No. 6 June 2014

John Calipari is one of the most fascinating basketball coaches you will ever meet.  He is calm and animated at the same time.  He is intense yet introspective.  He loves to – and lives to – win.  And he always, always, always lives by the credo, “Players First.”  His new book bears that title.

But perhaps his most valuable lesson is that he tells his players to “Fail fast.  Don’t be afraid to try new things.  Don’t be afraid to experiment.  Fail fast and we’ll correct.” 

Michael Jordan, one of the best players to ever play the game of basketball, says it best when talking about the power of failure: "I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career.  I’ve lost almost 300 games.  26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.  I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is the main reason I have succeeded."   Failing often means you’re attempting to be more successful no matter what the odds.  That in itself is a sign of success.

Seth Godin recently talked about the difference between a doctor and a plumber.  It’s not what you think!

“The plumber, the roofer and the electrician sell us a cure. They come to our house, fix the problem, and leave.

The consultant, the doctor (often) and the politician sell us the narrative. They don't always change things, but they give us a story, a way to think about what's happening.

Often, that story helps us fix our problems on our own.  That’s why the best parents, teachers and bosses are in the story business helping their kids, students and employees solve problems on their own.”  Helping others solve problems by using a narrative is a solution we should all be interested in developing.

Harvey Mackay tells a terrific story about Bernie Marcus, the former CEO of Home Depot.  Mackay interviewed Marcus for his 2004 book We Got Fired! … And It’s the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us (Random House).  What Marcus learned in 1978 from a close business friend on how to respond to being fired at age 49 changed his life forever.

“In 1978, Bernie Marcus was fired as the CEO of Handy Dan Home Improvement Center chain by Sanford C. ‘Sandy’ Sigoloff, who ran the parent corporation, Daylin.  Bernie was 49 years old and had never been fired before.  He called it ‘the low point in his life.’  Bernie was wounded and aching.  His first and only thoughts were about getting even.

‘It’s interesting when you have a low like this, you reach one point where you have a chance of coming out or not coming out,’ he said.  ‘If you come out, you’re better than you ever were.  If you don’t come out, you become what they commonly refer to as a loser.  If you come out, it’s usually because of the influence someone has on you.’

Fortunately for Bernie, that influence was Sol Price, founder of Price Club, which has since become part of Costco.  Price phoned Bernie and invited him to dinner at his home in San Diego.

Bernie arrived for dinner and got right to the point:  ‘My contract with Daylin was worth a million dollars.  Sandy broke the contract.  I want to get back at him.  Right now I’m suing Sandy for that million.’

To wage the suit, Bernie said he was eating up cash like it was going out of style.  Price understood, and the strategy he offered was truly priceless.

After dinner, Price took Bernie to a room in his house filled with papers stacked five to six feet high and no furniture.  They were all depositions from a lawsuit Sol had been involved with.  He told Bernie that the lawsuit consumed much of his energy and strength for three years of his life.

Price told Bernie:  ‘Why are you spending your young life suing somebody?  Why don’t you just forget about it and go on and live your life?  Otherwise, you’re going to end up with a room like this.’

The next morning when Bernie woke up, he said he really woke up.  I called the attorneys and said, ‘You’re off the case.  End the litigation.  I’m going on with my life.’

Just where did Bernie go?  One year later in 1979, he and Arthur Blank launched The Home Depot, which became the fastest growing retailer in U.S. history.

You will never get ahead of anyone as long as you are trying to get even with them because in order to get even with them, you have to stoop to their level.  If you didn’t like their tactics, why would you want to emulate them?

I am not in any way advocating being a patsy for another’s bad behavior.  But you must weigh whether bringing another person down will lift you up.  Take the high road whenever you can – it’s usually not too crowded.  

You must also consider what exacting revenge does to your physical and mental health.  Will it really make you feel better?   Consider the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., an advocate for forgiveness and peace:  ‘The old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind.’”

No. 5 May 2014

In a typical December, parcel carriers see their volumes peak mid-month. Last Christmas, however, more shoppers waited to the last-minute. Amazon Prime customers, for example, believed they had no reason to order early. In short, the December peak happened as forecast, but within this multi-week peak was a much bigger spike in activity concentrated in the last few days before Christmas that was just too big for UPS, in particular, to handle.

While all this was occurring, Amazon issued a congratulatory press release that lauded the fact that they had signed up 1 million Amazon Prime members in the third week of December and that demand was so great that it had to suspend enrollment.

