then by absorbing and digesting the information and counsel those three books provide. For many decision-makers in all manner of organizations, Strategy Maps may well prove to be the most valuable business book they ever read.