netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Rockwell Automation was initially founded in 1903 as the Compression Rheostat Company by Lynde Bradley and Dr. Stanton Allen with an initial investment of $1,000. In 1910 the company was renamed the Allen-Bradley Company. In 1952 they opened a subsidiary in Galt, Ontario, Canada that now employs over 1000 people. In 1985 a new company record was set as they ended the fiscal year with 1 billion dollars in sales. On February 20, 1985 Rockwell International (now Rockwell Automation) purchased Allen-Bradley for $1.651 billion, which is the largest acquisition in Wisconsin's history.
Rockwell Automation is a global provider of industrial automation, power, control and information solutions. Brands in industrial automation include Allen-Bradley and Rockwell Software.
Out of necessity to compete and survive, the combination of innovation and
technology are two focal points for management. The challenge for management is
to make things happen through people, leadership, culture, and the organizational
mindset. And this does not mean that everything must be done quicker, faster and at
lower costs. The real benchmark to ask is: Does it add value to an existing process?
The driver behind this mandate (creating value through innovation and technology) is
the management of people. With so much emphasis on profitability, things like
people and innovation often get crushed in the mad rush to re-engineer the business.
Re-engineering views the business in terms of excess, asking the question: What
can we eliminate? Innovation on the other hand views the business in terms of re-
thinking, asking the question: Can we do this a better way? Whereas re-engineering
places little emphasis on people, innovation relies heavily on people.
If the organization fails to support its people, then creative thinking and innovation
becomes elusive. A good way to understand this concept is to simply flip the
organizational pyramid upside down. The CEO, who typically sits on top of the
pyramid, is now at the bottom, providing upward support to the VP's (Vice
Presidents). The VP's provide support to upper level management, upper level
management provides support to middle level management, and so on. The lower
levels of the organization are now front and center at the top of the organizational
pyramid, supporting customers who in turn drive the business.
In his book, Leadership is an Art, Max De Pree describes leadership as "liberating
people to do what is required of them." Employees are viewed as customers and the
role of the Manager is to serve employees, attempting to optimize productivity. This
point is also made in the book, Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self Interest by
Peter Brock. Brock describes managers and supervisors as servants to employees,
10
no longer controlling employees, but finding out specific issues confronting the
employee and working through these issues to empower and unleash the human
factor within the organization.
A network of employee-owned initiatives now re-energizes the organization into an
entrepreneurial culture. Employees not only assume responsibility for valuing
creating projects, but they share in the benefits and rewards; i.e. they have a piece of
the action. Once employees are in control, they naturally find better ways of doing
things - this is the foundation behind innovation. Management can begin targeting
innovation at critical business areas, such as customer service, production, and
marketing. To further move the process along, technology can be deployed into the
mix. It's worth noting that technology alone is not necessarily the answer. Once
again, we can go back to our fundamental benchmark: Does it add value to what is
currently taking place?
All of this requires considerable change on the part of management. In his book
Managing by Measure, Mark T. Czarnecki offers the following observation:
"Actual change takes real participation, not just listening. It takes real emotion and
understanding . . We can ask people to change, but when we fail to redesign
structures and systems around them, a lot of old behavior gets reinforced and new
behaviors go unrewarded. Pay systems, leadership styles, job boundaries,
technology, polices; if these aren't also changed, they merely serve to pull people
back to where they were before the change process started."
Changing human behavior requires that managers put emphasis on people. And as
author Mark T. Czarnecki has pointed out, a lot of things have to happen for this to
occur - right leadership, right culture, right reward systems, etc. Therefore, the real
test is how the organization itself changes in meeting the needs of the employee. For
many organizations that have endured several re-engineering programs,
reintroducing the human factor may offer the most effective and sustainable
approach to continuous innovation.
Performance through People
Almost every organization says the same thing: People are our most valuable asset.
However, when you see how people are actually managed, you have to conclude
otherwise. Most organizations fail to manage their human assets for optimal
performance.
