Take the Step
Leadership is not bestowed, it is earned.
For eight years between 1997 and 2005, I worked with high school age youth who were on probation. The first three summers we took a group of 40 students to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff to participate in a challenge course experience. The NAU Challenge Course taught me that a person can learn much about themselves when put in a stressful and frightening situation. I came to believe that our community needed access to this training and in 2000, as the Dean of Continuing Education at Mohave Community College, I oversaw the design and construction of a five acre, 24 element Challenge Course on the Mohave campus in Kingman, Arizona.
In addition to overseeing the design and construction of the new Challenge Course, I was also responsible for assembling and training a Challenge Course faculty team. I recruited ten team members, many of whom were K-12 teachers and personal friends and several who had experienced a Challenge Courses previously. They saw the value of what I was trying to do and were interested in working, teaching and coaching in this environment.
Coming Together
The entire challenge course, which took 7 weeks to construct, was built using 50 and 60 foot telephone poles. It consisted of a 60 foot climbing wall, a rappelling tower, giant swings, balance beams, a leap-of-faith, 350 foot zip line and a wide variety of other high wire elements. All components designed to get and hold your attention. During the construction, the newly assembled team often came to the campus at the end of the day just to see how the course was developing. We were all new to this; many of us had experienced a challenge course as participants, but the idea of becoming trained facilitators was new to most of us. We all looked forward to the training and the opportunity to work on the new course, but we did not know what we had actually signed on for––that is until the training began.
Wake Up Call
The college had contracted with Kennerly DeForest , CEO of Challenge Works, to build the course and provide training to our Challenge Course faculty. Right off the bat, Kennerly wanted to weed out the men from the boys; he began our 2 weeks of certification training with an equipment rescue. Picture two 60 foot telephone poles, 40 feet apart. Connecting the poles is a half-inch steel cable. On the cable, half-way between each pole is a pulley, which should have a rope threaded through it; however, for the exercise, the rope was removed and we were expected to rethread the rope through this pulley by hand. We put on our climbing gear, received last minute instructions and the fun began. Kennerly asked, “Who’s first?”
The idea of building the challenge course had been mine. I had worked with the foundation to raise the funds, designed the course, hired the contractors and supervised the construction. In addition, I had also recruited and hired the faculty. Up to that point I had been the assumed leader, but at that second it became clear to me that if I wanted to remain the leader now, I had to act like one. I volunteered to go first and the members of my team were glad to let me. They were more than happy to support me from the safety of the ground.
Climbing that pole was the scariest thing I have ever done; with each step as I went higher and higher, the pole began to sway. At the 40 foot mark I thought the pole was going fall over––at the 50 foot mark I began to swear and my talk was very bad! I remember thinking, “What in the hell am I doing up here? I am 40 years old and I don’t need this!” I used many expletives that have been omitted. I remember telling myself, “I should just stop right now and go back down before I killed myself.” Then I looked down to the ground and saw that my entire team was watching and I realized then, scared and 50 feet in the air, that if I failed, I didn’t fail just me, I failed the entire team. They needed to see me succeed because they were trying to deal with their own personal fears.
I continued to climb. When I hit the 60 foot mark at the top of the pole it was swaying so much I thought I would be thrown off. I was hanging on for dear life, scared out of my mind and swearing like a sailor to myself. All I wanted to do was hold on to the pole, but the activity required that I connect my carabineer to the steel cable, let go of the pole and slide to the middle of the cable, some 20 feet, and thread the pulley with the rope I had carried up with me. As I was suspended from a steel cable 60 feet above the ground, swinging side to side and bouncing up and down, truly believing I was going to die, I remember saying to myself, “this is a bunch of bull.” I threaded the pulley and pulled myself back to the pole. What surprised me at his point is that the pole no longer felt like it was swaying; instead it felt rock solid and I was glad to be reattached to it once more. Using the crab claws, I climbed down the pole and felt the solidness of the ground in a whole new way. After disconnecting from the element, it was high fives around, and everyone else took a turn as we cheered them on from below.
Years Later
We were all together at a Christmas party and were reminiscing about this experience. This single activity turned out to be the seminal point in the formation of the group. We all had the same fears, we all faced the same physical challenge, and we all put the needs of the group above our own and acted accordingly. We all chose to face and overcome our fears because no one could face the thought of being excluded. I remember Jim Crawford saying, “Joe, when I saw you get to the top I knew that I had to.”
Lessons Learned
Real leadership is not about doing what you already know; doing what is comfortable and familiar. Leadership is about having the courage to take that step of faith into the unknown so others have the courage to join you on the journey.