But while delivery failures contributed to the profit hit, which the Amazon Prime program played a role in, the bigger hit comes from the Amazon Prime program itself.  Amazon Prime is a loss leader that enables Amazon to steal market share from traditional retailers.

Amazon’s 10-K demonstrated just how big a drag on profits this program really is. Supplemental information about outbound shipping results showed that for every $1 in shipping fees Amazon collected, they spent more than $2, for a total shipping loss of more than $3.5 billion.  That’s not pocket change.

Did you recently notice that the annual fee for Amazon Prime was increased?  Well, now you know why.

Have you ever heard about the “Zeignark effect”?  It’s named after a Russian psychiatrist who discovered that a waiter could remember incomplete orders more easily than those that were served and complete.  Further study showed that people are 90 percent more likely to remember tasks that are undone than those they completed. 

That makes some sense, but it also causes tremendous stress rather than pride of accomplishment.  There will always be work to be done, but stop and smell the roses – or the crocuses and daffodils – occasionally!   You’ll be glad you did!

In a recent Seth’s Blog, Seth Godin had this to say about money: “Money’s pretty new.  Before money, we traded.  My corn for your milk.  The trade enriches both of us and it’s simple.

‘Money, of course, makes a whole bunch of other transactions possible.  Maybe I don’t need your milk, but I can take your money and use it to buy something I do need, from someone else.  Very efficient, but also very abstract.”

As we ceased to trade, we moved all of our transactions to the abstract world of money.  And in this abstract world, “we’re constantly re-evaluating what money is worth.  Five dollars to buy a snack box on an airplane is worth something very different than $5 to buy a cup of coffee after a fancy meal, which is worth something different than $5 in the grocery store.  That’s because we get to pretend that the five dollars in each situation is worth a different amount.”

The value of that five dollars changes in our mind based on what and where we’re using it.

Godin’s conclusion is that “pricing based on cost makes no sense whatever, because cost is not abstract.  Pricing based on value does make sense because value is abstract.”  And that value changes in each situation, just like the value of $5 does for different products and where they are purchased.

My conclusion is: What we are willing to pay for something we want has no relationship to the actual cost of the item, but rather the value it has to us.  If that’s true or even partially true, how should that affect how we price what we sell in our own businesses?

A sales rep, an assistant and their manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp.  They rub it, and a Genie comes out.  The Genie says, “I'll give each of you just one wish.”

“Me first!” says the assistant.  “I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.”  Poof!  She's gone.

“Me next!” says the sales rep.  “I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of piña coladas and the love of my life.”  Poof!  He's gone.

“OK, you're up,” the Genie says to the manager.  The manager says, “I want those two back in the office after lunch.”

Moral:  Always let your boss have the first say.

No. 2 February 2014

A dealer, who wishes to remain anonymous, recently sent me an email asking if a lot of dealers who are “aging out” of actively running their businesses look to “angels” to buy them out or do they just close up and sell off their assets, especially when one of their kids does not want to take over and continue the business.  He tells me he is the sole family survivor of a family lawnmower shop that went out of business primarily due to a major catastrophic act of nature, and he chose not to rebuild and reopen.  Now he’s not sure that was the right step for him to take.   He’s been talking to local and regional dealers in his area, and he says they are all asking him to buy them out.  Even the owners of the largest dealership in his area are “aging out” and their son, for whom they kept the business running and successful, has opted out of taking over, leaving his parents hoping they’ll find an “angel” to buy the business or be faced with selling their assets for what they can get.

In the early 1970’s, when I first joined this family-owned distributorship, I noticed right away that our dealer customers were “old” - appeared to be near retirement age.  Now my perspective was certainly influenced by the fact that I was in my mid-20’s, but nevertheless, I worried that our customer base was going to die-off in just a few years.  Many of those older dealer owners did retire, just like older business people do, and sold off their business assets to a multiplicity of other dealers or in a few cases, had a relative take over management.  “Angels” were very few and far between.  But new service dealers kept appearing, often “popping up” close to new concentrations of residential areas.  They saw a future and took a chance, often borrowing the start-up money from a bank rather than hoping for an “angel” backer.  When they were willing to go to the bank because they believed in themselves that much, I was motivated to help them succeed.

