Archive for August, 2009

Several years ago I read The End of Work by Jeremy Rifkin.  In his book, Rifkin outlined a future filled with too many people and too little work to be done. The premise was that we’d be so technologically advanced that there would be little work left for people to do, resulting in a shift in how we spend our daily lives.

In as much as we’re still very far off from this prediction, there still lies the truth that in the United States we are going to be facing a different challenge along the same line of thinking. It’s not that were going to run out of work but given the transformational change of “hands-on business functions,” there will be a type of End of Work. This will be a type of work that fulfills the needs of those who want to work with their hands and don’t have the same inclination to spend time being schooled.

An example is the farmer who no longer uses horses  to plow his fields but who uses a GPS-guided machine in which he can actually watch TV while the equipment does the work. Even the painter will work differently due to increased efficiency of painting tools and/or paints that last 5 years longer due to nanotechnology. The machinist will be replaced by a robotic system.

It’s these people, with this propensity to lean towards truly hands-on jobs that I started thinking about while working with Mike, my painter, a couple of years ago. We met somewhat by chance while I touched up the paint on my home and Mike and his son were in a car driving down our street looking for some work. We spoke for a few minutes and they ended up quoting a price to paint the entire exterior of our home.

As you might have guessed the price was right and from what I heard it appeared they had worked with some pretty reputable firms. After about 20 minutes, I agreed to the terms and they promised they would start the very next morning.

Yes, I did have the thought they might not show, and they might do a poor job since they were traveling around handing out fliers.
I was happy with my decision. Mike Sr. and Mike Jr. showed up the very next morning at 9 AM as promised ready to work.  They were professional in their demeanor and in the quality of their work.

What I witnessed were two guys who loved working with their hands. Mike Sr. had been painting most of his life and possessed a sort of pride I wished many office employees and managers would have. Mike Jr. was the apple that didn’t fall far from the tree. Often I’d see him step back from his work, look at what he’d done from two or three different angles and then proceed. Even his business card defines his philosophy. It says, “Picture Perfect,” and his interpretation is that when he’s done with a job, you’d want to take a picture of it.

The truth is, Mike and Mike love working with their hands.

I thought about the pair along with all the other craftsman, mechanics, and stone workers I know, and I realized we will have a challenge different than the one discussed in public. The challenge is one that is not about further educating our population so that people can have jobs. It’s about giving people choices so they can make a living at a reasonable pay scale and still be who they want to be. It’s not about jobs being shipped off shore given that many of those jobs are at low paying wages that most likely will be eliminated in their future as automation envelopes the economies that have chosen to be the next outsourcing country.

It’s about people.

What do we do with Mike Sr. and Mike Jr.? What does the individual who has no interest in working in an office do? What is their future?

Quite honestly, I’m not sure that manual labor or manufacturing will change not because of “evil” executives but because technology will replace manual tasks as it’s the nature of automation to remove people to drive down costs, increase efficiency, and improve products and service experiences. There’s no stopping it.

Just imagine having no computers in your accounting department, and you get a sense of what I mean. No computers? You may have 74 people to do the work of just a dozen. No computers may mean that JIT and inventory replenishment grind to a halt.

Here’s my long shot.

What’s on my mind.

Mike and Mike will continue to exist; it’s just that we need to:

1. Channel other activities that can create the same stimulation in our culture. Mike needs to swing a hammer at home.

2. Give opportunities to those that can work with their hands to do the same, utilizing tools such as virtual reality systems. I know the heavy equipment operator loves the power of the machine even though he or she is using levers and not their hands to accomplish the same task.

3. Leverage the feeling of accomplishment in other areas such as taking the creative hands-on feel and translating it to outdoor activities on a global scale where these individuals find themselves working in South America, Central America, or other parts of the world where technology and hands on co-exist for now.

