Lesson from Philips on use of personality to pair staff

Human resource analysts speak of diverse personality as good for the workplace. However, in many organisations, that’s as far as it gets, according to various narrations about the topic.

Few managers, it is generally argued, make deliberate effort to manage diversity with productivity in mind.

If they were to do so, it would be about taking the trouble to study, understand and strictly match personalities with job responsibilities.

Many times this is left to chance. Fredrick Philips didn’t, and he reaped big.

The productivity story about the company he founded, Philips – now a global brand in electronic, electrical, and health care equipment – is majorly about good placement and pairing of personality.

Right from the very start, Mr Philips used two extreme personalities to grow Philips from its base in a small town in the Netherlands to a giant company that by 2013, directly employed 101,800 people and had amassed €22.6 billion (Sh2.6 trillion).

His two sons, Anton and Gerrard, credited for putting the company firmly on a growth path that is responsible for its current status, were polar opposites, a reality that would otherwise pose nightmarish management experiences for many bosses.

The story illustrates the positive results birthed when managers learn how to combine extreme personalities to maximise productivity at the workplace.

Anton, the youngest of the Philips brothers, loved to party. He didn’t particularly secure good grades in school, but he had this huge ambition to make it big and travel around the world.

As an outgoing outdoorsy person, Anton was the textbook example of the people person or the ultimate ‘boredom buster’, a personality trait that psychologists refer to as sanguine.

His father, Mr Philips, took note and invited his participation in the company by allowing him to travel and enjoy the company of people as much as he wanted, and be paid for it as a sales person.

In 1895, Anton went to Russia on his first trip out of the small Eindhoven town and sold a whopping 50,000 bulbs.

Given his personality, Anton was very communicative and found it easy to make friends with potential clients.

His people skills helped him to introduce and sell Philips products even in unlikely territories.

Anton would grow to head the company’s marketing department.

Great were the sales earned in his name that the company secured its public listing in 1912.

Anton’s elder brother, Gerrard, on the other hand, was a thorough academic who poured all his time and energy onto his engineering career.

The devotion made him steer innovation at Philips. He is responsible for having created the innovative culture that steered the company to its present state.

As Anton basked in the glory of his business trips, Gerrard with the personality trait of judging everything deeply, stayed locked up in the Philips little lab in Eindhoven, perfecting his innovations. He didn’t have to worry about sales, as that was well taken care of by Anton.

The roles of the two brothers became so mutually beneficial that the company could only grow. Gerrard focused on product quality, which made Anton’s job a lot easier.

The Philips Museum in Eindhoven archives Gerrard’s meticulous notes and neatly written journals, in which he recorded even the tiniest of observations of the bulbs he designed. It was important for him to leave behind the knowledge of his innovations for generations that would follow.

Unlike his boisterous brother Anton, Gerrard drew his strength from being alone in the lab doing research to perfect the bulb, aware of competitor companies such as America’s General Electric and Germany’s Osram.

Because of the patience and the perseverance that Gerrard invested in research, and because he left behind notes of his observations, Philips lighting bulb morphed gradually; from the energy consuming carbon filament in 1897, to low voltage florescent lamp in 1940, and now to the Light Emitting Diodes (LED) lighting system that is said to cut energy consumption by almost 60 per cent and lasts up to 20,000 hours.

It is argued that the tact and finesse with which Fredrick Philips handled his sons was not an innate gift but a product of his socially minded approach to business, which left an open communication between him and his employees. That allowed him to understand what motivated them.

In 1891, when class issue was at peak, Mr Philips freely interacted with his workers, paying them even when they were sick, building them social amenities such as school and houses.

That practice was copied and spread across Dutch companies. many of those that run flower farms in Kenya, for example, show it.