For a long time, I’ve thought that successful dealerships, especially those run by owners who had been re-investing in them for many years, were perfect for their kids to take over.  The investment in assets over the years meant that the son or daughter had a solid foundation that didn’t require a huge initial investment and could be paid for over time.  The business real estate might need sprucing up, but the inventory was typically paid for, as was the building and equipment.  The kids had a head-start, in many ways.

If the kids choose to do other things, then the owners have to find another successful dealer who was interested in a branch location, or an entrepreneur who wanted a successful business to buy, not someone else’s failure.  Otherwise, assets could be sold piecemeal to different businesses and owners.

Dealerships come and go, just like any other business.  I’ve read numerous articles on what makes one dealership successful and another one not.  Bob Clements can and will tell you in a day’s seminar how to be successful in an OPE sales and service operation.  The information is out there for the asking.  But at the end of the day, it still comes down to internal drive, planning and a desire to want to be successful.  It’s a challenge you can win, but no one ever said it would be easy.  What would you tell this sole survivor of a business that was washed away in a flood and who isn’t sure of what the right path is for him to take?  I would be very interested in your thoughts.  Please share them by dropping me an email.

"Bad habits are like a comfortable bed,” a pundit once noted, "easy to get into, but hard to get out of." Sticking with what's comfortable might be one of the deadliest habits of all.

In the bullfighting arena, expert matadors have long gained an edge by pinpointing a bull's comfort zone. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has studied this phenomenon. "In bullfighting there is a term called querencia. The querencia is the spot in the ring to which the bull returns," she explains. "Each bull has a different querencia, but as the bullfight continues, and the animal becomes more threatened, it returns more and more often to his spot. As he returns to his querencia, he becomes more predictable."

What are the consequences of predictability? "In the end," Fiorina says, "the matador is able to kill the bull because instead of trying something new, the bull returns to what is familiar (i.e. his comfort zone)."

Many businesses retreat to their comfort zones when challenged. A new form of competition emerges or threatening research undercuts a core product. This is bad news, and who wants to hear that?  "Bad news isn't wine," former Secretary of State Colin Powell once said. "It doesn't improve with age."  The key is how you take the bad news and what you do about it.  Just be sure you don’t keep doing the same thing over and over while expecting new and better results.

No. 10 October 2013

Karl Pillemer is a gerontologist (someone who studies older people) who, in his work, kept meeting older people – many of whom had lost loved ones, been through tremendous difficulties, and had serious health problems – who nevertheless were happy, fulfilled, and deeply enjoying life. He found himself asking, “What’s that all about?” As he looked through existing research, he found that study after study validated the fact that older people – in their 70s, 80s and beyond – are actually happier than younger people. Pillemer thought that perhaps older people knew things about living a happy, healthy, fulfilling life that younger people didn’t, so he decided to find out what that practical wisdom was. He interviewed 1,000 seniors and asked them, “What is the most important lesson you want to pass along to the young?” From his interviews came his book, 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans.

Here are a few of his findings about some of life's lessons that older people have learned during their long lives:  “…one lesson stood out; a lesson that older people knew about because of where they stand on life’s road – but that younger people could benefit from learning about. It was a lesson that almost all expressed. And they did it vehemently.

“What they wanted younger people to know is this: life is short. The older the respondent, the more likely they are to say that life passes by in what seems like an instant. They say this, not to depress younger people, but to get them to be more aware and selective about how they use their time. Older people practice what psychologists call ‘socioemotional selectivity’ – because their time is limited, they make careful decisions about how to use their time. Some implications of this insight are to say things now to people you care about, whether it is expressing gratitude or love; asking forgiveness or getting information; spending the maximum amount of time with children or grandchildren; and savoring daily pleasures instead of waiting for ‘big-ticket items’ to make you happy.

“The other piece of advice that comes from this idea that life is much shorter than you realize: Take a chance. People in their 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond endorse taking risks when you’re young, contrary to a stereotype that elders are conservative. Their message to young people starting out is ‘Go for it!’ They say that you are much more likely to regret what you didn’t do than what you did. As one 80-year-old said, ‘Unless you have a compelling reason to say no, always say yes to opportunities.’

“Elders have also learned that happiness is a choice – not a passive condition dependent on external events, nor is it the result of our personalities. We can choose – in a conscious shift in outlook every day – optimism over pessimism, hope over despair.” We can take responsibility for our own happiness throughout our life. As I’ve said many times in this column: Life is about choices every minute of every day. We can choose to be happy, smile and uplift people, or we can choose to put people down and try to make them as unhappy as we are. It’s not your personality. It’s your choice!

