Off the Shelf

What’s Worth Reading

By Alyson Nyiri

Faster, Cheaper, Better: The 9 Levers for Transforming how Work Gets Done (Crown Business, Random House, 2011; By Michael Hammer & Lisa Hershaman)

The late Michael Hammer wrote following in an unpublished manuscript: “Processcentered work can help satisfy everyone’s hunger for connection with something beyond themselves and their own needs. It widens our horizons and connects us with others – with our teammates, with our organization, with our customers.”

Known for Reengineering Corporation, Hammer developed the Process and Enterprise Maturity Model (PEMM) shortly before his death. Lisa Hershman, CEO of Hammer and Company, implemented Hammer’s theories before they collaborated on what became Faster, Cheaper, Better. Reengineering the Corporation explained why end-to-end was a better way. Faster, Cheaper, Better shows us how to do it.

The processes many companies use today grew from the Industrial Revolution, where  compartmentalized and segmented. In a global economy businesses find ways to do things faster, cheaper and better than the competition. Chunking work down into a series of steps must give way to a holistic approach where work becomes an end-to-continuum.

Hershman and Hammerare dedicated to enterprise process, the how and why of performance and  identify the nine levers for transforming how work gets done. These levers are divided into two sections. The first five drivers are process enablers, which are what a company needs to figure out to achieve solid improvements in an end-to-end process. They include process design, the right metrics, a process owner, people who do the work and effective infrastructure. Although these  levers offer a road map for transformation, Hammer was puzzled by companies who failed to make progress on those while others did. He discovered, and then added, four additional levers.

Companies that achieved breakthrough performance had leadership, culture, governance and expertise. All nine levers are covered in chapters with examples from businesses to illustrate each. The end of the book provides a guide and an assessment chart of the Process and Enterprise Maturity Model.

The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers (Crown Business, Random House, 2011; By Bill Conaty and Ram Charan)

Conaty and Charan have more than 80 years of business and human resources experience. Conaty spent 40 years with General Electric and is a recognized leader in HR. Charan has worked with top executives from successful companies, including GE, Verizon, Novartis and Dupont. Both have been named Distinguished National Academy Resources.

HR professionals understand and promote people as a company’s best resource. In Talent Masters, the authors contend talent will be the differentiator between companies that succeed and those that don’t, and talent masters must create a self-renewing stream of leaders.

Talent Masters gives an inside look at how GE, P&G and Hindustan Unilever manage people by building disciplined routines and processes and leveraging expertise of recognizing and developing talent. From close observation of these companies and others, Conaty and Charan developed seven principles to diagnose and cultivate talent development capability: an enlightened leadership team; a performance-driven meritocracy; explicit defi nition and articulation of values; candour and trust; rigorous talent assessment; a business partnership with HR; and continuous learning and improvements.

Talent Masters begins with an exploration of GE’s talent management system. Part II illustrates wide ranges of approaches to talent mastery, examining how Hindustan Unilever, Agilent Technologies and Proctor & Gamble built a leadership pipeline. Part III analyzes how talent masters in younger companies handle a rapid change in leadership. Part IV offers practical advice and a talent mastery toolkit, covering leadership, talent reviews, succession planning and more.

HR professionals are urged to build their vision around the business model, become problem solvers, remove issues from the  CEO’s plate, have the courage to push back or challenge the system when necessary, balance their business partnership role with their employee advocacy role and never forget the “human” in human resources.