Do you suppose the new CEO of Compaq may be T.Waite of Gateway
Saw this yesterday... sorry about the formatting....
Tom
Gateway Exec's Principled Stand Is a Model for Building Worker Loyalty
>
> By JUDITH HARKHAM SEMAS
>
> It appeared that Compaq's nearly $7 billion takeover of South Dakota's
> mail-order computer
> retailer Gateway 2000 the number two direct marketer of personal
> computers behind Dell
> Computer--was a done deal. Contracts had been negotiated and were ready
> for signatures.
> New York City-based Hill & Knowlton, Gateway's public relations firm,
> had begun a media
> release. And according to a recent piece in Time magazine, Ted Waitt
> founder and 46 percent
> owner, had even dispatched a courier to deliver the news to Gateway's
> key executives in
> foreign offices. But Waitt left Compaq standing at the altar. Refusing
> to sign on the dotted line at
> the last minute, he walked away from a deal that, at the stroke of his
> pen, would have
> increased the value of his 36 million Gateway shares by about 33
> percent, from more than $2
> billion to $3 billion. What made Gateway's founder decide not to cash
> in with Compaq? Both
> Compaq and Gateway are keeping silent, but insiders say that when
> Compaq began flexing its
> corporate muscle, as in "You work for us now," Waitt balked and then
> walked, only days,
> possibly hours, before the deal was to be announced. Although exact
> details aren't clear,
> apparently the thought of Gateway's executives being treated as
> underlings instead of equals
> was what killed the deal for Waitt. According to a quoted source close
> to the pony tailed
> visionary, "Anyone who really knows Ted Waitt knows that there are
> things more important to
> him than money. Two of those things are Gateway and its people."
> Commenting on Waitt's
> decision to pass up a $3 billion personal windfall and strike a blow
> for independence his own
> and that of the people who work for him ethics and management
> consultant Dr. Arlyne Diamond
> said, "It's rare and wonderful when people of conscience stand up for
> what they believe. We
> need more CEOs doing that." In creating a decision-making tree about
> anything in life, she said,
> our core values form the trunk and roots. People who hold firmly to
> their core values, using
> them as fixed decision making parameters, experience no conflict or
> ambiguity in making even
> the tough decisions. "It's people to whom nothing matters, people to
> whom no values are clear,
> who have such difficulty making decisions," she said. "The extent to
> which we honor our core
> values is the extent to which we can move forward with each other in a
> comfortable, trusting
> way." In her surveys on creativity in Silicon Valley companies, Dr.
> Diamond has found
> widespread recognition of the importance of building trust, loyalty,
> safety, consistency, and
> cohesion in work teams. "If the CEO is noted for humanistic practices
> and sticking to
> his or her core human values," the Santa Clara-based consultant
> observed, "there is a positive
> trickle-down effect on the attitude of the company's entire executive
> and management team."
> A high level of trust in relationships gives people the freedom to
> explore and express. It allows
> The kind of risk-taking essential to the creativity needed in system
> like continuous improvement
> And creative process solutions. "When you feel safe, you're able to
> think about better ways of
> doing things, not just rowing the boat," Dr. Diamond said. "Creativity
> is not a function purely of
> intelligence and talent; it is also a function of relationship, and
> closely linked to issues of trust
> and safety." Companies seeking to encourage creativity in their
> organizations need to look at
> what fires the fan and what fires they stamp out, what behaviors they
> reinforce and what
> behaviors they ignore or penalize. "When upper management reinforces
> value behavior, then
> value behavior flourishes in the firm," she said. "When upper
> management reinforces the
> 'get-rich-quick' behaviors, then those are the behaviors that prevail.
> And a get-rich-quick value
> system extinguishes trust and safety in the work force." In taking such
> a strong stand on behalf
> of independence and respect for his employees, Waitt upped the level of
> trust within his
> organization exponentially because, as Dr. Diamond pointed out, "you
> get what you model and
> what you reinforce." This is a lesson for Silicon Valley employers to
> take to heart especially
> those who seek to slow the spinning door of employment as record
> numbers of scarce technical
> talent dash from one high bidder to the next. Judith Harkham Semas is
> an internationally
> published freelance writer/ editor based in San Jose, Calif.
> Specializing in business and lifestyle
> subjects, she writes and edits for companies, professionals, and print
> media. She can be
> reached at 408-267-5274, fax 408-267-5275; e-mail:
> judithharkham@semas.com. |
