This is the first in a series of three posts dealing with “brand.” A post on personal brands (YOU), and “how-to-do” examples will follow this first overview piece. As someone who’s been in the people (and teams) coaching business for over 25 years, and also been directly responsible for hiring thousands of people through roles running large staffing / recruiting operations, I have a pretty good idea why some firms recruit well (and others don’t), and how people can take their best foot forward as either a job candidate or consultant / vendor.… Read the rest
P.S. – “I Love You” and Other Forms of Communication
When I ran Human Resources for the drug distribution side of McKesson , prying 15 minutes from a distribution operating shift for employee communication basics was like taking bear cubs away from their parents.
Why is this important to you? Because the lessons McKesson supervisors learned should inform the communication practices of anyone who manages people from senior execs to first line supervisors.… Read the rest
[Through the Glass Door] Roche’s Genentech Talent Acquisition: 20 Questions
Neither Roche Chairman Franz Humer nor CEO Severin Schwan have called me up to ask how I’d handle the talent side of their Genentech acquisition. Perhaps they will, but they’ve also been pretty mum on their plans moving forward for the talent at 1 DNA Way .
As someone who has made their livelihood in the talent assessment business as a coach to managers and teams for over 25 years – and to save Franz and Severin a long distance phone call charge – here are some things I’d be thinking about if I were on point with the talent side of the Genentech project.… Read the rest
[The Barclays iShares and Genentech Acquisitions] Deals Are Done – Now Comes the Fun
Business and organizational observers in San Francisco and its environs will get a first hand view of how smart – or not-so-smart – the buyers of Genentech and Barclays Global Investor’s iShares unit are in getting real value for their acquisitions. [Update: See Kathleen Pender’s good overview column Net Worth from the April 12th San Francisco Chronicle here ]
While the buyers are different, the name of the game is the same: get value equal or greater to your purchase price.… Read the rest
[Through the Glass Door] Barclays Global Investors and Genentech: Stuck in the M & A Middle?
In Roman Catholic theology, limbo is that afterlife condition for those who die without being assigned to hell. For employees in companies waiting for the post-acquisition dust to settle such as Genentech, or for those waiting for part of the organization to be halved off, such as Barclays Global Investors (BGI) with its iShares division, limbo is a pretty good description of what it’s like to be inside the organization.… Read the rest
[New Rules] The Interview: People Aren’t That Curious
“What do I say?” he asked. Do I tell people that I found it impossible to work with her because she swoops in, swoops out, and leaves a trail of poop behind? “I mean.” he added, “she didn’t get the nickname ‘The Seagull” because she had webbed feet.”
It’s not likely to happen, I assured him. Let the interviewer simply know that there are some parts of her that you’d work with in a second, and there were some parts that you found challenging because you had very different styles.… Read the rest