Openness

The Detroit News has the text of a speech by Delphi's CEO Steve Miller. For those of you that don't know the situation, Delphi was GM's auto parts supplying arm until it was spun off in 1999. Their US operations recently filed for bankruptcy protection.

I don't know too much about him, but I was really impressed by this speech. The best line from the speech: "As someone said, buy a Hyundai and get a satellite radio as an option. Buy a Chevy, and social welfare comes as standard equipment!"

I've always been interested in learning about what makes a good manager. This guy seems to demonstrate a few of these qualities-- especially openness. The speech has nothing that seems to be obvious BS (to me at least), he is very open about the company's problems and how they relate to bigger issues in American manufacturing. Apparently, he also replies to all of his hate email from employees.

Sapient (the company I work for) is also really really big on openness-- its one of our core values and is ingrained into a lot of the processes in the company (ex, our feedback processes, our interactions with clients, the accessibility of our leadership team). This is one of the reasons I decided to work there. I'm sure you'll hear much more from me about Sapient's culture in future posts.

I am surprised how other companies function without creating a culture of openness. For example, Mark Fields, president of Ford's Americas division recently asked its employees for ideas. Wow-- why is this news? Asking your employees for advice and ideas should be a part of EVERY company. They know their jobs best, they know what parts of their jobs are inefficient, and they know tons of little tricks that get let them get their work done a little faster.

Think of all the knowledge stored in the minds of your employees-- unlocking that and sharing it would make everyone more efficient. Just look at the success of the open source development model or of the many community-based online businesses-- no single person's knowledge (manager or programmer) can match the amount of knowledge and expertise stored in a large community.

Sounds like lots of large corporations could use a good dose of Openness. Hopefully others will follow Mr. Miller's and Mr. Field's examples and make this a part of their companies.