Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
— Og Mandino
True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. — Helen Keller
One of the interesting things we've discovered over the years is when we buy our local competition we realize we didn't have as much business from some customers as we assumed. Turns out, the acquired company had far more business than we thought— with different contacts, projects and expectations. We weren't as deep and wide as we thought.
As far as compensation, our reps generally get a higher percentage for new accounts— but it can vary based on quoted prices. Our color reps do not generally have a sliding scale but our AEC reps generally slide after time. We are currently exploring a scale that either doesn't slide or has perimeters on ways for reps to be rewarded for increasing new business in existing accounts. We are also creating perimeters to encourage our "1:5" reps in specialty areas (FM's, Doc Mgmt, Variable Date) to involve "30" reps in the sales process. (A whole other can of worms.)
Deep and wide. New business in existing business. Team Selling...
I think the focus needs to shift to treating "new business" in "existing businesses" equally as valuable as finding a whole new account.
This is not to say that new accounts are not a focus. We believe that by finding new contacts within our existing accounts amazingly allows us to grow our network and get "new accounts" through referrals rather than always cold calling. Some of the best reps in our business tell me they never cold call. I've also heard this from people like Jeffery Gitomer and other sales gurus. (This is of course once you get going - paying those dues.)
We find that in most cases our reps were not going "deep and wide" enough.
Sales compensation is a very complex issue within Repro circles and beyond.
In the past, many companies built compensation plans wrapped around the idea of getting new accounts. Others also added reactivation of old accounts who stopped doing business. Upon research, observation and conversations with many of you I've shifted my philosophy.
Recognizing the idea that it is getting increasingly more expensive to get new accounts rather than increase existing business, I believe we must develop compensation plans that reflect these trends.
In other words, continue to reward reps for new accounts but eliminate the conflicts caused by reducing percentages too much on existing accounts. The reality is that many reps stop calling on existing accounts because they get a smaller commission. Instead they spend 10 times more time "cold calling" rather than developing deeper networks within their current portfolio.
To be continued....
"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others."
The economy of any civilization is the system whereby resources of value are exchanged. These resources can best be divided into three categories: compensation, product, and culture.
The economy of compensation is the exchange of currency or benefits you offer to your employees in exchange for work. The rates at which you compensate your employees will affect all other components of your work civilization. Turnover. Morale. Effect.
The economy of product is the exchange you make with your customers. This includes the sum of all that goes into creating your product or service, including technology and employee knowledge. When another company can duplicate your technology or you loose an employee to another company, you lose a piece of your economy.
“Trust is the most valuable economic currency in your civilization.”
The culture of your work civilization is a combination of personality, expression, tradition, and custom unique to your group. Although in part codified in your civilization’s written laws, culture goes much deeper into the psychological fiber of your people—unwritten laws of behavior set the expectations for your culture to follow. One of the hardest things for a leader to control is the unwritten law of the civilization.
“In a reprographics environment, you have many distinct cultures: sales, production, corporate and management. Together they form your overall company culture; apart each strives to achieve their interpretation of the company vision, and yet each takes a different path based on a unique cultural perspective.“
Every civilization will naturally include written laws or procedures. Your first form of written law should be a comprehensive business plan. All the procedures in your company’s plan should be extensions of your company’s vision and mapped out in strategies from which all initiatives derive.
Job descriptions, employee handbooks, learning programs, quality control programs, safety manuals, and contracts are other forms of written law within your civilization. These define the guidelines within which you expect your employees to conduct their job duties. How you write and implement these laws can have tremendous impact on how your people interpret the vision of your company, as well as give them a feeling of how much value you place on them personally.
Even well intentioned visions fail unless they have quality leadership. This means leadership throughout the organization- executive, management, production, drivers ... The only way to develop leadership at all these levels is to teach, coach and empower people consistently and with corporate passion.
“A leader is a vision with flesh.”
Whatever your motive level, you must maintain a profit in order to survive. This is the ultimate gauge of success. Every decision you make must take into account your profit motive. It is my opinion that you will never succeed unless you consider both types of profit.
Within your workplace, your company‘s vision can best be summarized in a clearly stated mission or vision statement, elaborated in a regularly updated business plan, and engrained into the culture within your work civilization.
Sadly, most employees don’t know their company’s reason for existence.