4. We need to balance life work so that those that would prefer the other can do it on their own time.

Nothing brilliant in the above. I’d just like you to be thinking about the ramifications of losing our hands-on worker who’s not interested in the corporate life style to be productive. Yes, they will learn to use the current technologies to do their work. More importantly, we need to insure that they don’t get lost. This is a challenge that can be overcome if we not only address the need for continuous learning but address the issue of choice. Otherwise, our oversight is going to run over the US workforce like a steam roller.

Our problem is not our problem.

Watch out for the sales women at Timberland.  Some of these people are so good at what they do that if you’ve got $50 in your pocket, they will surely find a way for you to spend it in their store.

Here’s the story.

As the president of New York State National Speakers Association, one of my duties is to be present at all statewide gatherings.  On this one specific date I had both a meeting with a client about an hour south of Syracuse and then a NYNSA Pow Wow up toward the Great Lakes about 2.5 hours northwest.  Smack right in the middle is a discount store facility with over 105 stores (95% occupancy) including Nike, Timberland and Aeropostale.

For me, a great way to take a break from more than 6 hours of driving was to stop in and browse around.

For those who know me personally, I can shop all day.  Shopping does not mean buying, it just means I spend time finding the right item before I buy anything. As I did on this day, I enjoy walking the stores.

Then I came across the Timberland Store managed by Jamie and staffed by Katie and Sarah.

The store had exactly what I was looking to purchase.  Soft cargo pants.  I found one pair that fit me after reviewing the shoe selection and then they mentioned to me if I purchased $50, I would be given a $10 discount.  Sounded good since these pants were a perfect fit and comfortable.

Minutes later I found myself adding a $2.00 pair of strings for my shoes just to make it over the $50 mark.  Then I realized, the guy next to me was buying 5 pairs of shoes.  He had come in looking for two pairs, but by the time these woman were done with him, he had 5.

These ladies were on their game.  With so little traffic they saw every prospect as a sale: and not just a $20 sale but a $50 sale.  Given the state of the US economy, no-pressure, likable, sales strategies obviously work, since one employee mentioned, “They (corporate) make us get the $50.”

However, telling the staff and making it happen are two distinctly different achievements.  The manager and the staff worked together so well that each helped the other find stock to fit sizes when someone needed shoes or a color or a style.  There appeared to be no territorial behavior.  They knew exactly what to say to close the sale and not once did I feel like they were overselling me.

They were impressive!!

In fact I’m wearing the pants and a shirt bought on that trip which reminded me of the story. What a great purchase.

Are you taking advantage of every opportunity that walks through your door?

So often human nature takes the stance that in order to improve, one’s abilities must be 10 times better or a hundred times better to make a difference. It’s just not the case.

My journeys, both in business and life, have taught me that often the little changes make the most significant impact, while big growth spurts are a rarity.

Take the experience I had at the David Leadbetter Golf Clinic in Florida. While working at a convention, I had the opportunity to sign up for some extra activities, if my plans permitted. I could not create the time to take the 140 MPH NASCAR drive with an experienced driver, so I opted for the David Leadbetter golf lessons that were right outside the Omni Hotel in Orlando.

Having only about 1 hour to spare, I left the conference “war room” and walked up the hill to the facilities were by now over 100 people were getting lessons. These people were intent on improving their game.

I, on the other hand, am an infrequent player. To me, I can easily play 9 holes of golf at a resort while traveling, however, when you take me on the back nine, I start to feel like I should be playing POLO IN MY GOLF CART versus continuing on. I just get bored.

So to me, one hour was good enough, and it also forced the school to give me the best type of lesson I would need as they had 3 groups. The putt, the short ball, and the drive. They put me in the drive section, exactly where I wanted to be.

I picked up a club, pulled a pile of balls off the perfectly-stacked pyramid of about 72 balls stacked for this space, and started to hit.

My first ball slid right pretty far into the next groups area, so I unbuttoned my business shirt, removed my tie, and rolled up my sleeves. This would make all the difference. I no longer sliced to my far right. An improvement.

