Bottlenecks are easy to identify in manufacturing and production environments, but challenging to correct. Automation alone will not eliminate bottlenecks to achieve optimum performance. Addressing every step in the process and the contributing factors enables real process improvements to occur. In office environments the bottlenecks are often a result of bad habits that arise from good intentions. How do we create bottlenecks and adjust delays that result from too much dependence on authorizations, approvals, and assignments to top performers?
Once upon a time . . .
A manufacturer invested millions of dollars to purchase and install state of the art automated robotic equipment on an assembly line. The upgrades included new conveyor belts to move material quickly down the line and cameras to capture movement with electronic eyes. Computer controlled robotic arms replaced workers who had been with the company for many years. Mechanical arms hummed with life, capable of moving five times faster than the human counterparts that they replaced. The mechanical arms were intended to deliver consistent quality, precision, and performance. The manufacturer spent hundreds of thousands of dollars per machine to replace personnel. The machines would work longer hours and take fewer breaks, even with the faster pace.
After installation was complete, the manufacturer hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony with champagne for the local reporters. The company shareholders were ecstatic about the new projections. Longer hours of operation coupled with the speed of the new equipment gave rise to promising revenue projections. The machines would run for twelve hour shifts, a contrast to the typical eight hour shifts that the factory workers had maintained with manual labor. To increase production with manual labor the factory ran a second shift, and in extreme circumstances, a third shift. With the new equipment the factory would operate twelve hour shifts as standard procedure and could nearly double that for a full twenty four hour day when necessary. The equipment needed only a few engineers to keep it company whenever extra shifts would be necessary. The executives and the shareholders bubbled with enthusiasm.
Six Months Later . . .
The production numbers at the end of the first month after installation showed minor improvement. In the second month after installation the production numbers again made minor gains, but were not rising rapidly enough to meet the expectations of management. At the end of three months the production increases seemed to plateau and did not improve beyond the achievements of the second month. As the numbers rolled in for the fourth, fifth, and sixth months the factory management became increasingly concerned. The automated production processes were running at one and one half times the rate of the manual production processes. The fifty percent gains showed improvement to slowly pay back the significant investment in technology, but considerably less than the projected amount or pace. At twelve hours per shift and five times the capacity, it was presumed that the new equipment would empower the factory to deliver much greater numbers.
The management team initiated an immediate investigation to determine the cause of the unimpressive performance and to make plans for improvement. After much research, the management team hired a retired factory foreman as a consultant. The foreman had been with the company for almost twenty years and responsible for designing many previous process improvements. The foreman had voiced many concerns when the factory announced automation, but his concerns were dismissed at the time as comments from a disgruntled employee. Despite the experts, the engineers, and the blueprints, the foreman had predicted only moderate improvements in productivity. When the factory management was dismayed to discover the incredible accuracy of the former foreman's predictions, they were compelled to hire him to help them address the dire situation.
The factory management tensely detailed the production numbers and soured over reports for the former foreman. The management produced charts, checklists, and financial projections. Engineers pointed to the capabilities of the equipment operating at less than peak potential. The former foreman listened politely to the presentations and then asked to walk the factory floor. Armed with only a pad of paper, a pencil, and a stopwatch, the foreman strolled to front of the line. Shaking hands with his former colleagues, the foreman watched them load materials on the line. The employees carefully coordinated the complicated dance of moving materials from loading docks and inventory to the production line. The foreman studied the process for less than twenty minutes with took nearly as many notes.
Having briefly monitored the front of the process, the former foreman walked to the end of the line. Product came swiftly to the end of the line, where it was staged for inspection and packaging. Robotic arms hummed and carried completed product from one station to another with speed and dexterity. The equipment sped product to packaging and then slowed to a stop as it waited for the packaging process to complete. The automated processes shuffled, sorted, and separated the product into lines for packaging. Employees rushed to keep up with the productivity of the equipment, but inevitably, the conveyors would slow as product became backlogged in the packaging process. The packaging process moved at the same pace that the foreman recognized for many previous years. The former foreman thanked each of the dedicated employees as he patted them on the back as he made his final notes.
Factory Bottlenecks . . .
