Some Useful Corporate Lessons for our Lives

Recently, I attended a talk by a top Harvard Business School professor who shared about how he applied useful corporate lessons to his personal life.

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN is a best-selling management author and a Professor at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches the popular course on Building 429Cg and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise’.

Christensen is regarded as one of the world’s top experts on innovation and growth and in a 2011 poll of thousands of corporate personnel, Christensen was named as the most influential business thinker in the world. His books on disruptive innovation and disrupting class are some of my favourites.

I was intrigued because of his messaging that what is useful in corporations could be useful elsewhere, aka his latest book, How Will You Measure Your Life?

Indeed, although many of us spend so much time applying management tools in our work, few think of applying some of these useful tools in our own lives.

For instance, one useful practice in purchasing is that for expensive buys, one should attempt to get 3 quotes or at least compare prices and features before deciding what to buy.

Another useful thinking process for decision-making is to be clear about what are “Must” versus what are “Nice to Have” criteria.

When planning how to allocate resources such as time and money at work, we are often forced to think about outcomes, planning assumptions and then to budget based on the usually limited resources one has.

Another example - most failures in organizations are not the result of a lack of strategies, they are caused by a lack of execution -- things just don't get done. Some useful corporate tools such as the balanced scorecards, regular progress updates and reviews very useful in ensuring execution discipline and excellence – as they say, well done is better than well said.

But seriously, how many of us consider applying these useful tools and lessons from our work lives to our own personal lives? We do things for our employers and to further the mission of our companies; but we often do not think about applying these important and useful concepts and tools in the way we conduct our lives.

Here are a couple more examples I heard from Professor Christensen last week.

Beware of OUTSOURCING What Should Be Done Internally

Outsourcing has been a prevalent practice in the business sector. But when practiced excessively and unwisely, it could pose risk to a company’s existence.

The story was told of how Dell created one of its biggest competitor by outsourcing more and more of the work it used to do in-house to ASUSTeK (ASUS for short) over the years – from motherboard, to logistics and then to design of the computer. ASUS later seriously challenged Dell’s existence by releasing its own brand of computers instead of staying as a supplier to Dell.

Prof Christensen warned of the risk of firms giving up unwittingly the capabilities that are needed to make anything anymore. In the same way, much of what is important in families is also outsourced, threatening the very foundation of families. ‘Soccer dads’ for instance who are the icons of active fathers in their sons’ lives are said to be replaced by an increasing number of ‘soccer moms’ who take over from busy fathers.

Similarly, in In Singapore, fathers are typically less active in the raising of their children, leaving most of child-raising to moms – a trend that agencies such as ‘Dads for Life’ seek to reverse. It is not uncommon to see domestic helpers, schools, tutors and enrichment centres take over the role of both busy fathers and mothers in raising our young.

Prof’s warning to us is to beware of outsourcing duties and capabilities that can lead to the demise of organisations and our own lives.

What Gets MEASURED Gets Done
Another lesson that can be drawn from the corporate world is the adage that ‘what gets measured gets done; what gets measured and rewarded gets done even more’.

In the story of Dell and ASUS, the key reason for Dell’s agreeing to outsource so aggressively was the pursuit of profit. Dell was reportedly seduced by the idea of enhancing its profitability thru the lower cost that ASUS had promised; profitability after all is the most important measure of success in the eyes of shareholders and financial market analysts. This eventually led to the rise of ASUS and the decline of Dell.

Prof Christensen shared the story of how a few of his high-achieving Harvard classmates have ended up with lives that did not turn out the way they wanted; with broken marriages and separated families.

It turned out that because careers often offer the most tangible evidence of achievement that these high-achievers instinctively allocate most of their hours to their careers. Promotions and recognition awards can be more measurable and instant-gratifying than the option of building relationships with their loved ones for which payback is slower and less obvious in the short term.

Doing well at work and in careers is not a bad thing. It allows one to maximize one’s potential and to achieve a good life. It is the relentless pursuit of the top of the corporate ladder without regard for other aspects of life that is foolish. So be careful, what gets measured gets done.

Life is One Indivisible Whole
Finally - many of us separate our work lives from our personal. But Indian political activist Mohatma Gandhi once said, “Life is one indivisible whole. What we do in one department will and can impact the others.”

Try applying some of the useful things we learn and do at work. And the chances of us ending up living a life that we had hoped to live will be higher than we can imagine.

Denise Phua Lay Peng/ My Paper’ Fortnightly Column/ 30 Oct 2013