HR Change Experts

Martha J. Watson
HR director, Minnesota Department of Human Services, St. Paul, Minnesota
Industry: state government agency
Number of employees: 7,000
Minnesota state government’s changing business: “We have three areas of change: 1) Welfare and health-care reform in Minnesota coming at the federal level; 2) Downsizing due to deinstitutionalization of developmentally disabled clients; 3) Changing the emphasis of human resources management (and the perception of HR management) to organizational development and internal consulting to better meet customer needs.”

Walter M. Oliver
Senior vice president human resources, Ameritech, Chicago, Illinois
Industry: Communications
Number of employees: 62,000
Ameritech’s changing business: “In the past three years, Ameritech has gone from a sleepy, bureaucratic company to a nimble, market-driven global communications company. We accomplished this by restructuring the company on several fronts: legislative and regulatory environments, culture and structure. We tapped new leadership and recruited new people. We compressed management layers. We pushed for those closest to customers to drive major company decisions. We outsourced and trimmed our workforce. We reorganized and consolidated. And the change continues.”

Kelly Ritchie
VP of employee services, Lands’ End, Dodgeville, Wisconsin
Industry: International direct merchant of clothing and sewn goods
Number of employees: 6,000
Lands’ End’s changing business: “Generally, we’re focused on making sure that we always provide the best quality products at the highest level of service and backing that with a guarantee as we continue to build our business both in the United States and abroad.”

Joan E. Farrell
HR manager, Lawson Mardon Label (part of Lawson Mardon Packaging, a division of Alusuisse-Lonza Holding Ltd.), Fayetteville, New York.
Industry: Consumer products packaging for food, health care, cosmetics and tobacco
Number of employees: 15,000
Lawson Mardon’s changing business: “Consumer products packaging is a volatile industry which has become more and more driven by speed to market, not only for existing products but also for new initiatives. Operationally, run lengths are shorter and SKUs have proliferated. To deliver successfully in this marketplace, companies must have highly flexible, customer-focused, technically competent employees who are empowered to take the necessary steps to deliver what customers want, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Coleman H. Peterson
Senior VP, people division, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Industry: Discount retail stores and combined grocery operations
Number of employees: 670,000
Wal-Mart’s changing business: “Wal-Mart is changing in many ways. These changes are driven by domestic and global geographic expansion, technology and information improvements and the changing expectations of our customers. These external realities require us, internally, to change in response—from how we set our strategic objective to how we prepare our associates to serve the customer.”