The factory management was only slightly relieved to know that the equipment was truly capable of achieving the predicted production estimates. Unfortunately, as the foreman explained, the equipment would not achieve full potential without considerable changes to the packaging processes at the end of the line. The foreman clearly identified bottlenecks in the process that limited the throughput. The robotic arms and the fast moving conveyors could not possible push product any faster than ability to take it off the end of the line. The engineering effort at each stage in the process remained limited by the packaging at the end of the process. Limited increases in production were the result of the longer hours of operation, not the speed of the equipment.
With the help of the experienced former foreman, the factory management adjusted the packaging processes and installed new lines to accommodate enhanced productivity. But the foreman cautioned the factory management and shareholders not to celebrate too quickly. Even as new processes were being implemented to improve packaging, the line would not move any faster than the ability to load materials at the front of the line. To keep up with the capacity of the automation, the supply of materials would need to be adjusted as well. Fixing a bottleneck at the end of the process would enable faster throughput and nearly double the current rate of production. Improving access to materials would overcome bottlenecks at the beginning of the process, resolving limitations and doubling capacity once again.
The factory management soon learned that adjusting processes to eliminate bottlenecks is a continuous process improvement. As each bottleneck was discovered and adjusted, new bottlenecks became evident. Identifying and improving the slowest part of any process is not the result of manual or automated processes. Eliminating bottlenecks requires understanding the capacity of every step and every person in the process.
Office Bottlenecks . . .
Bottlenecks are not limited to factory production but also occur in other processes. For example, processes that rely on teams, departments, and individuals are ripe grounds for bottlenecks. If a process requires a group of people to rely on the results of another group, individual, or system then there is potential for a bottleneck to occur. Any step in the process that is limited by the output or results from another contributor is a potential for bottleneck. In every business and process there are dependencies, and such dependencies do not mandate bottlenecks, but these are the places to look for them. If a job does not start because documentation is not complete, that is a bottleneck. If an action cannot be processed because it is waiting for input, that is a bottleneck. If functions cannot be performed because they are dependent upon authorization, review, approval, or other response, that is a bottleneck.
Some bottlenecks are inserted by design as a check and balance to assure quality. That is a mistake. If the assurance of quality is dependent upon stopping the progress of your productivity then you have some other serious problems. To assume that a bottleneck is required as a stopgap measure to inspect, approve, or otherwise control the process means that the designer of the process has allowed and accepted inferior performance. Rather than stop or slow the process, why not speed up the inspection, authorization, or approval processes? Powerfully productive organizations do not allow inferior performance and do not allow excuses for bottlenecks to justify lower productivity. If the capacity of many is dictated by the capacity or even the controls of a few, then you have not only allowed but also inherently designed additional costs and competitive weakness into your process. If inspections, authorizations, and approvals are slowing your response time, then do something about it!
Good intentions often lead to bad habits. This is evident when bottlenecks occur from relying too heavily on highly productive individuals or systems. It is common practice to place more responsibility on an individual if that person consistently demonstrates the capacity for it. This is not intended to imply a judgment on any individual talents because each person has a unique combination of strengths and experience. It is inevitable that some individuals are more adept at certain tasks than other individuals. The natural tendency is to continually rely on the top performers. This can quickly become a dangerous habit as the workload for the top performers continues to increase disproportionately. So what should you do about it? Workload should be consciously and intentionally proportioned to encourage the development of all performers and to give top performers some time to expand capabilities or work on urgent priorities. Do not overload top performers with the intention to just get the job done because this short-sighted approach creates the risk of burning out the top performers, and it means that your resources will be limited in the event of an emergency. Let's be honest, you do have top performers as demonstrated by yearly performance reviews. It is inevitable that your organization will have some emergencies, big or small, from time to time. Make sure that your top performers have the bandwidth to address your biggest issues or unexpected emergencies. Who do you want to give a little extra time to for creativity? Who do you want to be available in case of emergency? How are you structuring workload and bottlenecks to create good habits?
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Words of Wisdom
"You may delay, but time will not."- Benjamin Franklin
"Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design is often to ruin it."- Miguel de Cervantes
"Good intentions often lead to bad habits.”- John Mehrmann
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Showing posts with label The Trusted Advocate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Trusted Advocate. Show all posts
Monday, May 11, 2009
The Trusted Advocate by John Mehrmann is On Sale Now in the United Kingdom
The award winning book, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, is available now from many fine booksellers in the United Kingdom.
