Workplace, Teams, & Culture P. 7

Airline companies may be the businesses everyone fantasizes the most about trying to fix. And just now, the fixing would require more work than usual. A new round of mergers, a new climb in costs and a new wave of customer dissatisfaction all pose fresh challenges. Add to that an industry work force whose wages have plummeted by $15 billion since 2001 and whose morale is at a low ebb plus an air traffic infrastructure that experts as well as customers realize is overstressed, and the overall industry repair problem can seem impossible. Thomas A. Kochan, along with Greg J. Bamber, Jody Hoffer Gittell and Andrew von Nordenflycht, takes up the task in the forthcoming book Up in the Air: How the Airlines Can Improve Performance by Engaging Their Employees (Cornell University Press, January 2009). In this interview with MIT SMR editor Michael S. Hopkins, Kochan, who is a professor of management at MIT and a leading analyst of workplace relations, identifies the need for totally altering employee/employer relationships as the critical opportunity and threat faced by the airline industry. Kochan explores the airline industry models that have worked (and are working) along with those that haven’t. And he suggests that the airline industry isn’t alone in encountering fundamental choices about how collaborative their workplaces will become. One of the keys, Kochan explains, is employee engagement and empowerment of service employees on the front lines.

There are 12 million reasons why Marten Mickos isn’t afraid that his rivals in the database software industry will ever overtake him. “Let them try,” he says brazenly of his competitors. “Our secret is in the way we operate our culture, and I’m convinced others cannot imitate that.” MySQL AB, the business Mickos has built since 2001, has committed itself to “open-source” innovation since its founding, giving 12 million coders & #8212; who typically receive no compensation & #8212; permission to debug, add features or otherwise modify the product before redistributing it. Mickos, now a senior vice president at Sun Microsystems Inc. after it acquired MySQL AB for $1 billion, talks with Josh Hyatt, freely sharing his ideas about why this Internet-age version of a barn raising produces superior innovation and the strengths and limitations of in-house innovation. He also discusses how open-source innovation isn’t for every company and how many organizations fail to engage the community and thus are forced to fold their open-source innovation projects. Mickos discusses engaging software developers who are so devoted to a process they seldom get paid for, and how these contributors are even willing to spend their own money to be a part of the process. Finally, he talks about whether dangers exist in open-source innovation, including potential damage to the code from malicious entities, competitors stealing code or ideas, and whether people will perceive this style of innovation as just a passing fad.

Having one member in a remote location helps teams communicate.

In leading international cities, companies gain access to knowledge and networks.

CEOs need to scan for the faint — but vital — signals that will help give their companies an edge.

Innovation is the mandate of the day, and it has companies increasingly looking outside of their own organizations for new ways to grow. At the same time, shrinking federal research budgets are forcing universities to find alternate sources of funding for their research efforts. Consequently, just as companies are searching for new capabilities, sources of knowledge and means of growth, universities are feeling the urge to come down from the ivory tower to do business with corporations in order to keep their labs open. The convergence of these circumstances results in an unprecedented opportunity for successful partnerships between universities and corporations, and universities are making this easier every day. Recent years have seen a steep increase in the number of university-sponsored industrial or corporate liaison programs aimed at increasing university funding from private sources. But, given their differing needs, universities and corporations approach collaboration from different perspectives. How can managers reconcile the various needs of the two types of institutions? Drawing upon 20 years of experience as a corporate liaison officer, the author examines how best to manage relationships between companies and universities. He suggests that one point of common ground in corporate and academic partnerships is mutual respect for the use of the scientific method to solve problems. In such a context, academics feel more comfortable entering into dialogue with corporations without fear of "selling out," and corporate interests shed their aversion to so-called "pure" research. This allows both parties to follow the author's advice of shifting from a transactional approach to a relational approach. He examines three case studies and identifies three key factors in their success: The relationships moved beyond short-term vendor relationships to become lasting partnerships that built new capabilities for the companies; senior management was highly involved; and the companies involved the university in their strategy, not merely in technical tasks or isolated business problems.

It has become accepted wisdom in the corporate world that at one time or another every business will be forced to make radical changes. In fact, there is a blossoming industry of consultants and advisors who are equipped to help companies execute and survive these inevitable upheavals. But the authors propose that there is a better way to ensure that your company doesn't get ripped apart by radical change: Make sure it never needs it. What CEOs don't realize, say the authors, is that they could prevent their businesses from confronting the risks of wholesale change if they knew enough to identify and make smaller changes before too much friction builds up inside the company. Leaders and their management teams must be alert to -- and willing to confront -- early signs that the company's internal culture is not consistent with how it used to be, or how the leadership thinks of it. Making preemptive moves is never easy, because the signs are subtle and do not show up in traditional financial metrics. Shoring up a company's sagging identity is almost never a financial priority on par with, say, buying a new piece of equipment. The authors explain which indicators CEOs should monitor and take seriously (turnover rates, for example, or changes in the profile of new hires) so that they can make rational decisions as they are warranted, rather than waiting until panic sets in and countless changes are unavoidable. Such incremental shifting poses its own challenges: It's hard to convince others to join the movement when the culture in question looks healthy, but doing so will spare the company from the tough task in the future of having to reinvent itself. Given the choice, wouldn't most leaders prefer a low-level struggle with change rather than a fierce smackdown?

Why are some employees adept at getting the information they need while others struggle to locate the right in-house experts?

The authors offer a framework that executives can use to ensure that their new visions for their businesses become more than just pipe dreams.

Success in innovation requires the ability to churn out successful growth businesses year after year.