"The performance challenge facing every organization is to develop management
systems that make employees the organization's greatest assets."
- The Performance Challenge by Jerry W. Gilley, Nathaniel W. Boughton, and Ann
Maycunich
11
The role of management is to find ways for getting people to perform. In the book
Performance Improvement Methods, H. James Harrington and Kenneth C. Lomax
outline ten barriers to performance:
1. Insufficient Time - Problems are not solved due to lack of time. However, the
failure to solve a past problem creates a lack of time today.
2. Disowned - People fail to take ownership of a problem; i.e. it's not my job.
3. Not Recognized - People who deliberately go after problems are often not
recognized. Instead, people are recognized for taking the path of least resistance.
4. Accepting Mistakes - The organizational culture may be too accepting of mistakes;
i.e. everybody makes mistakes - this is normal. The mandate should be that when a
mistake is made, we learn from the mistake so that the mistake is not repeated.
5. Ignorance - Lack of knowledge or awareness is not an excuse in today's
competitive information age. Each problem requires some degree of attention or
priority.
6. Impossible to Solve - People may conclude that the problem is impossible to solve.
If this mindset grows, then more and more problems go unresolved.
7. Defensive - People will protect their turf, not assuming responsibility. People
should respond by finding ways that they can contribute to resolving the problem.
8. Unrealistic Expectations - Management often imposes unrealistic requirements,
usually in terms of time, quality or costs. Management must seek out realistic
requirements by conferring with those who have to implement the decision.
9. Accepting Partial Solutions - People may accept a solution that partially solves the
problem; i.e. it's good enough to get by. Instead, people should seek out the "best"
solution and not the easiest.
10. Shifting Blame - People may target someone else as the source of the problem.
The emphasis should be on trying to solve the problem and not pointing blame.
By removing these barriers, problems can be viewed as opportunities for value
creation. Getting people into a problem-solving mode requires training and strong
support from management. Additionally, the organization needs to be rich with
performance improvement tools so that employees are empowered with the ability to
solve problems. The list of performance improvement tools can be almost endless:
Conflict Resolution Teams, Entrepreneurial Culture, Matrix Management, Strategic
Benchmarking, 360 Feedback Systems, Risk Analysis, Competitive Research,
Special Training Programs, Organizational Realignment, and so on and so on.
Rockwell Automation is a global provider of industrial automation, power, control and information solutions. Brands in industrial automation include Allen-Bradley and Rockwell Software.
Out of necessity to compete and survive, the combination of innovation and
technology are two focal points for management. The challenge for management is
to make things happen through people, leadership, culture, and the organizational
mindset. And this does not mean that everything must be done quicker, faster and at
lower costs. The real benchmark to ask is: Does it add value to an existing process?
The driver behind this mandate (creating value through innovation and technology) is
the management of people. With so much emphasis on profitability, things like
people and innovation often get crushed in the mad rush to re-engineer the business.
Re-engineering views the business in terms of excess, asking the question: What
can we eliminate? Innovation on the other hand views the business in terms of re-
thinking, asking the question: Can we do this a better way? Whereas re-engineering
places little emphasis on people, innovation relies heavily on people.
If the organization fails to support its people, then creative thinking and innovation
becomes elusive. A good way to understand this concept is to simply flip the
organizational pyramid upside down. The CEO, who typically sits on top of the
pyramid, is now at the bottom, providing upward support to the VP's (Vice
Presidents). The VP's provide support to upper level management, upper level
management provides support to middle level management, and so on. The lower
levels of the organization are now front and center at the top of the organizational
pyramid, supporting customers who in turn drive the business.
In his book, Leadership is an Art, Max De Pree describes leadership as "liberating
people to do what is required of them." Employees are viewed as customers and the
role of the Manager is to serve employees, attempting to optimize productivity. This
point is also made in the book, Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self Interest by
Peter Brock. Brock describes managers and supervisors as servants to employees,
10
no longer controlling employees, but finding out specific issues confronting the
employee and working through these issues to empower and unleash the human
factor within the organization.
