547. SAP AG

SAP   AG

Active Global Support (AGS)

SAP AG
Type	Aktiengesellschaft
Traded as	ISIN: DE0007164600 FWB: SAP NYSE: SAP
Industry	Enterprise software
Founded	Weinheim, Germany, EU (1972)
Headquarters	Walldorf, Germany
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Hasso Plattner (Chairman) Jim H. Snabe (Co-CEO) Bill McDermott (Co-CEO)
Products	See list of SAP products.
Revenue	€16.22 billion (2012)
Employees	64,598 (2012)[1]
Website	SAP.com

        SAP AG is a European multinational software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations.

        Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the leader in the market of enterprise applications in terms of software and software-related service.

        The company's best-known software products are

1.       its enterprise resource planning application systems and management (SAP ERP),

2.      its enterprise data warehouse product – SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW),

3.      SAP BusinessObjects software, and most recently,

4.      Sybase mobile products and

5.      in-memory computing appliance SAP HANA.

SAP is one of the largest software companies in the world.

History

Foundation

Their first client was the German branch of Imperial Chemical Industries in Östringen, where they developed mainframe programs for payroll and accounting.

        Instead of storing the data on punch cards mechanically, as IBM did, they stored it locally.

        Therefore, they called their software a real-time system, since there was no need to process the punch cards overnight (for this reason their flagship product carried an R in its name until the late 1990s).

        This first version was also a standalone software, that could be offered to other interested parties.

The ERP

In 1973, their first commercial product was launched. The SAP R/1, as it was called,[7] offered a common system for multiple tasks. This permitted the use of a centralized data storage, improving the maintenance of the data. From a technical point of view, therefore, a database was necessary.[8]

In 1976, "SAP GmbH" was founded, and moved its headquarters the following year to Walldorf. SAP AG became the company's official name after the 2005 annual general meeting. AG is short for Aktiengesellschaft (public limited company).

Three years later, in 1979, SAP launched SAP R/2, expanding the capabilities of the system to other areas, such as material management and production planning.[7]

In 1981, SAP brought a re-designed product to market. However, SAP R/2 did not improve until the period between 1985 and 1990. SAP developed and released several versions of R/3 in 1992 through 1995. By the mid-1990s, SAP followed the trend from mainframe computing to client/server architectures. The development of SAP’s internet strategy with mySAP.com redesigned the concept of business processes (integration via Internet).[5] SAP was awarded Industry Week’s Best Managed Companies in 1999.[9]

Corporate Restructuring

In August 1988, SAP GmbH transferred into SAP AG (a corporation by German law), and public trading started 4 November. Shares were listed on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges.[5]

In 1995, SAP was included in the German stock index DAX. On 22 September 2003, SAP was included in the Dow Jones STOXX 50.[10]

In November 2010, SAP lost a $1.3 billion intellectual property lawsuit (related to the actions of the SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow) to Oracle Corporation – cited as the largest software piracy judgment in history.[11] SAP filed post-trial motions to lower the damage awarded to Oracle and stated it may also file an appeal.[12] On 9 September 2011, the verdict was overturned by Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton, who called the penalty "grossly excessive."[13]

Acquisitions

In 2001 SAP acquired Israeli company TopTier Software (founded in 1997) for $400 million.[14] The founder of TopTier Software Shai Agassi joined SAP and eventually was given the responsibility for the company's overall technology strategy and execution.[15]

In 2008, SAP acquired Business Objects, a business intelligence company, and added its products to its portfolio. In 2010, SAP acquired Sybase in a major acquisition move. Sybase being the largest business software and service provider specializing in information management and mobile data use.

In December 2011, SAP AG agreed to buy SuccessFactors Inc. for $3.4 billion in cash or 52 percent more than the share closing price on 2 December 2011.[16]

In May 2012, SAP AG announced acquisition of the Sunnyvale, California-based supply chain network operator Ariba Inc. for an estimated $4.3 billion. SAP said it will offer $45 a share.[17]

In June 2013, SAP AG announced the proposed acquisition of Hybris (company) [18]

Business and markets

SAP AG Headquarters, Walldorf.