To lead people, you must first understand how groups form and develop. Civilizations develop and there are five components to every civilization.
1. VISION
Every civilization known to man has had a god, a hope, or a vision. A vision is an understanding of your reason for existence and your concept of how that existence can reach maximum reward heaven wealth, recognition, self-gratification. Often the term success is used to describe maximum reward.
In business the business civilization success being aware of why you are in business—your reason for existence. For business, there really is only one real reason—profit. No business or organization enters into existence unless they are seeking some form of profit.
Your success is measured by one thing: Profit.
As a leader, your mission is twofold: eliminate problems that are moving your civilization away from profit, and encourage positives that are moving your civilization toward profit.
Unfortunately, we often focus on problems and forget the positives. If you don’t recognize, reinforce, and improve upon your civilization positives, their continuance falls to chance. Conversely, we must also recognize problems and eliminated problems.
Because people are the engine of your company, the logical place to become aware of problems is by listening to your staff. Unfortunately, many leaders fail to clearly assess potential here for two reasons: desensitization and isolationism.
People who work in a civilization where leaders are desensitized and isolated fall into survival mode. This creates a culture where people become political rather than productive, causing them to give in to the lowest level of their character.
I believe one of the obstacles we have in selling document management systems is the fact that the product is intangible.
Such a void has created a sort of psychological scotoma in our attempts to sell a product we can't touch and feel. I think our customers have a similar emptiness after they sign up for a subscription or service and have nothing to hold in their hands, nothing to put on their desk, and nothing to show their co-workers. I think by creating a well-marketed and tangible package, we can overcome many of the problems we have had in the past promoting our document management solutions.
A few years ago, we did some research to determine the makeup of our redos. The results were very revealing. Statistically, approximately 60% of redos were due to production, 20% were due to sales, 10% were due to the customer, and about 10% were due to technology or uncontrollable circumstances.
The first observation is that production was not responsible for all the redos. Often they are blamed for 100% of them, and this can create tension between sales and production. Second, when sales make a mistake, it is usually 5-10 times more expensive. Third, the average redo took four hours to correct. [Disclaimer : We didn't count jobs that were caught before they left the building as a redo.] Fourth, and most important, 99% of all redos could have been prevented in less than one minute.
The illusion is that quality is a time waster hovering over you like a watchful big brother. But the reality the reality is that a lack of quality control means pain, and the struggle to survive.
I was looking back on some customer service training I did a few years ago and came across an acrostic for the word "team."
T = Together
E = Everyone's
A = Ability
M = Multiplies
What a powerful way to describe the exponential power of a team. Together, we truly multiply everyone's ability to succeed by combining strengths and overcoming each others weaknesses.
People don't like to be sold- but they love to buy.
- Jeffery Gitomer
One of the greatest joy's in life is teaching your child lessons about life. I've been blessed to see his little eyes sparkle as he discovered art. I taught him to swing a bat. Catch a short pass. Make a basket. Last week I had to teach him how to mourn.
With the passing of his dear grandmother, Karen Suanne Pack, my little boy had to learn what it was like to loose someone very dear to his heart. She died in a fatal auto accident last Monday night and we spent the week working through the grieving process.
My prayer for all of you is that you cherish the moments you have with love ones, realizing that at any time God can call them home. 
One of the greatest joy's in life is teaching your child lessons about life. I've been blessed to see his little eyes sparkle as he discovered art. I taught him to swing a bat. Catch a short pass. Make a basket. Last week I had to teach him how to mourn.
With the passing of his dear grandmother, Karen Suanne Pack, my little boy had to learn what it was like to loose someone very dear to his heart. She died in a fatal auto accident last Monday night and we spent the week working through the grieving process.
My prayer for all of you is that you cherish the moments you have with love ones, realizing that at any time God can call them home.
I sometimes think we fail to recognize the power of words. Words flow freely from our lips. Words splash across the pages of memos, emails, and training documents. Words are everywhere, but I think, sometimes we take a line of sequenced letters for granted.
Yesterday, someone told me they are sometimes confused with our document management "language." This someone is a very intelligent and well-respected member of our team. She told me when she goes to conferences or speaks with the "experts" big words float indiscriminately without regard to the listeners understanding. I've noticed a lot of this word arrogance lately. It seems like the more technical knowledge we gain the more temptation we have to use words as way of propping up our confidence. Other times, we innocently speak a speical language forgetting the speed of knowledge absorption often lags behind.
