In a brilliant article on how to manage clever people Rob Goffee (1) of LBS and Gareth Jones of Insead describe the characteristics of highly talented people and the way in which they operate at work:
- They know their worth. They know they are different, talented and they negotiate their reward structure on a different basis to others in the business
- They are organisationally savvy. This is especially so when it comes to funding - their interest is maintained so long as the funding is generous
- They ignore corporate hierarchy
- They expect instant access. Access to people at the top is automatically assumed
- They have a low boredom threshold. They are stimulated by a business or a project that is inspirational, otherwise they leave
- There will be no thanks from them. They do not feel the need to be led
The authors describe the need that talented people have for the freedom to explore and fail, and not just to explore and succeed.
The difference that can be made by single individuals, or small teams of individuals on business wealth and profitability can be enormous, and they point to real world examples to draw out their point. They use the example of Roche Pharmaceuticals who own 56% of Genentech, the research organisation. For ten years it had no new products and spent between $500m and $800m a year on research. The pressure to close it down was immense but Avastin was discovered and developed by Genentech and in its first year sales were $1.13bln.
...Clever people are the handful of employees whose ideas, knowledge, and skills give them the potential to produce disproportionate value from the resources their organisations make available to them... (p72)
1. Goffee, R., Jones, G. (2007) Leading clever people. Harvard Business Review, March, pp72-79
|