SAP is the world's largest business software company and the third biggest independent software provider by revenue (as of 2007).[19] It operates in four geographic regions: EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), America (United States and Canada), LAC (Latin America and Caribbean), and APJ (Asia Pacific and Japan), which represents Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand, India, Greater China, and Southeast Asian countries. In addition, SAP operates a network of 115 subsidiaries, and has R&D (Research & Development) facilities around the globe in Germany, India, US, Canada, France, Brazil, Turkey, China, Hungary, Israel, Ireland and Bulgaria.

SAP focuses on six industry sectors: process industries, discrete industries, consumer industries, service industries, financial services, and public services.[20] It offers integrated product sets for large enterprises[21] and midsize companies and small businesses.[22]

Enterprise Service-Oriented Architecture

Service-oriented architecture was incorporated into the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system.

E-SOA Authentication

SAP E-SOA, client certificate-based authentication is the only authentication method (besides username/password) and the only Single Sign-On method to be supported across all SAP technologies. Kerberos and logon tickets, for example, are not compatible with SAP service-oriented architecture.[23]

Products

SAP's products focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The company's main product is SAP ERP. The current version is SAP ERP 6.0 and is part of the SAP Business Suite. Its previous name was R/3. The "R" of SAP R/3 stood for realtime. The number 3 related to the 3-tier architecture: database, application server and client (SAPgui). R/2, which ran on a Mainframe architecture, was the predecessor of R/3. Before R/2 came System RF, later dubbed R/1.

SAP ERP is one of five enterprise applications in SAP's Business Suite.

The other four applications are:

1.       Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – helps companies acquire and retain customers, gain marketing and customer insight

2.      Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) – helps manufacturers with product-related information

3.      Supply Chain Management (SCM) – helps companies with the process of resourcing its manufacturing and service processes

4.      Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) – enables companies to procure from suppliers

5.      Other major product offerings include:

a.      the NetWeaver platform,

b.      Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) software,

c.       Duet (joint offering with Microsoft),

d.      Performance Management software and RFID.

e.      SAP offers service-oriented architecture capabilities (calling it Enterprise SOA) in the form of web services that are wrapped around its applications.

        While its original products were typically used by Fortune 500 companies, SAP now actively targets small and medium sized enterprises (SME) with its SAP Business One and SAP Business All-in-One.

        On 19 September 2007 SAP announced a new product named SAP Business ByDesign.

        SAP Business ByDesign is a software as a service (SaaS) offering, and provides a fully integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, On Demand.

        SAP Business ByDesign was previously known under the code name "A1S".

        In October 2007, SAP AG announced the friendly takeover of Business Objects.    

        This acquisition expanded SAP's Product Suite of Business Intelligence (BI) software and increased the customer installed base to 89,000.

        In February 2009 SAP AG, which invested in Coghead, purchased the start-up’s intellectual property.

        SAP will only be using the company’s technology as an internal resource and has no plans to offer Coghead’s products to its customers.

        In May 2010 SAP AG announced that it is buying the database software maker Sybase for US$ 5.8 billion in cash.

        The deal closed at the end of July 2010. Sybase will continue to run as a separate, independent unit but will be leveraged across the other SAP areas.

        As of July 2010 TechniData is a 100% subsidiary of SAP AG.

        In October 2010, SAP AG announced the release of SAP HANA 1.0 (High-performance Analytics Appliance), an in-memory appliance for Business Intelligence allowing real-time analytics.

        SAP Enterprise Learning (environment) is an enhancement of the previous version of the learning management system, SAP Learning Solution 600. Apart from the features in SAP Learning Solution 600, SAP Enterprise Learning (environment) contains a virtual learning room feature powered by Adobe Connect.[29] SAP officials say there are over 100,600 SAP installations serving more than 41,200 companies in more than 25 industries in more than 120 countries.[30]

SAP Press has published a book on SAP Enterprise Learning.[31]

SAP Human Resources Management System is one of the largest modules in the SAP R/3 system which consists of many sub modules that assist with tasks of human resource management.

Partnerships

1.       SAP partners include Global Services Partners with cross-industry multinational consulting capabilities,

2.      Global Software Partners providing integrated products that complement SAP Business Suite solutions, and

3.      Global Technology Partners providing user companies with a wide range of products to support SAP technology, including

a.      vendors of hardware,

b.      database,

c.       storage systems,

d.      networks, and

e.      mobile computing technology.

SAP PartnerEdge

        SAP products for small businesses and midsize companies are delivered through its global partner network.