Twenty years ago our pool of words were stationary in time. New words entered the vernacular slowly, and we had time to learn their meaning. Today, words pour into conversations from every direction. It's hard for even the most intelligent to keep up.
Words may show a man's wit, but actions his meaning. [Benjamin Franklin]
Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
[Unknown]
I'm currently working on a leadership program for our company and was researching the topic when I found a great article from the Dallas Morning News on The Container Store. The story explores how the company is wrapped around selling "time and efficiency." Their CEO explains that in order to succeed they must also have employees that are experts in "time and efficiency." Two traits that are very rare to find.
Leadership is not something that you do to someone, but with someone. —Melissa Reiff
People don't want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.
Theodore Levitt, Harvard Professor
In 2000, Proctor & Gamble had to make a choice. For a century they had the most powerful Research and Development department in product history. Everything was developed internally. But during the late 90's they started to loose money and had to do something to turnaround the company. New CEO A.G. Lafley decided to look for new ideas from external sources.
In Henry W. Chesbrough's book Open Business Models, he describes how successful inward-looking companies must look outside themselves in order to maintain innovation in the new marketplace. The term is the “open source” business model, or the "open" business model. At first, this seems like an expensive venture— hiring consultants, vendors, outside companies. At times true, but for most companies it can merely involve including an intertwining of customer, marketplace observation, and frontline employee feedback in your development. (I mention frontline employee, because often they are "closed" from your normal business planning.)
They key is listening and learning how to disseminate the information into relevant information. In future blogs, we'll look at some methods to work in an open source marketplace.
I know it's a cliche we've heard for years, but a look into the future reminds us the importance of retaining great employees. The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that "our economy will create 10 million more workers in 2010 our labor force can provide." That's a lot of green grass on the other side! Basically, if you have superior skills you should be able to keep a very good job. This will create a competitive marketplace for the best employees to work in our companies.
As technology and customer relationships become more complex, the need for a top quality employee is even more critical. From my personal experience I find that an "A" employee provides me 120-200% more value than an average "C" employee.
"How many assets do you have in your business that will be more valuable in 10 years? 20 years?
What you don't appreciate you take for granted. What you take for granted you loose.
Sorry for the recent drought in posts, I've had a crazy week of kidney stones and vertigo. Quite the mixture of manly ailments. Good news is I didn't experience some of the painful stories many of you shared with me last week. (Tubes, Tubs and Treatments) But I'm back in the repro saddle ready for action!
I can hear Bono singing now, "Hello, hello... (Hola) I'm at a place called Vertigo. It’s everything I wish I didn’t know....."
I know that word revolution is way overused and has become more name brand than descriptor of change. But I can't resist. Revolution is what we need in our industry. Over the years we've been given a pass because many of the construction clients we serve are reluctant to make the technology plunge.
Every generation needs a revolution. — Thomas Jefferson
For tech companies, this has always created a barrier into the industry. The good ole boys like my family, working with their hands and gang boxes has no real need to infuse any 'process management tools' or 'cost & risk management' software. It was a waste of time and ended up costing more than it was worth... — Tanner Bechtel, ReproMAX.
There's an old saying that "where there is no vision, the people will perish." I believe this equally applies to our product offerings, "where there is no vision, the product will perish."
Each of our products need to be treated like little businesses within our overall business. We must consider a variety of factors, just like we would in our strategic planning for our companies. Do we have a vision and mission plan? Do we have the core competency to support our product intellectually, culturally, technologically and economically? Are we properly positioning the product for the best competitive advantage? Can we sustain the time and courage it will take to get the new product profitable? Do we have any plan at all?
Each of our products need to be treated like little businesses within our overall business.
Often, our training strategy is to pass a new hire over to a "mentor." I guess the hope is that this "mentor" will properly train and guide our new employee into becoming a successful part of our organizational team.
Two problems.
First, many of these “mentors” have no teaching ability. In my years running a large production facility I can recall maybe ten of my employees I thought actually did an efficient job at training new hires. This is not a criticism of the other 90+ people.
Most skilled production people are not skilled teachers.
