Human Capital Briefs

Eric Clayberg, Google software-engineering manager, talks with Harvard Business School professor David Garvin about the feedback and training that he and others at the company receive through Project Oxygen.

“No more curve,” said Lisa Brummel, Microsoft’s EVP of HR last week, curtly dismissing Microsoft’s much-derided but iconic practice of ranking each team member on a forced distribution. This was big news, the lead of many a business section.

There are a variety of places where corporations and boards look for potential CEOs, but the leagues of management consulting generally isn’t one of them. However, new unreleased research from Spencer Stuart, a global executive search firm, suggests that we’re giving this sector short shift.

Let’s face facts: Most boards invest heavily in executive assessments, exposing chief-executive candidates to C-suite responsibilities and checking their P&L performance — while simultaneously scanning outside prospects.

Malcolm Gladwell’s thesis is that we have a flawed sense of what is an advantage or a disadvantage. However, when reading his book, I noticed that he primarily focused on this idea when, instead, he should have told us why some people can turn their disadvantage into an advantage.

The title Chief Executive Officer is something of a misnomer. The task of a CEO is not wholly or even primarily about execution. In fact, when the CEO starts to “do” things, and starts becoming more “active,” that is usually when a company gets into trouble.

The debate that has raged in Congress and elsewhere about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) has focused almost entirely on its participation provisions. What is rarely discussed are other, perhaps more important features of the Act.