Shareholder value: is there common ground? - employee training during financial tough times

T+D, July, 2002 by Gary L. May, Bill Kahnweiler

One possible approach was uncovered during the Future Search Conference, where attendees alternated between two types of working groups: a stakeholder group with similar interests, such as private-sector practitioners, and a mixed group representing a cross-section of the eight stakeholder groups attending. During the first part of the conference, participants worked in their mixed groups to look at the past, present, and future of the profession and began to shape the thoughts that would become the Common Ground Statements. When the stakeholder groups came together to comment on the outputs from their perspectives, members of the management stakeholder group, consisting of senior managers and CEOs, were incredulous. They made it clear that much of the discussion to that point had little relevance to their world and their concerns.

Renny DiPentima, president of SRA Consulting and Systems Integration (listed among the top 100 best corporations to work for by Fortune), was especially vocal: "The issue in my mind is survival of the business. If the business doesn't remain competitive and meet the ever-increasing demands of customers, none of us will have jobs. I think we all recognize the importance of human capital as a differentiation point for companies. But my question to you is, What are you bringing to the table that adds value to the business equation? The training department doesn't have a monopoly on skills development. Show me how you can help me run the business or I'll get the needs met from some other source."

When challenged by the facilitator to talk mote about the business issues important to senior management, the stakeholder group gathered around a flipchart to diagram what one person termed, "what's inside the head of the CEO." The resulting figure highlights CEOs' major areas of concern:

* financial performance

* operating excellence

* employee focus

* customer satisfaction.

All of those areas center on the business mission, and all interact. In the ensuing dialogue, details about each area emerged.

Financial performance, driven by shareholder pressure, was defined in terms of revenue growth, operating profits, and return on equity.

Operating excellence was viewed in terms of business-process improvement, increasing speed, and total quality.

Employee focus dealt with concerns about morale, loyalty, commitment, and productivity.

Customer satisfaction related to attracting new customers, customer retention, and business development with existing customers.

An important point from the conversation was the constant tension between those concerns of CEOs and the need to maintain a balanced scorecard. If any of the sections become weak, the whole system falters.

It's interesting to compare that list of concerns with the Common Ground Statements. Do you see the disconnect? That's not to say that senior managers aren't conscious of such issues as social responsibility and work-life balance; they're contained in the values component in the center of the figure. But applying resources to those issues is predicated upon the business being healthy. So, the CEOs and senior executives must attend first to the survival of the business and business fundamentals. Shadow an executive for a day to find our what he or she is worrying about and it's clear that the training profession's typical agenda, as evidenced by the Common Ground Statements, occupies little territory in a typical CEO'S mind.