We also know experience is very important in our work lives. Harold S. Geneen, the former CEO of AT&T, had this to say about business experience: “In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.” Those are true words of wisdom.

Harvey Mackay tells a story about “a little boy spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox. He had cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny red shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox.

“The boy dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the dirt. With a little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the large rock across the sandbox by using his feet. When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, he found that he couldn’t roll it up and over the wall of the sandbox. Every time he made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox.

“Frustrated, he burst into tears. All this time, the boy’s father watched from his living room window. As the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was his father. Gently but firmly, he said, ‘Son, why didn’t you use all the strength that you had available?’

“Defeated, the boy sobbed back, ‘But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!’

“‘No, son,’ corrected the father kindly. ‘You didn’t use all the strength you had. You didn’t ask me.’ With that, the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it from the sandbox.

“Successful people rarely reach the top without a lot of help along the way. The ability – and willingness – to ask for help is one trait that really stands out among those who are truly committed to success.” Seeking help and advice, when you need it, will move you quicker down the highway of success.

No. 9 September 2013

Harvey Mackay tells the following story about a son asking his mother what he needs to do to be a success when he grows up.

“The mother thought for a moment, and then told her son to bring her a pencil.  Puzzled, the boy found a pencil and gave it to her.

“If you want to do good,” she said, “you have to be just like this pencil.”

“What does that mean?” her son asked.

“First,” she said, “like a pencil, you’ll be able to do a lot of things, but not on your own.  You have to allow yourself to be held in someone’s hand.” 

The mother is talking about teamwork.  You can’t do it all by yourself.  Mackay defines teamwork as a collection of diverse individuals who respect each other and are committed to each other’s success.  You can’t be successful without a committed team working with you.

“Second,” she said, “like a pencil, you’ll have to go through a painful sharpening from time to time, but you’ll need it to become a better pencil.

Giving and taking criticism is not easy task, but it is necessary to become better.  No one ever choked to death swallowing his or her own pride.  Accepting honest criticism or a suggestion will make you better than you were before.

“Third, like a pencil, you’ll be able to correct any mistakes you make,” she said.

Everyone makes mistakes.  That’s one way you learn.  Mistakes don’t make you a failure.  There are really no mistakes in life, there are only lessons.

“Fourth, like a pencil, no matter what you look like on the outside, the most important part will always be what’s on the inside. 

Most people aren’t born with self-confidence.  Mackay’s advice to develop self-confidence is: track your success, practice being assertive, accept that failure is not the end of the world, step out of your comfort zone, set goals, keep improving your skills and above all else, don’t compare yourself to others.

“And fifth,” the mother finished, “like a pencil, you’ll have to press hard to make a mark.”

Success comes before work only in the dictionary.  There is no magic formula or magic wand.  Even people with natural talent or skills, continually hone those talents or skills with lots of hard work and practice.

The mother touched on five important topics – teamwork, being able to accept criticism, correcting mistakes, self-confidence, and working hard.  That’s good advice for all of us.

Rev. Robert Schuller says there are four kinds of people: "First, there are the cop-outs. These people set no goals and make no decisions.

"Second, there are the hold-outs. They have a beautiful dream, but they’re afraid to respond to its challenge because they aren’t sure they can make it. These people have lost all childlike faith.

"Third, there are the drop-outs. They start to make their dream come true. They know their role. They set their goals, but when the going gets tough, they quit. They don’t pay the toll.

"Finally, there are the all-outs. They are the people who know their role. They want and need and are going to be stars: star students, star parents, star waitresses. They want to shine out as an inspiration to others. They set their goals. . . . The all-outs never quit. Even when the toll gets heavy, they’re dedicated. They’re committed."

To be committed, you must be "all in." You can’t just do the best you can. You have to do everything you can. Remember, the difference between 100 percent ‘all in’ and 99 percent ‘all in’ is 100 percent.

 When I think of commitment, I think of the story of the Pig and the Chicken walking down the road.

 The Chicken says: "Hey Pig, I was thinking we should open a restaurant!"

The Pig replies: "Hmmm, what would we call it?"

The Chicken responds: "How about “Ham-n-Eggs?”"

