1. Dr John Sullivan JOHNS@SFSU.EDU
HIRING INNOVATORS AND GAMECHANGERS Tools and Approaches to Hire From “Outside the Box” Best Practice Institute November 29, Dr. John Sullivan Professor, Author and Advisor to Management
Dr John Sullivan

2. Why innovation so important?
Topics for today
Why innovation so important? 6

3. HR isn’t meeting executive expectations
The #1 people related issue of senior executives is?
creating a high-performance culture…
because of the business need for “a relentless focus on innovation, productivity, growth, and customer service”
79% rate it as #1 in a Deloitte/Economist Study of HR, 2007

4. There is a shift… from productivity to innovation
Productive people install wires faster, with fewer errors
Innovative people eliminate wires 8

5. Are innovators worth the effort?
Topics for today
Are innovators worth the effort? 9

6. Name the most innovative firms
Google
Apple
IBM HP
Microsoft
Dell
Nintendo

7. Innovative firms are more productive
Average $160,000
IBM $260,102
HP $592,600
Microsoft $699,016
Dell $870,245
Google $1,056,000
Apple $1,169,594
Nintendo $2,500,000 ($440,000)
It takes 10X more employees at IBM… to produce the same revenue as Nintendo

8. Better measures of workforce productivity!
Good
Revenue per employee – Good because the data is public and easy to calculate
Profit per employee - $ of profit per employee (Dow Chemical $141,000 - $181,000)
Better
3. Dollar of “Labor” cost per dollar of revenue – Better because not all firms pay employees the same (And some don’t count “other” labor)
Best
4. Dollar of “Labor” cost per dollar of profit – Best because revenue isn’t the same as profit

9. Is it worth it to seek out an innovator?
One top-notch engineer is worth "300 times or more… than the average"
(Google) “would rather lose an entire incoming class of engineering graduates than one exceptional technologist”
Alan Eustace, VP of Engineering, Google

10. most firm’s talent management processes…
Is it true that…
most firm’s talent management processes…
routinely “reject” innovators?

11. Innovators are often overlooked or rejected
Would your ATS reject this innovators application?
R e j e c t e d
Because he had a criminal record? 15

12. Innovators are often overlooked or rejected
Would your ATS reject this innovators application?
"This is the project that's going to
remold Apple and 10 years from now,
it's going to be a music business,
not a computer business“
(Tony Fadell in 2001)
R e j e c t e d
Tony’s idea was rejected by numerous firms
And…he had a major error in his projections 16

13. Innovators are often rejected
Would your interview process reject these innovators?
R e j e c t e d
Larry and Serge
Bad credit, idea rejected 10X and both are dropouts 17

14. Innovators are often rejected out of hand
Would your reject these tech innovators?
A l l w o u l d b e
R e j e c t e d
Gates Ellison Jobs Dell Zuckerberg
What do they have in common? 18

15. What does an innovator look like?
Topics for today
What does an innovator look like? 19

16. Do you know how innovators differ from producers?
Name your top producer
and now… name your top innovator
How do they differ? >

17. Innovators see things as… half empty or all empty
Toyota – Presumption of imperfection
Intel – Paranoia (Ex. Marathon behind the crowd)
Google - “Maintain a healthy disregard for the impossible” 21 21

18. Innovators differ from producers
Productive
Innovator
Are respected
Are often dismissed (laughed at)
On time & works late
Thinks 24/7
Fixes broken processes
Prevents breakdowns
Likes things as they are
Are impatient
< 5% improvement target
> 25% improvement target
Makes others work harder
Makes others re-think >

19. Innovators differ from producers
Productive
Innovator
Is constantly asking why do we do it this way?”
Asks a few questions
Make a good effort
Innovators are relentless
Are inward focused
Compares against #1… And then… aims ahead of it
Any questions?

20. Shifting to recruiting approaches
Topics for today
Shifting to recruiting approaches 24

21. Features that attract innovators Bold or WOW actions are required
Topics for today
Features that attract innovators
Bold or WOW actions are required 25

22. A strategy can help you attract
“Maintain a healthy disregard for the impossible”
Larry Page (Google Co-founder) 26

23. Attracting innovators
Features that attract innovators
Internal contests (MGM Grand)
Pick/ bid on a project opportunity (Whirlpool)
External contests > 27

24. Looking for talent through contests
Used by Google, Yahoo, Sun, Intel and Microsoft 28

25. Looking for talent that never become employees
First Prize - US$95,000, Nick Archibald, Managing Director, representing Fractal-Graphics Ltd.

