If GE buys the firm, prepare for fireworks

By Selwyn Parker

Whenever General Electric buys a company - and last year the American industrialist with turnover of $US100.5 billion bought no fewer than 108 worldwide - it implements something called an "integration plan." This is enforced by an "integration manager" who spends the first 100 days looking in the cupboards and under the table.

After 100 days of this, GE is ready to move. The "blockers" (dead beats) are paid out and the "high-pots" (stars) get golden handcuffs. GE values are implemented. So are GE tools such as "MI" or "quick market intelligence," which is a no-holds-barred, highly democratic conference where essential market data gets the once-over.

But the most GE-like tool is a meeting called a Work-Out, which the company considers so vital that it's trademarked the name.

For 10 years, Work-Outs have been summoned at GE by anybody, however low-ranking, to solve pressing problems, however big or small, that occur at his or her level.

Usually, the boss doesn't know the meeting is even happening. When the problem has been solved, the meeting tells the boss to implement it.

As they say at GE, "respect for titles isn't what we're about".

Message mountains

E-mail, shme-mail, it's official: you're probably too busy dealing with messages, including e-mail, to manage. According to a study by America's Institute for the Future, the typical American office worker receives 201 messages a day in the form of e-mail, fax and voice mail and little yellow sticker notes.

Brilliant career wobbles

The careers of most New Zealand managers are far more unstable than we like to think, says Professor Kerr Inkson of the University of Auckland Business School.

In an article titled "The death of the company career," he points out that New Zealand managers typically make "transitions" every three years. Half of those transitions involve changing employers. And three-quarters of them involve changing functions.

Clearly, cradle-to-grave work with one employer is a threatened species.

* Contributing writer Selwyn Parker is available at wordz@xtra.co.nz