The Pig thinks for a moment and says: "No thanks. I’d be committed, but you’d only be involved!"

No. 8 August 2013

I recently read a blog article by Bernadette Jiwa titled, “The Secret of Disruptive Innovations.” Her examples and conclusions will make you “think twice” about what you thought you knew about the effect of disruptive innovations on yourself and your business.

“When the online eyewear retailer Warby Parker began selling boutique-quality glasses at a $95 price point, they weren’t just trying to undercut the bigger players in the industry. Of course, they did that and more, growing the company by 500 percent in just a year and mostly by word of mouth.

“The average customer who needs glasses buys a pair every 2.1 years. Warby Parker set out to make glasses something that customers would buy in multiples as fashion statements; much like women buy shoes and bags. They wanted customers to view them as accessories they could change to match occasions or moods. And while price combined with

quality enables the company to tell a different story than other retailers, what changes everything is the story the customer now tells himself about how many pairs of glasses he can own and how often he should buy new ones. Many of Warby Parker’s customers buy six or seven pairs of glasses at a time and not just when their prescription expires.

“AirBnB made people long to experience a destination like a local hotel without the $8 price tag for nuts from the mini-bar. Apple changed how we feel about buying a whole album, including the songs we didn’t care about. Amazon’s Kindle made us think of airport bookstores as reference libraries where we browse but don’t buy.

“The secret of disruptive innovations and business models isn’t that they disrupt an industry. It’s that they disrupt people. They change how people feel about something enough to change how they behave.

It’s entirely possible to look into the future and think about how your customer might be changed tomorrow as a result of what you do today. While ‘the industry’ works on the assumption that the larvae of today will just be bigger caterpillars tomorrow, the disruptor imagines butterflies.”

One day an entrepreneur took his young sales manager Bill up to a magnificent estate overlooking a beautiful river. He then took him up on the highest peak on the property, put his arm around him, pointed down, and said: “Look at that stunning home and gorgeous swimming pool! How do you like those fabulous tennis courts? Take a look at those beautiful horses in the stable. Now, all I want you to do is continue to meet the high standards and goals I’ve set for you and someday, Bill…someday, all this will be mine.”

The following blog title recently caught my attention: “Why You Shouldn’t Strive for Perfection.”  Reading that statement made my blood pressure rise.  

A little further reading made it go up even more, as I read about a writing professor who presented his class with this assignment: 1. Write something that is just ‘so-so.’ 2. Do some research or get some feedback from a mentor or teacher. 3. Try again to make it better.” I wondered to myself, “Why would anyone strive to do something just “so-so” instead of always doing the best that they could do?”

The author’s three-part explanation for not striving for perfection all the time read as follows: “1. When you work toward making something just ‘so-so,’ it takes all the anxiety and fear out of the experience. 2. Once you’re not worried about failing, you can concentrate on your task. 3. As you work toward step #3, ‘make it better,’ you are acknowledging that

there’s plenty to learn.”

And finally, there was the following three-part summary: “1. In learning a new skill, don’t focus on perfection. 2. Make your goal to produce something ‘OK,’ then get some help, and then make improvements. 3. Rinse and repeat until you are satisfied.”

I suppose that the words about working to a “so-so” or “OK” result struck me the wrong way. My comment I left on that blog follows, first, with a quote by legendary football coach Vince Lombardi and then my personal comment.

The Lombardi quote: “Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in being just good.”

Then, I commented, “In my long business career, I have never strived to be ‘so-so’ or ‘OK’ at doing anything. I have always strived to be the best I could be, never expecting perfection, but always striving for it. I can’t imagine my managers and employees doing their jobs expecting the results to be ‘so-so.’ Learning and improving are part of any process. But the expectation should always be to do or be the best you can.”

What do you think? Should you strive to do an “OK” job, or should you strive to always do your very best?

No. 7 July 2013

I know you read the headlines in 2012 about Ron Johnson, the Apple vice president, who was hired away from Apple to become the president of J.C. Penney (“Penney”). By the spring of 2013, he was gone — fired by the Penney board of directors. I wanted to find out why, because I was sure there were some good business lessons to be learned. As it turns out, there is much to be learned from what Johnson did and did not do at Penney.