My next swing was similar, but my slight change of grip pulled it on target a little more. I assumed that my shoes and pants were causing my inability to “grab the ground.”

For the next 20 minutes, I hit ball after ball trying to control its direction by taking back the club slower. By twisting my grip. By keeping my head down. Things started to become consistent. I even tried to listen in to the other lessons hoping that I would pick up a tip or two before it was my turn.

My turn. The instructor asked, “Tell me about your game.” I replied, “I don’t have one. I play about once or twice a year.” I almost felt as if he was disgusted with my response, like I’d punched him in the stomach.

Maybe that’s because The David Leadbetter Schools are some of the best in the world. Experts fly in by helicopter just to take lessons with these instructors and many are coached to become top in the field.  Two are the Greg Norman designed courses and ChampionsGate; both have been listed as Golf Magazine’s “10 Most Distinctive Places to Play.” This is real golf country.

Maybe I should have said that I don’t get enough time to play or something a little less harsh.

He then asked me to take a swing without the ball followed by another. Then again, with a ball. I tried with all my powers to make this one go exactly straight down the fairway. It didn’t exactly go as planned.

He asked for one more. Again, the same.

He then gave me my first piece of advice. Take my right thumb on my grip and move it counter clockwise so that the thumb pointed to my shoulder. Realize we are talking a half an inch. What I learned that in doing so, the head of my club rotates so that the head comes around flat after the swing.

The first ball went much straighter than the first two. We practiced this for about 10 balls.

Then the second piece of advice. After I hit continue on so that my right knee twists inward almost touching my left knee without lifting up the heal. Again we practiced with a few balls and as you might have guessed, it worked.

It worked not because he gave me this life-changing sermon or that he altered my entire way of playing golf. It worked because of minute changes. Simple things that make huge differences.

Granted, the guy’s an expert, and if you saw him drive a ball, you’d know it. His expert advice opened up a new perspective and approach to my golf game.

The same holds true in the work environment. Taking the time to work with your employees is one thing. Taking the time to “improve their swing” is another. It means:

1. You’ve got to be an expert in the first place. Too often, managers feel as if they are experts and teach the wrong people the wrong skills or they do what they do intuitively and don’t really know how to transfer these skills.

You’ve met the incredible sales person that can’t manage.

2. Taking the time to make small changes first if possible. Don’t always look for the Big Bertha. Sometime it’s the smaller changes that have largest and most remembered impact.

3. Understand the need for time. Once a skill is taught, it must be practiced. Seeing someone do something is one thing; doing it themselves is another.

4. Reserve massive overhauls for when you truly have the time to make sure the lessons are done right. The failure to take this time insures two things. One, that you will be frustrated later on, and two, your employee will also.

In the end, my one hour of instruction will change the way I play golf. Will I spend the day doing it? That’s going to need the massive overhaul of my personality.

Keep giving those pointers.

If you fly, you know that if an aircraft is late, there’s a good chance that you’re going to miss your connection or be late for something else in your day.  It’s the reason the government and outside companies monitor the on-time arrival of airlines.

Here’s a simple solution. You might apply this thinking to your own business.

Let me give you the background first.  During each college semester, I make 4 to 5 trips to NYC to teach two courses at NYU.  In each case, I couldn’t tell you if the plane left the actual gate early or late.    But I can tell you that on all 5 flights, the plane arrived before the scheduled time.  I felt, and I believe others did, too, that we got a bonus of time by reaching our destination early.  Although it’s a mental game, it’s mentally real.

What if the airlines added a buffer, say 10 minutes to every aircraft’s ETA.  A 9AM arrival time is now stated as 9:10AM.  The airline publishes the times and the passengers and travelers work around the numbers.

Now here’s what’s going to happen.

The plane leaves on time, or late, no one cares unless it screws up their next step.  With the buffer the aircraft then either arrives early….WOW or on time.

