On Several Applications of RO at Novus

Speaker A Let me tell you a little bit about who I am and my funny accent and how I got exposed to Aliajack theory. I'm? My name is Giovanni Gaspirone. As an Italian name, I'm an executive vice President global Sales and Marketing for Nova's International, born in Italy and I lived seven years of my life in Belgium, another 15 now in United States. So my job is selling and marketing everywhere in the world. I learned about Auj theory 18 years ago when I was exposed in my company to the introduction of this management theory and practice actually more than theory and this is how I was exposed. Very interesting theory and very interesting scene in practice. Our company was a Freshborn and we were coming out of Monsanto, so a big corporation. We had our own way of doing management at that time and we have to find ours which was more belonging to a very small company when we started. And that's how the president exposed to Andrew Jackson, introduced the theory within the companies. I wasn't part of the time of the senior management, but definitely was how I was exposed to the theory. I read a lot about this when it was introduced. I started reading books, I started reading article and see how you always are skeptical at the beginning. You know better, you're coming from Monsanto, you have already ingrained how to manage. And that was a change. That was a difficult part, but it was an eye opener because it was a simple theory but very no nonsense. It was very practical in the approach and that's what's appealing me the most. I'm sure you wonder about the difference between the Monsanto culture and novos means new. So a new company, very fundamental. Actually, the differences we were coming and again, no criticizing. Monsanto is a phenomenal successful company. We were coming with many, many grades and we turned into only six role level. That was already the change coming from Monsanto. My role started at a level 32. Imagine to arrive at number one, and it was already right off the bat. There was already a level three, and the president was only a level six. So I felt it was very close to the top but the other part so how you simplify the tiers in your organization in Nellie Jack's terminology for people are interested in reading is who is the real boss and in Nova's restructure to go. Directly what was the real boss. So we eliminated tiers of people that were not needed. That was one part of it. The other part of it is I was always complaining the specificity of the goals and that was something that we introduced quite dramatically in our companies having key tasks very well defined in term of Qqtr. So who is doing what by when and defining in a way that there is no open for misunderstanding as a segue to the tasks. I think one of the most difficult thing which is not difficult but it's just to change a habit is to be methodic about how you see the goals across your organization because it really links the objective of the company in segment that they are manageable for the people and how the people can get the job done. That I think has been very helpful but at the beginning very difficult. I think the difficulties in articulation was how you see the all you may see in yourself, you see in your head, but at the end is how you translate them in all pieces that are seeing the synergy of everybody, how that work together and how you get the job done. So you build the activities of an organization. The way I felt the theory was engaging people is when I rolled it out in the different world area our company is a very small 600 people but we have people everywhere in the world and that to me was a tribute to a theory because people can relate to that and can practice. That to me has been the high of the moment. The law is at the beginning you need to do a lot of groundwork to understand what the organization is and be willing to change according to what you really want in the organization. You can't just adopt this theory and compromise the implementation. That to me was a difficult part at the beginning. So how requisite organization helped in hiring people and selecting people? First of all, where the requisite management helps is clearly identify what the general responsibility and the key task that role will have to have. So by putting them on paper, you know already, if you're looking for a level two, you're looking for a level three, you're looking for a level four. So already the preselection is greatly helped by putting these thoughts on paper. Then there is the selection then there is the process in itself which is looking at the trait that you confirm you, although omnulus is just in an hour, is always difficult. Whether or not that person is there is the right choice. So in hiring the saying is you're always 50% right and 50% you are wrong. I think by going more carefully in the selection process perhaps we improve the bar of being successful in hiring people as a company practice in term of management every year we have one what we call a gearing section. So we look at the talent pool, to use another terminology as we look at the different people today because of the phenomenal growth that we had, it's difficult to look at all everybody because some people are just new for the job. But in general, for three tier level we look at the talent pool in the organization and how they can progress and how they are progressing. So that's what we are doing. To me that the most important part of the gearing section and I'm sure many executives like in my position have the same OD sensation when they enter in the room. The most difficult part of that process is to eliminate the protection of certain individual that belong to your team or to your group. If we can liberate freedom the people to express judgment that are not personal but are related to the role. First of all, identifying the role that's fundamental