Booksellers throughout England respond to the rising demand for The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity.
“Most sales training books emphasize technique and process. The Trusted Advocate takes it to the next level, starting with understanding yourself and your values and guiding you to become exceptional by doing the right things,” said Eric Nelson, President of Secure Privacy Solutions. “I recommend this book to anyone that has the desire to excel and improve their professional relationships. It might even help your personal relationships."
In a bleak economic period, many companies and individuals are actively looking for ways to differentiate personal performance from the competition. With dramatic demands to deliver results, coupled with relentless personal and professional pressure, the time is ripe for a fresh perspective to achieve prosperity and self-fulfillment.
“In effect, we are all salespeople - whether our need is to sell the ideas we believe in, to secure the best terms for the services we need, or just to convince our boss to give us a raise. Simply put, applying the concepts presented in this book will help to make the world a better place, period,” said Azriel Winnet, author of Your Gateway to Better Communication Skills.
As demand grows, an increasing number of booksellers offer The Trusted Advocate for sale online.
The Trusted Advocate is available from Amazon.co.uk in hardcover, paperback, and now available for immediate download to the Amazon Kindle and Amazon Kindle 2 electronic book Readers.
The Trusted Advocate is available from Eddington Hook, mail order specialist booksellers for Open University students, at eddington-hook.co.uk
The Trusted Advocate is available at Start-Up Books, the home of business books online, at startup-books.com
The Trusted Advocate is available from Blackwell, the knowledge retailers, at bookshop.blackwell.co.uk
The Trusted Advocate is available from Shop.com, shop smart and save big at Shop.co.uk
The Trusted Advocate is available from Eruditor, the low cost bookstore, at eruditor.com
The Trusted Advocate is available from TSO Bookshop Online, information and publishing solutions, at tsoshop.co.uk
For an updated list of booksellers around the globe, go online to TheTrustedAdvocate.org
Readers may also join The Trusted Advocate group on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a business oriented social networking site with more than 25 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. Members of The Trusted Advocate Networking Group display a dedication to the personal principles espoused by the group with a badge on the individual’s profile. The badge makes it easy to identify a fellow Trusted Advocate. For more information on the award winning book, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, go to http://www.TheTrustedAdvocate.org
Booksellers throughout England respond to the rising demand for The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity.
“Most sales training books emphasize technique and process. The Trusted Advocate takes it to the next level, starting with understanding yourself and your values and guiding you to become exceptional by doing the right things,” said Eric Nelson, President of Secure Privacy Solutions. “I recommend this book to anyone that has the desire to excel and improve their professional relationships. It might even help your personal relationships."
In a bleak economic period, many companies and individuals are actively looking for ways to differentiate personal performance from the competition. With dramatic demands to deliver results, coupled with relentless personal and professional pressure, the time is ripe for a fresh perspective to achieve prosperity and self-fulfillment.
“In effect, we are all salespeople - whether our need is to sell the ideas we believe in, to secure the best terms for the services we need, or just to convince our boss to give us a raise. Simply put, applying the concepts presented in this book will help to make the world a better place, period,” said Azriel Winnet, author of Your Gateway to Better Communication Skills.
As demand grows, an increasing number of booksellers offer The Trusted Advocate for sale online.
The Trusted Advocate is available from Amazon.co.uk in hardcover, paperback, and now available for immediate download to the Amazon Kindle and Amazon Kindle 2 electronic book Readers.