If you have an example of a time you faced you fears down, I would like to hear about it.
A Kodak Moment
“When a great team loses through complacency, it will constantly search for new and more intricate ways to explain away defeat.” Pat Riley
On January 19, 2012 Kodak filed for bankruptcy. Perhaps you have heard about this event recently on the TV, radio or in the newspaper. It was a relatively big news event; however, of even greater importance than the actual filings of the bankruptcy papers are the events leading up to the end.
Background
In 1934 Eastman Kodak introduced to the world the first Baby Brownie Camera and with it they became the leaders in the manufacturing of camera film.
Kodak cornered the market as leaders in the manufacturing of film for millions of Americans who became obsessed with personal photography overnight and for the motion picture film industry. For decades Kodak was the exclusive provider of motion picture film.
As recently as 1997, shares of Kodak stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange for 93 dollars per share. In 2012, those same shares traded for a mere 63cents. In 1996, Kodak’s annual revenue was 15.97 billion dollars. In 1996, 15.97 billion dollars was a lot of money, so much in fact that it was difficult to imagine a company of that size ever failing. In the early 80’s Fujifilm, a Japanese film manufacturing company, decided to challenge Kodak for a piece of the film market. Fuji took over the market for two reasons. First, Fuji offered the same high quality film product at a lower price and second, Kodak did not take the new upstart Fuji seriously believing instead, that U.S. consumers would remain brand loyal regardless of the price. They were wrong on both counts.
When Kodak filed for bankruptcy on January 19, 2012, its accounting showed the company 6.75 billion dollars in debt, a bad financial position for sure, considering its annual revenue had declined from nearly 16 billion in 1997 to 5.1 billion in 2012; a steady 11 billion decline over 15 years.
Eastman Kodak invented the first digital camera, yet it was never able to position the company to dominate the industry with the very technology it invented. Why? What can we learn from that failure?
Lesson Learned
Eastman Kodak could never embrace its new future because it could never let go of its past. Even though it invented the first digital camera, Kodak always viewed itself primarily as a manufacturer of film, a tragic misstep at a time when the world was going digital. To help right the floundering company in 2003, Kodak hired Antonio Perez, a Vice-President from Hewlett Packard with 23 years of experience overseeing HP’s digital imagining initiatives. Interestingly enough, when Perez took over, rather than positioned Kodak to be the industry leaders in the digital imaging technology Kodak invented, he shifted the focus of the company to printer cartridges, an area in which he had experience as an HP executive. It was the last straw for a camel already on life support.
Kodak leadership didn’t have the courage or ability to:
- Let go of their old vision so they could create a new vision.
- Let go of antiquated technology so they could embrace cutting edge technology.
- Let go of past success so they could achieve new heights.
- Let go of what was holding them back so they could move forward.
Here was a company that was steadily declining over a fifteen year period, losing market share, experiencing declining revenue and experiencing massive layoffs. Kodak has laid off more than 47,000 employees since 2003, and through it all, the company’s leadership was more comfortable holding onto the helm of a sinking ship than they were willing to adapt to change.
Change or Die
Kodak teaches us one very important lesson, times change and businesses that intend to be in business tomorrow had better change with them. Gone are the days when leadership dictates to the consumers, not only do people want to buy Fords, they want to purchase them in a wide variety of colors–– if one car company doesn’t accommodate that need then the competition will.
Now would be a good time to stop and take a hard look at various aspects of your organization.
- Identify those things that are holding you back.
- Identify those processes that are no longer working.
- Identify new business opportunities.
- Identify potential new partnerships.
- Identify new revenue sources.
- Most importantly, identify what you need to discard to take advantage of new opportunities.
I enjoy hiring new people because they make an organization better. They come in with a new set of eyes and see things differently. We encourage every employee to ask a lot of questions, because we realize if we don’t have a good reason for doing what we do, we probably need to change.
There are no road maps for success and even if there were, who would want to go down a beaten path?
If you ever worked for a company that excelled in reinventing itself, I would like to hear about it.
An E-Ticket Ride
Disneyland
When Disneyland opened its doors to the public in 1955, customers were required to present a ticket to board any of the amusement park rides. Park guests purchased a ‘value book” consisting of A, B and C coupons; D coupons were added in 1956 and E coupons were added in 1959. An E-ticket gained the bearer admission to premiere rides such as Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, the Haunted Manson, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Enchanted Tiki Room. I first experienced Disneyland in 1965 at the ripe old age of 6. I still remember two rides very well, the Matterhorn, which absolutely scared me to death as I had never before been on a roller coaster, and the Enchanted Tiki Room, sponsored at the time by Dole. I stared in awe as the birds around me sang and talked and was absolutely amazed when the totem pole I was sitting beside suddenly opened its eyes and started speaking; it was simply incredible. I have never forgotten what it means to experience an E-ticket ride; E-tickets provided the ultimate experience.