So many times we are so caught up in the uses and benefits of a product and fail to discover how our product reaches the heart of the customer. Does it save them time? Make their lives better? Does it improve their relationships with their customers, vendors and co-workers? Does it reach their heart?
There have been many great books lately explaining this heartfelt perspective. Seth Godin's "Purple Cow" teaches us the importance of being "remarkable." Joe Calloway demonstrated the importance of "Becoming a Category of One" by knowing your customer better than anyone else and by reaching them emotionally. Kevin Roberts' "Love Marks" gets a little mushier by using "love."
Marketing without heart is just another slick sales pitch.
[READ PART ONE HERE]
Today's business world demands us to think more artistically. In the business world, art is called “innovation.” In Part One, I described how people like Carlos Santana innovated by learning to mix musical styles and eras in a way far outside of his mental "box." Business is no different, requiring us to intertwine disciplines such as marketing, art, sociology, psychology and theatrics.
I think much of this new artistic zeal is for noble reasons, but I get the sense that much of it has to do with survival. I’ve noticed the people trying to get us out of boxes always follow up with some sort of scary consequence for inaction. Bankruptcy. Extinction. Layoffs. No raises. Divorce. Career suicide. Printing is going away. I guess that’s part of what motivated Santana.
Innovation /definition/
The art of inventing something new or merging ideas in a new way.
Monday we discussed the new IBM Power Chip 6 being released next month. I think recognizing the power of new technology is vital in our strategic planning. Here are some observations I've had in my travels. NONE of these are personal criticism's but merely an illustration on how fast innovation has changed our businesses (and lives).
1. Most reprographic executives know little about information technology. (I.T.)
2. We assume our I.T. personnel are up to speed and on the latest technology.
3. We assume we have the same time to adapt to technology as before.
4. We fail to see the future of technology and aim too near in the future.
As John Cronin states in his blog Planning Horizon, research proves change is not slowing its accelerating. The time when we could know everything about our business is over. We must make peace with that fact and lead accordingly.
The time when we could know everything about our business is over.
[WARNING: I.T. TESTOSTERONE ALERT]
IBM finally came through with the much anticipated Power6 microprocessor that goes on sale next month. With twice the speed of previous processors, the chip processes at 4.7 gigahertz— or 25 million times faster than a hummingbirds wings.
At a bandwidth of 300 gigabytes per second, IBM says the chip can download the complete iTunes music catalog (5 million songs) in around one minute. That's smokin'! (I can download my Kelly Clarkson and Celion Dion songs much faster.)
Why is this important to Reprographers? I reflect on a quote by Wayne Gretzky that John Cronin has beat into my head. When asked what the secret of his success Gretzky said, "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."
I think often we are aiming too near in the future on our I.T. infrastructure and strategic planning. Because our customers are generally behind technologically we have been granted mercy with the technology gods, but I believe a "tipping point" is coming. As older construction executives retire in the next few years a generation technologically-thinking men and women are waiting to unleash advanced business technology and theory into their companies. For the last few years, many of these technically-progressives have been frustrated by the lack of urgency of their older bosses and can't wait to push through technological initiatives. We must be ready as these companies tip.
The most difficult aspect of leadership today is leading technical employees in a world which you know little of their expertise. This puts a premium on finding people you can trust to provide accurate and relevant information needed to make vital organizational decisions.
In the world of Reprospeak these days, "branding" is a hot topic. Almost every conference I attend now has a session on how to rebrand your reprographic company. Ultimately, the push is to help reprographers reach more technical revenue streams. New name. New log. New attitude.
Becoming a Category of One is a book beyond the why's of rebranding and speaks to the how's. Calloway hits three sweet spots on the path toward customer loyalty.
1. Know more about the customer than anyone else does.
2. Get closer to the customer than anyone else.
3. Emotionally connect with the customer better than your competition.
I liked Calloway's passion in describing the power of being the "only one" in the marketplace that provides a service or product. By standing out in a category of "ONE," you create your own market where there is no competition. I think the business principles can easily be applied to each of us personally as well.
Calloway also stresses on the power of "doing the right thing" to accomplish social profit in the community each of us serve. Special thanks to Chuck Gremillion of A & E : The Graphics Complex in Houston for recommending this book and living out many of it's principles through his leadership and visible results.
The universe is made of stories, not atoms.
