My wife, Christine, recently asked me a great question, “Have you thought about developing interview questions to see what candidates thoughts are on hiring people with the core belief (or open to the possibility) for these crazy new ideas? For example, value pricing, service level agreements, firm of the future?”
Honestly, I was stumped. I really had not.
She even provided me with a great potential question - Tell me about a time when you purchased something and wanted to know the details of the costs behind it.
This really got me thinking that we need a set of potential interview questions for firm who have made the leap to being a firm of the future. So, in addition to Christine’s first question above, I present a first cut list of potential interview questions for knowledge workers.
Note: TMAATW stands for “Tell me about a time when.”
TMAATW you solved a particularly difficult problem.
TMAATW you had to bend or even break a rule at work to get your job done.
TMAATW you had to deal with an irate customer.
Tell me about you favorite customer.
Tell me about the last business book you have read.
What are your top three books of all time? Why?
Would you rather your performance be judged or measured? Why?
TMAATW you felt judged unfairly.
What is more important to you efficiency or effectiveness?
What is more important the idea or its execution?
When do you normally do your holiday shopping?
Who are your heroes? Why?
Who do you think is the most influential Austrian economist? (OK, I am kidding. (Sort of.))
OK, team VeraSage, now it is your turn. What additional questions would you add to the list?
Last Friday, I—along with my father—had the pleasure of visiting TrailblazerBrains on Fire in Greenville, South Carolina.
This is an amazing agency, which as of January 1st of this year trashed its timesheets. This initiative was pushed through by Kathie Conway, Keeper of the Cash, and Brandy Amidon, Princess of Particulars.
They were able to achieve this after reading the Journal of Accountancy Firm of the Future article from November, 2008, along with The Firm of the Future book.
Very few firms that we know of have been able to accomplish this feat without at least attending a seminar, or hiring consulting help.
After a great lunch, we sat down for an interview on trashing timesheeets. Some of the questions came from people who follow @BrainsOnFire on Twitter, and some were from Cathy and Brandy.
Thank you Cathy, Brandy, and the rest of the team at Brains on Fire—you are true pioneers and it was an honor to meet you. I’m only sorry I didn’t get to meet Mud.
VeraSage Technology Trailblazer Firm, Aries Technology in Knoxville, TN has added a blog to their web site. John Shaver has written an interesting post on the San Francisco Giant’s experiment with what amounts to yield management for their tickets.
He writes, “How many of us have reexamined and rethought our pricing philosophies lately? I think the current economic conditions present a great opportunity for all of us to look for more creative pricing strategies.”
Excellent thought John and good luck with the blog.
The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear the case brought by the Competitive Enterprise Institute against the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
VeraSage is on record as begin against this horrible law which the American Enterprise Institute estimates has sucked a cool $1 trillion from the US economy. We, therefore applaud this decision and hope peek-a-boo and SOX are struck down.
He says, “price is related to scarcity” and “a $20,000 gown is not a premium product. It’s not better made, it won’t hold up longer, it’s not waterproof or foldable. It’s just artificially scarce.” Taken together these two statements seem to imply that scarcity is more of a factor in pricing than it really is.
There are plenty of things that are scare that have little or no value:
My son’s first drawing
Old golf clubs (unless they belonged to JFK)
Latin scholars
COBOL programmers
Pink-crayon-signed copies of Ron Baker’s books
I will grant that price is related to the perception of scarcity, but price is not determined solely or even mostly on scarcity. It is is determined by the perception of the customer.
What would you think of a company that had the following characteristics and beliefs?
No official structure, organization chart, no business plan, or company strategy; no mission statement, long-term budget, fixed CEO or human resources department (don’t need a mother and father of everyone in the company); no career plans, job descriptions; no one approves reports or expense accounts, and supervision or monitoring of workers is rare indeed.
Instead of dictating [our company’s] identity, [we] let our employees shape it with their individual efforts, interests, and initiatives.
On-the-job democracy isn’t just a lofty concept, but a better way to do things. ...People are considered adults in their private lives, at the bank, at their children’s schools, with family and among friends—so why are they suddenly treated like adolescents at work? Why can’t workers be involved in choosing their own leaders? Why shouldn’t they manage themselves? Why can’t they speak up—challenge, question, share information openly?
If we have a cardinal strategy that forms the bedrock for all these practices, it may be this: Ask why. Ask it all the time, and always ask it three times in a row.
We have been known to place ads reading: “We have no opening but apply anyway. Come and talk about what you might do for us, and how we might create a position for you.”
[The company’s] Lost In Space program, assumes young recruits don’t know what they want to do with their lives. So do what you want, move where you want, go where your interests take you. At the end of year, anyone you’ve worked for can offer you a job.
Telling people that the company trusts them and then auditing them makes it impossible for them to feel secure. ...We don’t require expense accounts because of what they say about character. We’ve learned that peer control is as effective as reporting and auditing. ...Even in cases of fraud, we shun audits or policing procedures because we feel that responsibility and peer interest are stronger than any internal controls (and that was before the collapse of Arthur Andersen, the king of audits and controls!).
Most people flourish under freedom, flexibility, and responsibility. Most who have left [the company] have been managers.
