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Noble Enterprise

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Written by Our Reviewer, Stuart Nachbar
Thursday, 04 December 2008
Noble Enterprise: Where People Make the Profits Noble Enterprise Darwin Gillett’s Noble Enterprise is not unique among business books, but it is quite well written, and Gillett has a track record of helping corporations, large and small, become more successful by being more customer-focused and human-resource focused. Unlike academic case study books, such as In Search of Excellence and Built to Last, Gillett tells the story of a noble enterprise through the turnaround of a single company, Unitel, which later became AT&T Canada LDS. Led by its chief executive officer, Bill Catucci, Unitel’s profitability was the result of looking inward at the talent base and inefficient processes inside the company, as opposed to looking outward from the standpoint of a financial manager, who would be more likely to cut costs and outsource business functions. Most of the story focuses around Catucci, who is as hands-on a chief executive one might find in a large corporation, without becoming a micro-manager. He makes it a point to show a large workforce that he cares, and that he trusts them to do their jobs. This is a very difficult challenge for a chief executive in a very small business, let along a company with more than two thousand workers. My perspective, from reading about the recent industry bailouts, is that most chief executives don’t bother to try. They are driven more by shareholder value. But Catucci also admits that he didn’t need the job for personal financial success; that might have had a hand in his management style. A chief executive would need to be extremely well-to-do, or a uniquely charismatic and confident individual, to convince his board and his lenders to stay the course. Gillett points out that Catucci is both. And this CEO also understands the finances and economics of his business, as his peers usually do. Catucci has the additional understanding of how the economics and financials apply to people. That too, is uncommon among chief executives, and it is probably the reason that Gillett has become a successful management consultant, as opposed to an academic who has gathered data and written a book. His job is to help develop or find role-model executives. And that’s not easy. Gillett uses the Unitel example to explain that while a people-oriented turnaround is more difficult to achieve, it is also more necessary across more corporations. He does not beat the term “human capital” to death, which is refreshing in a business book, but he makes it clear that when people who know the business leave, the knowledge leaves with them and the morale among those left standing declines. He adds that people who want to learn more, to be able to do more, raises morale. This is especially true in any industry such as telecommunications where product innovation is important to long term success. Bright people who can develop and sell products are more likely to come from inside your company than outside. I don’t know how much books such as Noble Enterprise unto themselves have influenced the attitudes of corporate boards and senior executives to achieve more profitability through people-oriented actions. But they give them an idea where they can find a good consultant. For more, go to www.darwingillett.com or www.noblebusinesssolutions.com. Stuart Nachbar operates http://www.EducatedQuest.com , a blog on education politics, policy and technology. He was involved with education politics and economic development for two decades as an urban planner, government affairs manager and a software executive. His first novel, The Sex Ed Chronicles, about sex education and school politics in 1980 New Jersey, was published this past fall. Tag it: ?
Last Updated ( Thursday, 04 December 2008 )

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