Consider the implications.  I travel a lot and very infrequently do I make a call to my ground transportation about a flight based upon 10 minutes either way.  I don’t spend that much time on the length of time compared to the price and the route.  I hate getting stuck in certain airports.  Here the buyer is more interested in on-time arrivals for the purposes of their next meeting (personal or business) than they are for actual flight time.

Then travel agencies could give options differently.  “You can take the 6 AM through DC into Miami arriving at 11:20 or the 7:40 AM arriving at 2.”  With an overall edit to the system, everyone would be on par with similar flight systems and layovers.

Airline management, their unions, and the technology being used today have made limited progress in improving the system.  They still load bags onto planes by hand.  And it appears there is nothing coming down the pipe line that would radically improve the situation, so why not try a simpler fix.  Besides the airlines have cut back on routes so modeling of new traffic patterns most likely would not be a terrific challenge.

When I hear managers say that the new vision of their firm is to get customers to like them better or that the new vision is to create better relationships, I’m always concerned for them.  While I understand what they’re trying to do, I also see how they’re headed in the wrong direction.  You can’t substitute your role of managing well with the position of wanting to be liked.  Business relationships don’t give back the returns you think they will, and if you don’t adjust your focus, you’re going to be disappointed at best and even suffer worse consequences.

Earning new customers involves much more than building relationships and getting people to like your firm. Widen your focus to how the firm deals with your customers from start to finish, well before your employees even enter the picture.  Customers may hear through the grapevine that your company doesn’t deliver on time or that orders are always screwed up.  How well will your “relationship” vision work now?

On the flip side if you throw out the “management guru” philosophies of getting in touch with your customers and first work on the processes that make the customer feel welcome from the get go, the relationship builds automatically.  For example, your firm supplies industrial washers and dryers for hotels and institutions or you create video production tapes for corporate distribution.  One sale is $75,000 a pop and the other is $5000-$10,000, yet they are very much the same.  All day long 365 days a year you ship washer and dryers or create Quicklime, Real Windows, CD and VCR production. You’ve heard some news that some customers may be unhappy with the products you’ve been delivering and that the opinion in the market is that you don’t deliver as promised.

Would your first reaction be to start implementing a customer-relations-building initiative?  Maybe you would even start to make phone calls to clients and ask them why they have been disappointed with the product.  Both might be good ideas, but you’re already barking up the wrong tree.  Customers don’t always know how your company works, so they can’t give valuable feedback on how to solve a problem. Also, just because you’ve made contact with a customer doesn’t mean that they will like you, it could mean that they now have an employee’s name to attach to their problem…that’s all.

A better approach is to build quality into your product/s.  Customers walk away happy when everything happens correctly.

A customer’s individual experience with your firm means more to them than how much business you process in a year.  Just because you ship 500 washers a year or 300 presentation tapes a year does not mean anything to the one person that is laying down the money to improve their business.  The higher the ticket item, the more you have to remind yourself of this point. Perhaps many of your customers think for months, should they or shouldn’t they buy.  The discussion is typically sealed when the buyer feels that parting with the money will give them a return of something more than what they spent.  The washer may make them $37,000 net per year and the tape may bring them $100,000 worth of new business if all goes well.  They want to feel as secure upon purchasing as they do on the day that their purchase arrives and for months after.

To do this start at the beginning.  The sales people or the materials of the firm should show them the process.  You sign and we start.  Delivery is in 4 weeks. With everything in between defined.  The check arrives and you send them an even more complete package to get them involved to the extent they want to be.  For the washer, you help confirm they know layout and the tools needed for on-site delivery.  For the tape firm you schedule a meeting with all the proper people and have an outline of how you can build a winning product.

Don’t ask the customer what they want!! Have a formula of questions that draws out what you need.

Make sure everyone is present and consider recording the sales call for future reference.

Throw in additional value.  That could be a booklet about tools to increase productivity or to improve marketing.

Even to the very end you keep the process going as it is designed. Don’t deviate or cut corners if the process works. You may have given your pitch  2000 times, but the customer has only heard it once.

