Randy Pohlman
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"The training began with a stringent hiring process that selected only a certain kind of employee. Koch Industries developed a four-part interview process that revolved around Charles Koch’s Ten Guiding Principles. Job candidates, many of them fresh out of college, were led through lengthy lists of questions that sought to determine if they would adhere to Koch’s principles. Only the select few were chosen. “You need diversity in certain ways,” explained Randy Pohlman, who directed Koch’s human resources division until the mid-1990s. “But if you’re Koch Industries, you don’t want people who don’t believe in free markets. They’re not going to be successful there. That’s not the kind of diversity you want. . . . If you’re going to start hiring every other person as a Socialist to have nice diversity—it’s not going to work,” Pohlman said. Once the free-market adherents were hired, Koch began training them immediately. The new hires were collected in groups and led down a long hallway in the basement of the Tower, to a large conference room where round tables were set up to accommodate them. Their training session began with a video address from Charles Koch, projected on a large screen. He laid out the central tenants of MBM, and emphasized the importance of learning the code. And after the video was finished, employees learned the specific codes and rules of this new way of thinking. They broke into small groups and ran through simulations where they put the principles into practice. The training sessions lasted roughly two days. Once employees were on the job, the culture and the vocabulary were reinforced daily in every meeting and conversation, to create a kind of deep muscle memory of the culture."
"The training began with a stringent hiring process that selected only a certain kind of employee. Koch Industries developed a four-part interview process that revolved around Charles Koch’s Ten Guiding Principles. Job candidates, many of them fresh out of college, were led through lengthy lists of questions that sought to determine if they would adhere to Koch’s principles. Only the select few were chosen. “You need diversity in certain ways,” explained Randy Pohlman, who directed Koch’s human resources division until the mid-1990s. “But if you’re Koch Industries, you don’t want people who don’t believe in free markets. They’re not going to be successful there. That’s not the kind of diversity you want. . . . If you’re going to start hiring every other person as a Socialist to have nice diversity—it’s not going to work,” Pohlman said. Once the free-market adherents were hired, Koch began training them immediately. The new hires were collected in groups and led down a long hallway in the basement of the Tower, to a large conference room where round tables were set up to accommodate them. Their training session began with a video address from Charles Koch, projected on a large screen. He laid out the central tenants of MBM, and emphasized the importance of learning the code. And after the video was finished, employees learned the specific codes and rules of this new way of thinking. They broke into small groups and ran through simulations where they put the principles into practice. The training sessions lasted roughly two days. Once employees were on the job, the culture and the vocabulary were reinforced daily in every meeting and conversation, to create a kind of deep muscle memory of the culture."