Communities

SAP Community Network (SCN) is a community of

1.       SAP customers,

2.      partners,

3.      employees, and

4.      influencers –

typically in roles such as:

1.       developers,

2.      consultants,

3.      integrators, and

4.      business analysts –

who gain and share knowledge about

1.       ABAP,

2.      Java,

3.      .NET,

4.      SOA, and

5.      other technologies,

6.      plus analytics and dashboards,

business process best practices,

1.       cloud,

2.      mobile,

3.      big data, and

4.      a range of other topics via expert blogs,

5.      discussion forums,

6.      exclusive downloads and code samples,

7.      training materials, and

8.     a technical library.[39]

Organization

        Functional units of SAP are split across different organizational units for R&D needs, field activities and customer support.

        SAP Labs are mainly responsible for product development

whereas the field organizations spread across each country are responsible for field activities such Sales, Marketing, Consulting etc.

        Head office located in SAP AG is responsible for overall management as well as core Engineering activities related to Product Development.

        SAP customer support, also called Active Global Support (AGS) is a global organization to provide support to SAP customers worldwide.

SAP Labs locations

SAP Labs Latin America

Werner Brandt, Stefan Wagner, Luis César Verdi and Gerhard Oswald celebrating the expansion of SAP Labs Latin America

SAP Labs Israel

SAP Labs is the research and development organization of the parent company.

SAP has its development organization spread across the globe. As of Jan 2011, but not all, labs locations host SAP Research groups.

The labs are located in

Germany, France, Ireland, Bulgaria and Hungary in Europe;

Palo Alto, USA;

Bangalore and Gurgaon, India;

São Leopoldo, Brazil;

Ra'anana and Karmiel, Israel;

Montreal and Vancouver, Canada and Shanghai, China.

SAP Labs India is the largest development unit in terms of number of employees outside the SAP headquarters located in Walldorf, Germany.

Each SAP Lab has prominent area of expertise and focus.

SAP Labs in Sophia Antipolis, France for example specializes in development of Java based SAP software products.

Whereas, SAP Labs in Palo Alto, California is famous for its focus on innovation and research.

SAP opened in June 2009 its new SAP Labs campus in Brazil, representing the first SAP Labs Center in Latin America and the eighth worldwide.

The facility is located in São Leopoldo, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and employs 520 people. Of particular note are the building’s structure and interior, which are composed entirely of environmentally friendly materials.

SAP Labs Latin America has just received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification for the building.

User groups

User Groups are independent, not-for-profit organizations of SAP customer companies and partners within the SAP Ecosystem that provide education to their members, influence SAP product releases and direction, exchange best practices, and provide insight into the market needs.

546. RECRUIT DIFFERENTLY

RECRUIT  DIFFERENTLY

There is nothing more important for a business than hiring the right team. If you get the perfect mix of people working for your company, you have a far greater chance of success. However, the best person for the job doesn’t always walk right through your door.

The first thing to look for when searching for a great employee is somebody with a personality that fits with your company culture. Most skills can be learned, but it is difficult to train people on their personality.

If you can find people who are

fun,

friendly,

caring,

love,

and

helping others,

then

you are on to a winner.

Personality is the key. It is not something that always comes out in interview – people can be shy. But you have to trust your judgement. If you have got a slightly introverted person with a great personality, use your experience to pull it out of them. It is easier with an extrovert, but be wary of people becoming overexcited in the pressure of interviews.

You can learn most jobs extremely quickly once you are thrown in the deep end. Within three months you can usually know the ins and outs of a role. If you are satisfied with the personality, then look at experience and expertise.

Find people with transferable skills – you need team players who can pitch in and try their hand at all sorts of different jobs. While specialists are sometimes necessary, versatility should not be underestimated.

Some managers get hung up on qualifications. I only look at them after everything else. If somebody has five degrees and more A grades than you can fit on one side of paper, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are the right person for the job.

Great grades count for nothing if they aren’t partnered with broad-ranging experience and a winning personality.

That doesn’t mean you can’t take risks when building your team. Don’t be afraid of hiring mavericks. Somebody who thinks a little differently can help to see problems as opportunities and inspire creative energy within a group. Some of the best people we’ve ever hired didn’t seem to fit in at first, but proved to be indispensable over time.