26. Google - Android $10 million contest
Online contests
Google - Android $10 million contest 30

27. Free time attracts innovators
Offers 20% time
“The important thing is that it really let’s you say
‘No’ to your manager …
From an employees perspective, under the rule.... “Nobody can tell you that you can’t experiment”
Larry Page (Google Co-founder)

28. Attracting “gamechangers”
Results Only Work Environment in Minnesota
Pick your hours
Pick where you work
No in-person meetings required

29. Attract innovators with events that say... you are different!
“Pajama day” at Google 33

30. Attract “brilliant minds” at public events34

31. Attracting math innovators with a billboard

32. WOW website content can help attract innovators
Our Dog Policy
“Google's respect and affection for our canine friends is an integral facet of our corporate culture.
We have nothing against cats, per se, but we're a dog company, so as a general rule we feel cats visiting our campus would be fairly stressed out”

33. How do you find/ source innovators?
(Here are 8 innovative approaches to find innovators)

34. Sourcing innovators
Referrals -- The # 1 way to source innovators is
through proactive employee referrals
Referrals work because innovators know other innovators
Proactively approach current innovators and diverse thinkers… and ask them to find others >

35. #1 most effective tool - Referrals
Referrals produced the highest volume
Referrals produce the highest quality hire also
Referrals vs. Ads (Restaurant)
Referrals also have brand value

36. Benchmark firms and referral results (50+ %)
Intel (71%)
SG Construction (70%)
Quicken Loans (68%) Best practice award winner
Covenant Health (64%)
Cisco Systems (62%) “Friends” began the 2nd gen.
FirstMerit Bank (56%)
The Turner Construction Corporation (56%)
Booz Allen (52%) Best practice award winner
Northrop Grumman Space Technologies (52%)
Symantec (51%)
The MITRE Corporation (50%)
HSBC Bank (50%)

37. Pro-active referrals are superior
Proactively seeking out targeted employees is clearly a superior approach
Here are the 3 most effective proactive tools
- Reference referrals
- Give me 5
- Ask new hires

38. Pro-active referrals – Try reference referrals
1. Reference referrals for innovators
Identify top performing/innovator hires from last yr
Call the references that said accurate things
Thank them
Ask them “do you anyone else as good?”
Ask them to be a future reference source
Hire the references themselves

39. Proactive referrals – Give me 5
Uses “give me 5” proactive referrals

40. Pro-active referrals are superior
2. Give me 5 – Proactively approach top people
Best manager you ever had
Best team leader
Best idea person or innovator/ out of the box thinker
Best person that "ran into" burning buildings
Best problem solver
Best customer service person
Best student in college that was so smart
Best mentor
Best technical skilled person
Best international talent
Best sales person that beats you
Best replacement for "you" when you’re promoted

41. Pro-active referrals – Ask new hires
3. Ask new hires during orientation
On their first day, ask new hires from "target" companies (or all firms)… "who else is good there?”
They should also be asked “who looks good but isn’t”
And ask them for… innovators, managers, and "up and comers"?

42. Some other referral finding tools
Note:
Be careful of the 78% of all referrals that are
“a stranger approached me” referrals

43. Referral tools
Ask top applicants during the interview
Ask them to identify top performers to show their industry knowledge
Be sure and invite candidates from benchmark firms in… for interviews

44. Referral tools
Name only referrals
Reward your employees and recruiters for capturing the names of top performers (as opposed to just rewarding them for actual resume referrals).
Continually develop a "Who's Who" list within your industry (Cisco)
Call when your database gets a “duplicate” referral

45. Referral tools
Ask employees who attend outside training/ education to make referrals
Ask attendees to identify top performers in..
Certification programs
Degree programs
Teach the class

46. Sourcing innovators
The # 2 best way to source innovators
Contests and awards
Hold on-line contests
Seek out award winners … An example >

47. Contests find the names of the very best

48. Sourcing innovators
The # 3 best way to find innovators
Professional events - Ask employees that attend to
seek out innovators
Technology events - Web 2.0, bloggers events, robot competitions, open source projects
Calculated risk taking – Rock climbing clubs, mountain climbing groups and poker groups
Innovative and future oriented - inventors clubs, improv comedians, jazz musicians, entrepreneurs club, Star Trek conventions, “future” and space groups

