Wednesday, July 30, 2014

CMO Roel De Vries on Nissan Marketing


[Nissan] chief marketer [Roel De Vries] on making sense of myriad marketing technologies, platforms and channels.
Positively bland in speech and demeanor, De Vries speaks thoughtfully and persuasively nonetheless about how Nissan approaches marketing.  It's quite a boon for a CMO that Nissan has a solid foundation across established and emerging markets.  He's been with the company at least 20 years, so I imagine he's had a hand in building that foundation.  While social media consultants and business people alike herald content as king, De Vries clarifies Nissan perspective on this matter: It's about putting out less content, but focusing that content on story lines that matter most to the brand.  So, in their case, the king is purpose and the queen is the brand, while content is the loyal subject that abides by whatever may be the royal decree.

It agency partnerships abide by a particular perspective, too.  De Vries understands the range of specialties that different agencies provide, but Nissan does not want dispersed relationships across all of them.  He wants what he calls agency agnostics that can pull it all together to serve Nissan purpose, which is to convey a consistent, integrated message to consumers.  So more than just a single point of contact, De Vries looks for agencies that can think laterally, work collaboratively, and deliver in concert.  He emphasizes that Nissan doesn't want to do everything (i.e., no 360°).  Instead, it's about cross-channel and cross-agency debate on what makes the most sense to focus on.  This is Nissan United.

The following screen shots speak to the clever, thoughtful way that the carmaker works at design, engineering and marketing:







There is definitely a lot to learn by studying schools of fish: The advent of the smart car, which puts more information and analytics at our disposal and ensures the safest, best possible driving experience.

Finally, we can buy the Versa Note on Amazon:

www.Amazon.com

I don't know if it actually arrives on our driveway in a traditional, but much bigger Amazon box, but how awesome is that?

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD


Monday, July 28, 2014

SVP Bridget van Kraligen on IBM Transformation


Bridget van Kralingen [Senior Vice President, Global Business Services] of IBM discusses the company's transformation and also reveals a new chip that can power your phone for a week.
IBM is transforming, and is very confident about this transformation.  Part of the process is to speak clearly about it.  There are three very large forces:
  1. Massive real-time data is the new oil (i.e., resource)
  2. Cloud prompts new business models
  3. Social and mobile engagement is making shifts for clients
Accordingly, IBM has invested $23 billion into Big Data, created a Watson Division, and driven very hard off the cloud by building new data centers around the world. They're making big bets on this portfolio, such as hiring 15,000 analytics consultants.  My question then is:  How is it all working out?  Eight consecutive quarters of declining revenues isn't exactly comforting.  Can CEO Ginni Rometty truly pull the new IBM through to where it needs to be, not just from a technical or innovative standpoint, but also from a business or commercial standpoint?

Artificial Intelligence, that is, for Watson, needs the right ecosystem, and Manhattan is the hub for it.  IBM is drawing on design thinking.  For now, Watson has high IQ but low EQ.  The way van Kralingen describes Emotional Intelligence is curious: It's about Watson responding and interacting in a way that is more helpful and customized to us (rf. IBM acquiring of Cognea).  Once IBM works this out, then Watson can truly adapt to our style and serve our purpose.  It can coach us as well as learn from us, and otherwise help us do what we need to do (e.g., following medical protocol).  Indeed we're in an era of humanizing technology, so that it is delights us and enriches our lives.  It isn't just about automation for the sake of efficiency and productivity.  All of this is how I conceive of algorithms à la Theory of Algorithms: that is, as smart and able to learn, and also as adaptable and personalized.

Commercially, Watson can advise people on insurance needs.  Depending on lifestyle, life changes, and home location, as I understand, it can recommend the right policies.  But, you see, consumers per se are not necessarily tapping Watson themselves.  Rather, it's the insurance companies doing so, and consequently working with consumers like us on what we need.  In addition, then, it sharpens the algorithms for marketing and selling to us.  Philanthropically, it's more than heartbreaking to hear that 25% of disease burden is in Sub-Saharan Africa, and that in particular 22% of cervical cancer cases from around the world are in that very region.  Watson offers the cognitive capability to help healthcare professionals and workers to tackle disease.  It does so by ingesting the body of knowledge on medicine that exists, and allowing itself to be queries via natural (i.e., non-technical) language.

