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YOUR CAREER GAME

Stanford University Press

Contents

Acknowledgments....................................................................................ixIntroduction.......................................................................................1Chapter 1 Your Career as a Game...................................................................7A Conversation with Charlene Begley, General Electric..............................................12A Conversation with Bryan Bell, Bain & Company.....................................................19A Conversation with Ursula Burns, Xerox............................................................25Chapter 2 Understanding Fundamental Game Theory Concepts..........................................33A Conversation with Stephen Elop, Microsoft........................................................52A Conversation with Tamara J. Erickson, Author and Consultant......................................59A Conversation with Pasha Fedorenko, Bain & Company................................................66Chapter 3 What You Need to Know to Play...........................................................73A Conversation with Ken Frazier, Merck.............................................................97A Conversation with Brian Heese, Cristo Rey New York High School...................................104A Conversation with Stephen Heese, Chris-Craft; Indian Motorcycle..................................110Chapter 4 Moves in the Career Game................................................................118A Conversation with Brian Humphries, Hewlett-Packard...............................................136A Conversation with Muhtar Kent, The Coca-Cola Company.............................................145A Conversation with Christopher W. Klaus, Kaneva...................................................151A Conversation with Marius Kloppers, BHP Billiton..................................................159Chapter 5 As You Move On: Building the Foundation for Your Successor..............................164A Conversation with Ted Mathas, New York Life......................................................178A Conversation with Liz McCartney, The St. Bernard Project.........................................186A Conversation with Dan Palumbo, Formerly with The Coca-Cola Company...............................192A Conversation with William D. Perez, Campbell Soup Company; Johnson & Johnson.....................200Chapter 6 Career Agility..........................................................................208A Conversation with Carol Tom, The Home Depot.....................................................219A Conversation with Alex Vanselow, BHP Billiton....................................................227A Conversation with Keith Wyche, Pitney Bowes......................................................234Conclusion.........................................................................................241Index..............................................................................................249

Chapter One

The indispensible first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want. Ben Stein

In the film A Beautiful Mind, Russell Crowe plays game theory pioneer John Nash. One scene from the film succinctly captures the essence of game theory and its implications for decision making. In the scene, Nash and his classmates are together in a bar when a group of five young women walk in-one blonde and four brunettes. The group-and particularly the blonde-quickly attracts the attention of Nash and his friends. Immediately, each classmate begins to plot his next move to win over the blonde. Nash has an epiphany of sorts: If each one independently attempts to maximize his personal outcome (which, in this scenario, involves pursuing the blonde), they will undoubtedly trip over one another and, in the end, no one will "win." He predicts that, by the time their mutual failures to win over the blonde become apparent, it will be too late to turn their energy to her friends-none of the brunettes will want to be second choice. This dilemma causes Nash to comment that Oliver Williamson's classical view-that through individuals acting in their own best interests, the best interests of the group are met-does not fit the situation. If each classmate acts in his own best interest, then they will all fail.

Instead, Nash understands the situation as one in which each individual's best move depends on the anticipated moves that other rational players can be expected to make. Understood this way, the best course of action for each individual is to recall the dynamic-espoused in the title of the 1953 movie-that "gentlemen prefer blondes." Knowing that your classmates are likely to pursue the blonde first, a more effective strategy would be for you to attend to one of the brunette friends. That way, you maximize your chance of winning the attention of one of the women. The critical observation here is the recognition that, in many situations, one individual's best move is often dependent on the anticipated moves of other players. Just as an understanding of game theory might help a college student understand how to win a date, we suggest that it can help you position yourself to have a successful career.

GAME THEORY IN OUR CULTURE

Game theory continues to be a popular topic; a 2005 Nobel prize was, once again, awarded to game theory scholars. It has been used to provide novel ways to look at wide-ranging phenomena including logistics, investing, marketing, human evolution, and terrorism. In popular culture, strategists have used game theory to outline a winning strategy in the spate of reality television shows (The Weakest Link, Survivor, and The Apprentice, for example). These shows share some important characteristics. First, individuals move on to the next round-or are eliminated-based largely on the votes of other contestants. Second, early-round success depends on the contributions of all players. In such contests, the winning strategy involves finding the delicate balance between moves that cause others to conclude that you are too weak to contribute to the group tasks and those that reveal you to be so strong as to be seen by other contestants as a final-round threat. Those who fail to achieve this balance and who appear to be "free riders" in the early rounds may not survive because others conclude that they cannot help the team with early wins. Those who tip their cards and reveal their strength too early will likely be eliminated by temporary alliances of other players.

Not surprisingly, examples of game theory applications abound in competitive sports. For example, the concept of a "moral hazard" is illustrated by the greater propensity for batters in the American League to be hit by pitches than their counterparts in the National League. In the American League, the rules do not require the pitcher to take a turn at bat. As a result, pitchers may not be concerned about experiencing retribution when they throw "at" rather than "to" batters. Anyone who has spent time watching football broadcasts has heard the ubiquitous comment from "color" analysts that a team "has to be able to run to set up the pass" or "has to be able to pass to set up the run."...