— Muriel Rukeyser
“When we refrain from giving, with a scarcity mentality, the little we have will become less. When we give generously, with an abundance mentally, what we give away will multiply.”
— Henri Nouwen
***** REBLOG FROM FEBRURARY 26 2007 *****
[SCARY WARNING: MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR SOME BLOGGERS]
Once upon a time a man was reading the latest Repro Report by a river outside of a large peaceful city. As he was reading, he looked across the glistening water and saw a dead body floating downstream. He quickly jumped in the water and pulled the dead body out. As he stacked the body on the side, soon another body floated by.
About that time, a man walked by and asked the him what he was doing. “I’m pulling dead bodies out of the river because if I don’t they will float to the large peaceful city and contaminate the drinking water and make the people sick—and that would be a terrible thing,” the first man said. “I’m an Océ operator at a Repro Shop and have plenty of experience stacking large rolls. I could help you save the city,” the second man said.
As the two men stacked bodies, even more bodies floated down the river. A third man walked by. “What are you guys doing?” he said. The first man said, “Bodies are floating down the river and if they reach the large peaceful city it will contaminate the water and that would be a terrible thing.”“I’m a sales rep at a Repro Shop and can offer you a document management system that you can—” The two men quickly interrupted, “We don’t need a document management system, we need help stacking these bodies.” “Okay,” said the sales rep.
About that time, another man walked by. “What are you guys doing?” he asked. Again the first man repeated, “bodies are floating down the river and if they reach the large peaceful city it will contaminate the water and that would be a terrible thing.” The man said, “We’ll, I’m a driver for a local Repro Shop and I have one question for you.” “What’s that?” said the three men. “Why don’t you go up to the end of the river and find out why some guy is throwing dead bodies in the river.”
MORAL: Sometimes we’re so busy fixing symptoms, we never cure the disease.
More reflections on the Breitbart article .
"The imperative is for studios to find as many frictionless transaction paths as possible for digital content," McGuire said. "An important component is embracing discovery tools on social networks."
"This is a tough business being a record label because they have to find new sources of revenue."
Check out the recent article on Breitbart about music sales and the future. This is a continuing conversation from my previous blog "The Long Tail, iTunes, & Reprographics."
Here are some of the interesting quotes.
Consumers are sending a message to artists that "while you may have put a lot of thought into the sequence of the album, I only like these three songs," said digital music industry analyst Michael McGuire of Gartner Research.
"It comes back to consumers being in complete control of their media experience, and that is not going backwards," Gartner told AFP while discussing the drop in album sales and the rise in single-song track purchases.
The day that I realized I could no longer do everything myself was a major step in my development as a person and a leader. I’ve always had vision, plenty of ideas, and vast amounts of energy. But then the vision gets bigger than you, you really only have two choices: give up on the vision or get help. I chose the latter.
- John Maxwell, from his latest book 25 Ways To Win with People
“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” — Zig Ziglar
“Reward employees while the sweat’s still on their brow."
— H. Ross Perot
Over the last few years, art has become an important part of my life. It's helped me see the world in much different ways— exploring my surroundings physically, spiritually and intellectually. I've come to realize that without a healthy appreciation of art and the power of creativity our personal growth is severely hindered— in all areas of life.
In the business world art is called “innovation.” I’m fascinated by the marketplace's artistic explosion. Businessmen, poets, scientists, marketers, researchers, artists, architects, and other disciplines mixing experience and perspective to create dynamic innovation.
There have been hundreds of books published in the last decade trying to get people of their boxes.
My deepest sympathies to the families and communities of Virgina and beyond. May God bring healing and restoration in the weeks to come.
My evil not prevail.
Let us also not forget the quite acts of violence that occur each day across the country.
As our industry changes, reprographers who focus on paper and toner will drown in a pool of multiplying competition. Staples. Kinko’s. UPS Store. AlphaGraphics. Those that thrive will develop into learning organizations that are able to transform from store fronts to solution fronts.
Learning organizations will develop a consultative attitude and become a resource for their clients in finding answers struggling in their own sea of change. The reality is that digital printing is a collision of communication, technology, knowledge and people. Proofs. Color Management. Compatibility. Redos. Upgrades. Customer Support. Training....
Complexity gives Reprographers an opportunity to dominate the competition by providing a refuge in a world of confusion.