IBM has invested $3 billion in creating the chip beyond silicon.  Going forward, silicon will no longer have the size and power to grapple with exponential data and complex analytics.  Enter: graphene.  van Kralingen showed us a chip the size of a postage stamp, and explained that it's coated with graphene that's one-atom thick.  Practically speaking, if we put this in our smartphone, we wouldn't need to charge it for a week.  In fact, if I heard her correctly, our smartphone wouldn't need a battery for a week.  It would also process much faster, but I wonder how much this speed would depend on bandwidth.  Add quantum devices and synaptic computing, and you can see why I believe IBM, along with Google and maybe Microsoft, will lead our technology future.

The foregoing positions IBM squarely as a consultancy.  van Kralingen points to the following trends among IBM clientele:
  1. Clients have a deep desire to redo organization process and redo client interaction vis-a-vis data 
  2. Analytics can be embedded in any organizational process
  3. Information is available anywhere because of mobile devices
Clients must innovate at warp speed and innovate on an ongoing basis.  From practical-technical matters such as dealing with legacy data, to headier efforts such as integrating strategy and analytics, IBM is in a unique position to advise, solve and deliver.

van Kralingen talks at a brisk pace, and her transition from one point to another and from one subject to another is seamless.  Fortune magazine decided to title this interview as Is IBM in Trouble? and I think, at the end of the day, that decision is most unfortunate.  IBM may be in trouble if we continue to see declining revenues over the next two to three years.  But the essence and the thrust of the interview is the breathtaking concepts, research and initiatives that IBM is immersed in.  In brief, I feel more confident that indeed IBM is a prominent leader to our future and that its business will do quite well in the process.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Friday, July 25, 2014

Listening to ZZ Ward on YouTube, not Pandora



In Cannes CMO Interview: Pandora's Heidi Browning, the Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions referenced Toyota Sessions.  `Move Like U Stole It, from the featured artist didn't really suit me.  So I ambled instinctively to YouTube, the main place where I listened to music, and found songs by ZZ Ward.


I love this song.

You see, Pandora's main competition may not be Songza and others in the music streaming platform, but perhaps the likes of YouTube.  I am well in the post-Millennial generation, and I happen to gravitate toward YouTube.  

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Weighing Pandora on Judgment and Algorithms


(image credit)
Since we started back in 2000, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. 
Together our team of musician-analysts has been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every track - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country. 
With Pandora you can explore this vast trove of music to your heart's content. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs, artists or genres into Pandora and let the Music Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings - new and old, well known and completely obscure - to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. Then sit back and enjoy as it creates a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you.
Reference: About Pandora®.
We believe that each individual has a unique relationship with music – no one else has tastes exactly like yours. So delivering a great radio experience to each and every listener requires an incredibly broad and deep understanding of music. That's why Pandora is based on the Music Genome Project, the most sophisticated taxonomy of musical information ever collected. It represents over ten years of analysis by our trained team of musicologists, and spans everything from this past Tuesday's new releases all the way back to the Renaissance and Classical music. 
Each song in the Music Genome Project is analyzed using up to 450 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst. These attributes capture not only the musical identity of a song, but also the many significant qualities that are relevant to understanding the musical preferences of listeners. The typical music analyst working on the Music Genome Project has a four-year degree in music theory, composition or performance, has passed through a selective screening process and has completed intensive training in the Music Genome's rigorous and precise methodology. To qualify for the work, analysts must have a firm grounding in music theory, including familiarity with a wide range of styles and sounds.
Reference: About The Music Genome Project®.

Clearly Pandora did a deep dive into music, and built its business model and personalized brand around its research.

Enter Google:
However, user tastes and preferences are highly subjective and depend on other variables such as mood, weather, activity, time of the day, etc. Since incorporating such factors in an algorithm isn’t easy, human judgement is required to assess these attributes and provide music that is most relevant to users at a particular moment. This is Songza’s USP (i.e., Unique Selling Point). At Songza, the process of building a playlist is highly personalized with a team of 50 music curators (Rolling Stone writers, DJs etc.) constantly working to analyze user moods to build various playlists. For instance, users could say “breezy summer songs” or “sad rainy day songs” on the app and they will get the relevant playlist. With its curated playlists, Songza appears to be a step ahead of Pandora in the music streaming space, which has caught Google’s eyes. The search giant’s interest in the company can be gauged from the fact that it paid a significantly higher amount for the app than what it was originally planning to ($ 15 million), according to media reports. Songza was reportedly approached by several interested parties, which might have led to a bidding war that pushed the price tag upwards.
Reference: Competition For Pandora Increases As Google Buys Music Streaming App Songza.

