Get the right people
While a plan is good, Kennedy also had to create the right mix of
people to carry out those changes.
“A lot of times people are in positions where the last people
standing were the most loyal, but none of that means they were
the most skilled to execute the strategy,” he says. “Be deliberate
about bringing new people in.”
Tailor your hires to the specific skills you need.
“Making sure they were the right people
is crucial,” Kennedy says. “If workers see
you’re bringing in new talent, it suggests to
them that you’re committed to and passionate about the business. If the new talent is very good, they’re probably disproportionately improving things, and employees see that, and they say, ‘OK, this is a
good thing for the company.’”
First, he decided who would stay and
who would go. Part of that was fixing the
convoluted management structure, so he
eliminated one of the chair positions, the
chief operating officer and nearly 100 vice
presidents.
“Obviously, if you’re going to be laying
employees off, the last thing they want to see
is a bloated number of big titles, so we collapsed the leadership thing down,” he says.
In determining who stays, look at who can
best get you through the current turmoil.
“When you’re just trying to initiate or
mobilize the turnaround, you’re looking for
people who have just taken the next step
and can basically take the tactics that have
been laid out and execute,” Kennedy says.
Beyond that, look for realists.
“You find out which people are able to
look at the business with realism and
which ones aren’t, and which ones have
made the right decisions so far and which
ones haven’t,” he says.
He says to also look for trust and respect.
“You look for people who have a connection with their people and are viewed
to be authentic and are collaborating
across the company for the good of the
company,” he says.
If people aren’t realists and authentic, then
you should replace them. When hiring in a
turnaround situation, it’s important to ask
the right questions. Kennedy always asks
candidates to talk about a time in their personal or professional experience where they
came to the edge of their self-confidence for
a long period of time — months versus hours
— and how did they overcome that to
become confident, happy and successful.
“There’s no right answer to it, but if someone gives you a good answer, they’re usually baring their soul and are authentic and
trustworthy,” he says. “Second, if they’ve
never hit a rough patch, a turnaround is a
tough place for them to go because you do
have a lot of setbacks, and you have to be
prepared to doubt yourself and then figure
out how to get yourself back on track.”
As Kennedy worked through the turnaround, he continually moved people in and
out. In fact, in his first three years, he
replaced about 70 percent of the leadership.
“You actually change your requirements
as you move from the ground zero of the
turnaround to a growth stage,” he says.
As you stabilize, you may need new people.
“Truth be told, there’s a lot of people that
fall out at that stage,” he says. “The emotion that people go through is they say,
‘Boy, I just did a lot. … It really feels good to
achieve this milestone. What do you mean
there’s more to do?’ When people say that,
they’re not trying to be the competitive
best in the industry. They’re just satisfied
with where they’ve gotten.”
If you’re not sure if someone can get you
to the next phase, test him or her.
“Those that pass through that gate, they are
the ones that you can engage from a competitor point of view,” he says. “‘Do you realize that competitor X, Y and Z are still beating
us?’ If they get jazzed about that angle, it’s
easy to keep them moving forward.”
Once JDSU stabilized, Kennedy then had
to think about growing — and once again,
he needed different people.
“You begin to look for people who have
been in two jobs bigger or more complex
than you’re bringing them in now, so that
as your business continues to grow, they
know what good looks like two years from
now,” he says.
Again, if you’re not sure if someone is cut
out for it, look for the warning signs.
“There are two telltale signs,” he says. “You
look for those people to develop what good
looks like two years out. If they can’t tell you,
that’s usually a telltale sign that they’ll fall off
the rhythm of the company. The second is if
you see them execute on one or two things
but drop the ball on the third or fourth thing,
[then] that usually is a sign they won’t scale.”
By making sure he had the right people at
each stage of the turnaround, Kennedy has
been able to strengthen the company. With a
strong identity, he has built upon that foundation by leading 12 mergers and acquisitions since taking over, and the financial
results are improving. JDSU has more than
doubled its net revenue from fiscal 2003, hitting $1.53 billion in fiscal 2008. But it’s not
just the top line that’s improving. That fiscal
2003 $933.8 million net loss is down to just a
$21.7 million loss last year.
Kennedy, who recently resigned as president and CEO but remains as vice chairman
of the company, says that the past five
years may have been trying, but they were
also worthwhile.
“When people realize there’s change,
they tend to have fear, so you have to have
passion and conviction for the process
you’re using to move things along,” he
says. “… You have to be resilient because
things won’t always go the way you’re
hoping they will — even if you have a
plan.”
HOW TO REACH: JDS Uniphase Corp., (408) 546-5000 or
www.jdsu.com