I was reading an article from Harvard Business Review (HBR), Best-Performing CEOs in the World. They benchmarked CEOs based on data like increases in shareholder return and market capitalization. They also looked at the long term vision, considering the performance of CEOs over their entire tenure. One interesting result from their report was that 24 out of the top 100 CEOs in the world are engineers. In fact, on the top of their list was Jeffrey Bezos of Amazon, an engineer who does not even have an MBA.
What makes an engineering education useful to people leading a business?
“Studying engineering gives someone a practical, pragmatic orientation,” says Nitin Nohria, the dean of Harvard Business School, who holds an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
“Engineering is about what works, and it breeds in you an ethos of building things that work—whether it’s a machine or a structure or an organization. Engineering also teaches you to try to do things efficiently and eloquently, with reliable outcomes, and with a margin of safety. It makes you think about costs versus performance. These are principles that can be deeply important when you think about organizations.”
#1 - Analytical Thinking
Engineers, in general, are found to be good at attention to detail, problem-solving, numeracy, risk management and analysis. However, many may lack emotional intelligence and the necessary leadership, people management, and communication abilities – soft skills which can be addressed by training to assist their transition into the management arena. Engineering skills include analytical thinking that, at the CEO level, allows for better informed decision making.
#2 - Getting Things Done & Solve Problems
Engineers tend to be more organized and logical, considering the full consequences of a decision before making a commitment. As soon as they are committed, they're there till the end. They will ensure to find a way to solve the problems and get things done. They do not get disappointed with office political impediments because they are committed to the bigger picture that benefits most of employees.
#3 - Build Things & Set Vision
In spite of engineering’s long and glorious history – think Thomas Edison, John Frank Stevens, Henry Ford, and Herbert Hoover – there seems to have been stereotypical image problems associated with the profession. Engineers and engineerings are designed to know how to build things and make them work. Engineers can make a great team, organization, culture and product that increases revenue, reduce employee turnover rate and builds up a better self-esteem for all team members. Engineers are the best members in any company that can visualize a vision and make it come true.
But, not all engineers are about to be executives. Many talented engineers have no interest in leadership position. This is not necessarily a bad thing given the high proportion of corporate psychopaths in the C-Suite. Most of engineers’ characteristics don’t match in the spectrum of psychopathic tendencies. Until they become CEOs at least. We will observe a future that more and more engineers are taking over businesses. #BigIdeas2016
I joined VietnamWorks on 23rd of Oct 2013. I received two departments of technology and product. Before I go through the strategies I used to reduce employee turnover, having an insight on turnover rate of these departments over years:
- 2011, technology department was 11% and product 48%
- 2012, technology department was 40% and product 0%
- 2013, technology department was 32% and product 141%
Basically I got two departments that clear was in crisis situation in terms of employee turnover. As soon as joined for the new year, I merged these two departments into engineering, here is the result of our strategies:
- 2014, engineering department was 18%
- 2015 year to date, is 6%
Our firm hired Dale Carnegie to measure employee engagement and engineering was by far the best and most engaged department in VietnamWorks.
Alright, these are the 6 Strategies we used to Reduce Employee Turnover
1. Firing. It was very sad and difficult choice to make however you can be fair and fire your employees like paying them few months salary, helping them to find other jobs and some other benefits. But I had to discontinue with few employees. As the old saying goes, “a stitch in time, saves nine.”; Sometimes even when you follow the advice above, you get an employee who—no matter what you try to do—just doesn’t fit.
2. Hiring. VietnamWorks is an online business however because of instability issues in employee turnover of engineering (technology and product), this department had been out of focus of business. This is an oxymoron. Online business means technology (getting things done) and product (delivering values to users). So I decided to hire the best of bests, the folks who are much better than myself such as Eduardo and Duc to ensure the current team (who had great members like Lan, Ninh, Son, Tan, Ha, Lanh, Ly and others) is getting stronger.
3. Compensation & Benefits. I was lucky to have leaders who understood the situation. I ensured that we are paying employees the fair going wage (or better) and offered them competitive benefits. Technology and Product are the most high demanding industries in market otherwise, or—really—who can blame them for ditching us?
4. Freedom. We have Unlimited Annual Leave, Health Tracking Wearables,Innovation Accounting, holacracy and Innovation Time Off. All these engagement programs provided a freedom that helped each of our employees to achieve autonomy and purpose and ultimately a freedom fosters creativity.
5. Employees Happiness. Happiness may sound a bit soft and squishy to many executives, but the numbers behind it are anything but. Employee happiness is a key indicator of job satisfaction, absenteeism and alignment with values–just for starters. Investing in the happiness of your employees will pay dividends in engagement, productivity and yes, retention. It was (still is) extremely challenging to persuade executives to let you make your own employees happy.
6. Vision. One key factor in employee engagement and happiness, according to experts, is to provide them with a sense of purpose and meaning in their work. Offer employees a strong vision and goals for their work and increase their sense of belonging and loyalty to your organization. I offered (and still will) visions that make them excited and eager to learn more. Trust me, it is one of the most challenging practices to implement, getting all of my employees, executives and other departments heads on-board is like mission impossible. No matter how many successful cases you have in your firm, for each new vision you need to start all over again and again.
If you do these practices right and if you recognize your intrapreneurs, you can have sustainable business growth.
I joined VietnamWorks on 23rd of Oct 2013. I received two departments of technology and product. Before I go through the strategies I used to reduce employee turnover, having an insight on turnover rate of these departments over years:
- 2011, technology department was 11% and product 48%
- 2012, technology department was 40% and product 0%
- 2013, technology department was 32% and product 141%
Basically I got two departments that clear was in crisis situation in terms of employee turnover. As soon as joined for the new year, I merged these two departments into engineering, here is the result of our strategies:
- 2014, engineering department was 18%
- 2015 year to date, is 6%
Our firm hired Dale Carnegie to measure employee engagement and engineering was by far the best and most engaged department in VietnamWorks.