The Trusted Advocate is available from Eddington Hook, mail order specialist booksellers for Open University students, at eddington-hook.co.uk
The Trusted Advocate is available at Start-Up Books, the home of business books online, at startup-books.com
The Trusted Advocate is available from Blackwell, the knowledge retailers, at bookshop.blackwell.co.uk
The Trusted Advocate is available from Shop.com, shop smart and save big at Shop.co.uk
The Trusted Advocate is available from Eruditor, the low cost bookstore, at eruditor.com
The Trusted Advocate is available from TSO Bookshop Online, information and publishing solutions, at tsoshop.co.uk
For an updated list of booksellers around the globe, go online to TheTrustedAdvocate.org
Readers may also join The Trusted Advocate group on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a business oriented social networking site with more than 25 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. Members of The Trusted Advocate Networking Group display a dedication to the personal principles espoused by the group with a badge on the individual’s profile. The badge makes it easy to identify a fellow Trusted Advocate. For more information on the award winning book, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, go to http://www.TheTrustedAdvocate.org
Winning Strategies for a Tough Economy
Challenges create opportunities, and this is particularly relevant during tough economic conditions. It is not enough to review your own internal cost cutting measures. A global economic crisis demands attention to the needs of clients, consumers, and your strategic partners. To look out for your future means looking outside your company and adjusting your internal strategy to accommodate future growth.
Summing It Up in Two Statistics
A survey by Harris Interactive revealed that 52% of customers responded that Outstanding Service is the number one reason for doing business with a company. 38% responded that Lowest Price is the number one reason to do business with a company. What does overwhelming statistic mean in a strategic sense? It is simple, while striving to reduce cost and offer a competitively priced product or solution, do not sacrifice your customer service or you will be the one ultimately paying the price.
Top Tips
Cost cutting cannot make up for economic challenges if the reductions impact your ability to generate revenue. When revenue and consumer spending is scarce, it is even more important to leverage your organization's ability to create new opportunities and to satisfy existing customers. Consider new services from within your organization and from innovative partners to stimulate your own economic recovery by offering outsourcing and cost cutting opportunities to your clients. Clients and consumers are willing to investigate low cost customer satisfying options that they may have ignored during better conditions. Helping customers cut costs may create new service revenues for your company.
Don't discontinue any existing customer initiatives during uncertain economic times. If necessary, adjust the scope or the schedule of your initiatives to accommodate your budget or your client's budget. Demonstrate your commitment to your clients and your willingness to persevere.
Proactively communicate with your customers. Maintain a strong relationship and do not allow an opportunity for your competition to steal your clients. Furthermore, make sure that you are aware of the financial conditions of your clients. Help your customer to deal with economic challenges, and be aware of how the profitability of your customers will impact your own business trends.
Organizations and consumers are much more deliberate about purchasing decisions during uncertain economic times. Provide adequate information for your customers to make informed decisions, and provide economic comparisons to demonstrate your competitive virtues. Make it easy for your customers to recognize the financial benefits of your products or services in comparison to competition, alternatives, or lack of action. Sometimes a lack of purchase, or lack of investment, can have detrimental fiscal impact on your clients, Make it easy for your customers to justify the decision to invest in you.
When budgets and pocketbooks are tight, purchasing decisions are often delayed. During these conditions, it is even more important to nurture your pipeline and to maintain a stream of communications with prospects and the market. Many organizations reduce marketing and communications budgets to cut expenses when time are tough. There may be discounts available for advertising. Look for opportunities to convey your message, especially for the gaps created by suddenly absent competitors.
Monitor the return on your marketing and service investments. Identify those opportunities that have the highest yield for both short term and long term profitability. Shift your investments to the areas with the highest returns and lowest risk.
Invest in innovation and technology. Improving your infrastructure should improve internal efficiency with applicable automation, and investments should also improve customer satisfaction. Some IT investments directly impact your customers, and some improvements enable the internal resources to better monitor and be responsive to the needs of customers. Before slashing a program from your IT budget, consider how it will impact the ability to take care of customers, and how that reflects on your ability to sustain the revenue that comes from loyal customers. Customers will remember your actions long after the economic hardships have receded. Your communications and your commitments to your customers will be remembered long after the pains of the uncertain economic turmoil if forgotten.
IT Investments
TechWeb Research asked the question, "How important are each of the following business imperatives in terms of priorities that your IT organization must support?" The results of this survey were published as "The State of Business".