The important thing about E-tickets and value books was that each value book had a specific number of A, B, C, D and E tickets. You had to choose carefully. When you ran out of E-tickets, you no longer had access to the E-ticket rides, which relegated you to Peter Pan, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Dumbo or the Tea Cups; all interesting, but no match for Pirates of the Caribbean. When Disney guests were required to purchase value books, having a great Disneyland experiencing was all about choosing correctly.
Many Choices
In today’s ever-shrinking global economy, consumers have more choices than ever before. There is a lot of noise in the market place and the key to distinguishing your business from the competition is in knowing how to delivering an E-Ticket experience rather than the D-Ticket ride they experience all too often.
Air travel in the U.S. today is a prime example. It is frequently anything but fun and exciting. More and more just the process of getting through security makes traveling feel like an endurance contest. It starts with arrival at the airport 2 hours early to make it through security in time for your flight. Once in the security lines, the traveler slowly moves to the first TSA agent who scans boarding passes and personal identification. These agents may or may not actually look at you; they may ask you a question or ignore you completely before returning your boarding pass and ID so you can continue on to the strip search portion of the security screening process. Some lucky passengers are patted down, some have the content of their bags emptied, and some are wanded, while even luckier travelers get a free dose of radiation in a full body imaging experience. The culmination of this extensive and obtrusive security clearance process ends when the customers collect their belongings and get dressed. The sad part of it all is that too many people have come to accept less than an E-ticket experience. Bad business practices are not limited to TSA, although the TSA seems to have perfected the experience.
Others are catching up. Additional examples to consider are:
- Automated phone systems that send the caller in to a never ending list of options leading to oblivion.
- Messages taken that are never returned.
- Sales people who have no idea where anything is.
- Rain-checks that are never honored.
- Computer systems that keep crashing.
- Rude, frustrated, poorly trained, (if trained at all) employees at all levels.
- Unresponsive disinterested employees who simply go through the motions to get through a day.
An E-Ticket Experience.
If you want to distinguish your business from the competition, commit to delivering an E-Ticket experience to every person who comes in contact with your business. To do this, start by interacting with your business as if you were a customer.
- Call your own company to learn how the phone is answered.
- Walk through the doors to see how you are greeted.
- Send an e-mail to discover what type of response you receive.
- Purchase your own product face-to-face or on the web and see what it is like.
- Leave a message for a specific individual requesting that they call you back.
- Request an information packet and see what you get, or if you even get one.
- Pay attention to how you are treated.
- Decide if the information you were given is correct and accurate.
If, during this exercise, you discover that the actual performance of your business does not meet your expectations, then you are not delivering the E-Ticket experience you thought you were. Now would be a great time to fix any problems or issues you have identified. The best time to fix the problem is when you recognize it.
If you ever worked for a company that always delivered an E-ticket ride, I would like to hear about it.
New Leadership Roles
“You have to enable and empower people to make decisions independent of you. As I’ve learned, each person on a team is an extension of your leadership; if they feel empowered by you, they will magnify your power to lead. Trust is a great force multiplier.”
Tom Ridge
Traditional Management
Thinking of manufacturing and assembly line production conjures up such images as Henry Ford’s early motor company with model T’s rolling off the assembly line, Pittsburg and Bethlehem Steel at full production, the U.S. Naval yards manufacturing World War II liberty ships, or my personal favorite, the Schlitz Brewery in downtown Milwaukee bottling thousands of gallons of beer daily.
Heading up these and similar bastions of industry were such industrial giants as Henry Ford, Charles M. Schwab, Joseph Wharton, Henry J. Kaiser and Joseph Schlitz. While leading industry is certainly never an easy task, these men had one significant advantage in their time over industrial leaders of today. They had a clearer understanding and agreement by all parties concerning their roles as leaders.
In the early twentieth century, U.S. industry operated under Taylorism, a term nearly synonymous with Scientific Management, where the responsibilities of management were planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. From 1910 through 1960, the roles of leadership and labor in business and industry could be defined as management responsible for all the thinking and labor responsible for all the lifting. It was a simple delineation of job responsibilities that worked––at the time. The problem is that times have changed, but understanding of what it means to lead a highly-educated workforce in this new economy has not.
