The Winning Process
Developed with Learnings from Citadel
The most important asset in any organization are the people. Recruiting the best, providing the best training, optimally motivating them and ultimately retaining them is the key to an organizations long-term success and viability.
Reading “Who” by Geoff Smart is a good place to start learning about implementing a leading edge recruiting process. Both Ken Griffin’s Citadel and Jamie Diamond are mentioned in the book as benefiting from the process.
Process for investment decisions, process for capital allocations, process for recruiting, process for promoting the team, process for risk management, process for business planning and Analyst coverage, etc…are hallmarks of the success I had at Citadel.
We developed processes for everything we did. We implemented it, analyzed it and improved it. We used data and technology to their fullest and were on the leading edge of implementing these resources to improve all the processes we engaged in.
The process is never stagnant, it is always being challenged and improved based on data and results.
Everything is measured and the data utilized to improve the process. Everyone is held accountable for their results. Employees are expected to be on the leading edge in their field and be the best. Asking for more responsibility is encouraged and rewarded. Team members are expected to train their replacements so that they can take on more responsibility and the organization thrives too. It is a culture of excellence and always being on the leading edge.
Outcomes (i.e. profit) are measured regularly and transparent throughout the organization. Competitive people want to win and thrive on competition, on being the best. Risk taking is encouraged. Refining the process is mandatory. Producers are rewarded with more responsibility while the next generation of super-stars are being recruited and trained.
People - Process - Profits