Improving Customer Responsiveness: 64% High Importance, 30% Medium Importance, 6% Low Importance
Reducing Costs: 63% High Importance, 32% Medium Importance, 5% Low Importance
Speeding Product Delivery to Market: 57% High Importance, 33% Medium Importance, 10% Low Importance
More Agile and Streamlined Integrated Supply Chains: 41% High Importance, 48% Medium Importance, 23% Low Importance
Global / International Expansion: 38% High Importance, 27% Medium Importance, 35% Low Importance
Integration due to Mergers and Acquisitions: 24% High Importance, 40% Medium Importance, 36% Low Importance
How would you rate each of these areas with regards to importance?
How do you think that you organization rates the importance of each of these areas?
How do you demonstrate the importance of these areas in your decisions, your budget, and your strategic initiatives? Customers will make their current and future purchasing decisions based on the communications and decisions that you demonstrate today.
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man doesn't have to experience it."- Max Frisch
"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three."- Alice Khan
"Letting your customers set your standards is a dangerous game, because the race to the bottom is pretty easy to win. Setting your own standards--and living up to them--is a better way to profit. Not to mention a better way to make your day worth all the effort you put into it.”- Seth Godin
______________________________________________________
Summing It Up in Two Statistics
A survey by Harris Interactive revealed that 52% of customers responded that Outstanding Service is the number one reason for doing business with a company. 38% responded that Lowest Price is the number one reason to do business with a company. What does overwhelming statistic mean in a strategic sense? It is simple, while striving to reduce cost and offer a competitively priced product or solution, do not sacrifice your customer service or you will be the one ultimately paying the price.
Top Tips
Cost cutting cannot make up for economic challenges if the reductions impact your ability to generate revenue. When revenue and consumer spending is scarce, it is even more important to leverage your organization's ability to create new opportunities and to satisfy existing customers. Consider new services from within your organization and from innovative partners to stimulate your own economic recovery by offering outsourcing and cost cutting opportunities to your clients. Clients and consumers are willing to investigate low cost customer satisfying options that they may have ignored during better conditions. Helping customers cut costs may create new service revenues for your company.
Don't discontinue any existing customer initiatives during uncertain economic times. If necessary, adjust the scope or the schedule of your initiatives to accommodate your budget or your client's budget. Demonstrate your commitment to your clients and your willingness to persevere.
Proactively communicate with your customers. Maintain a strong relationship and do not allow an opportunity for your competition to steal your clients. Furthermore, make sure that you are aware of the financial conditions of your clients. Help your customer to deal with economic challenges, and be aware of how the profitability of your customers will impact your own business trends.
Organizations and consumers are much more deliberate about purchasing decisions during uncertain economic times. Provide adequate information for your customers to make informed decisions, and provide economic comparisons to demonstrate your competitive virtues. Make it easy for your customers to recognize the financial benefits of your products or services in comparison to competition, alternatives, or lack of action. Sometimes a lack of purchase, or lack of investment, can have detrimental fiscal impact on your clients, Make it easy for your customers to justify the decision to invest in you.
When budgets and pocketbooks are tight, purchasing decisions are often delayed. During these conditions, it is even more important to nurture your pipeline and to maintain a stream of communications with prospects and the market. Many organizations reduce marketing and communications budgets to cut expenses when time are tough. There may be discounts available for advertising. Look for opportunities to convey your message, especially for the gaps created by suddenly absent competitors.
Monitor the return on your marketing and service investments. Identify those opportunities that have the highest yield for both short term and long term profitability. Shift your investments to the areas with the highest returns and lowest risk.
Invest in innovation and technology. Improving your infrastructure should improve internal efficiency with applicable automation, and investments should also improve customer satisfaction. Some IT investments directly impact your customers, and some improvements enable the internal resources to better monitor and be responsive to the needs of customers. Before slashing a program from your IT budget, consider how it will impact the ability to take care of customers, and how that reflects on your ability to sustain the revenue that comes from loyal customers. Customers will remember your actions long after the economic hardships have receded. Your communications and your commitments to your customers will be remembered long after the pains of the uncertain economic turmoil if forgotten.
IT Investments
TechWeb Research asked the question, "How important are each of the following business imperatives in terms of priorities that your IT organization must support?" The results of this survey were published as "The State of Business".