Anytime Google enters your space, it is more than a small concern.  In her Forbes interview, Senior Vice President Heidi Browning spoke briefly but confidently about the growing competition around Pandora.  But I imagine that she and her executive colleagues are actually squirming in their seats and shuddering at the beastly bear in their midst.  

The issue of human judgment is front and center in a lot of technology firms' mindset, innovation and production.  The self-driving car, for example, is Google's big effort to eliminate traffic accidents, caused by human error.  So while this Forbes article highlights human judgment as Songza's USP, I doubt that Google will leave that approach or process untouched by its more mechanical, analytic hand.  Yet, in what I call The Human Algorithm, that very judgment is part of what I believed was lacking in the obsession with, and wide-ranging use of, algorithms, which they define mainly as mathematical formulas and computer codes that Google, Amazon, and Pandora rely on to drive their business.  My definition of algorithms is mathematical, in part, but equally so it is conceptual and practical, which is actually the very essence of what an algorithm is: procedures and guidelines for getting some task done.  Moreover, my algorithms most definitely account for human judgment, plus the wealth of characteristics that make us all human.

This Forbes article also seems to have overlooked, or at least underestimated, Pandora's intricate weaving of human judgment into The Music Genome Project.  If this music platform had relied exclusively on algorithms, then it would not have engaged scores of musicologists to drive and under gird its research.  Even then it truly isn't easy to account for personal taste.  After several months of listening in the mid-2000s, for instance, I found that a fair amount of what Pandora played wasn't quite to my liking.  But I listened anyway, and simply tolerated it, and still felt it was better than listening to random songs filtering through radio stations while I was driving.  

So the question is, How well can Pandora, Songza and others truly capture what we all like in music?  Of course it's an imperfect effort, but I am glad to hear that The Music Genome Project is an ongoing effort.  On more foreboding note, though, Google has collected deep and wide information about scores of us: from Search and Chrome, to Google+ and YouTube, to Android and Gmail, I am immersed in this beastly bear.


Browning spoke quickly, and packed quite a lot of information in a short interview with Forbes.  But in this TEDx Talk, she spoke at greater length, not about Pandora directly, but about how the positivity quotient bridges IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient).  The fact that she related personal stories made her Talk more appealing to me.  It's this personal nature that is at the heart of the Pandora brand, as she emphasized, but even more importantly, I think, she must ensure that EQ is a prominent attribute for her and her colleagues and in their business model as well.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Monday, July 21, 2014

Rediscovering Pandora with SVP Heidi Browning



I discovered Pandora several years ago, before I left Chicago for Dubai in 2006.  I did not control what music I listened to, but rather influenced it through my rating and feedback.  Pandora then played music that was increasingly more to my liking.  This was the essence of personalized radio.  I listened to it for a year since arriving in Dubai, but at some point Pandora no longer had the authority to play there.  I returned to Chicago at the end of 2011, and downloaded the app on my iPhone.  But it was so infested with ads, that I quickly deleted the app, and haven't listened to it since.  I listen to music predominantly on YouTube and the car radio, but iHeartRadio was a much better option on my phone.  

So fast-forward to 2014, and Pandora is back on my radar:  Heidi Browning, Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions, speaks to Forbes reporter Jennifer Rooney.  I am very intrigued about the multidimensional nature of its business model.  It is rooted in music as universal language and as naturally personal and engaging.  Whether or not it's co-branded, and whether one calls it creative partnership or something else, the fact is Toyota is one of Pandora's advertising clients.  