New Keepers of Knowledge
2012 poses a new set of challenges for leadership in both public and private sectors. The challenge facing traditional leadership roles is that management is no longer the exclusive keeper of knowledge. This blurs traditional white collar and blue collar roles and responsibilities.
Rather than assuming an all-knowing, omnipotent role for the organization, leadership will need to embrace a new support role by assuring everyone has resources to advance the growth and financial success of the organization. The process of fostering highly effective and productive organizations is accomplished by implementing and of fostering three essential ideas.
1. Every member of an organization must think like an entrepreneur.
Every ounce of intellectual capital in the organization must be harnessed and trained to identify new opportunities, to grow new product lines, to increase operational efficiency and profitability. Being entrepreneurial means taking ownership of all facets of the organization and with ownership comes the expectation of meaningful contribution at all levels. (This eliminates the traditional practice that only managers speak with managers or only people with titles make any decisions.)
2. Every member of an organization must be fully engaged.
There must be an organizational structure in which all members are expected and encouraged to engage, to contribute and to make a difference. This is accomplished by creating and nurturing an institutional culture that not only says it values its employees, but acts like the employees are valued as well. (You cannot value your employees and have disdain and contempt for them at the same time.)
3. Every member of an organization must be empowered.
Employees at all levels must be empowered to make a difference, to act on opportunity. They must be empowered to think creatively, communicate freely across all levels of the organization, and constantly seek better, faster more efficient ways to do business.
Individuals encouraged to think entrepreneurially and provided meaningful opportunities to become engaged and empowered to make a difference, will not only transform the organization, but will create a new model for what it means to lead effectively.
The ideas of traditional white collar and blue collar jobs have become blurred. In the future, successful organizations will make these traditional role delineations disappear altogether; to do otherwise is the least effective way to lead an organization and its people. Leadership unwilling or unable to embrace the concept of leveraging the intellectual capital of the entire organization is doing a disservice to the organization. In today’s economy all ideas have value.
If you have ever worked for a business that valued an entrepreneurial spirit, or engaged and empowered employees, I would like to hear about it.
Individual Responsibility
“The community has been good to us for 49 years. We like to give something back.”
Denny Jones, owner, Denny’s Towing, Pocatello, ID
In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a very interesting lawsuit, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a monumental case with enormous implications. The short version is this: the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are afforded the same constitutional rights as individuals. While the court ruling dealt specifically with freedom of speech, the implications of this ruling has an unseen and significant impact on our society in general.
The conundrum we must now answer is, “Now that corporations have been given the legal rights and protections of individuals, what obligation do corporations have in performing and meeting individual responsibilities?”
Growing Up
I am very proud to say that I come from a blue-collar family. My parents were some of the hardest-working and honest people I know. They, along with my uncle, Aubrey Cromer, made it their mission in life to instill in me what they considered to be the lessons I needed for success in life.
- Give more than you take.
- Leave it better than you found it.
- Be honest. Don’t just tell the truth, live it.
- Be a good husband and father.
- Provide for your family.
- Right is right and wrong is wrong, always.
- Integrity is a verb.
In my family, it was pounded in to me that individuals were responsible and accountable not only to family, but also to community. Individuals were responsible for paying their taxes, obeying the law, working hard at their jobs to ensure the prosperity of their company and ensuring the schools were funded to provide a quality education. Finally, it was made very clear to me that actually living these values would mean making a number of personal sacrifices. Countless other individuals within my community have to make the same sacrifices every day. Great communities are nothing more than individuals coming together and contributing sweat equity; that’s what responsible individuals do.
Corporate Individualism
An excellent documentary on this subject, The Corporation, may be viewed at http://www.hulu.com/watch/118169/the-corporation. It clarifies that corporations exist for one reason––to make money. Everything a corporation does, every decision it makes, by law, is directed to growing wealth for its shareholders. Its primary function is not to give more than it takes, not leaving it better then they found it, not being honest or even doing the morally right thing. The documentary helps explain why British Petroleum could accept potentially dangerous and hazardous management practices, why Enron could do what it did to bilk thousands of people out of billions of dollars for the benefit of its shareholders, how Bernie Madoff could sleep at night or even look at himself in the mirror, how Simplot can close a profitable plant. The Supreme Court simply reinforced what corporations believed to be a given. Corporate America acts like an individual; and a very narcissistic one at that.