If you hire the wrong person at the top of a company, they can destroy it in no time at all. Promoting from within is generally a good idea as the employee who is promoted will be inspired by the new role, already know the business inside out, and have the trust and respect of their team.

Equally, bringing in fresh blood can reinvigorate a company. Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia recently brought in CEOs from outside - John Borghetti at Virgin Australia and Craig Kreeger at Virgin Atlantic. They have brought a lot of fresh ideas into the company, as well as experience of what the competition is doing well and what they are doing badly.

When companies go through growth spurts, they often hire in bulk and company culture can suffer. While it may seem a desperate rush to get somebody through the door to help carry the load, it is worth being patient to find the right person, rather than hurrying and unbalancing your team. I heard a great line by Funding Circle CEO Samir Desai at the IoD Conference in London (quoting Apple's Dan Jacobs) about making sure you hire (and fire) the right people: “It’s better to have a hole in your team than an asshole in your team!”

2

There’s something romantic about the idea of the lone genius. The early success of GE is often attributed solely to the inspiration and perspiration of Thomas Edison. But experience and research both tell us that lasting success is built by teams that drive each other through collaboration, different skill sets and, yes, tension. It’s difficult to imagine the stratospheric successes of Steve Jobs without Stephen Wozniak or Mark Zuckerberg without Sheryl Sandberg. Edison had many collaborators and competitors who drove him, including the engineering genius Charles Steinmetz.

Diverse teams drive more innovation.

Hiring people with different styles, backgrounds and experience increases the success of teams. My sense of what makes a successful team is constantly evolving, but these days I look for these four types when I hire.

1) The fish out of water. People who are from, or have lived in, global markets expose the company to different mindsets and ways of approaching tasks.

Different educational backgrounds also help foster critical thinking skills.

Candidates who have studied anthropology and psychology, for example, bring keen observational skills to your team, which is especially good for early stage market and customer prototyping.

2) Someone who can FIO. Team members who can FIO are critical to navigating the ambiguity of the global economy, which no longer has a standard playbook. This quality isn’t necessarily detectable on a resume, so I like to give interviewees hypothetical but decidedly ambiguous scenarios and creative challenges laden with constraints to test their fortitude and creativity.

Still, there are some signs that someone has the skills to FIO. Anyone who has served in Teach for America, the Peace Corps or a similar organization has most likely been thrown into a leadership position in a challenging situation. I remember a candidate whose background in disaster relief for non-profits in locations ranging from Haiti to Somalia made me confident he could have figured anything out in the corporate world. Likewise, my work with GE’s Veterans Network has shown me that people with military service can perform complex tasks with scarce resources.

3) Candidates with design training. Businesses need design thinking, and not just for creative roles. Design training helps people get a feel for the essence of an issue quickly. It also trains them to visualize concepts in a way that bring people together around a common narrative. Think of all the great ideas that started as sketches on the back of a napkin – that’s design thinking.

4) The well-balanced player. Teams need specialized skillsets but they also need people who can work across disciplines and contribute in multiple ways.

A few years ago at GE, we came up with a framework to define a well-rounded team called the 4 I’s:

1)   Instigator,

2)   Innovator,

3)   Integrator and

4)   Implementer.

The 4 I’s are present, to some degree, in every candidate we interview but some people have them in just the right balance. Those people are often your team leaders.

3

Hiring? What a great problem to have. It can only mean your organization is growing, which is terrific or that you’ve got an existing position you can now fill with an even bigger dose of talent than before.

Either way, congratulations.

Why aren’t you smiling?

hiring is about as hard to get right as it is critical to your company’s success – which is to say, very.

Well, probably because you know from experience that

Fortunately, hiring isn’t a black box of gut and luck, although it can sometimes feel that way, like when your home-run candidate turns out to be a wash out by Day 30 on the job.

Rather, hiring is a discipline which improves with time and practice. Or put more precisely, we’ve found that hiring improves with time and practice if you deploy a very specific (and truth be told, pretty unbending) qualifications check-list.

Hey, we didn’t say hiring ever got easier.

That said, the check-list itself is short. It contains two flat-out must-haves, five qualities that are definitely-should-haves, and one very special quality that, while not exactly commonplace, is a total game-changer.