I love how Browning describes the intent behind the partnership: Toyota is building the sound of its brand within Pandora.  Specifically, Toyota Sessions is its station, and as listeners listen and give feedback, Pandora sharpens its algorithms for what they like and thus forges connections between them and the Toyota brand.  Moreover, Pandora identifies up-and-coming artists in Toyota's target markets, interviews these artists to really get to know them, and helps to produce and promote their music.  On this last note, as musicians plan for a live performance, Pandora creates personalized concert series for its listeners, and invites only particular ones to attend the concert.  
When you think about this competitive category, this growing category, and why people are listening, I still think it comes back to the fact that we have been pioneering personalisation for 15 years, investing in The Music Genome Project®, which is powered by people and an algorithm, to deliver the best personalized music experience out there.  And that remains our differentiator in the market.
Browning points out that 78% of that advertiser-coveted generation - Millennials - listen to streaming music everyday.  So clearly Pandora is in good space.  But oh Pandora probably spans all generations, as it covers all genres of music.  

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note now, and let's give that Pandora app another go.  

More to come!

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD   

Friday, July 11, 2014

The Folly of Managers vis-a-vis Stretch Goals


(image credit)

At the start of the football season last year, well-known Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said his team was going to the Super Bowl.  Many analysts and fans alike scoffed at the idea, especially at a team quarterbacked by the oft-maligned Tony Romo.  The fact is, it is tough for any team in any sport to rise above all the rest and win a championship.  Truth be told, the Cowboys were among the least likely to do so last year.  Sure enough, that was the case.

But hold on a minute:  If the owner doesn't believe in a big, hairy, audacious goal for his team, who is going to?  I say, he has every right to believe that, and moreover it is an imperative that he does so.  I say, hooray to Jerry Jones!  

It is in this context that I recommend, but cautiously so, Daniel Markovitz's blog in Harvard Business Review - The Folly of Stretch Goals.  Indeed managers who like Jones are inclined to BHAGs, must attend mindfully to the impact of such goals on their staff and must be exquisitely watchful for unethical, overly risky behavior among themselves and their staff.
Focusing on small wins in combination with process improvement will drive your organization forward without the negative consequences of stretch goals. However, this approach requires a willingness to abandon the “ready, fire, aim” approach to problem solving. The heavy lifting has to be done at the outset — a deep understanding of the current condition is a prerequisite for true improvement. This approach also requires a subtle — but critical — shift in focus from improving outcome metrics to improving the process by which those outcomes are achieved.
This is sound advice from Markovitz.  Another manager I knew motivated his staff well around BHAGs, but was virtually clueless about how he and his staff could actually get there.  The caution on his article, though, is this:  It is less about the folly of stretch goals, and more about the folly of managers who are rather inept around stretch goals.  The latter of course would be a more cumbersome, thus less attractive title.  But I hope the article, titled and written as such, do not necessarily dissuade managers and staff from setting BHAGs.

Where would Apple, Amazon and Google be, after all, if their founders were to have played it modestly?

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Reflecting Fully on Staff Engagement Problems


Are these disengaged staff completing yet another engagement survey?
The change we need to make is to redefine engagement beyond an “annual HR measure” to a continuous, holistic part of an entire business strategy. If your people love their work and the environment you have created, they will treat customers better, innovate, and continuously improve your business.
Reference: It's Time To Rethink The 'Employee Engagement' Issue, by Forbes contributor Josh Bersin.

I remember a company that enlisted the Gallup model and survey to gauge engagement among its staff across its many business units.  In that first year, the company ranked well below the global average on enthused and committed staff.  There was notable improvement in the second year, after a concerted effort by a team from HR and the business units to make the company a better place for everyone to work at.  In the third year, however, there was slippage downward on the survey.  By the fourth year, the CEO decided to halt that engagement process altogether.

What happened?

There was considerable turnover in the upper echelons in the third year, and sent the company reeling from disappointing, worrisome changes.  As a whole it struggled to hit performance targets, so changes were needed, to be sure.  But unfortunately some of the incoming executives were a turn for the worse, as far as capability, motivation and engagement were concerned.  Here's one emblematic example of their gross missteps:  A good many employees arrived late for work, left early, and-or otherwise whiled away their work hours.

The new executives' solution?

They installed a new system that required staff to scan their IDs to enter certain offices and buildings and even parking garage.  At the end of the day, each manager received a report of their staff members' whereabouts throughout the day.  The executive brain thrust must have reasoned that the problem required better tracking and that better tracking would solve the problem, that is, via the manager's intervention.