Get the entire company behind you. If you’re dealing with items that have options or customization, a production expert might walk the buyer through a few paces so that the customer feels that your team understands them.  You want the process to win over the customer.

It’s like when you return to your hotel room after dinner and find a chocolate on your pillow.  How happy do you feel just before you bit down on your treat?  Hate to break it to you, but patrons in 1200 other rooms had a chocolate on their pillows, also.  The staff didn’t select only you to get a special piece.

Again, this is not to downplay the relationship-building process, but to put it in perspective.  You do a bad job, customers don’t return.  If you build a process that builds relationships, customers feel excited to work with a firm that’s responsive and delivers products or services as ordered.

Why is it that when people hear about a corporate bankruptcy, they become authorities on how it could have been avoided? It’s always easy to say you know better than someone else. Especially when you’re parked safely on the sidelines or looking at the situation in hindsight. But do you really know what you would do if put in the same position?

There are a lot of reasons why companies get in financial trouble. Some firms die because they deserve it. They’re mismanaged or they have products that stink. Others are good companies that make one mistake and pay a hefty price. Perhaps they don’t adapt to a market change quickly enough. Or maybe they tried to grow too quickly and ran out of cash. With so many elements to juggle, pinning down the “why” is not always easy for the outsider to determine.

Spiegel filed Chapter 11 in 2003. Spiegel was started in 1865. It’s parent to Lifestyle, Eddie Bauer, and Newport News. Its first catalog was produced in 1905. In nearly 140 years, Spiegel managed to do a lot of things right. When it hit a rocky patch, Joe Blow from down the street knew he could have done better. Really?

Look at the photo-film industry. Kodak offers good quality products. It was kicked in the face with the K-Mart bankruptcy, but managed to sustain the blow. Over the past 5 years, Kodak has made major adjustments to its product line to insure future success. Fuji Photo Film was a heavy competitor on price. The growing use of digital cameras threatened all film companies. Yet Kodak and Fuji were operating while Polaroid filed for bankruptcy.

On the surface, it was easy to see that Polaroid wasn’t adapting to the changing market fast enough. It didn’t offer competitive products. It didn’t market as well as other leaders. But WHY did executives at Polaroid make the decisions that they did? WHY would they “white-knuckle” their niche of instant imaging when one-hour photo processing and digital cameras were eroding their market share? What was going on behind the scenes that ultimately forced Polaroid to file Chapter 11?

Enough about everyone else. Your time is better spent focusing on how you can avoid damaging mistakes. Here are some tips:
1. Be an information gatherer. Start internally and look outward. What are your key deliverables? Are you defining what you really do? For example, are you a trucking firm or in the business of logistics? Canon says they’re in optics. Kodak says they’re in “memories.” That’s a selling proposition, but what do they do? Learn markets, talk to experts, and then make up your own mind.
2. Improve your management skills. Quality. Think BASF: “We don’t make the products you use, we make the products you use better.” Improve yourself to keep pace. Take courses to learn new tools. Read books in addition to magazines and papers. Look at trends and where you’re weak. Focus on one or two areas and not 50. You’ll be stronger for it.
3. Envision a realistic destiny. Make sure the picture you paint is one you can truly believe in. Most executives, owners, and managers can’t do this. If you’re one of them, watch out. This is an area where you can’t be wishy washy. Know where you’re going before you set out on the trip.
4. Be the driver. You can collect data and insight from others, but the direction comes from you. Your role as a leader is to lead, not get “group think” to the point that your company is crippled. As you move forward, you’ll gain new knowledge that might steer you in slightly different directions. Flexibility and adaptability are good. But make sure that you’re leading, not reacting.

You can’t fix a firm from the sidelines no more than you can play a game from the bleachers. When you see what’s happening in the world around you, don’t waste your time on second-guessing. Take what you can as a lesson and focus on your own firm. What you learn will bring solutions and strategies. You and your firm will be stronger for it.