A New Vision
Not all corporations act so irresponsibly, I believe that truly successful corporations understand that being defined as individuals carries with it great individual responsibilities, responsibilities such as:
- investing long term in the community
- giving back to the community
- developing and fostering community loyalty
- providing leadership within the community
- caring genuinely about the health of the community
I think the Green Bay Packers are an excellent example of what it means for a corporation to act like a responsible individual in their community and because of it, the Green Bay Packers and their community are inseparable. What a powerful and profitable business model they pose for the rest of us to follow!
People, such as Denny Jones, whose towing service offers free holiday rides home, and countless other business leaders in Pocatello, understand what it means to not only be treated as an individual in the eyes of the law, but what it means to act like one as well.
By the way, thanks Denny, well done!
If you have ever worked for a company that you feel adhered to a higher standard, I would like to hear about it.
It Never Happened
Write It Down
A long, long time ago when I graduated from college and took my first management position as a unit manager for Marriott Corporation. I was given some advice which has proved to be worth its weight in gold many times over. That advice was simply this, “write it down.” At the same time it was drilled into me that verbal management is the laziest form of management, displays the manager’s lack of discipline to pay attention to details, is a short cut which allows something to go wrong and that under no condition would verbal management be tolerated. To this day I believe, practice and preach this concept to anyone who will listen. If it really matters and needs to be done, write it down or don’t expect it to happen!
A Very Bad Day
I was running the food service in the student union at Northern Arizona University. The bakery was one of the units I supervised; all bakery orders came through me. If you have never worked in a bakery, I assure you it’s a very busy place. Orders can get lost, misplaced or messed-up in any number of ways. To stop this from happening there must be a system. Our system was a production board which consisted of all written orders and was reviewed daily by the entire bakery staff during our production meeting. Anyone in the organization could order any baked goods they desired as long as they completed a production sheet, our quality control/communication mechanism.
One day Lucy Wright walked through the bakery and screamed to the bakery staff, “I am going to need a cake.” Hearing this, I walked over to Lucy, handed her a production sheet and asked her to fill it out and return it to be posted on the production board. We didn’t hear from her again until one morning she showed up bright and early with her husband, the general manager at the time. She entered the bakery, looked at the rack of daily products and screamed, “Where’s my cake!” She then called us every name in the book because her cake was not ready when she needed it. We checked the production board for her production order––which did not exist. She turned to her husband and said, “Keith, I told them I needed a cake. They knew I needed a cake and now they have screwed it up.” Things went downhill from there. The problem was simply that Lucy lacked the discipline to pay attention to any details. She lacked the discipline to do the job professionally and she lacked the discipline to manage professionally. She was a lazy manager exercising the laziest form of management and it made us all look bad.
Knee-jerk Reaction
As I have worked with a number of individuals who prefer verbal management, I have observed the following:
- Verbal-only managers lack formal management training.
- Verbal-only managers often do not think things through completely; they make a lot of knee jerk reactions.
- Verbal-only managers are seldom accountable for their decisions. Since there is no written record of their decisions, there is no accountability for the decisions they make. When things go well, it was their idea, when things go badly, it was someone else.
- Verbal-only managers do not think systematically, they respond from the gut and often managing from instinct.
- Verbal-only managers generally have poor institutional memory.
- Verbal-only managers are often inconsistent, because they make stuff up on the go and because they have limited institutional memory, their decisions are often inconsistent with previous decisions.
Document It
Stock brokers have the saying on Wall Street, “If it’s not written, it’s not an transaction.” When you go to the bank and withdrawal $20 dollars, they record it as a transaction on your account. You would never dream that a bank teller would simply hand you a $20 and say, “It’s okay. We don’t need to record anything because we’ll just remember it.” Important things are just not handled that way. Managing a business is an important thing. If it matters, write it down!
Taking the time and effort to formalize and document the management process does four things.
1. Improves communication – writing it down, documenting it and then reviewing it with your staff ensures everyone knows and understands what is going on within the organization.
2. Reduces operational cost – the only thing more expensive than doing a job once is doing it a second time. Companies which do the same job over, do not have a clear understanding of what they are trying to do the first time. Writing it down and then reviewing it, brings clarity to any project.
3. Improves operational efficiency – the first step in project management is clearly identifying what you are trying to achieve and the steps to make it happen. Writing it down and then sharing/reviewing it with the staff gives everyone a clear understanding of what exactly what is expected.
4. Increases profitability – when you take the time to manage professionally, good things happen and being profitable is one of them!
Taking the time to write it down saves time, saves money and improves morale through improved communication. Show me a company plagued with internal communications issues and I’ll show you a company suffering from verbal management-itis.
Remember, if it’s important, write it down because verbal is the laziest form of management!
Shock and Awe!
“Sometimes it is entirely appropriate to kill a fly with a sledge-hammer!”