Unfortunately, managers who struggled to manage their problematic staff struggled even more under the new system.  The issue of truancy was a real quandary, and the larger disengagement among staff were complicated indeed.  But the expensive solution caused even greater rifts among staff and between managers and staff.  It created a police state for a company that very much needed advice, support and coaching on how to deal with an intransigent staff issue.

But even more pronounced of an issue were the shifts the company made in its upper echelons and the actions of its incoming executives.

How well could they step back, reflect on the broader problem, and grasp the very root of that problem, never mind rush to, and impose, an ultimately misguided solution?  

This issue has no happy ending, at least not yet, as the company has continued to struggle with the issue, well beyond the fourth year.  Executives were simply not so willing and-or able to step back and self-examine.

Bersin speaks to realities and challenges facing scores of companies (emphasis, added):
Creating a high performance work environment is a complex problem. We have to communicate a mission and values, train managers and leaders to live these values, and then carefully select the right people who fit. And once people join, we have to continuously improve, redesign, and tweak the work environment to make it modern, humane, and enjoyable.

I would suggest that using the word “engagement” often limits our thinking. It’s assumes that our job is to reach out and “engage” people, rather than to build an organization that is exciting, fulfilling, meaningful, and fun.
The Gallup model and survey are in fact holistic, and account for the foregoing points.  But if companies relegate it all to an annual review, then they narrow the big picture and oversimplify the process.  Managing the complexity of any company is no easy task indeed, but it is nothing short of an imperative.  Thankfully, they don't need to scale a big mountain climb in one or two steps.

They can begin with a simple step of stepping back, perhaps by a small contingency of HR and business unit managers, and addressing issues in a broader but step-by-step process.  They must come to a grip on what those issues truly and what really needs to be done.  It doesn't mean scuttling their annual review or even as Bersin suggests going beyond engagement.  It does mean that the more entrenched and complicated the problems are, the more conscientious, patient and complex the solutions have to be.  The idea is not to resort to another model, approach or tool, and thus enlist a laundry list of them, but rather to let the problem discussion and examination guide that contingency to workable, accurate solutions.

For that company in the example I describe, it meant acknowledging the radical changes it had gone through.  It meant the executives stepping back, and their underlying tactfully but persistently helping them do so.  It meant, yes, a pause to the engagement process, but not to dispense with it altogether, rather to reflect on, and settle, the turbulence that surrounded it.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Monday, July 7, 2014

Extracting Algorithms on Bob Iger's Experience


Disney CEO and Chairman Bob Iger
When he became CEO in October 2005, Iger faced a time of extended turmoil. The preceding five years had been marked by a hostile takeover attempt, a shareholder revolt, a board in conflict and years when performance fizzled. The once leading animation department hadn’t had a hit in years. The brand had become somewhat tarnished and employees no longer believed in Disney’s greatness. One of Iger’s first tasks was to make peace with dissident shareholders Roy Disney and Stanley Gold and to convince them to drop their lawsuit challenging the choice of Eisner’s successor.
When Phil Jackson took the reins, and took reign, of the Chicago Bulls, he knew right away that his first tall task was to earn Michael Jordan's trust and respect and forge a relationship with him.  Without the superstar's approbation, there was no way (a) he could convince Jordan on the merits of his basketball approach, called The Triangle, predicated on purposeful movement and diehard teamwork.  There was no way, either (b) for the Bulls to win the championships that Jackson must've seen strong potential for in 1989.

So that's one major lesson learned from Jackson and similarly from Iger:  That is, to ask himself what was the one thing he had to do most critically first, and then to action forthrightly and expediently as if his CEO life depended on it.  Which it probably did.  The lesson to learn - which I call the algorithm to extract - was not per se: Befriend your superstar, or resolve any Board conflict.  Rather, it is to discern what you as CEO need to do most, first, before you can do anything else effectively or successfully.