Alright, these are the 6 Strategies we used to Reduce Employee Turnover
1. Firing. It was very sad and difficult choice to make however you can be fair and fire your employees like paying them few months salary, helping them to find other jobs and some other benefits. But I had to discontinue with few employees. As the old saying goes, “a stitch in time, saves nine.”; Sometimes even when you follow the advice above, you get an employee who—no matter what you try to do—just doesn’t fit.
2. Hiring. VietnamWorks is an online business however because of instability issues in employee turnover of engineering (technology and product), this department had been out of focus of business. This is an oxymoron. Online business means technology (getting things done) and product (delivering values to users). So I decided to hire the best of bests, the folks who are much better than myself such as Eduardo and Duc to ensure the current team (who had great members like Lan, Ninh, Son, Tan, Ha, Lanh, Ly and others) is getting stronger.
3. Compensation & Benefits. I was lucky to have leaders who understood the situation. I ensured that we are paying employees the fair going wage (or better) and offered them competitive benefits. Technology and Product are the most high demanding industries in market otherwise, or—really—who can blame them for ditching us?
4. Freedom. We have Unlimited Annual Leave, Health Tracking Wearables,Innovation Accounting, holacracy and Innovation Time Off. All these engagement programs provided a freedom that helped each of our employees to achieve autonomy and purpose and ultimately a freedom fosters creativity.
5. Employees Happiness. Happiness may sound a bit soft and squishy to many executives, but the numbers behind it are anything but. Employee happiness is a key indicator of job satisfaction, absenteeism and alignment with values–just for starters. Investing in the happiness of your employees will pay dividends in engagement, productivity and yes, retention. It was (still is) extremely challenging to persuade executives to let you make your own employees happy.
6. Vision. One key factor in employee engagement and happiness, according to experts, is to provide them with a sense of purpose and meaning in their work. Offer employees a strong vision and goals for their work and increase their sense of belonging and loyalty to your organization. I offered (and still will) visions that make them excited and eager to learn more. Trust me, it is one of the most challenging practices to implement, getting all of my employees, executives and other departments heads on-board is like mission impossible. No matter how many successful cases you have in your firm, for each new vision you need to start all over again and again.
If you do these practices right and if you recognize your intrapreneurs, you can have sustainable business growth.
Who's an Intrapreneur? We can have a look at American Heritage Dictionary for its definition:
in-tra-pre-neur (In¹tre-pre-nur) n. A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation
Typically we used to call these people entrepreneurs, nonetheless, because they’re not entering into their own, work venture we refer to these employees as “intrapreneurs”, they are working within your company, thus the “intra” part.
To build your innovation engine, your company must excel at operationalizing ideas from your energized people who are willing to do everything they can to fight off internal resistance without creating chaos. This is your bench of corporate innovators: your intrapreneurs.
Find your intrapreneurs and Retain Them.
Vijay Govindarajan and Jatin Desai have noted in a Harvard Business Reviewblog post, there are certain characteristics that successful intrapreneurs share. I would like to review them:
- Money is not their measurement. Intrapreneurs understand the economic drivers that allow the organization to succeed and are able to support this fundamental truth and not fight it. A non-intrapreneur is perpetually looking for non-economic ways to justify their own advancement and payment. An intrapreneur “gets it” and does their work in a way that shows the organization they are someone it can’t afford to lose. The money and advancement finds them.
- Strategic Scanning. Intrapreneurs are constantly thinking about what is next, one step into the future. These passionate change agents are highly engaged, very clear, and visibly consistent in their work and interactions. They are not sitting around waiting for the world to change; they’re figuring out which part of the world is about to change, and they will arrive just in time to leverage their new insights. Learning is like oxygen to them.
- They are “greenhousers.” When you share an idea to an intrapreneur, the idea never leaves them. It stayes within their mind in order to figure out how to make it work. When you see them next, they are likely to have grown the seed of an idea into a full-blown plan or they will have created an even better set of alternative plans in its stead.
- Visual Thinking. Visual thinking is a combination of brainstorming, mind mapping, and design thinking. Only after an exciting insight do intrapreneurs seem able to formulate and visualize a series of solutions in their head—rarely do they formulate just one solution.
- They know how to pivot. Intrapreneurs aren’t afraid to change course, nor do they fear failure. They've a confidence and courage that every step takes them closer to their ultimate goal. They celebrate opportunities for growth, even painful failed ones.
- They behave authentically and with integrity. The intrapreneurs demonstrate the attributes of confidence and humility, not the maverick-like behavior often associated with successful corporate innovators. They all, however, exuded high self-awareness and sense of purpose.
Successful companies with their own innovation engines understand how to find, develop, and retain intrapreneurs.
After knowing the traits of an intrapreneurs now it is time to knowThree Reasons Why You Need an Intrapreneur in your firm:
- Intrapreneurs are major contributors to increases in productivity within your company. Intrapreneurs take risks and find more effective ways to accomplish tasks. An intrapreneur, in the most basic sense, is a skilled problem solver that can take on important tasks within a company and get things done.
- Intrapreneurs are the drivers and change agents of innovation within your company. Intrapreneurs seek to provide solutions to unique market driven problems. They seek policies, technologies and application that resolve a barrier to productivity increases. Like the entrepreneur who starts a company with the goal of providing a good or service, the intrapreneur takes on a task within the company to increase the capacity of the company.
- An intrapreneur understands trends and keep your company one step ahead of competitors; they see where the company needs to go before anyone else. Any successful company must have a number of intraprenuers to see future trends and meet them before their competitors do. In this respect good intrapreneurs are the most important asset a company has.