No. 4 April 2012

Spring is a time of renewal for plants and crops, flowers and even people.  A spring shower refreshes and deep-cleans the air.  Afterwards, I always take a deep breath outside because that refreshing air is so very special.  The first several lawn-mowing’s adds the scent of freshly cut grass to the air and on a cool spring morning that scent puts a spring in your step – no pun intended.  Forsythia and ornamental Bradford Pear trees bloom first, putting pops of yellow and white across the landscape.  White and pink dogwoods and redbud and cherry trees’ pink blossoms follow quickly.  Azaleas are the real star of the show.  Their bright hues of pink, red, purple or white blooms, and especially those found on large varieties, make front yards in my part of the country become showcases of color.

I’m starting to feel pretty good just writing about spring, and I haven’t even touched on our outdoor-related (landscape and hardscape) and outdoor power equipment-related businesses beginning to get really busy.  What’s not to like about this season of the year?  Plus, spring is appearing early.

Okay, Mr. Perpetually-Grumpy, I know I neglected to mention pollen, allergies, hay-fever and runny noses.  I grew up with sinus infections, hay-fever and allergies, so that makes me an official allergy sufferer and survivor.  But, remembering my mantra about our lives being about the choices we make every day, I choose to focus on the beauty and renewal of spring and the beginning of our industry’s busy business season.  I’m smiling and you should be too.

My refrigerator is in my living room.  Now I’m not recommending that you keep your refrigerator in your living room.  It’s just that every time I think about this, it makes me laugh, so I thought I’d share that fact with you. 

No, it doesn’t belong in my living room, but it has been there for several weeks and will probably be there for several more.  Where it used to be is now 100 per cent gutted and empty, on purpose.  The polite word for describing this home project is “remodeling” the kitchen.  More accurate ways of describing it are  “a fine layer of dust covering everything you own” and “eating dust.”   The rumor is that “it will all be worth it.”  There’s no doubt in my mind that it will.  But it does bring back memories of days in the U.S. Army military police directing tank convoy traffic in the dust at night with one small flashlight in my hand.  Now that was “eating dust!”

Here’s an interesting fact you need to know:  You do not need a parachute to skydive.  Now I know that statement is a little troublesome.  But let me finish the statement:  You do not need a parachute to skydive.  You only need a parachute to skydive twice.  It’s amazing what you can learn by doing a little reading.

Speaking of reading, did you know that only one-third of elementary- and middle-school students are competent in reading, math and science according to an editorial in the March 20 edition of the Wall Street Journal?  And did you realize that “compared to their peers in industrial countries, American 15-year-old Americans rank 14^th in reading, 25^th in math and 17^th in science.”  The editorial goes on to say “Less than five percent of US college students graduate with engineering degrees, while in China that percentage is 33 percent. Thirty percent of high school graduates can’t even pass the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery tests.”  This country desperately needs a better educated workforce who “can keep the U.S economy strong and innovative amid global completion, and the workforce we need requires skills in reading, math and science, as well as foreign languages and cultures. 

Throwing more money at education is the easy way out of making tough decisions.  I know that isn’t the solution anyway, based on the results I’ve seen in my community, and read about in other communities.  I’d be willing to bet that more money coming out of your taxpayer pockets each year really hasn’t improved the results in your community’s school system very much, if at all. 

I always liked the following adage:  Although no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end.  It’s all about making the right choices and knowing where you want to end up.

No. 6 June 2011

Helloooooooooo, Spring?  Are you there?  Do you know it’s June already?  Good grief, it’s past the beginning of hurricane season and you’re nowhere to be seen.  You certainly picked a terrible time to hide.  We thought you arrived in March, but you had us fooled.  Then April came along and the weather turned wet and very cool again.  You realize you’ve really messed up OPE retailers’ and manufacturers’ visions of a great OPE spring selling season they thought had begun in March?  Now large inventories of OPE equipment can be found at all levels of the sales channel.  I suppose we’ll just give up on you, Spring, and look for your cousin “Summer.”  You see, we’ve found Summer to always be a whole lot more reliable than you.  So we’re all planning on selling lots of OPE equipment and service during the Summer season to meet what we hope is lots of pent-up demand.

By the way, Spring, please make sure your cousin Fall is here on time for a change.  We could use a nice surprise.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, gives a little speech to employees when they're promoted to Vice President at Apple, according to Adam Lashinsky in a recent and very interesting Fortune magazine article entitled “Inside Apple."

“Jobs tells a newly promoted VP that if the garbage in his (Job’s) office is not being emptied regularly for some reason, he would ask the janitor what the problem is. The janitor would reasonably respond by saying, ‘Well, the lock on the door was changed, and I couldn't get a key.’”  Though irritated, Jobs knows this is an understandable excuse for why the janitor couldn't do his job. As a janitor, he's allowed to have excuses.  "When you're the janitor, reasons matter," Jobs tells newly minted VP’s. 

"Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering," says Jobs.  “The Rubicon is crossed when you become a VP.   In other words, you have no excuses for failures. You are now responsible for any mistakes that happen, and it doesn't matter what you say.” 

Being a successful boss or manager does have its responsibilities and its rewards for success.  And as Jobs states, “there are real consequences for not being successful at higher levels of management.”  I guess we could call it “paying the piper.”  If you want to “play” you have to be willing to accept those consequences.  Are you?

There was a recent front page story in the San Francisco Chronicle, about a female humpback whale who became entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, and torso, including a line tugging in her mouth. 

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands (outside the San Francisco Bay) and radioed an environmental group for help.

Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her.

They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her.

When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles.

She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around - she was thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.

The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.

The best part of this story is that it is true!

Harvey MacKay tells recent college graduates as they start to learn the realities of the business world that “they will have to pay their dues.”  He also advises them that “You can't start at the top and work your way up.”  That would be a very hard and very short “trip.

The next time you’re thanking God for all you blessings, say a prayer for all those affected by tornado’s in the southeast and Midwestern United States.  They need your prayers and your support.  It very easily could have been you and me.

No. 4 April 2010

As I write this column on Friday, March 19, the sun is out and the temperature is expected to reach 70 degrees.  The beautiful weather is forecast to continue right through this early spring weekend.  The nice weather really makes it hard to stay focused on work.  I keep looking out the window wishing I was outside.  Anybody in a business related to the outdoor power equipment industry knows the feeling you get when the weather begins turning away from winter and closer to spring.  It makes your pulse race a little quicker!  It makes you smile!  You know “our time” is coming.  Spring has just about “sprung!”

Dealers and service centers have already purchased more parts and accessories for the 2010 spring season than they did last year by this time.  Most appear to have had a successful 2009, even as consumers continued not to have much to feel good about.  Our good year in 2009 reflected the generally good year our dealers and service centers had.  And we’re optimistic about 2010.  I hope you are too!

Speaking of “hope,” in Greek mythology there is a story about Pandora, who opened her fabled box and let out all evils except for hope.  The Greeks considered hope to be an evil like any other.  But soon humanity discovered that without hope to offset their troubles, the world was filled with despair. So Pandora let out hope as well. In the myth, hope was more potent than any of the other major evils.

In modern times, we consider hope to be anything but evil. It's what gets many of us through our worst days.  Lingering unemployment, foreclosure, dwindling retirement funds, businesses folding — any of these could make a person lose hope.

Fortunately, Pandora recognized the relevance of hope — an element that is critical to our very existence. In the current business climate, hope is what keeps us from throwing in the towel. I'm a realist, but I'm also an optimist. And while hope and optimism are not exactly the same, they are intrinsically linked.

I recently read that:  “All of life’s problems can be solved with two things—duct tape and WD40. If it doesn’t move and it should, you need WD40.  If it moves and it shouldn’t, you need duct tape.”  Give it try some time when nothing else seems to work.

The Outdoor Power Equipment and Engine Service Association (OPEESA) recently held their annual members meeting out in “toasty” Arizona on February 28 to March 3.  I suspect a lot of your suppliers -  whether OEM’s or distributors - attended the meeting.

Todd Teske, the CEO of Briggs & Stratton talked about the state of the OPE industry.” The returning and very popular economist Brian Beaulieu provided solid information about the current economy and what’s coming next.  Steve McClatchy discussed the “Business of You” and how to gain balance between your business and personal lives.  Industry speakers like Todd Teske and business and economic speakers like Brian Beaulieu made the meeting very worthwhile and fulfilling to attend..

I know when we get our dealers and service centers together for various types of meetings, they discover that they get their best ideas and take-aways from other attendees. Likewise, when we attend an association meeting like OPEESA’s, we take away just as many ideas and learnings from other attendees as we do from the speakers.  So the next time you don’t “feel like” attending a meeting, remember there is always a lot of value in being with and learning from people who face the same opportunities and problems you do.

You don’t need a dictionary to understand a title Robert Schuller’s inspirational book, Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do.

Caterina Fake is the co-founder of the photo-sharing Web site Flickr.  And she hates meetings.  When she use to have to hold a meeting, this is how she structured it:  “There would be an agenda distributed before the meeting.  Everybody would stand.  At the beginning of the meeting, everybody would drink 16 ounces of water.  We would discuss everything on the agenda, make all the decisions that needed to be made, and the meeting would be over when the first person had to go to the bathroom.”   Following her meeting rules, I believe we would have a lot of short meetings in my company or we would hold them in a bathroom!