Improving Customer Responsiveness: 64% High Importance, 30% Medium Importance, 6% Low Importance
Reducing Costs: 63% High Importance, 32% Medium Importance, 5% Low Importance
Speeding Product Delivery to Market: 57% High Importance, 33% Medium Importance, 10% Low Importance
More Agile and Streamlined Integrated Supply Chains: 41% High Importance, 48% Medium Importance, 23% Low Importance
Global / International Expansion: 38% High Importance, 27% Medium Importance, 35% Low Importance
Integration due to Mergers and Acquisitions: 24% High Importance, 40% Medium Importance, 36% Low Importance
How would you rate each of these areas with regards to importance?
How do you think that you organization rates the importance of each of these areas?
How do you demonstrate the importance of these areas in your decisions, your budget, and your strategic initiatives? Customers will make their current and future purchasing decisions based on the communications and decisions that you demonstrate today.
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man doesn't have to experience it."- Max Frisch
"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three."- Alice Khan
"Letting your customers set your standards is a dangerous game, because the race to the bottom is pretty easy to win. Setting your own standards--and living up to them--is a better way to profit. Not to mention a better way to make your day worth all the effort you put into it.”- Seth Godin
______________________________________________________
Friday, May 8, 2009
You are the Company
Do you sometimes feel disillusioned about your company, insecure about your career advancement, or distraught by economic challenges? Do you wonder if your contributions are perceived as valuable, or question your own sense of purpose? Do you think that the company is responsible and should be doing something about the situation? You are the company.
When the Going Gets Tough. . .
Downsizing, rightsizing, and reorganization are pleasant terms for lay-offs. Salary adjustments, benefits reductions, eliminating overtime, hiring freeze, and mandatory vacations are symptoms of cost containment measures. Sometimes tough decisions in the company can make global economic conditions a little too close to home. You may have lost friends and colleagues during reorganization, or your pay may have been adjusted, or you may wonder about the security of your career. A natural reaction is to blame the company, to feel fear in the stability of the company, or to feel that the company has let you down. The problem with blaming the company or holding the company responsible is that it belies the very nature of employment, because you are the company.
If you are part of an organization and you have felt the impact of losing friends and colleagues, then you have first-hand experience to appreciate the magnitude of the contributions that other people make to an organization. It hurts to see good friends lose their jobs, even the ones that complained about those jobs in the past. There is shared burden of the responsibilities that must be achieved, even when there are fewer people in the organization to do them. Tough times can make the environment challenging and sometimes threatening. You may be looking to other individuals for reassurance, solace, or inspiration. Most likely, there are many other people who are looking for the same things from you. You have the opportunity and the responsibility to have as much impact as those around you, and more than those who have gone before you. You are the company.
Regardless of the size of the company, or your tenure, or your position, you are an important part of the organization. If you are a sole proprietor or a consultant, then you may very well be the entire company. If you are part of a larger organization, no matter what you do, there are others counting on you. It does not matter if you have been in your position for six weeks, six months, or six years, your contributions are important to the success of the organization and thereby affect everyone in it. Your contributions are valuable, and your demeanor has a significant impact on everyone around you. People are counting on you, because you are the company.
You are the Handshake to Vendors and Partners. . .
Do you interact with current or potential vendors, partners, service providers? To the outside world, your commitments and your actions are inseparable from the company. Vendors and partners will form an opinion of everyone in the company based on the experiences of interacting with you personally. It is presumed that your attitude and your reliability are formed by the culture of the organization and are representative of the value instilled by company policy. Your attitude is synonymous with the demeanor of the organization. If you are trustworthy, compassionate, consistent, and fair, then vendors and partners will expect the same to be true of nearly everyone in the company. Moreover, your actions and attitude can even overcome inadequacies in other areas of the organization and renew confidence with vendors and partners, because you are the company.
No amount of advertising dollars, marketing, or branding will overcome personal interaction and experience. You can put perfume on a pig, but it is still a pig. No logo, slogan, or rhetoric can compensate for poor performance, dishonesty, or a negative personal experience. On the other hand, earning a reputation as a reputable individual, a knowledgeable resource, and a dedicated partner are individual qualities that are powerful endorsements for the organization. Quality individuals are necessary assets to an organization, and much more valuable than a good logo or slogan. Good partners build lasting and mutually beneficial relationships. Good personnel are able to identify mutually rewarding relationships with partners, and great personnel know how to identify and deal with unfair or unreasonable partnerships. Creating, managing, and nourishing mutually rewarding relationships requires skill, experience, talent, and determination. To those vendors and partners you are more than the handshake, you are the company.