49. Sourcing innovators
The # 4 best way to find innovators
Boomerangs (Ex-employees)
Keep in touch with top performers that left the company and re-recruit them (McKinsey, Deloitte, E & Y)
Also ask them for referrals

50. Sourcing innovators
The # 5 best way to find innovators
Utilize new media – Because “they” use…
Facebook
MySpace
Podcasts
Blogs and RSS feeds
Videos - Moving pictures vs words >

51. Video’s sell innovators
Videos tell convincing stories
Use YouTube
Recruiting (An inside look at Google)
(Has over 500,000 views) 55

52. Innovators in a virtual world
Bain, HP, IBM, e-bay, Verizon & Microsoft use SecondLife and “avatars” to assess and recruit
Hyro hired 30
in 2 months in 2007

53. The US Army recruits within a video game
J&J, Deloitte, British Navy & MITRE (Job of honor) have used games

54. The # 6 best way to find innovators
Sourcing innovators
The # 6 best way to find innovators
Utilize green recruiting – because those on the edge have been “green”/ sustainable for years

55. Sourcing innovators
The # 7 best way to find innovators
Market your commitment to innovation
Change the job description and recruitment materials and ads to include innovation
Add examples of innovation to your web site
WOW them because the Web info validates what they have already heard >

56. Web information attracts innovators (Google)
Web content attracts
Web information attracts innovators (Google)
“Thinking beyond the norm is expected, no matter what position you happen to hold
“Innovation is our bloodline. Even the best technology can be improved.
We see endless opportunity to create even more relevant, more useful, and faster products for our users” 60

57. Sourcing innovators
The # 8 best way to find innovators
Look in other disciplines (Parallel benchmarking)
Look outside your industry/ major
SW Air turn around speed
EDS math/ music
Hallmark – Musicians and poets (Lyrics)
- Google – I estimate that 20% of hires come from liberal arts schools (India) >

58. How do you identify innovators during the resume screening process?

59. Resume screening
Screening  
Look for crazy resumes -- Innovative individuals may offer anything from poems and DVD’s, to hard copy or even web portfolios
Designate someone to “champion” applications from potential innovators
Periodically "test" the system with outside the box resumes

60. Look for these key words Innovation Created New Idea Creative
Resume screening - ATS
Look for these key words  
Innovation
Created
New
Idea
Creative
Imaginative
Inquisitive
Novel
Patents and copyrights
Advance
Quantum leap
Inflection point
Insight
Groundbreaking
Changed the DNA
Discovery
Award-winning
Breakthrough 64

61. How do you identify innovators during the interview process?

62. Be careful/ don’t over react
Interviews
Be careful/ don’t over react
When presented with a problem during interviews… innovators and game changers are likely to…
infer that your current approach is ”dated” or even say it’s silly 66

63. Give them real problems
Assessment
Give them real problems
Interviewers at Google and Microsoft give interviewees real problems
Toyota puts them on an actual assembly team
Give them their “1st month’s” problems 67

64. IT’S TIME TO THINK OUTSIDE
Innovators think differently
IT’S TIME TO THINK OUTSIDE
Inside the box = 99%
Outside the box approaches = 1%
Look for individuals that provide solutions
that stand out from the 99% 68

65. Drop “fit” as an assessment criteria
Fit doesn’t mean that someone can’t do the job it’s a subjective assessment of whether they “fit” the department or firm
If you want innovation, look for people that actually do not fit perfectly! 69

66. Other steps

67. Screening
Improve the interview
The interview process must be "tolerant" and inclusive (i.e. expect some craziness)
The interview must allow applicants to show their innovation/ outside the box thinking
Include innovative employees to excite candidates and to more accurately assess
Innovative ideas should be captured

68. Improve the candidate experience
Other action steps
Improve the candidate experience
Most hiring processes are just plain ugly
Many judge the innovativeness of your screening process as an indication of your company's actual state of innovation (and might drop out) 72

69. That see “empty glasses” everywhere
Lessons to be learned
To identify innovators… look for people
That see “empty glasses” everywhere
That offer solutions that vary from everyone else’s
That aim ahead of where the best are now

70. Did I make you think? How about some questions (or me at Hundreds of articles on all aspects of HR by Dr. Sullivan can be found at… 74