When Johnson arrived at Penney, he found a culture of sales, markdowns and coupons — exactly the opposite of Apple’s culture of high prices and a very high level of service to go with it. In Penney’s culture, I’m sure Johnson saw that constantly changing prices in the stores took lots of manual labor. At Apple, there were no surprises in margins and gross profit, managing to budgets was easier, and there was more efficiency throughout the enterprise. Inventories were stable at Apple, and there were no whiplash effects of selling thousands of an item one week and none the next week because of discounting and coupons.

The interesting fact was that Penney customers were actually not paying less in the old culture. Penney just kept raising prices and then discounted those prices during promotions. The average markdown was 50 percent. Low consumer prices were really a mirage. But Penney customers were conditioned to wait for deals and sales, partially because they did not have a good sense of what an item was really worth.

Alexander Chernev, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, summed up the faults in Johnson’s strategy this way: “By going to everyday low and ‘fair’ pricing with a single non-discountable price, Johnson assumed consumers have some context for how much items should cost. But they don’t. Penney might say it’s a fair price, but why should consumers trust Penney?” Chernev asked. “At the end of the day, people don’t want a fair price. They want a great deal. Consumers infer that they get a great deal based on the reference point provided by the higher, presale price. Social scientists refer to this idea as anchoring, and it applies to all sorts of consumer behavior and expectations. Without that anchor, consumers have trouble determining whether the store is actually giving them a good price.”

A Journal of Retailing study says, “Even the words a retailer uses in its marketing can affect how a customer judges a deal — ‘sale’ or ‘special’ leads people to think the item has a high value, but a straight markdown leads them to think it’s a cheaper item.”

In the old Penney culture, limited-time sales lured customers into the stores, which was very important because Penney doesn’t have a differentiated, high-value product like Apple. Also, coupons were effective in drawing in a broader consumer base — one shopper to buy at a high price, and a more price-sensitive shopper to buy the same item at a lower price.

Which retailers have been able to make everyday low pricing successful? Those that take narrow profit margins like Costco and Wal-Mart. Costco almost never runs sales and doesn’t adjust prices much, but it depends a great deal on annual membership fees for profit. Wal-Mart makes up for low margins with huge volumes of customers that come to its stores. But there was no such clarity at Penney. Penney told its customers to expect low prices — but not the lowest prices. Penney could not communicate exactly how much its shoppers were saving with everyday low pricing, and regular Penney shoppers became confused and stayed away.

Now, we’re reading that Penney employee layoffs have affected employee morale at Penney. Will good customer service be the next thing to go away at Penney?

Harvey Mackay reminds us that one of the most important things employees can remember when they come to work every day is “that their primary job is to provide incredible customer service.” That’s the culture you want in your business.

Mackay goes on to say, “Perhaps the simplest way of creating a service culture is a variation of the golden rule: Treat your customers as you wish to be treated.  Make your customers excited that you’re in business. Make them grateful that they have the opportunity to buy your services and products. Make them feel like they are your most important client. Make your service so outstanding that they wouldn’t even think of doing business with anyone else. And then find a way to make your service even better! Remember: Customer service is not a department, it’s everyone’s job.”

No. 12 December 2012

I remember the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners that Mom would fix for our family of four plus six to eight relatives that lived nearby.  They really weren’t “dinners” so much as they were “feasts,” in the Roman meaning of the word.  An immense amount of delicious food, including occasionally, dreaded brussel-sprouts or creamed pearl onions that my brother and I always said we didn’t like, but gobbled up along with everything else, because all the food tasted so good. 

What made up a typical Holiday “feast?”  For starters, it was a roasted turkey pulled out of the oven about an hour before dinner, and carved shortly thereafter.  There was always a wonderful sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and turkey giblet gravy, luscious cranberry salad with nuts and real cranberries in it; regular cranberry sauce; a plate of stuffed celery; southern style green beans; the aforementioned creamed pearl onions; an orange Jell-O salad with mandarin oranges; LeSeur baby green peas; a platter of Honey Baked Ham slices; warm rolls right out of the oven; and a platter of different types of pickles and olives. Once a serving plate or bowl was placed on the table, many believed that every spoonful taken out was magically replaced by an additional spoonful in the bottom of the bowl or plate making it virtually impossible to empty!.  I never believed that, but we did wonder sometimes.  Once you ate all you could, there was never room for desert, so desert was planned for several hours later (not that there would be any more room then either.). 

