Involve employees
There’s still something missing from this equation. You’re not going to find opportunities or make these decisions without help. And you’re certainly not going to get the necessary power behind new projects if you can’t rally your employees in support.
“Make them part of the process,” McCluney says. “If you run some kind of ivory-tower process and people don’t understand what’s going on, you’re opening yourself up for what I call passive resistance. People just don’t get behind it.”
Start by simply keeping employees informed. McCluney holds quarterly all-hands meetings at each site — either physically or through a webcast — as well as regular round-table discussions. That communication involves some translation.
“A lot of employees need a little bit of a decoder ring in what’s going on in the markets. They see all the press releases; they hear us talk about design wins,” McCluney says. “But it is tough when you live in technical jargon all the time. You have to try and remember, not only for employees but also for our shareholders: They may like the sound of it but they’re not always as technically literate as we are.
“You’ve always got to take it from the technical into, ‘Here’s what’s good for the company. Here’s what’s good for the market. Here’s why customers will buy this. Here’s the problems that we’re solving. Here’s how it’s going to translate into the performance of the company.’”
McCluney simplifies broadly, for example, by cutting acronyms out of his presentations. While he leaves it to the managers to further tailor each message, he remains on-call for assistance.
“Our line supervisor gets to see what’s happening and he or she knows their team best of all and how to translate what’s going on,” McCluney says. “And we say, ‘If you don’t understand it, call us and we’ll try and translate it for you.’”
Involving employees also means asking for their input. Meetings at Emulex include Q-and-A sessions, but with 768 employees, McCluney doesn’t have time to hear from everyone.
Knowing who to ask can be a selective process. McCluney relies on annual employee assessments that ascend all the way to the top, keeping his executive team attuned to the talent in the organization. Every employee has a chance to share their input in that meeting when they’re asked whether they understand the direction of the company and their role in that and whether they have suggestions for improvement.
More specifically, because those evaluations are geared at identifying future leaders, they also reveal where strengths and talents lie so you know who to ask about certain issues.
“We invite people into different meetings to hear what their opinions are and what they’ve got to contribute,” McCluney says. “Over time, you get to know where the talent is and where the skill sets are that you need to draw on for a given issue or a given opportunity.”
The point is to stay in touch with people, both internally and externally, to constantly gauge whether your direction makes sense. That has helped McCluney make the right decisions for Emulex, which reported $378.2 million in total net revenue and $231.8 million in gross profit for fiscal 2009.
“You’ve just got to keep asking questions,” he says. “Never assume the plan you set will be identical to what actually happens. There are always twists and turns in the road. … Always be looking out over the horizon, and if you’re lucky enough, you set your own directions there and set the path for the industry to follow.”
HOW TO REACH: Emulex Corp., (800) 368-5391 or www.emulex.com