Major Holdridge
“Shock and Awe is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force to paralyze an adversary’s perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight.” The doctrine was written by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade in 1996 and is a product of the National Defense University of the United States. The military has adopted and embraced the shock-and-awe concept for one simple reason––it works. However the leadership principles that drive the concept are not limited to military application only. The guiding principles currently employed through this device are applicable for anyone who desires to lead a highly motivated, effective, and dynamic organization.
Disney Shock and Awe
I am a huge Disney fan. Huge! The entire Disneyland experience always amazes me. Disney consistently creates an environment that takes your breath away. The sheer beauty of Main Street with the detailed architecture of each shop, the majesty of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle (especially at night when the sky is lit-up by fireworks), the Pirates of the Caribbean where guests leisurely float back into another time and place (my personal favorite), the Indiana Jones Adventure, Space Mountain or Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride have me repeating the same word over and over throughout the day, “wow!”. I have never had a bad day in Disneyland, or for that matter a bad memory; for me, and countless others like me, it is total shock and awe every time I go there. I share this example to point out that it is possible for the public and private sectors to harness the power of shock and awe if they wish; however, they might have to change a few things.
Making It Happen
Organizations, to become dominant players in their field or industry, need to take a page from the Shock and Awe; Achieving Rapid Dominance Manual and make sure they value and foster four critical characteristics.
- Knowledge – everyone in the organization must be highly intelligent; everyone must be able to synthesize information rapidly and make decisions independently.
- Rapidity – individuals must be able to move and act as quickly as necessary and always on a timely basis.
- Brilliance – leadership needs the ability to recognize, understand and respond to changes in the environment that generally go unnoticed by others.
- Control of the Environment – the organization must adapt and/or remain fluid in decision-making at all times. Leaders able to control their environment see internal policies and procedures as guidelines––not edicts–– and act accordingly. Such leaders always take advantage of opportunities as they occur in real time.
What’s Holding Us Back?
The military uses shock and awe because it works. Business and industry fails to utilize shock-and-awe techniques effectively because leadership has not been trained to employ this strategy effectively. Consider these questions.
What would happen to an individual in your organization who:
- synthesizes information rapidly and makes decisions independently?
- moves and acts as quickly as necessary based on the conditions they are presented with at the time?
- articulates a different view and understanding of the situation regardless of how popular or unpopular that view may be?
- chooses to control the environment rather than be controlled by it?
Unfortunately, in many instances an individual who demonstrates any one of these characteristics would be noticed quickly and anyone demonstrating all four of them would receive a termination notice even faster.
New Game
It’s not that industry leaders don’t want to lead organizations with the ability to deliver a shock-and-awe experience; it’s not that individuals don’t want to be a part of an organization that allows them to deliver shock-and-awe experience daily. The problem is that, outside of the military and a few select organizations, leadership is not prepared to move their existing workforce from a traditional hierarchal management philosophy to an organization able to embrace a shock-and-awe management mentality. To quote Bob Dylan, “The times they are a-changin’ ” and this is one change worth the risk. Nothing creates dominance better than a team that’s able and willing to wield a more powerful hammer than the competition.
If you have ever worked for a company that you feel delivered shock and awe, I would like to hear about it.
“Just-a-Receptionist”–A Timely Fable
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble.
It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Mark Twain
The Business
Once upon a time there was a relatively small manufacturing firm which specialized in custom-made wood products such as kitchen counters, cabinets custom shelving, beds and specialty carved items. The owner had invested his life savings in making his dream a reality. It had taken every penny plus a second mortgage on his house, but he was now proud owner of his own small business. He had the American dream by the tail.
Hiring the right staff, with the technical skills he needed proved to be more challenging than he had expected. All together there were seven of them. He had spent more money to assemble his new team than he wished, or for that matter could really afford.
There were now eight team members, including the owner. They were a highly skilled architect able to meet any design needs the company might have, an experienced person in CAD who could draft any products the architect envisioned. He hired an experienced woodworker with the skills of an artist and a logistics manager, who handled the ordering and shipping functions of the business. Rounding out the office, he had one of the best salesmen in the industry, a business manager who doubled as an accountant and an IT webmaster responsible for the technology needs. Finally he was there to oversee the entire operation.
The Race
When the doors opened for business, sales were brisk. The phones rang all day with new orders. Overnight, he needed someone to answer the phones and take messages so he could focus on his business. He placed an ad in the paper and began his search for “just-a-receptionist”. It was not an important job; it was not a very technical job. He would pay minimum wage, because unlike the rest of his staff, this was a low level no-skills-needed “just-a-receptionist” job. How hard could it be? He found quickly just for the right person, someone with little or no previous work experience, but willing to take the job for the wage he offered. “After all,” he thought to himself, “all he really needed was a warm body. A receptionist should not even need training.”