people company, and that perhaps was one of the most frustrating things for us is identifying the role first and then talk about the person. Unfortunately, most of the time you talk about the person identify that role. And that created very confusion because it's about identifying the role that you have today and the role that you need tomorrow. And then you will look at what are the pool of talent that I have, would that fit in that box three years down the stretch and will need that role. If you are free to express yourself and have factual opinion about others, that will up the process. But the first one is liberating this protectionism you tend to have when you want to protect a certain individual or related to you one way or another. How you identify people with a mode that is higher than the level they really occupy, or they have a mode that is lower than the level of occupy. Elio Jackson talks about people moving for maturity because there is a level of maturity that helps you to go higher, but it will take faster or slower depending on the mode you are. And it doesn't depend on you. Elia Jack was a trained doctor, he knew the DNA. So the intellectual cognitive capability that you have is not your fault, it's your parents'fault. It's a genetic mixture that is coming from your parents. There's nothing wrong with you. But then you recognize the limitation of individuals that is related to how you're built. You build on top of that education, a new culture, exposure and be challenged. So I'm using that in our system internally. How you discover the mode? I let people grow if they want to grow, or I let people shrink if they want to shrink. And this is Elliot theory. At best you will see implementing those, if you will see if a level three is really in level two, it will shrink the role to create a level two. But if you have a level three that is mode four, it will flourish until you get there. And it will get there before is recognized to be a level four. And that's what I'm practicing every single day. And there is a link between this and the subordinate, because if you have a boss that is shrinking the job, the subordinate is faster. He will eventually took over. For people, it's physiological, but if you implement the stratum as it should be related to the time and the complexity of the task, that will happen physiologically. I think one of the most challenging things that we had going in overs and we grew quite a bit has been the fact that we have again, few people, but everywhere in the world. And we need to work. Together. So I think we are pushing the theory of the Novus mentoring system, the records organization, to a different level as we look at team work in Novus. Team work in Novus, both on the virtual team because we have people everywhere in different parts of the world and also the product development. I think we really push the envelope on that side of Requisite organization and yet at the same time mastering how to come together, it's not perfect by any stretch of imagination, but definitely we made some major inroad in that area, touching on the relationship between customers and supplier. I think by having a good management system, people realize that. So you start being like, the GE as a Six Sigma or Procter Gamble very good training marketing group. I think Numbers is around it in the sense that we are manager are we stars everywhere. No, we are not. We are improving, yes, but we are touching now our customers. We are perceived in a different way. We are already a strong company, even if you think we have been around only for 18 years. So we are just turning 18 now. So we are relatively young. But we are able already to replace the reputation of Monsanto with the reputation of Novos in the eyes of our customers. One of the most exciting parts of my job as I am the Novas Angelist is train new people and engage the people in the enthusiasm that I have with them and sharing the vision that the company has. So it's upon me to train everybody that I can with the limit of the time that I have. But at least one day we have an initiation, two weeks initiation for new employee, at least. The first day is my day. I spend half a day with new employee sharing the value of the Jack's theory and also the company vision. And when I could, I was hiring everybody. Personally, I was involved in hiring everybody. I cannot do it anymore, it's too big of a job. But the level of commitment you need to show to your employees. The other part is talking to customers now and it's important because in talking to customers our customers are family business moving toward the more industrial and they most of the time don't have a management system. And it's very interesting to see their reaction. We just started, so I don't know, it's just the beginning for us in sales, it's very important because we start talking at identifying the potential customers on the other side of the table. By looking with the same eyes we are looking internally, are we dealing with a level three? Are we dealing with a level four or are we dealing with a level two that changed the way people talk to the other part on the other side of the desk when we talk about training, bringing up people is becoming a tremendous value for the people in itself and in the marketplace. I think you want to create an environment whereby the people will stay because they love what they are doing. And I think the novice management system or the Requisite organization, we call it Internally Novos Management system is allow people to flourish. And it's very difficult for people to leave a company when they have the opportunity to flourish. So that's the angle people are coming after us because we have good manager here. Yes and no. But to me this is not important. If people wants to move in their career, that's fine. I want to make sure that we have the majority flourishing in where they are.