LAW OF APPRECIATION

What you don't appreciate you take for granted. What you take for granted you loose.

Kidney Stones & Vertigo

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....."

Revolution?

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

Our revolution is wrapped around technology. Traveling throughout the country, I've heard the stories and seen first hand how far behind some construction companies have become. Many of them are defiant in sticking with systems that have worked for years. Then there's the other side. Many construction companies are making the plunge and the tipping point for the rest of the industry is not far behind.

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.

I've heard many fortunetellers point to the manufacturing industry's 20% allocation on I.T. infrastructure/technology in comparison to the construction industry's measly 2%, as a sign of things to come. Obviously, because we follow our customers, many reprographers are not far behind. The question is, can we be enough ahead to ride the wave when it tips, while maintaining profitable companies that don't over-invest in services our customers aren't ready for.

Where there is no vision?

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.

I see a lot of companies, both in Reprographics and beyond, launch new products with blind eyes. Without a vision, your own employees will fail to grasp the importance or urgency of the new product. It will get lost among the rest of your offerings.

Often, years later, we sit around wondering why the product failed? Only with vision throughout the product life will we realize success. You just have to visualize it before you see it become reality.

Mentorship?

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.

Second, some of the very people we expect to train our new employees are territorial and withhold information to protect their job security. Doesn't mean they are terrible people, just following human nature.

This is not to say that your employees should not be involved in the training process, just that you need to have a knowledge management strategy to assist in an efficient training process. We developed a "University" textbook many years ago to provide new hires a list of definitions, questions, and projects. New hires went through a brief orientation and then assigned to various mentors throughout the store who I felt were qualified to help the new hire answer the questions in the textbook.

After following a detailed plan through each section, the new hire took a written and oral test. I used these tests to not only insure they understood the necessary knowledge, but also that my "mentors" where sharing the correct information. Whenever the new hire told me the wrong answer, I'd ask them where they got the information and then retrained the "mentor." Even mentor's need follow-up training.

There are many studies on how much money it costs to assimilate a new hire into a productive employee. Thousands! Develop a knowledge management program so you can protect your valuable investment.