The receptionist showed up bright and early. She was shown her desk and left alone to do the job. The phones started ringing immediately and at first it proved challenging, because she had never used a phone with multiple lines before and did not know how to transfer a call. Consequently, instead of transferring the calls she kept hanging up on every caller, until ultimately they simply stopped calling altogether. After several days, everyone noticed the decline in business, but no one bothered to take the time to train the receptionist. After all, why train her, she was “just-a-receptionist” doing a routine and menial task; no skills required.
When the phone did ring, the receptionist did not take the message properly, the most common error was her inability to record phone numbers correctly. This made it very difficult to follow-up with the potential customers and resulted in additional lost sales. While this troubled the owner, still no one took the time to train the receptionist because after all, she was “just-a-receptionist”; a no-skill minimum wage job!
Soon the calls were practically non-existent and the owner was forced to lay off his staff, starting with his most costly employees. One lay-off quickly led to another and soon word in the community was that he was out of business, even though in truth, he was still holding on by the skin of his teeth, but that to would come to an end.
The Finish
It was an odd end to what should have been a very successful business. He had a burning passion for his business. He had assembled a highly-skilled, talented staff of woodworking and business professionals and his product was in demand. “What had gone wrong, where had he failed?” He asked himself these questions countless times as his business was slowly dying.
Then one day it all came to an abrupt and painful end; it was over. As he walked out the front door of his building with his only remaining staff–the receptionist–he thought of his dreams, his staff, who were now working elsewhere, and watched as the receptionist got in her car and drove away.
As he watched his last employee drive out of sight, he thought to himself, that while he was sorry to see her unemployed, in the scheme of things it was no big deal, after all she was “just-a-receptionist”. He turned his thoughts inwards one final time, and wondered where he had failed.
A great leader understands that in highly effective teams, every person plays a critical role and treats them accordingly.
If you have ever worked for a company that failed to understand this concept, I would like to hear about it.
Learning Logistics
“If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.” Albert Einstein
Logistics
Logistics, what is it? One common definition is, “the planning, implementation and coordination of the details of a business or other operation.” Logistics have become an integral part of business and industry as they look for ways to reduce operational costs while increasing overall profitability. Interestingly enough, one of the most effective ways to reduce costs and increase profits is by understanding logistics.
Old Model
Years ago I was a retail manager. Back in the day, the store sales floor would hold approximately $1.5 million in products. As those products–clothes, coffee pots, televisions, hammers, shoes, pencils, etc.–sold, the shelves would have to be restocked. At that time, prompt restocking required vast amounts of inventory to be on hand in storerooms. On average, each store was required to hold approximately $1,000,000 in excess inventory in stock to keep the sales floor shelves filled. Technology changed everything. Now when a sale occurs, an order is automatically placed through the cash register to a distribution center where replacement products are automatically pulled and sent to the store. The whole process is efficient and effective. Industry refers to this controlling of supplies as just-in-time delivery.
Industry realized that purchasing millions and millions of dollars of raw materials and warehousing those materials is both incredibly inefficient and costly. In most instances business was borrowing money from a bank and paying interest on the principal to stay in business because they needed vast supplies of raw material readily available for use at a moment’s notice. Logistics not only changed that, but taught us a couple of important principles for effective resource management.
- Don’t buy any resources until you need them.
- Don’t receive any resources that you can’t use immediately.
Maintaining large inventories is inefficient and costly, especially when you can get them delivered just in time.
A New Model
The private sector is constantly striving to increase efficiency because they understand that it is through innovation that they become more competitive. Innovations in logistical management are about to change the methodology for providing meaningful and relevant education to our workforce.
Historically, when individuals decided to gain an education after high school, they enrolled in a college or university, chose a degree program, and then spent 4 to 5 years building their knowledge inventory. Building a large enough inventory of knowledge to enter the job market was a long and tedious process; all too often a history lesson.
Many of the technologies students learn in a four year college program are outdated by the time they graduate. Exact numbers concerning the pace of change in technology vary widely; however, there are some excellent studies that suggest the average life span of a computer application is 18 months. The inability of college curricula to accommodate these changes results in graduates entering the workforce with a body of knowledge that is incomplete or irrelevant. Using emerging technology, industry has created a new type of educational delivery based on just-in-time logistics–a concept I call Educational Logistics.