Next it was time for someone to be the first to get up from the table.  Moving is a very difficult thing to do after a big meal.  It seems like a nice concept, but it takes a huge effort to accomplish.  I’d look across the table at one of my uncles and wish I could say, “Uncle Bill, drag me over to the big brown sofa and stretch me out on it so I can get a nap.”  I came close to saying that more than once, but ultimately I knew Uncle Bill wanted that spot on the brown sofa as much as I did.  And the race was on!

Desert deserves its own paragraph.  If you peeked at all the homemade desserts that typically appeared before each holiday dinner including a fresh coconut cake, a chocolate cake, an apple pie, a mincemeat pie, a sweet potato pie, a southern-style pecan pie, and vanilla ice cream, you would become so overwhelmed that you would think you were going to pass out.  We were always asked two questions: “What do you want for dessert, or do you want a little bit of everything?”  Can you imagine the size of that plate with a little bit of everything on it?  Someone would have to wash the turkey platter first and use it for “a little bit of everything!”  Memories of wonderful food, visiting relatives and just being with family nourish us year-round.  

During this Holiday season, don’t forget to share your bountiful blessings and food with those less fortunate or suffering from the effects of Hurricane Sandy.  They deserve our assistance, and our prayers.

Good leaders in business have a way of deeply connecting with their employees and co-workers.  One way they do this is by really listening to the people who work for them.  They pay attention to what people are telling them and take it seriously.  They are quick to implement ideas and they are quick to give credit to the person who had the idea.  Likewise, they are willing to accept blame and criticism when mistakes are made.  And they never abandon their employees.

Walter Bemis, in his book “On Becoming a Leader,” details what he believes to be the differences between leaders and managers.  Some are worth mentioning.  “A manager accepts the status quo; a leader challenges it.  A manager relies on control; a leader inspires trust.  A manager has a short-range view; a leader has a long-range perspective.  A manager maintains; a leader develops.  A manager administers; a leader innovates.  A manager focuses on systems and structure; a leader focuses on people.  A manager asks how and when; a leader asks what and why.  And a manager has his eye on the bottom line; a leader has his eye on the horizon.  Read through the list one more time and think about which attributes might improve your leadership abilities.

Harvey Mackay’s recent blog about the effect of good leadership on a business had a terrific quote by a college professor about how one goes about spotting a leader.  The professor said, “I have come to the conclusion that the only way one can determine a leader is to look at the person and…see if anybody is following.”

Happy Holidays.  Be thankful.  Share.  Pray.  And most of all, smile, so someone else will too.

No. 10 October 2012

Researchers at the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine questioned 243 people age 100 or older. They found that centenarians tend to share certain personality traits (in addition to other factors, like genetics).

In general, these long-lived people are: “outgoing; positive-minded about other people; full of laughter, open with their emotions; conscientious and disciplined; and unlikely to obsess about anxieties or guilt.  The scientists point out that these characteristics don't necessarily represent a cause and effect relationship.”

They did notice, however, that in many cases the personality traits they observed weren't necessarily lifelong tendencies, but behaviors their subjects learned as they grew older.

Focusing on the good and not worrying about the negatives may have a very positive impact on your overall life expectancy.

Every problem does have a solution.  And sometimes those solutions turn out to be quite creative as the following story indicates:

A woman had traveled about six miles in a taxi when she discovered that she had left her wallet at home.  Realizing that she had a problem, she knew that she had to take some kind of action. So about a block short of her destination she leaned forward and told the driver:  "Stop at this hardware store. I need to buy a flashlight so I can look for the hundred dollar bill that I dropped back here."   When she came out of the hardware store, the taxi was gone.  And her “problem” was solved!

I recently returned from traveling overseas recently for a little more than three weeks with my wife.  Near the end of the trip, our small group was traveling through Estonia, ready to cross over into Russia to visit St. Petersburg for a few days.

Unlike the open and free border crossings between EU members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the crossing into Russia was met by gates and fences and a large passport control building.  We sat on our bus waiting for something to happen for about 20 minutes.  We were then instructed by the Russian border agents to remove our primary luggage from under the bus and take it into the building.  Each of us showed our passports to the single agent sitting in his passport control office.  Besides having to have a current passport, the agent was also checking to see if we each had our Russian Visa’s (the only visa needed on the entire trip.) 

Now comes the interesting part. The young lady who was our guide and translator for the entire three weeks was last in line. Once she was processed, the young Russian passport control agent asked her an enlightening question:  “Why are American’s always smiling when they have nothing to smile about?”  She responded that American’s are always happy, enjoy life, and they smile a lot naturally.