The generosity gene is all in the bones,

Personality-deep craving

To help other people improve grow, thrive and succeed.

If you hire candidates who have got that running through their veins,

amazing things will happen.

The must-haves, perhaps not surprisingly, are high integrity and high IQ,

which barely need additional comment here, except to note that both are essential to any winning organization and neither can be trained into a person.

Sheer convenience or a candidate’s likeability may make you want to squint on this front. You just can’t without doing a disservice to your organization.

As for the definitely-should-haves on our hiring check-list, we’ve long dubbed them “The Four Es and a P.”

The first E is energy. Today, probably more than ever, stamina matters. Every person you hire, no matter where the job falls on the org chart, should be filled with vitality and intensity, able to go the distance, not just on deadline or during a crisis, but day after day.

The ability to energize others comes next. After all, what good is high energy if it isn’t making the team better? Look for candidates who exude positivity and stir others to action. Such dynamism is contagious.

Third comes edge, the capacity to make yes-or-no decisions. Smart people can be dangerously namby-pamby about hard calls, you know? They want to analyze everything to death. Hello, no. When you’re hiring, ask candidates to describe how they’ve made tough decisions – and how fast they made them.

The fourth and final E is execution, the ability to get things done. Brainpower is all well and good – it’s non-negotiable, as we said – but not if it’s uncoupled from the ability to get out from behind the desk and make ideas happen. Many people are either smart or are good executors – you’ve got to find the ones that are both.

The four Es are great individually, but they’re even better when a candidate has them all wrapped up in burning ball of passion – there’s the P – for both work and life. Passionate people sweat the details, they’re curious, they care.

And there’s nothing better than hiring someone who’s passionate about… well, about people. Here’s where that powerfully game-changing quality comes in.

We call it the “generosity gene.”

You’ve seen the generosity gene in action and maybe you’ve even been lucky enough to experience it –

a boss who’s overjoyed when you nail an assignment,

who’s euphoric to give out promotions,

who thinks the very best part of his job is when one of his people gets to go home and tell the family, “I got a raise today.”

Unfortunately, you’ve probably also experienced bosses missing this piece of DNA.

They grimace like they’re drinking vinegar when bonus time comes around.

They sit in meetings with the company brass and take credit for ideas spawned in the ranks.

These types are wary, in fact, of anyone beneath or beside them looking good.

To them, business is a zero-sum game.

The generosity gene is the exact opposite mindset. It’s an in-the-bones, personality-deep craving – to help other people improve, grow, thrive, and succeed.

And we promise you, if you hire candidates who’ve got that running through their veins, amazing things will happen in your organization.

The reason’s simple. “Generosity gene” managers inspire trust, and in doing so they unleash productivity and creativity. Their people become fonts of ideas and innovation and paragons of commitment to customers and the work. Of course they do! They know they’ll be loved and rewarded for their efforts. Isn’t it great that, in the process, the company reaps the benefits too?

Look, hiring is hard; no one’s ever going to argue otherwise. But winning is about assembling the best team, right? What else is there?

So make sure you look for people who truly demonstrate the seven qualities on our checklist.

And when you find someone with that magical eighth – the generosity gene – do whatever it takes to bring that game-changer into the organizational fold.

That, in one fell swoop, is hiring right.

Jack Welch is Founder and Distinguished Professor at the Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University. Through its executive education and Welch Way management training programs, the Jack Welch Management Institute provides students and organizations with the proven methodologies, immediately actionable practices, and respected credentials needed to win in the most demanding global business environments.

Suzy Welch is a best-selling author, popular television commentator, and noted business journalist. Her New York Times bestselling book, 10-10-10: A Life Transforming Idea, presents a powerful decision-making strategy for success at work and in parenting, love and friendship.

Together with her husband Jack Welch, Suzy is also co-author of the #1 international bestseller Winning, and its companion volume, Winning: The Answers.

4

It caters to all areas of Business – commerce, Management & Economics

Commerce Times is an Printed international journal to promote all fields of Business Studies like

Accounting and Finance,

Business Strategy and Ethics,

Case Studies in Management,

Change and Knowledge Management,

Compensation and Industrial Relations,

E – Business,

Economy – Domestic & International,

Entrepreneurship & Corporate Governance,

Emerging areas of business (Hospitality, Health Care, Food Processing, Innovative Services, etc.),

Government Policy on Business & Entrepreneurship,

Other related areas of Management,

Hard and Soft skills in Management,

Human Resource Management and

Organizational Behaviour,

Public Sector Management,

Quality Management and Continual Improvement,

Rural and Urban Business Issues,

Sales,

Distribution and Advertisement,

Social Responsibility,

Supply Chain Management,

Customer Relationship Management & Operations Management,

Technology in Business,

Tools for Business Research etc.