Educational Logistics
What is educational logistics? Similar to the practice of products arriving just in time to use them, knowledge is provided in the same fashion. Companies that learn how to create an educational logistic culture foster a working environment where employees, at all levels, will have access to the education resources and knowledge in time to apply them in the workplace. Business understands that acquiring knowledge is very expensive. Consequently utilizing educational logistics ensures that:
- the knowledge obtained is relevant.
- the knowledge obtained is readily applied.
- the knowledge provided is in direct proportion to demand.
- education programs are more compressed.
- education programs are cost effective.
- a measureable return on investment results.
Just as raw materials and products must continually flow to and from any manufacturer, to stay competitive, the acquisition of knowledge must flow as readily. While educational logistics certainly has advantages, it does commit those institutions who embrace the concept to continuing staff training and development.
Innovation of educational logistics will play a significant role in helping transform the workforce. To help business and industry with the transformation, educational leaders should follow the pattern of industry and look at what this means to delivering future educational programs.
If you have ever worked for a company that provides just-in-time learning I would like to hear about it.
A New Consumption Model
“The more things change, the further behind you fall.” Dr. Joseph Fleishman
Some Interesting Facts
(credit Forrester Research)
- Apple Inc. sold 3.27 million iPads during its first quarter of availability in the summer of 2010.
- In the third quarter of 2011, Apple shipped 17 million iPhones
- More than 25 million Kindle Fire units will sell by the end of 2012,
- In 2011 Motorola shipped 11.6 million mobile devices
- Android helped lead the 42 percent year-over-year boost in smartphone sales to 115 million units in the third quarter, as smartphone sales made up 26 percent of all mobile phone sales.
What Does it Mean?
- The average time spent on the Internet by adults in the U.S. grew an estimated 6 percent in 2010 to 155 minutes a day.
- More startling, is that time spent on mobile devices is now the same as time spent reading print newspapers and magazines combined.
- Google logs 34,000 searches per second; 2 million per minute; 121 million per hour; 3 billion per day; 88 billion per month (figures rounded).
- 1 billion Tweets are sent each week.
The Future
Technology will change forever how consumers choose to access a company’s goods and services. Your company may not like technology, your company may not have embraced technology, your employees or IT departments may openly fight the use and integration of technology, but rest assured, the technology wave is quickly approaching and it’s generating strength along the way.
Technology has changed how I shop and what I purchase. I make all travel arrangements with hotels that have web sites. I eat at restaurants that have web sites and that I can find on MapQuest. I buy airlines tickets on-line and rent cars on-line. If I need a plumber, an electrician, major appliances, computer equipment, shoes, pants, shirts or any other manufactured good or service, I go on-line. I may use my phone, my iPad, my lap top or my PC, but the last thing I do is get in the car and drive somewhere. If you want my business, you had better connect with me in the manner I want to do business, and I want to do business in a manner that is first and foremost convenient for me. There are millions of consumers out there who are just like me.
The Questions
If your business has not positioned itself effectively in the growing 250 billion dollar U.S. eCommerce consumption market, then chances are your organizational leadership needs to ask these questions.
- What is our businesses technology infrastructure plan?
- What is our businesses technology marketing plan?
- What is our businesses technology data plan?
- What is our businesses technology social medial plan?
- What is our businesses long range technology business strategy?
- What is our businesses technology training program?
- What is our businesses technology upgrade plan?
- What is our businesses technology assessment plan?
The continued assimilation and further development of technologies such as iPads, iPhones, Android Phones, Kindles, and the Cloud simply emphasize the impending reality that tomorrow’s consumers will demand even greater portability and access to information. The more your business or company can do can do to make accessing your company’s goods and services easier for you customers, the healthier your bottom line will be.
Keep in mind, you don’t have to embrace technology, you don’t have to have a technology plan, a technology marketing plan, a technology training plan, an infrastructure plan or any of the other technology-related stuff. You do not have to do anything that would make it easier for 173 million U.S. shoppers with portable technology devices to find you. You have the right to protest vehemently progress of any kind and fight to maintain your company’s preferred way of doing business; I assure you, nothing would make your competition happier.
Leaders in today’s fast paced, global economy are faced with a critical decision; are they willing and able to position themselves in the new eCommerce consumption economy, or would they rather hold onto their rich traditions? Organizations that are unable or unwilling to innovate will find themselves in the company of horse-drawn carriages, buggy whips, whale oil lamps and typewriters.
If you have an example of a company that has effectively embraced technology to grow their business I would like to hear about it at joefleishman@gmail.com.
