1. Corporate Politics and
Higher Education
Suad Alhalwachi
HPAIR Conference

2. • 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!

3. 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

4. What's next?

5. 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.

6. Examples of some of
the best companies to
work for

7. Intuit:
Intuit is a well-established, stable company that pays its
employees well.
Owen Thomas, Business Insider
Company Rating: 3.8
CEO 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."

8. Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies is a great company with a wide
range of products for employees to work on.
Company Rating: 3.8
CEO 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."

9. 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."

10. Apple:
Apple treats its employees well, but the culture can be competitive.
Company Rating: 3.9
CEO 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."

11. Akamai Technologies:
Akamai is billion-dollar Internet company with a start-up
mentality.
Company Rating: 4.1
CEO 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."

12. Some Interesting clips about Corporate
Politics
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JJv4TvUR
j4 Facebook politics
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIhxfUEVU
GA 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=OF78RZKy
ahw (and just for laughs The Proposal)

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

14. Examples of people who hated
their job?

15. • 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.

16. 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

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

18. What are your options?

19. • 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

20. • 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.

21. 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!

22. Thank you!
Suad Alhalwachi
Creating a better world where
everyone works for a fee rather than
a SALARY