Leadership is the beginning, middle and end in your quest for efficiency and profits.
As an owner or operations leader, your investment decisions will dramatically effect the future of your employees, clients and company. I am a big believer that you need leadership all the way through your organization.
Obviously, your front line managers will direct day-to-day success, but the leadership by your operators should not be underestimated. Their daily decisions in producing your product will determine overall quality control, customer service and sales. Often, leaders at the top forget the leadership needed at the bottom. Success is nurtured in a culture of leaders.
Choose your equipment carefully. Buy equipment to expand your current capabilities before you reach into unknown markets. Realize that equipment and people go together. Great equipment, with lots of features won’t do much good if your people don’t utilize your investment. Often, companies are tempted to “save” money after a big purchase by cutting back on training. We recommend you send as many operators as possible to your equipment manufacturers training class. A good printer will have several applications.
Training early is much better than waiting for a crisis. Remember to consider your total investment cost. Often, manufactors make money off consumables and service, not the equipment. Reliability should be considered whenever purchasing equipment. John Cronin has a great blog on "equipment costing" here. That color copier may seem inexpensive but when you add downtime you may be surprised. Also consider the cost of personnel it will take to run the equipment.
Never buy a piece of equipment without having a sales plan in place!
I often get the opportunity to speak with multiple operations with similar equipment/services. What amazes me is under the virtually identical situations, one company succeeds while the other fails. Upon deeper discussion, the root cause almost always goes back to one factor — people. [Before you jump to conclusions, I find that the people factor doesn't exclusively apply to people at the print company but also the people (aka vendor) who advises the print company how to run the machinery.]
The right people can make average equipment profitable, but the wrong people running the best equipment can drive you deep into the red.
I love happy people! A few years ago the revelation hit me after I realigned my dispatch/billing/phone answering area. Our one-on-one service was excellent but for some reason I really struggled with our incoming phone service. It wasn't terrible but we we were struggling to keep up with the increasing business and mistakes where increasing.
Over the years, I taught my people the importance of the person answering the phone. No matter how great our quality, one-on-one service, and leadership, one person answering the phone could taint the customer experience for all of this. I beat this into their heads, but I still struggled to raise the standards of our phone service.
Then I realized it was more of a leadership problem on my part. I sat in the troubled area for a full day shutting my mouth, listening and watching to what was going on. First observation, I needed to realign the area. I had everything spread out and out of flow. Too many steps. Too disorganized.
Second, when I talked to the main person answering the phone, she told me she didn't like answering the phone and knew she wasn't that good at it. She was outstanding at administration but weak on the phone. Hello! Mr Manager. Why do you have someone on your phone who doesn't even want to be on the phone!
Third, because of one and two it sure wasn't a very happy place. Unhappy Employees = Unhappy Service to our Customers.
I converted my observations into action by tearing down cubicle walls, the dispatch table and billing stations and rebuilding a circular bar with phones lined up with three people able to interact and communication. Then to top it off, I reassigned the happiest person in the facility to sit in the middle of the bar. Since every employee passed "the bar" multiple times per day they were exposed to happiness all day long.
Even a year later, the phones are answered in one ring, people are happiner, billing/admin is done quicker and we give better customer service. All because we restructured our operations to allow happiness to be contagious.
True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
— Helen Keller
Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
— Og Mandino
There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.
— Countess of Blessington
Whoever is happy will make others happy, too.
— Mark Twain
A couple weeks ago, a fellow executive and I enjoyed a delicious steak over three hours of philosophical discussion on how to make our industry better. We traveled through leadership, p & l's, customer service theory, and best practices. We both believe strongly that the key to any successful organization is its people.
The culmination of our night concluded with the thought that the best employees are always those that intertwine their life purpose in their job. My friend commented how Disney trains their "cast members" (employees) to be "on stage" in order to create the illusion of the Disney fantasy world. In Disney's world, you'll notice a clean, liter-free park with friendly faces and plenty of smiles. We pondered how we could duplicate the imagery for our employees and we came up with the fact that our work is like the art of a storyteller. In previous posts, I've mentioned that every product we have is a story. Our goal is show how our story can help our clients story. If we learn to become better storytellers than we become better partners.
A few years ago, we did research to determine the makeup of our redos. The results were very revealing. Statistically, approximately 60% of redos were due to production error. 20% were due to sales, 10% due to the customer and about 10% of errors were due to technology or uncontrollable circumstances.