This is such a common mistake among CEOs and organizations, that I will rephrase my point for emphasis:  Adopting what another CEO or organization did successfully is no guarantee that you or your own organization can pull it off.  You must go deeper into the thinking, the reasoning, the problem-solving and decision-making, which under gird that successful thing.  You may need to study more CEOs and organizations, before you can actually extract the right algorithms.  So if that's needed, then you must do that, or else any lessons learned will be superficial and incomplete at best and erroneous and disastrous at worst.
Few people appreciate that when Walt Disney died in 1966, he left a company that was very different from the one he started in 1923. Even Mickey Mouse had changed numerous times over the years. Today, Bob Iger presides over The Walt Disney Company, only the sixth CEO in its history, a very different company from the one Walt knew; but in important ways, it is very much the same. The technology and delivery may be different; but at its core, Disney remains an entertainment company that’s all about memorable characters and storytelling.
Even if the mandate for change were so crystal clear and compelling, as it was for incoming JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson in 2011, you must go forward thoughtfully and carefully.  A success at Apple and Target previously, Johnson fell into the terrible pitfall of drawing on his past triumphs.  Scott MacIntosh summarized his story in "There's Only One Steve" - A Story of Innovation Failure.  The algorithm to extract from his and Iger's experience is to determine what balance of traditions to keep and traditions to change.  Iger may have had to remind himself, and his people, about the thing that has sustained itself through decades of Disney evolution, and then apparently to discern that that thing must in fact be kept moving forward above all (italicized above).  Johnson and his band of merry men apparently kept nothing of the traditions, customers and lore of JC Penney, and this was probably one fuel to the disastrous fire he instigated.
There were a lot of things. One of them was to redirect or disband, as the company had known it, its strategic planning arm. I thought the individual businesses needed to own more of their strategy, as opposed to being owned by the corporate entity. It was important for each business to take more responsibility and accountability for its own strategy.
One large conglomerate I consult for gave lip service to one-family, one-team motto.  More than one manager echoed this by saying there was a corporate desire to be more integrated.  This is a complicated two-fold effort, which was fraught with risk.  For one, what a conglomerate had to centralize depended first on its fundamental aim, purpose and challenge.  No organization ought to integrate or centralize simply for its own sake.  There has to be meaning and import for such an effort.  For another, how a conglomerate went about centralizing made a world of difference.  Doing so in an authoritarian, imposing manner on diverse businesses and wide-ranging departments is foolhardy.

Iger knew, and clarified for his lieutenants, that there were corporate frameworks, priorities and values, which everyone across the Disney enterprise had to abide by.  But beyond that he empowered, guided and advised, each business on what it had to do vis-a-vis its particular aims, market and context.  Managers in the head office must not succumb to enforcing a centralization protocol, at the expense of what their counterparts in the business needed to do to be successful.  I'm sure Iger included strategy formulation as part of responsibility and profit-loss results as part of accountability.  That's empowerment manifested in the real world of business, not empowerment abstracted in the concocted feel-good workshops.

JP Donlon does a superb interview with Iger, so be sure to read it in its entirety: How Bob Iger Remade the House That Walt Built.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Friday, July 4, 2014

RVC^ on Targets and Results


3. Targets and Results.  No matter what organization you head, you must set targets and achieve results. They say it’s not how many ideas you come up with, rather it’s how many ideas you make happen. 

What you expect >Lift results higher, realize greater ROI

What we deliver

  • Ensure that efforts, monitors and processes lead to targets
  • Maximize positive and minimize negative factors vis-a-vis results
  • Forge clearer line-of-sight to results, optimize ROI

This is one of three areas Ron Villejo Consulting focuses and delivers on.  I thought to capture quotes that speak evocatively to the essence of what I do for top leaders:


Exactly, if I don't know how to do something, I can figure it out  

What one small thing can you do, to move the needle the most, in whatever you aim to achieve?

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

RVC^ on Human Capital and Talent Management


2Human Capital and Talent Management.  People matter, before strategy or process. So engaging them and ensuring high performance remain mission-critical. They are players on the field, and they win or lose ball games, depending on how you lead them.

What you expect >Engage people more, drive higher performance

What we deliver

  • Speak on topics that engage you and your people best
  • Coach management, train staff for growth and performance
  • Identify high potential talent, prepare them for challenging roles

This is one of three areas Ron Villejo Consulting focuses and delivers on.  I thought to capture quotes that speak evocatively to the essence of what I do for top leaders:

Let's remember human in Human Resources, and put people at the heart of it all

So much of our people remain untapped, so isn't it time we realize the best of their potential

The Latin meaning of compete is coincide, befit, and seek together

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD