1. Paris, France. May 22, 2011(links updated 17 March 2013)
DearFellow LinkedIn Discussion Group Member,
I wanted to thank you for accepting my invitation to be connected on LinkedIn.
My objective in reaching out to you is to share the fruit of 24 months of independent research on
employee engagement– How to engage a global corporate workforce! - that I have completed
and which I feel offers a good global & cross-culturalstarting point for a “new way forward” for
individuals like you and I wanting to lead organizations and develop employee potential in order to
succeedin today’s emerging post-crisis&global environment and economy. Together we can
reflect upon building a new global mindset.
As a starting point for reflection I suggest the following article about how the changes Harvard
Business School’s MBA programrecently announcedwere largely informed by research that
resulted in the 2010 book “Rethinking the MBA:Business Education at a Crossroads ”by HBS
professors Srikant M. Datar, David A. Garvin, and research associate Patrick G. Cullen
There is no catch; you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to – I am just sharing my research
with you by putting it at your “virtual” disposal for consultation whenever you desire. As I move
forward I will keep you posted and continue to personally inform you of progress made as my idea
moves forward.
As well as you, I invited various other members from the following discussion groups that I am a
member of, to be “LinkedIn”:
Eurodisney Opening Crew 1992
CEO Dilemma & HR Dilemma
Bilingual Professionals (French/English)
EAPT (European Association of Psychological Type)
Global Leader 2.0;
Human Resource IQ
MBTI Professionals
Corporate University and Learning & Development
Old Stamfordians;
HR Professionals
Workplace Learning & Performance
Sociocracy;
International Coaching Network
MBTI - Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment
L’Observatoire des Tendances
Organization and Development Network
Top linked HR Professionals
Chief Learning Officer Magazine;
Learning & Development Professionals Club
Connecting Retail HR
Disney
Walt Disney Company Alumni
France Business & Professional Network
Learning & Development Professionals
RH Info;
BsC Network
Linked
HR;
Employee Engagement Emporium
HR & Talent Management Executive
Theme Park Professionals;
Best of HBR
Membres de l’ANDRH
LinkedIn HR
Think Tank;
Bootstrap Consulting Network (BSC)
Star Performers career
network
Strategic business transformations & change management
Employee Engagement & organizational culture professionals
Sigma Chi International Fraternity
To date over 2000+ group membershave accepted my invitation. Along with my own personal
connections this network of 2700+professionals’ gives direct access to 1.2%+ of the entire
LinkedIn network,has members in over 85+ countries and what’s more, our contacts give us the
possibility to accessan additional16.7%+of the networks 100+ million users.
My quest and research started two years ago, in March 2009. In January 2009 as the Director of
Mobility, Communication and Learning for the Hertz Corporations post-transformation global
Customer Experience Program my brief was to integrate both the Human Resources Centre of
Excellence& Employer of Choice branding initiativesand theGlobal Customer Experience

2. Brandinginitiatives in order to engage a corporation in a new global customer experienceknown
internally as “Love Hertz”- a best in class experience for all involved.
However, when the Hertz Corporationlaid off 4000 employees worldwidein January 2009and just 3
months after the program was launched, I along with 3999 others from around the globewas
literally whipped out to sea by the brewing global economic crisis.Remaining both inspired and
motivated by theCustomer Experience Vision championed by Hertzthat I had been so inspired by,
I decided to continue to work on employee engagementin what has become along sabbatical that
has allowed me to turn my 2009 employee engagement visioninto a concept that I have baptized
Human Sigma Made in France; a concept largely inspired by Professor John Fleming&Human
Sigma.
The building of my concept started back in May 2009 on Facebook following my return to France
after having being certified in the Interstrength Method with Dr. Linda Berensand her team in
Huntington Beach, CA. I have been fortunate enough to engage over 1000+ of my former friends
and colleagues from the Walt Disney Company, Truffaut,Photo Serviceand the Hertz
Corporation, in the evolution of my thinking and consequent realization of my vision and work
over the last two yearson Face book&The “building ofHuman Sigma Made in France”.
Presented as an animated video with written comments, Human Sigma Made in France, uses
modern technology to bring to life the culmination of different lessons learned from the various
work experiences I’ve had across the worldand in very different companiesand cultures.
My reason for sharing is twofold; firstly I want to share the passion for human resources, employee
engagement & storytelling that I learned from my 13 years of with the Walt Disney Companywith
the magic of Pixie Dustboth in the USand in Francewhere I was responsible for the building of the
Disney Paradeback in the early 1990’s; secondly, I wanted to share with you the findings of my
work and the concept that I have come up with that I have baptized, Human Sigma Made in
Franceas well as those at the source of the various ideas and approaches that I have closely
studied and integrated into my concept “Human Sigma Made in France”.
The “Magic Ingredients” used to inspire“Human Sigma Made in France”:
 Holacracy– HolacracyOne
 Dr. Linda V. Beren’s&The Interstrength Method
 IGMParteners -Integral Governance Institute
 TheMBTI tool and Jungian psychology
 DanAriely&Behavioral Economics
 Daniel Pink and his best-seller “A Whole New Mind”
Daniel Pink’s new bestseller “DRIVE”
Dennis Snow’s bestseller,“Lessons from the Mouse”
Lee Cockerell’s bestseller, “Creating Magic”
Graham Keen and behavioural cultural change
Dario Nardi’sPersonality Types I-Phone application
The path to peak performanceHBR Video
Crossknowledge (E-Learning)

3. Human Sigma Made in France also integrates the many lessons learned from The Hertz
Corporationwhere the balanced scorecard and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or MBTIwere used in
Europe as a potent means of bettering cross-cultural communication, self understanding and
teamwork. The MBTIwas introduced in Hertz France as an engaging wayof accompanying the
transformation of a non-English speaking corporate culture; a transformation orchestrated globally
by the Hertz Corporation, headquartered in Park Ridge, New York, USA.
Human Sigma Made in France uses storytelling skillsto integrate the balanced scorecard
conceptand new 21st Century Corporate Vision, Mission and Value statements and employs Linda
Beren’sInterstrength Methodto provide the “self discovery process” &interaction dynamics
necessary to unanimously engage and integrate stakeholders into a constant employee/customer
process of “live learning”- an experience often referred to as the reality of our daily lives or more
rationally as the day to day in and outs of “Customer Experience” & “Work life”.Type theory (MBTI
tool or other)provides the link into Linda Berens 5 satellite self discovery process. Incidentally, this
is the same work life that employee engagement research informs us that “the actors” are
screaming out to be a part of and that requires managers at all levels to become skilled
storytellers. An article I wrote for a recent International Newsletter for Portfolio International will
give you further information on this subject.
There are some very interesting new paradigms being proposed around the world by different
schools of thought that address the change that is needed in how we can run our companies
(governance) in the emerging, post-crisis “new global economy”. Remember what Thomas
Friedman said about Globalization 3.0 (which started with the millennium bug) in his book “The
World is Flat? Tom said that Globalization 3.0 is all about “the individual” - individuals can for the
first time ever sell their skills and achievements and work anywhere in the world by engaging
themselves with whomever they want and all by creating a win-win situation for all involved.
Human Sigma Made in France is my vision and my ideas that I offer as a starting point for some
form of global discussion amongst a broad representation of Group Members or stakeholders .
We all have thousands of experiences that can provide the foundation for stories that help
perpetuate an idea, concept, or culture. You simply have to think about those things that have had
an impact on you, a customer, or an employee. I am saying that it is important for you to become a
good storyteller;however, good storytellers were poor storytellers first. Good storytellers got to be
good by telling stories. That's really the only way to get good at it.
I can tell you that a good story for business has three components: the setup, the story itself, and
the point. The setup tells the listener why you are telling the story. The setup doesn't give away the
ending, but it lets the listener know that the story is about having fun, or the importance of
providing good service, etc. The story itself is exactly that and it will get better each time you tell it.
The point tells the listener about the lesson the story illustrates & provides the foundation for a
discussion on methods for maintaining the dignity of an employee while taking corrective
action.How Coca-Cola’s CEO &Chief Storyteller sees 2011 at Davos.
Human Sigma Made in France assures the integration of people (employee and customer
experience) and internal processes by engaging them in corporate strategy which is rolled out in
real-time as a storyusing the balanced scorecard as the guiding light.
The Art and Skill of Storytelling.………….…Once upon a timeon the 14 September
2005, a car rental company changed forever when the Ford Motor Company confirmed its intent to
sell its Hertz rental car subsidiary to a group of private investors in a deal valued at €15 billion
($US 19 billion). The sale made was one of the largest ever to a group of equity firms and allowed
Ford to cash in on one of its most valuable assets as it faced falling profits in its manufacturing
operations. Ford received $US 5.6 billion in cash for Hertz which was at the time the largest car
rental company in the US as well as being the only global car rental company.

4. This sale put Hertz, a company that had been owned by public corporations for much of its 87 year
history, under the control of three private equity investment firms: Clayton Dubilier& Rice, the
Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity. To finance the deal, the investors used
$US 2.3 billion in cash and assumed the remaining amount as debt.
TodayHertzis a 90+-year old company with a rich legacy of industry leadership and service and
with a “new mission” to be the most efficient, high quality, customer focused company in
the rental markets the company serves and moves into. In support of this mission, the
company has undergone a 3+year worldwide reorganization program (which commenced at the
beginning of 2007) in order to operate more efficiently, as well as further improve customer service
and employee satisfaction.
As part of the overall global reorganization of Hertz that followed, departmental functions were
transformed into global centers of excellence, whereas previously the functions operated on a
country or US or other regional basis. The HR function is a key example of this initiative.
Previously, the HR teams in each of Hertz's company owned (corporate) countries had previously
operated fairly autonomously, each with country-driven approaches to their own markets, and with
RAC and HERC teams operating separately. Now, however, as a result of the reorganization of
the global HR function, all HR employees from all countries across both RAC and HERC are part
of one global HR team, which is organized into closely linked, pan geographic HR disciplines.
In December 2006, Hertz’s new CEO Mark FRISSORA (appointed July 2006), communicatedby
global webcastto all Hertz employees worldwidenew corporate Vision, Mission and Valuesas well
as the corporate objective of becoming a best-in-class Corporation and the employer of choice in
the global car rental industry. Marching orders were clearly given to transform the Corporation into
an "Employer of Choice" in order to both attract and retain the best talent in the industry. Hertz
consequently implemented on a global scale, a number of far-reaching initiatives to develop the
company as a ' best in class' employer, and carefully measured employee views of progress
through bi-annual employee pulse surveys. Furthermore, a specialist task force within the HR
group completed a Global Employee Retention Project to address seven key areas relating to
employee retention: Attracting new employees; Recruiting new employees; Integrating new
employees; Rewarding employees; Growth & Career Opportunities; Managing & Engaging
employees and Separating from employees.
These corporate initiatives were linked into local (France country level) negotiations concerning a
3 year (rolling) agreement on Human Resource Planning known as the GPEC or
GestionPrévisionnelle des Compétenceset des emplois. The notion of competence becomes the
central theme of employee development. These negotiations started with a presentation of both
Corporate & European strategy to Hertz Frances’ Elected Employee Union Representatives. See
Examples A&B. In France there is a legal obligation written into the work code that obligates
companies in both the private and public sector, to spend the equivalent of 1.6% of the sum of
year N-1’s total salary cost – if a company fails to invest this reference sum, it must pay the
difference to the FR. Government. Thus the training plan is the backbone of an accord GPEC.
The agreement (accord)oncecompleted is co-signed by the Work Council with the support of
theemployee union representatives and HR, and is intended to provide the proper career and skills
framework around which policies for recruitment, technical and soft skill training, career
management etc. are constructed and implemented in a collective fashion and where all HRM
issues, staff, jobs and skills (existing and needed) become the focus of a forward-looking
vision.This obligation is part of the French Labor Code since 2005. See IBM,Schneider
Electric&Peugeot Citroenexamples of the kind of “accord” or agreement signed by three multinationals. This is a great system, well built and an intuitive method for preparing today’s workforce
competencies and skillsfor the exigencies of tomorrow and thus merits close examination.

5. I was very fortunate to have been part of this incredible Corporate and HR Transformational
process, as Hertz France’s Training & Development Director and as one of two Pulse coordinators
(employee satisfaction) for Hertz France and finally as the Global Customer Experience’s
employee engagement gurucharged with masterminding the new “Love Hertz” experience. Using
the balanced scorecard conceptand new Corporate vision, Mission and Value statementsto lead,
guide and inspire local workforces our objective was to create one common identity for the global
customer experience program; a common identity closely aligned with the overall identity of the
global organization: an identity, Love Hertz, which helped convey to both internal and external
audiences worldwide that Hertz is indeed an exciting and rewarding company to work for.
Measure 2011 – read the transcript of Hertz Global Holdingsconference call and CEO Mark
Frissora’s comments at recent presentation of Hertz Global Holdings 2010 and 4th quarter results
in February 2011.
This experience nourished the building of my new Human Sigma Made in France storytelling
concept that I am honored to share for with you and other group members as a starting point for
discussing together globally a “new way forward”as to just how corporate governance and
employee engagement are integrated into real-time operations in order to drive discretionary effort
and employee “best place to work” initiatives; all by creating win-win experiences kindled by the
intrinsic motivation of all involved.
My approach to answer the question as to“just how does one actually engage a global
workforce”? was guided by the Research on "Best in Class" Customer Experiences performed
across several different industries - a study commissioned by the London Business School
Summer School 2008 for Hertz; storytelling was the methodology that was to be used to integrate
the customer and employee into one experience; a concept known as Human Sigma as presented
by Professor John Fleming of the Gallup Organization is his book Human Sigma. The Gallup
Organizations work on Behavioral Economics was also a key business approachthat inspired my
concept Human Sigma made in France.
The desired final state (modeled after the Hertz Corporations 2005-2009transformation) was a
new and transformed agile and global organization that had metamorphosed itself into a "Best in
Class Company" and an "Employer of Choice" both on the inside and the outside.We are Hertz,
they’re not– a company where the engagement, sheer passion and incredible storytelling skills
demonstrated by employees all around the world, fuels discretionary effort and engages a “global
workforce” in the constant and often mundane process that can be everyday life…….a true
example of doing more with less by creating a win-win situation for all involved. As said David
Wasserman, a partner at Clayton who negotiated the terms of the sale of the Hertz Rental Car
Company with Ford back in 2005: “I think there’s no doubt at the end of the day that this was a
win-win-win transaction. It demonstrates the power of private equity in helping corporations
restructure their balance sheets”.
Thank you for taking the time to read this mail and to look at my presentation. If your interest is
sparked and you desire to learn more please visit my LinkedIn Profile Page where different
aspects of my concept are presented along with my credentials
I look forward to engaging you in further discussion and exchanging with you at a future date.Best
regards and warmest greetings from Paris!
Simon PENNY
My original vision.