We discovered that Russians in particular, and Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians young and old alike only smile when they have something to smile about.  Throughout the trip, we realized how much the three Baltic countries and the Russian people suffered under Czarist Russia control, German control during WWII, and Soviet Union control after WWII.  Smiling was a hard thing to do for decades as hundreds of thousands of citizens were killed by the Germans and later the KGB or deported to Siberia. 

Say a prayer tonight for the souls of these brave people killed in the Baltic countries and Russia since 1919, and for the relatively peaceful lives we have lived in this great country we call the United States of America.  We are so lucky to be living here untouched by many of the cruel realities of the world.

Curtis Carlson, founder of the Carlson Companies, spent his life building great businesses. When asked what personal qualities contributed to the building of his successful empire, Curt responded, "I think my success is the result of my ability to see and to imagine how things could be.  I'm not distracted by how things are."  Don’t let “how things are today” keep you from improving and growing your business for success tomorrow.

Having a goal and the vision of what it will take to reach it are important attributes for any business owner or manager.  Share the goal and the vision with your team.  You want them to buy into the dream and to be as excited as you are about being successful and reaching your business goals.  The power of a group of people all focused on reaching the same goal is amazing.  I truly believe anything becomes possible.  Try it and see for yourself.

No. 9 September 2012

There was a recent Wall Street Journal article about computers and the algorithms that drive them invading areas of our life that might seem too personal for automation.  

Here’s a great example that you can easily relate to:  We are all familiar with the words “this call may be recorded for quality or training purposes.”  When you hear that phrase, it might also mean that your call may be monitored by a computer algorithm. 

There is a company called Mattersight that has developed more than five million eavesdropping algorithms that use only the words you say in a three-minute conversation to determine your personality type, what you want, and how you might be most easily and quickly satisfied by a customer service agent.  The software divides people into six sorts of personalities.  According to the WSJ article, “The next time you call, the algorithms, recognizing your phone number, will route you to an agent with a personality similar to your own, which results in calls that are half as long and reach happy resolutions 92% of the time, compared with 47% otherwise, according to an assessment of 1,500 customer service calls at Vodafone, the European telecom company.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to have to think about this for a while.  Should I like these eavesdropping algorithms that ensure my customer service experience will be superb?  Or is there something I’m not thinking about; something I should be worried about?  Let me know what you think or how you feel about this.

Earl Weaver came on board as the manager of the Baltimore Orioles in 1968.  Although he was ejected from 91 games, kicked dirt at the umpires, and had the foulest mouth in baseball, many thought he had panache and a wicked sense of humor. Here’s a great example of that humor:  “Following one altercation with an umpire, Weaver headed toward the dugout screaming, ‘I'm going to check the rule-book on that!’  When the umpire taunted, ‘Here, use mine.’  Weaver yelled back, "That's no good - I can't read Braille!”

Back in the 1950’s, my Dad would drive our family 12 to 17 hours to visit my grandfather (Mom’s Dad and extended family) at their family farm about a mile from the Hudson River in the Catskill Mountains.  In those days, Dad would throw a spare fuel pump and a water pump in the trunk in case the car broke down.  When we regularly approached a very big and very tall bridge on the route, Dad would always say “I sure hope we make it to the top because if we break down going up it’s going to be really tricky backing down this side against traffic.”  And if we did make it to the top, at least we could roll down the other side if the car broke down.  I remember our car actually breaking down or over-heating more than once going up that extremely tall bridge.  And you can imagine the adventure of having to roll backwards back down the bridge against traffic. As you’ve guessed, cars in those days were not very reliable on long trips, accounting for the 5 hour variation in our one-way yearly vacation travel time

Within a day or two of our arrival, Dad would take a bus back home by himself, a trip usually lasting 24 hours or more, leaving the car for Mom to use.  And then in a couple of weeks he would make that long bus ride back to drive us home.  Looking back, I know the sacrifice he made making that bus trip both ways, plus driving the car by himself taking the family up and back home was truly a sign of how much he loved us.  Sometimes looking back and remembering is the best way to really appreciate how lucky we were and how much we were loved growing up.

Isn’t it amazing how a timely rainfall and the resulting green grass can make us feel better overnight.  It’s a powerful antidote for what doesn’t make us feel better such as politics and news headlines.