Aztec Spotlight- Andy Esparza

Andy Esparza, SDSU Alum, former Chief Human Resources Officer for Dell Inc. and current CHRO for Baker Hughes visited my Management 352 class Thursday, and I thought, JACKPOT. This was my opportunity to put Collins' Good to Great questions to use, especially taking to consideration Andy's skills being transferable across industries. Could a CHRO be synonymous with a Level 5 Leader? Here’s what I got.

Helping change the Dell cultural dynamics was not an easy task. Andy's time at Dell was marked as the fastest growing tech company of the decade. So I posed the question, "How do you get the right people to be about a new culture (just not about $$$) when the industry sees that much growth and financial fluctuation? His response...

Get 3-5 big initiatives under your belt with long-term objectives in mind. Andy and the team did 360 analyses so that there was "no place to hide". Assessments focused on the individuals, managers, and even the CEO Michael S. Dell got on board. Andy admitted that yes people got kicked off the bus, but that wasn't the immediate decision. Training, coaching, and rewarding were techniques put in place to assist in this cultural dynamic change, but if an individual couldn't get on board, they were out.

I really liked that Andy mentioned that success had to be measured. In our event classes, so much of what we do requires MOS and this I made an immediate connection with. Because, "if you aren't moving forward, you're standing still."

My next question for Andy was about his transition from Dell to BHI and the skills, adaptation it took to make the successful transition.

Andy had not originally seen himself in the oil industry, however he said the company culture and the individuals he respected greatly and knew it was a team he wanted to be apart of. (situation + followers). He noted though that while the technology industry produced product turnover 5x that of the oil industry, he sensed that a better "pace" could be implemented at BHI. His interpretation of the pace also reflected the company culture; one of all coaching, no assessing, no rewarding, no off the bussing. I think this demonstrates the work horse in Andy and his task focused leadership style. I believe Andy identifies with the Transformational Leader though his progress at Dell and BHI. He emphasized the need for rewards (transactional) but also understood that reconstructing what already exists was valuable, taking what already exists and refortifying to be bigger and better.

Closing remarks from Andy focused on advice for those of us graduating, looking at career opportunities and where to find out niche.

• Have good academic performance; it demonstrates discipline and a value for education and learning.

• Gain work experience, it shows that you went out and wanted something. That you took opportunities to grow. It also demonstrates that you can be apart of a team.

• Leadership Experience that you can organize and make the hard decisions.

• Travel, have global exposure, study abroad because we live in an age where global transactions are the norm.