No management works quite like self-management. And working at [the company] means self-managing as much as possible. It isn’t nearly as frightening as it sounds. In the end, it’s self-interest at work. It requires conceding that managers don’t—and can’t—know the best way to do everything. People who are motivated by self-interest will find solutions that no once else can envision. They see the world in their own unique way—one that others often overlook.
The world desperately needs an “Age of Wisdom,” and workplaces would be an inspiring place to start. At [the company] we have little to teach and even less to “sell” in a packaged form. We’re just a living experiment in eliminating boredom, routine, and exasperating regulations—an exploration of motivation and passion to free workers from corporate oppression. Our goal is helping people tap their ‘reservoir of talent’ and find equilibrium among love, liberty and work. ...Once people learn to do that...I know we’ll be alright.
After a speech the owner of this company gave, he was asked, “...Can you please tell us what planet you’re from?”
These beliefs defiantly challenge the conventional wisdom of management practices. I’d love for the recent author of a letter to the editor of the Journal of Accountancy to read this. If he thinks timesheets are necessary for control, he’s deluding himself.
The above forces us to challenge nearly everything we think we know about how to properly run an organization. This 50-year old company, by the way, employs 3,000 people in three countries (some of them union members); engages in manufacturing, professional services, and high-tech software; and had revenues of $160 million in 2001—up from $35 million in 1994. If you had invested $100,000 in this company 20 years ago, it would now be worth almost $6 million.
When I discuss this company in presentations, I am met with a staring ovation of disbelief. This visionary leader knew what type of future he wanted for his company, and he was willing to pay the price to achieve it.
Is this the type of firm—and leadership—you would want one of your children to work for?
If you’d like to see Ricardo Semler for yourself, watch this presentation at MIT World (about 48 minutes).
Meet a real revolutionary who doesn’t just talk about the pace of change; he creates it everyday. There’s many lessons here for professional knowledge firms.
Alan Weiss and the folks at RainToday have posted a great ten minute podcast on moving to value-based fees. Early in the conversation Alan calls hourly fees “unethical.” Woo hoo! Right on!
George Gilder responds to a question regarding the idea of banning profits and utters one of the most profound statements I have ever heard - “Profit is an index of altruism.”
I get asked this question all the time, and I’m afraid I’ve never given a completely satisfactory answer.
We get asked constantly for endorsements, for example, or affiliations to promote various products and services, and I always have to explain we are a think tank and that’s not part of our Purpose.
But a lot of people don’t have much contact with think tanks. I’ll freely admit I’ve been “over-invested” in think tanks for at least twenty years and have learned an enormous amount from all of them, as well as having mentors in nearly all of them.
So I thought I’d share with the VeraSage community the origins of our founding. It dates back to September 4, 1999, in a paper titled “Operation Telescope.”
This was written for Paul Dunn (and Ric Payne), at that time the founders/owners of Results Accountants’ Systems (RAS).
Obviously, the original vision did not come to fruition since Paul Dunn sold his portion of the company in 2001.
But the idea didn’t die, and my colleagues, Dan Morris and Justin Barnett, and I founded VeraSage in 2001.
As an organization, it’s a disembodied entity held together by an idea—that is, to improve the professions.
I recently read the Noble prize winning economist Herbert Simon’s autobiography—Models of My Life—wherein the last page reads:
To make interesting scientific discoveries, you should acquire as many good friends as possible, who are as energetic, intelligent, and knowledgeable as they can be. Form partnerships with them whenever you can. Then sit back and relax. You will find that all the programs you need are stored in your friends, and will execute productively and creatively as long as you don’t interfere too much.
Measured by this standard, VeraSage has certainly met my expectations. I get to work with some of the brightest people I’ve ever met, with the added bonus that they are all good friends.
I’d like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to everyone of them:
Justin Barnett
Dan Morris
Scott Abbott
Peter Byers
Michelle Golden
Daryl Golemb
Brendon Harrex
Paul Kennedy
Ed Kless
Chris Marston
Tim McKey
Paul O’Byrne (R.I.P.)
Tim Williams
Yan Zhu
And of course thanks to our community who support us: readers, friends, colleagues, and a myriad of others too numerous to list.
Even in business-to-business transactions, people buy emotionally and justify intellectually. The difficultly with measuring customer value is that there are many intangible elements of a product or service which add value for the buyer. These “Psychological Value Drivers” are generally related to the company’s brand image - for example a track record of reliability, on-time delivery, a reputation for quality, good service back-up, a prestige image, and so on. The risks the buyer takes in purchasing from a supplier also has an impact on perceived value.
One approach that can be useful in surfacing intangible value drivers is that of “mapping” the customer experience. Customer value is not just about the features and benefits of a product or service, it also encompasses the entire set of experiences that the organisation causes its customers to have. Thus, every time a customer interacts with an organisation he or she gains an impression of the business, and these customer experiences combine to produce the “image” that the business projects to its customers. Every contact a customer has with a company’s sales staff; with customer services or order entry; with delivery or maintenance staff; with engineers or quality assurance; or any other interaction, then an impression is left behind - positive, negative or neutral. Over time these impressions build into an “image” of the business - its reputation in the market.
What experience do members of this group have of trying to quantify, or at least understand, intangible “Psychological Value Drivers”; or of mapping the customer experience as a way to assessing the intangible elements of customer value ?
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