A Blueprint For Business In the E-world - Review

HR Magazine, August, 2001 by Bob Stambaugh

In his latest offering, The E-Aligned Enterprise: How to Map and Measure Your Company's Course in the New Economy, Jac Fitz-enz carries on the tradition he has developed over the past two decades, once again forcing us to change the way we think about and manage human resources.

Fitz-enz, author of The ROI of Human Capital and founder and chairman of the Saratoga Institute, illustrates how the business world is changing. That world now has:

* Global scope, rather than local or regional.

* Faster time cycles.

* More complex structures.

* Talent and information as prime resources, rather than machinery.

* Greater importance of innovation.

* Higher risks.

* Systems that are open and connected, instead of closed.

These changes have created dissonance and anxiety--because we, as business practitioners, have remained fundamentally the same. So Fitz-enz has created a chart for us to follow as we navigate these new waters.

The author has divided the book into an introduction, four major sections, and several appendices. The first section, "Enfolding the new world," describes the characteristics of a new "e-world," and the shifts it is forcing on the old, industrial "i-world."

Each section after the first concludes with a short "scorecard." Since the book is so easy to read, you may find yourself wanting to go from section to section without stopping for the scorecards. Don't overlook them! These short exercises force you to slow down and think in specifics about this whole e-world, anchoring the book's vision to real-world issues and opportunities.

Section Two introduces a leadership-centered approach to governance, necessary since the old command-and-control management style has broken down. Some of this subject matter sounds fuzzy, but it's anchored in reality via short vignettes and references to other authors. (Fitz-enz has done his homework well, and the richness of his references and citations warrant a close reading.) The section also includes checklists and self-assessment tools for achieving 10 leadership imperatives in the e-world, including:

* Provide a clear vision for people to follow.

* Champion information sharing and recognition.

* Reward innovation and punish unreasonable resistance.

* Focus on measurable results rather than processes.

* Invest heavily in developing associates.

* Develop a can-do attitude in the organization.

The section's "leadership scorecard" is especially useful for assessing where you and the company stand now.

The "strategy" segment of the book highlights three strategic drivers: connectivity, innovation and customers. The author sees a clear link between connectedness and innovation: the more we work together, the more innovation is possible. We should "maximize the web," he says, "as an indirect way of maximizing ourselves." There are two scorecards--one for e-strategy and another for customer relations.

The next section addresses human capital--Fitz-enz's "e-world lever." He builds on earlier books and his experience, grounding this discussion solidly in facts from the Saratoga Institute's HR database. This section includes an excellent summary of knowledge management and learning.

The final section of the book is about alignment and a "web-acknowledged strategy." Fitz-enz tells us "Yesterday, today, and tomorrow--there is no one best way to do something. Management by imitation seldom succeeds." Every manager needs to read his short discussion of the differences between the old, i-world model and the emerging web-strategy model of business: It's radical and thought provoking.

This section concludes with another scorecard and an appendix that discusses use of ROI calculations in the e-world.

Overall, Fitz-enz sees our new business environment as a work in progress. To anticipate the speed of change, he has left enough room and ambiguity in each section to suggest and encourage discussion, experimentation, innovation and change. He says early in the book:

"... it could be that the human race has shifted from unhurried evolution to impulsive transformation as the new steady state of the world.... Possibly, we have just entered our final infinite stage ... a high-speed journey of never ending transformation."

This book is a gift--from an experienced researcher and HR guru whose credentials permit a foray into the evolving environment of the future. He's made the landscape comprehensible. Whether you read the book for the down-to-earth checklists or the more philosophical conjectures, you'll benefit from The E-Aligned Enterprise.

Bob Stambaugh is vice president of HRchitect Inc., an e-HRIS consultancy and systems integrator headquartered in Cambridge, Mass.