Corporate Politics and Higher Education

Suad AlhalwachiHPAIR Conference

• Graduated or about to graduate? • Gained top results and the respect of your professors and

students? • Full of ideas and ready to make a change in the world?• Totally charged to make a difference in the corporate world• Ready to become the next Ford, Kutler, Gates and Jobs?• If you answered YES to all of these questions then this

presentation is for you!

What HE doesn’t tell you

• Remember the 10 things HBS doesn't teach you? That book was a hit and an awakening (http://www.slideshare.net/vinodtiwari003/what-theydontteachyouatharvardbusinessschool)

• The concepts that we study in HE are done in isolation to the corporate world

• Internships do not provide elightenment of what the corporate world really is, as you can be making coffee and running errands instead of sitting on the board meetings

What's next?

Corporate world

What is? And who is in the corporate world?• Small, medium or large corporations.• Government entity, NGO• People with different agendas, needs and

wants than yours.

Examples of some of the best companies to work for

Intuit:Intuit is a well-established, stable company that pays its

employees well. Owen Thomas, Business InsiderCompany Rating: 3.8CEO Approval: Brad Smith, 93%Bottom Line: Intuit has great compensation and benefits, but the

management team needs to get better about communicating with each other and with their employees.

Employee Feedback: • "Stable company. Rewards people with good political skills.“• Good benefits and pay but very political."• "Management does not work well with each other, favouritism

amongst management and employees, change within the department is not shared with employees for feed back."

Agilent TechnologiesAgilent Technologies is a great company with a wide

range of products for employees to work on. Company Rating: 3.8CEO Approval: Bill Sullivan, 80%Bottom Line: Measurement equipment and tools company

Agilent Technologies is a pretty great place to work at, but layoffs seem bound to happen.

Employee Feedback: • "Fun, but boring after a while."• "Expect to go through Workforce Management cycles

(i.e. layoffs) every two years. Your favourite project will probably get cancelled, possible for political reasons."

• "You will work with the best engineers and scientists in the world. There are still pockets of the HP Way in Agilent but those employees are aging out."

MITRE:• MITRE has great benefits and job security. • Company Rating: 3.8• CEO Approval: Alfred Grasso, 68%• Bottom Line: Mitre, a systems engineering company that

manages federally-funded research and development centres, has good job security. It's also a great place to work.

• Employee Feedback: • "A very easy place to work, as hard or as little, as you want."• "Salaries a bit below average. Limited bonus structure.

Management structure allows some employees to remain in positions long after they should be moved to other areas."

• "Department managers don't communicate with each other - instead they compete against each other and run each department and division like private fiefdoms."

Apple:Apple treats its employees well, but the culture can be competitive. Company Rating: 3.9CEO Approval: Tim Cook, 93%Bottom Line: Apple is a top-notch technology company and an overall great place to

work. Sometimes the gag order can be a bit inhibiting for employees, but it's totally worth it.

Employee Feedback: • "Apple treats its employees like human beings and trains us to treat our customers as

such. It's such a nice relief to know that I can be honest with customers and not feel like I have to manipulate people or be withholding to do my job well. We get to listen to every story on a case by case basis and are empowered that we know what the best decision is for ourselves, the customer, and the company without having someone standing over our shoulders deciding for us. Apple allows me to be very independent and gives me the tools to go wherever I want in the company - it's awesome. Apple also strives to make everyone feel like one big family, and is an extremely family oriented company."

• "Rigid corporate structure, management challenges, input from engineers is rarely accepted in the design process."

• "Secrecy can be inhibiting but doesn't generally keep you from doing the work you need to do."

Akamai Technologies:Akamai is billion-dollar Internet company with a start-up mentality.Company Rating: 4.1CEO Approval: Tom Leighton, 100%Bottom Line: Akamai employees love going to work every day because

of the challenging, yet rewarding work they do in cloud computing. It still has somewhat of a start-up mentality, even though it's a billion-dollar Internet company.

Employee Feedback: • "Great people, challenging tasks, major impact on the Internet,

growing rapidly, very open and flexible environment."• "The technology is really cool and unique, and the business is in an

extremely strong position. There are a lot of smart people, so you learn a lot very quickly. There is a lot to do and hard work is rewarded to some degree. Most of the people are good to work with as well."

• "Culture can be very political."

Some Interesting clips about Corporate Politics

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JJv4TvURj4 Facebook politics

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIhxfUEVUGA Steve Jobs and politics

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-FldpeZmlc The firm (based on John Grisham book) full of politics

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF78RZKyahw (and just for laughs The Proposal)

Even if you work for the best, politics could be overwhelming!

Examples of people who hated their job?

• Boss loves the secretary, promotes her to marketing manager, the job that an employee had his eyes on goes away, and a lot of problems are created for the employee so he leaves

• A colleague has his own eye on a job, which you are supposed to get, he makes life hell and you have to leave

• Boss is a sexual maniac, wants to have a go at every walking pants/skirt, you don’t like it, so you have to leave

• Management changes, all the loved employees by the previous

management will eventually have to leave, as no career path is provided to them

• CEO has falsified qualifications, you figured it out because he didn’t know the answer for something that he was supposed to have studied, your life turns to hell, and you have to leave before you expose him.

Job advancements and Succession planning

• There are only few jobs at the top, and lots at the bottom, you can only reach those jobs if the persons occupying them die

• The CEO fires his VP’s and lines up his mates to take up the VP’s jobs

• The CEO and top management collaborate to steal from the company, you find out so you leave

• Even in the teaching jobs politic is common, principals may hate the teachers so his/her life is hell, teacher has to leave

Similar situations are possibilities to your future career, but do you have to endure it?

What are your options?

• Start your own business and be your own boss! Gather up a group of angel investors or join your own university’s business park.

• Research the companies that you want to work for, only work for the best, and only work for the ones that can offer you a career path

• Research the best companies to work for.

• Work in your family business

• Be a consultant, if you are an expert in what you do.

• Gather up your friends and think of how to start your own company, and be the best there is as well as politically correct.

This is through all my personal experiences gathered during 35 years of working for others

It is not hard, if I can do it, anyone can do it!

Thank you!Suad Alhalwachi

Creating a better world where everyone works for a fee rather than

a SALARY