Most businesses just don't get it. And that goes for their marketing, too.
We all know that businesses recruit heavily from B-schools to groom future leaders for their executive suites, but it seems there's an inherent problem with that. B-schools seem to be more interested in teaching their students the compartmentalized aspects of running a business than they are in imbuing them with real life experience.
How does that help future managers and executives to see "the big picture"? How does it mold leaders? Even worse: personnel management courses are given short shrift in most B-schools, so most MBAs have been graduating without much-needed people skills for quite a while now.
Jack Welch was asked by a B-school professor what he should be doing to prepare students "for the global business environment." In his Business Week column a few months ago, Welch gave his customary straight-from-the-hip response:
We'd make the case that the nitty-gritty of managing people should rank higher in the educational hierarchy.... [W]e've visited 35 B-schools around the world and have been repeatedly surprised by how little classroom attention is paid to hiring, motivating, team-building, and firing. Instead, B-schools seem far more interested in teaching brainiac concepts—disruptive technologies, complexity modeling... We'd say that's backward. Strategy and finance matter, of course, but without the right people running them on the ground, they're nothing but theories.... We hope you have the clout to make sure people management is front and center at your university. If you do, you'll launch your students' careers with a real head start.
Love him or hate him, Jack Welch makes a very good point. Part of the culprit here has to be the incredible emphasis that business places on delivering for its shareholders. Hence, the huge attention paid to innovation, new product launches, sales goals, quarterly financial statements, and competitive strategies. Though nobody can deny the importance of running a profitable company (read: accountability to shareholders), what about companies' accountability to employees and customers?
How can management—from CEOs, CMOs and the rest of the alphabet soup of corporate executives—run successful companies if they lack people skills?
Establishing connections, caring about people, and training and mentoring them can only strengthen the whole company. These qualities go right to the heart of leadership. Business executives, especially human resource people, are fond of saying "our people are the key to our success," yet it seems that very few companies truly live this credo. If they did value their human capital, wouldn't there be less turnover and much more productivity and connectedness in Corporate America?
Where is the leadership?
Marketing experts point out that a strong corporate brand identity must be embraced internally by every employee—starting at the top—before it can be successfully projected to the world at large, and to the company's core customer. How can that happen unless management believes in the company's raison d'etre and leads by example?
Branding isn't a people-less exercise. Unless there is a connection between executives and all company employees (read: that comes from developing strong people skills), how can the company's brand image be consistently projected to the company's employees? It's logical that strong branding should start at the top and go all the way down the company flow chart, after all. And how can employees, in turn, project it to the customer, if a consistent brand identity isn't established and nurtured? If it doesn't flow through the entire company?
When asked "what do you look for when recruiting talent" at the recent Leaders in London conference, Richard Branson gave this answer: "People who are good with people. If the person at the top cares about the person cleaning the floor and the people on the switchboard, then everyone comes alive. If the people at the top are not good with people, then it ricochets down and the culture of the organization is miserable for everyone."
Notice that Sir Richard didn't say "people who graduated with top honors from the most prestigious B-schools, and who truly understand the financial and competitive demands of business today."
Executives have to be able to interact with and manage their own personnel if they are to foster their core beliefs about the company in those people and nurture the corporate brand. They also have to be willing to listen to their employees, who are much closer to "the action" than the executive branch. Most executives do not interact directly with the customer, but really should to some degree. Being removed from the customers, and their concerns, is not wise. How can problems be addressed and resolved, without having the knowledge that they even exist? Since employees do interact with the customer, they have great insights and feedback to share with management. But who's listening? Who's even asking?
Yet, doing these things can only strengthen a company. Valuing employees, giving them a voice, and instilling company brand values that they can then project with pride to the customer has to pay huge dividends. It seems logical that when this is put in place, a company's financial performance will largely fall into line. How can that not happen since employee satisfaction tends to lead directly to customer satisfaction?
Hopefully, the lack of people skills in most companies can be rectified over time with refocus and effort. In fact, shouldn't that be imperative in today's competitive climate?
To business execs and owners out there: we respectfully suggest you leave the Ivory Tower and lead. Develop a rapport with your employees. Get to know your customers. Embrace your brand values and live them. Make sure all of your executives, not just the marketing department, filter it down to each employee of your company.
To the world's B-schools, large and small: how about making people management and direct experience in the corporate environment a focus of your curricula? Then, maybe, the MBA graduates of tomorrow will be better equipped to truly lead.