5

Since my life's work has always focused on self-awareness and well being, I have made those two attributes the criterion for people I want to work with.

In my course,

The Soul of Leadership,

I advise employers not only to get references and bios from prospective employees,

but also to engage with them before hiring in creating a "Soul Profile".

Here are the questions that we ask when we create a soul profile:

1. What makes you joyful? Can you recall the most joyous moments of your life?

2. What is your life purpose?

3. In what way do you want to contribute to the business or organization?

4. What are your unique talents and skills and who would benefit from them?

5. Who are your heroes/heroines/mentors in history, mythology, religion or contemporary times?

6. What are the qualities you look for in a good friendship?

7. What are the best attributes that you have that contribute to a meaningful relationship?

Asking a person to write down two or three words or phrases in answer to each of these questions gives both them and you an idea of the meanings, the context, the relationships, and the archetypal themes in their life.

It also is an expression of their deeper core consciousness and what drives their passion and their vision.

The key to a successful business or organization is the creation of dynamic teams where

a) there is a shared vision,

b) people acknowledge and complement each other strengths (as in a sports team),

c) everyone is emotionally bonded and cares for each other.

Such teams, between 5-12 people take time to form, but guarantee success.

In my view, focusing only on professional skills can lead to problems.

In many instances technical skills can frequently be outsourced adequately.

However, what makes an organization or business successful are

Core values,

Qualities of character,

Vision,

Purpose,

Camaraderie, and

Joy.

And these cannot be outsourced.

In addition, I am realizing more and more that addiction to distraction is becoming a hazard in the workplace.

Employees who have an interest in personal growth including practices like mindfulness and focused awareness are not only healthier, but contribute to the well being of an organization/business.

It is becoming clear now that multitasking is the one skill that gets worse with practice and may indeed be harmful to our cortical brain.

In an information-based society, information overload can actually be a hazard.

Information overload cost US businesses about 28% of their knowledge workers’ day and up to $1 trillion dollars in lowered productivity.

1. Career wellbeing - make sure that employees enjoy what they do; acknowledge their strengths and make their opinions count.

2. Social well being - encourage friendships, camaraderie, and celebration in the workplace.

3. Provide encouragement and facilities if possible for meditation, exercise and recreation.

4. Encourage employees in the well-being of their communities.

5. Make sure that employees feel safe financially; help create plans for savings and adequate insurance.

The above suggestions are gathered from data over several years at The Gallup Organization where I serve as a senior scientist. While the above recommendations are not exactly about how to hire people, when people find out that those criteria are important to your business and organization, then the right kind of employees will be attracted to your business/organization.

Remember that

your own personal well-being, and

how you model that in your life,

will attract the right people to you.

Recent research as outlined above is the best predictor of long-term employee engagement and the success of an organization/business/community.

6

Ask the question “How do you hire?” and you most often get an answer that concludes with “and that’s how I find the best person for the job.”

That’s not how I hire. I don’t look to put the best person in the job. Instead I look to put the best team together ... and that can be a very different exercise.

To understand that difference, I've used a UNC basketball team analogy in the past. Assume you have a random group of terrific UNC alumni players. Among this particular group, the best five players could well be Phil Ford, Jimmy Black, Raymond Felton, Ty Lawson and Kendall Marshall. Had that group played together, would they have won a national championship? The answer, of course, is no….because they were all point guards.

Greater diversity of thought, perspective and background has been shown to lead to greater innovation and superior financial results. So, when I hire for a management team, I try to avoid hiring all point guards.

This means that I look for people who make me somewhat uncomfortable. I look for people who are different from me, who hold different views than I do, who have different areas of expertise than I do. I look for people from whom I learn in the interview. I look for people with qualities and backgrounds that are additive to – rather than the same as – the rest of the team. Hiring in this way may make the workplace less “comfortable” for the team, but that is exactly the point.