“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” is from the Bible (John 10:27), not Taking People With You, but I wouldn’t be surprised if David Novak had a plaque, with the line engraved on it, facing his table when he was writing this book. My mistake: Novak doesn’t believe plaques catch people’s attention.
When Novak wanted to give memorable recognition awards, he handed out floppy rubber chickens (he was president of KFC then) or huge pairs of smiling teeth mounted on a pair of skinny legs with big feet (as CEO of Yum! Brands, which runs KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell). He marvels at the motivational oasis created by his Dubai General Manager, who gave his people “Camel Awards”, and at the originality of his CFO in creating a “Show Me the Money Award” — a piggy bank stuffed with Monopoly money. Oh, what fun to be in a company where Novak is taking you with him! Novak proudly quotes a Chinese restaurant general manager being unable to show the smiling teeth award to a senior because “she had it at home locked in her father’s safe”. Don’t worry, Ying Ling, I won’t tell David what you actually did with the dazzling dentures.
Special pride of place is reserved for their HR director in India who “recognizes outstanding performers by giving them a replica of the Taj Mahal because the workers who built it are remembered for their passion, determination, and overall excellence”. Legend also remembers the craftsmen and artisans who built the Taj for having their hands cut off and their eyes taken out. Perish the mischievous minds who think these replicas are either tokens of Novak’s “hands off” attitude or intended as hints that the head shepherd must be followed “blindly”.
David Novak makes it a point to tell us he interviewed several management savants and stalwarts for Taking People With You. He appends what he calls his “cast of experts” at the end of the book and, with names like Warren Buffett, Jack Welch, Alan Mulally, Ken Blanchard and Noel Tichy, the list is indeed impressive. Unfortunately, Novak mainly uses them to fill distracting half- or quarter-page quotation boxes that pop up after every few pages in the book or the anecdotal arguments that litter (literally) the text. Their main messages seem to have been missed. For example, Jim Collins, who merits five references in the index, is the originator of the concept of Level 5 Leadership which he characterises as a combination of extreme personal humility with steely professional will. I searched for examples of the “compelling modesty” lesson Novak may have gleaned from Collins and came up with gems like “I’ve been the CEO of Yum! Brands for over ten years now and I’m proud to say they’ve been really good years for the company” and “I am probably best known within my organization for casting a shadow of recognition and positive energy”.
Novak has achieved a great deal in life and one can understand why he would prefer to blow his trumpet rather than a pan pipe while leading his flock. What is a little less forgivable is the manipulative manner in which he believes ewe and I should be led. One of his opening declarations is that “the core of my leadership success stems from my ability to think like a marketer”. This leads to spooky formulations like: “If you can accurately identify the people you need to make something happen and then get inside their heads, then you will have the best chance of convincing them to help you accomplish big things.”
Underneath all the talk of involvement lies the uncompromising need to get alignment with what the great leader has already decided. You could be forgiven for thinking the frontispiece is a crowd cheering on the occasion of Kim Jong-Il’s 60th birthday celebration. It is actually 2,000 restaurant general managers doing the Yum! cheer on the Great Wall of China. You could also shed a tiny tear for Javier Benito, chief marketing officer of KFC, who told Novak he was wrong. Our magnanimous author writes how he complimented Benito and adds: “I still thought he was wrong, of course, and I told him that, too….” Hopefully, Benito wised up, because Novak’s employee-as-customer bonhomie ends as soon as the employee betrays the persistent possession of a mind. So “if someone continues to be negative about your initiative … he or she needs to work someplace else”. Executions can also be used for demonstrative effect, and Novak boasts: “Whenever I go into a new leadership situation, I always look for the person that everybody wants fired and then I fire him.” I am sure this is considered justice in some consequentialist heaven.
Just a few weeks back, Sunita Narain warned us that eating too often at KFC would thicken our arteries. How much greater her contribution to public health would have been if the Centre for Science and Environment had measured what the book written by the CEO of the company that owns KFC does to the blood pressure of discerning readers.
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The reviewer is CEO, Banner Global Consulting
TAKING PEOPLE WITH YOU
The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen
David Novak
Portfolio/Penguin 2012
237 pages; $25.95