A network of employee-owned initiatives now re-energizes the organization into an
entrepreneurial culture. Employees not only assume responsibility for valuing
creating projects, but they share in the benefits and rewards; i.e. they have a piece of
the action. Once employees are in control, they naturally find better ways of doing
things - this is the foundation behind innovation. Management can begin targeting
innovation at critical business areas, such as customer service, production, and
marketing. To further move the process along, technology can be deployed into the
mix. It's worth noting that technology alone is not necessarily the answer. Once
again, we can go back to our fundamental benchmark: Does it add value to what is
currently taking place?
All of this requires considerable change on the part of management. In his book
Managing by Measure, Mark T. Czarnecki offers the following observation:
"Actual change takes real participation, not just listening. It takes real emotion and
understanding . . We can ask people to change, but when we fail to redesign
structures and systems around them, a lot of old behavior gets reinforced and new
behaviors go unrewarded. Pay systems, leadership styles, job boundaries,
technology, polices; if these aren't also changed, they merely serve to pull people
back to where they were before the change process started."
Changing human behavior requires that managers put emphasis on people. And as
author Mark T. Czarnecki has pointed out, a lot of things have to happen for this to
occur - right leadership, right culture, right reward systems, etc. Therefore, the real
test is how the organization itself changes in meeting the needs of the employee. For
many organizations that have endured several re-engineering programs,
reintroducing the human factor may offer the most effective and sustainable
approach to continuous innovation.
Performance through People
Almost every organization says the same thing: People are our most valuable asset.
However, when you see how people are actually managed, you have to conclude
otherwise. Most organizations fail to manage their human assets for optimal
performance.
"The performance challenge facing every organization is to develop management
systems that make employees the organization's greatest assets."
- The Performance Challenge by Jerry W. Gilley, Nathaniel W. Boughton, and Ann
Maycunich
11
The role of management is to find ways for getting people to perform. In the book
Performance Improvement Methods, H. James Harrington and Kenneth C. Lomax
outline ten barriers to performance:
1. Insufficient Time - Problems are not solved due to lack of time. However, the
failure to solve a past problem creates a lack of time today.
2. Disowned - People fail to take ownership of a problem; i.e. it's not my job.
3. Not Recognized - People who deliberately go after problems are often not
recognized. Instead, people are recognized for taking the path of least resistance.
4. Accepting Mistakes - The organizational culture may be too accepting of mistakes;
i.e. everybody makes mistakes - this is normal. The mandate should be that when a
mistake is made, we learn from the mistake so that the mistake is not repeated.
5. Ignorance - Lack of knowledge or awareness is not an excuse in today's
competitive information age. Each problem requires some degree of attention or
priority.
6. Impossible to Solve - People may conclude that the problem is impossible to solve.
If this mindset grows, then more and more problems go unresolved.
7. Defensive - People will protect their turf, not assuming responsibility. People
should respond by finding ways that they can contribute to resolving the problem.
8. Unrealistic Expectations - Management often imposes unrealistic requirements,
usually in terms of time, quality or costs. Management must seek out realistic
requirements by conferring with those who have to implement the decision.
9. Accepting Partial Solutions - People may accept a solution that partially solves the
problem; i.e. it's good enough to get by. Instead, people should seek out the "best"
solution and not the easiest.
10. Shifting Blame - People may target someone else as the source of the problem.
The emphasis should be on trying to solve the problem and not pointing blame.
By removing these barriers, problems can be viewed as opportunities for value
creation. Getting people into a problem-solving mode requires training and strong
support from management. Additionally, the organization needs to be rich with
performance improvement tools so that employees are empowered with the ability to
solve problems. The list of performance improvement tools can be almost endless:
Conflict Resolution Teams, Entrepreneurial Culture, Matrix Management, Strategic
Benchmarking, 360 Feedback Systems, Risk Analysis, Competitive Research,
Special Training Programs, Organizational Realignment, and so on and so on.
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