I’ve lived through so many good and bad business experiences,  so you’d think I would find it more and more challenging to be surprised.

And yet, there’s a new “jack-in-the-box” always around the next corner. While visiting The Breakers, a 5-star resort in Florida, a bellman forgot to pack two pieces of my luggage in the trunk of the limo that transported me to the airport. Of course, I didn’t discover the oversight until I was being dropped off at the airport. The moment of realization was an unpleasant one, because the mistake meant that I would not make it home that evening. The direct result of the hotel. When I returned to spend another night, the hotel did not take responsibility for the error and still charged me for the evening. When another hotel patron overheard my situation at the front desk, she suggested a solution.  She had to leave early and her room would be vacant for the night.  Perhaps they could give her room to me since she’d paid for the night and couldn’t get a refund. The front desk would not hear of the change, and yet they said they would sell the room and charge for it should someone else request a room.

What a surprise since just a few hours earlier, as speaker at an event, I was considered a VIP at the hotel.  You would think that a business with an upscale clientele and “brand” would have staff that would know how to offer superior customer service!

On the flip side, I did receive customer service when I arrived home–in this scenario, I was an “average Joe” buying a new TV from a large retail chain.  You can’t get much more anonymous than that.

When I arrived home from Florida, I called Best Buy to find out about our TV on order. Sydney, the woman who answered the phone, not only remembered me from a couple of days earlier. She remembered my name. I would assume that Best Buy has quite a few calls in a given day and as a Sales Operator, there must be many responsibilities to handle. The fact remains….she remembered a 30-second call from the day before where I asked to be transferred to Sarah, another incredible employee. Sarah was not scheduled to work that day, so she took care of connecting me with the manager, Sydney. That’s it.

I was impressed that when I spoke with Sydney, she knew who I was by recognizing my VOICE, even before I had a chance to state my name!

Out of this world!

Funny, I’d never put Best Buy in the 5-star league and yet, they out performed The Breakers.

When you purchase a green car, is the car really green?  Or is it just the engine?  When I see a green car, I see a work in progress. Tires still use rubber and oil, and cast iron and metals come from metal fabrication.  Fabrics and leathers, some which require formaldehyde and other chemicals in their production, are used. So green may not really be green.  The perception is green, or at least GREENER.

Take the GE locomotive.  Was GE trying to produce more efficient, lighter and more powerful products before the push for green?  You bet.  So then pushing harder is just a marketing tactic to suggest that Ecomagination is driving green.

I admit that the green movement has prompted more individuals to try harder to live, work, and produce in more ecologically-friendly ways.  Awareness over the past few years has driven consumers to buy products from firms that have been working on creating sustainable products.   And now you see how firms capitalize on the trend; when firms start moving to green, they promote and promote and promote themselves as going green.

Let’s say a wood manufacturer in the US switches from oil stains to water-base stains.  The firm’s products are greener and can be promoted as more eco friendly than competitors’ products in the US, even though in Europe, using water-base stains is more common. (Apparently water-base stains are not typically as brilliant as oil.)

Attracting market share based on ecological awareness only works if green is “in,” and we’ve seen that with hybrid cars.  Toyota says it took several years to sell 500,000 hybrid cars, yet once the green wave struck, it only took 2 years to sell the next 500,000.  However, with economic challenges, Priuses are no longer in high demand; they are sitting on lots across the US only because a typical hybrid takes 3.5 years to make a return on the additional costs.  When gasoline in the US averaged less than $2.00 per gallon, the payback was even longer.  Toyota can smile again as gasoline prices rise.

So green might have a little more of a challenge to overcome if the product or service is pricier.

What this means is, go green, but don’t expect your buyers in a challanged economy to make the green choice as readily in the past.  If you were to spend $100,000 going green, take 50% and change to green, and use the rest to increase productivity and reduce utility and labor costs.  You might say that going green would then be a double benefit that will not only be green, but even more sustainable since the cost of going green comes in different forms.