99% of all redos could have been prevented in less than one minute.
The first observation is that production did not create all the redos. Often they are blamed for 100% of them, and this creates stress and tension between sales and production. Second, when sales makes a mistake it is usally 5-10 times more expensive. Third, and most important, 99% of all redos could have been prevented in less than one minute.
One powerful minute!
One of the struggles our industry is having is adapting to the onslaught of new products and services. I’ve come to believe that success is found in how we manage our core competencies. Fundamental business theory suggests that the further you move from your core competencies the more difficult it is to maintain efficiency, quality and profit.
I think document management has been a frustrating example of our pushing the core to its limits. The first conflict is obvious; our core is to sell printing— document management strives to reduce printing. (Reduce not eliminate : Read My Post "Is Printing Dead"). Second, for successful employees, what motivation do they have to alter their time and effort. Do we really expect someone to jeopardize success selling a product that puts money in their pocket to focus on an abstract product, with questionable compensation, and a chance to ruin customer relationships? (See the Motivational Matrix post.)
“There is a big difference between someone selling a product and someone being qualified to sell that product.”
Most people when asked, polled, or researched say the measure of successful life is happiness. Over the years I’ve witnessed a lot of people trying to be happy. Books have been written. Songs have been sung. Seminars. Workshops. Novels. Surgeries. Money. Fame. Pills. Power. All in the quest for the feeling of happiness.
Happiness used to always confused me.
"One must have a reason to be happy. A human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy. — Viktor Frankl
The dance is how we learn to harness the "reason" for each person in our organization and develop channels for them to help our customers with their reason. When the two intertwine there's plenty of happiness to go around.
[SCARY WARNING: MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR SOME BLOGGERS]Once upon a time a man was reading the latest Repro Report by a river outside of a large peaceful city. As he was reading, he looked across the glistening water and saw a dead body floating downstream. He quickly jumped in the water and pulled the dead body out. As he stacked the body on the side, soon another body floated by.
About that time, a man walked by and asked the him what he was doing. “I’m pulling dead bodies out of the river because if I don’t they will float to the large peaceful city and contaminate the drinking water and make the people sick—and that would be a terrible thing,” the first man said. “I’m an Océ operator at a Repro Shop and have plenty of experience stacking large rolls. I could help you save the city,” the second man said.As the two men stacked bodies, even more bodies floated down the river. A third man walked by. “What are you guys doing?” he said. The first man said, “Bodies are floating down the river and if they reach the large peaceful city it will contaminate the water and that would be a terrible thing.”“I’m a sales rep at a Repro Shop and can offer you a document management system that you can—” The two men quickly interrupted, “We don’t need a document management system, we need help stacking these bodies.” “Okay,” said the sales rep.
About that time, another man walked by. “What are you guys doing?” he asked. Again the first man repeated, “bodies are floating down the river and if they reach the large peaceful city it will contaminate the water and that would be a terrible thing.” The man said, “We’ll, I’m a driver for a local Repro Shop and I have one question for you.” “What’s that?” said the three men. “Why don’t you go up to the end of the river and find out why some guy is throwing dead bodies in the river.”
MORAL: Sometimes we’re so busy fixing symptoms, we never discover the root problem.
Thanks to the few of you that even know about this blog. After playing around the last few months I'm going to start publicizing it during my travels and talks. Hope to see you along the journey...
When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone no one cared. After all, why talk into a metal tube when you could go visit or write a letter? Even crazier was the idea of talking to someone in another town?
When the fax machine was first introduced no one thought it was necessary. An automobile? Why, when horses could carry you. The internet? Even those that saw its potential were surprised it took so long to catch on. Nearly every invention fails to gain interest as quickly as the creators expect.
As we try to initiate new services like 3D modeling and Document Management, there are a lot of frustrations and struggles with the speed of adaptation. So what can we do?
Edwin Schlossberg in his book Interactive Excellence: Defining and Developing New Standards for the Twenty-first Century, studies this adaptation gap by explained how creators fail because value-focused marketing and training are the last consideration in the product cycle.
Educating the audience to be able to fully use and appreciate new technology is often the LAST thing inventors consider.— Edwin Schlossberg, Interactive Excellence