Harvard Business School Confidential
Page 23
Some interviewees may ask you to send them the list of questions before the interview. In this case, fine-tune the list to make sure the questions are clearly and appropriately worded for the interviewee. And take out any sensitive questions. You can still try to ask them at the interview, especially toward the end of the interview. But it’s better not to send them beforehand to avoid any unnecessary hiccups or alarm.
CONDUCTING THE INTERVIEW
Take notes during the interview. When I first started to do interviews, I would take very scanty notes. I was confident of my memory. I thought it would be better to focus on giving the interviewee eye contact and on listening. But I quickly found out that good interview notes are critical to ensure no details are forgotten. It is better to be safe and have the notes than to risk missing key information or appearing unprofessional when you have to call the interviewee back to get the information again.
Go deep. Although you have the list of interview questions to use as a reference, for critical areas, you should pursue the interviewee’s answers and dig as deep as possible by asking why. The rule of thumb is it takes five “whys” to get to the root causes and the most fundamental issues. For example:
INTERVIEWEE: I believe this industry is declining rapidly.
INTERVIEWER: Why is that?
INTERVIEWEE: Because customers are all migrating overseas.
INTERVIEWER: What is making them migrate?
INTERVIEWEE: Because of the lower labor cost.
INTERVIEWER: Why is lower labor cost important? Why not automate?
INTERVIEWEE: Labor is over 60 percent of the cost. Automation does not work as it takes a lot of money. . . .
If the interviewee cannot answer some of your questions, you can consider asking for suggestions about sources or other interviewees if you feel the conversation is comfortable enough for that. It is especially useful if the interviewee can introduce you or can be named as your reference when you try to set up a conversation with other people who may have the answer.
AFTER THE INTERVIEW
Read and organize your notes as soon as possible after the meeting. Sometimes you will use shorthand during the interview as you try to take notes very quickly. It is much easier to remember your shorthand shortly after the interview than days later.
Think through the implications of the information as you organize your notes and update the hypothesis (discussed in Chapter 13) and list of questions.
Mail or e-mail a thank-you card or note after every interview. The card or note should be personalized, preferably recalling one or two key points you learned during the interview. This will make your interviewees feel that you have listened to them, value the time they spent with you, and see them as long-term associates rather than one-time data sources.
APPENDIX C
CAGR SHORTCUT
The following table provides a comparison of the exact CAGR as calculated by the detailed formula and the rough CAGR as estimated the shortcut Rule of 75%.
(A) Number of Years to Double (FV/PV) (B) CAGR Calculated by Formula (C) = (A) × 0:75 CAGR Calculated by Rule of 75%
2 41% 38%
3 26% 25%
4 19% 19%
5 15% 15%
6 12% 13%
7 10% 11%
8 9% 9%
9 8% 8%
10 7% 8%
11 7% 7%
12 6% 6%
13 5% 6%
14 5% 5%
15 5% 5%
16 4% 5%
17 4% 4%
18 4% 4%
19 4% 4%
20 4% 4%
21 3% 4%
22 3% 3%
23 3% 3%
24 3% 3%
25 3% 3%
APPENDIX D
CHANGE MANAGEMENT TOOL: DICE
My two mentors at BCG, Harold L. Sirkin and Perry Keenan, are very active in the field of change management. In October 2005, they, together with Alan Jackson, another vice president at BCG, published in Harvard. Business Review a new framework, known as DICE, that delineates the four critical elements of a successful change project.1 This framework was tested on more than 1,000 change projects and has been found to be very effective. The tool is quite consistent with my experience in change projects. I find it a useful way to try to assess whether a change project is set up for success or failure.
According to DICE, these are the four critical elements to drive a successful change project:
D: Short duration between reviews of the project. Reviews are generated when project teams report concrete progress toward the goal of the project. The authors suggest that complex projects should be reviewed every two weeks. More familiar projects should be reviewed every six to eight weeks, but not longer than eight weeks because “the probability that change initiatives will run into trouble rises exponentially when the time between reviews exceeds eight weeks.”
I: Integrity of the team. This means that the project team is selected so they can be relied on for the project. The team has among its members all the necessary skills, knowledge, viewpoints, and informal power to complete the work necessary in the project. The work usually includes information collection, analysis to solve problems, project management, presentations, communications, and many other steps. The team members should also be motivated and energetic since change projects can be high pressure.
C: Commitment of the most powerful executives (counting both formal and informal power) as well as the key staff affected by the changes. The commitment must also be consistently communicated loud and clear to the organization: “A rule of thumb: when you (top level executives) feel that you are talking up a change initiative at least three times more than you need to, your managers will feel that you are backing the transformation.”
E: Limited additional effort required of employees to make the change. A change project has higher likelihood of success if the effort needed for those affected to change over to the new process is limited: “Ideally, no one's workload should increase more than 10 percent. Go beyond that, and the initiative will probably run into trouble.'' This means that the implementation of and changeover to the new process must be carefully planned, including steps such as scheduling the change to happen during low season, hiring temporary staff, and so on, so that employees are not overworked.
Note
1. Harold J. Sirkin, Perry Keenan, and Alan Jackson, “The Hard Side of Change Management,” Harvard Business Review (October 2005): 109–118. Quoted passages are from pp. 2, 4, and 6 of the reprint.
INDEX
A
area chart
assumption
B
balanced scorecard
ballpark
Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)
big picture
bottleneck
bundling
C
capacity
cascading chart
cash
Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)
compounding
connectors
consistency
cycle time
D
deductive
DICE
dollar cost averaging
E
early mover
expenses
F
feedback
Four P’s
framing
G
golden bridge
Granovetter
growth-share matrix
H
Harvey Mackay
hypothesis
I
inductive
investment income
investments
J
Jack Welch
Jim Collins
L
Law of accuracy
Law of reciprocity
leverage
linear income
logic
loss leader
low-hanging fruit
M
mergers and acquisitions
moon chart
Murphy’s Law
N
negotiation
network
O
office politics
P
perspective
place
Plan A
Plan B
Porter five forces
Porter generic strategies
Porter value chain
power
PowerPoint slides
price
prioritize
process
process mapping
product
promotion
R
razor and blade
ready fire aim
real estate
reciprocity
reframing
reputation
risk
roll-up
S
scenarios
segmentation
sensitivity
setting expectations
Southwest Airlines
speculation
stock index funds
stock market
stock options
story
storytelling
strength of weak ties
sunk cost
T
The Tree
triangulation
two-by-two matrix
W
Warren Buffett
Knowing is not enough, we must apply
Willing is not enough, we must do.
Goethe