You are the Face and the Voice to Customers. . .
With customers and clients there are two primary activities during which you are the face of the voice of the company. You are the face and the voice of the company when you are asking the prospective customer to buy from you, or you are the face and voice of the company when you are asking the customer to buy from you again. Sales and marketing activities are intended to convince a prospect that purchasing goods or services from the company is not only a good idea, but the best idea. Sometimes the sales representative is the only face or voice that a customer will ever associate with a company on a personal level. This is a very big responsibility. Sometimes sales occur through a channel, which means that the company sales representative must effectively communicate, motivate, and enable a channel partner to sell goods or services on his or he behalf. This is a special talent, because the person and company acting on behalf of the sales representative must have complete confidence in the person that they are dealing with, so the channel partner can pass on this confidence through the channel and to the ultimate customer. Such confidence comes from relationships that established between people, not between buildings, logos, or contracts. To customers and channel partners, the face and the voice of the sales representative are the face and voice of the company.
Customer service and operations activities are intended to convince existing customers that the original investment commitment was the best idea, and that it would be a good idea to do it again. Customer Service and operations are responsible for protecting the company reputation, delivering on commitments, and enabling repeat sales. The sales, operations, and service departments must be synchronized and aligned in an organization to voice accurate expectations and commitment, and then to deliver them. In many cases, the only personal interaction that occurs with a company may be the result of a problem or a service event. The responsiveness, compassion, and resolution are representative of the entire organization. Empowering customer service demonstrates commitment to live up to expectations. Compassion demonstrates care, and cements a lasting relationship when reliable results are produced. To the customer, the customer service experience is the face and the voice of the company.
With Great Power comes Great Responsibility. . .
Your decisions, actions, and reactions have tremendous impact on your colleagues, partners, and customers. Your decisions may directly impact a partner today, or the performance of your responsibilities may influence the response of a colleague or customer tomorrow. It is important to recognize the value of your contributions. Your comments, optimism, and enthusiasm may be the motivation that someone else needs right at this very moment. Acting with determination and commitment demonstrates leadership and responsibility that both internal and external customers are actively searching for right now. You have the ability to influence relationships and reputation with and within your company. It does not matter how important or insignificant you may have thought your job duties to be. What matters is how much you personally can contribute to the success of your colleagues, your partners, and yourself, because you are the company.
Footnote to Job Hunters . . .
If you are in career transition and looking for your next company, remember that you are your own company. Treat your career transition with the same diligence and commitment that you would treat job responsibilities. Develop an active campaign to promote your capabilities, nurture communications with former colleagues, and maintain a rigorous and disciplined schedule to invest your time in locating an opportunity to advance your career. As with any job, there will be some setbacks and disappointments. Some tasks are not as enjoyable as others in the doing of them, but may be equally satisfying on the completion of them. When hunting for your next job, treat the transition as part of your career development. Learn to market yourself, sell your capabilities, and take care of prospective employers as your customers. The commitment and discipline that you put into the career transition is often reflected in the attributes of the organization that recognizes these qualities in you. If you want the next company to see the quality in you, then let them see that you are your company.
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"Sometimes we think that we are holding bronze and only realize that it was Gold when we do not have it anymore. Treat everyone like Gold, and most often they will show you the Gold within them."- Samson Eshetu
"Customers don't distinguish between you and the organization you work for. Nor should they. To your customer's way of thinking, you are the company. Customers don't know how things get done behind doors marked 'employees only'. They don't know your areas of responsibility, your job description, or what you can and cannot personally do for them. And they don't care. To customers, those things are your business, not theirs."- Ron Zemke, author of 'Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service'
"You don't have to spend a jillion dollars on advertising to get your word out. What matters is that customers have a good experience with your product at every single point of contact. We completely obsess about execution. Doing good is good business.”- David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue Airlines
"Others can stop you temporarily - you are the only one who can do it permanently.”- Zig Ziglar, author of 'See You at the Top'
______________________________________________________
When the Going Gets Tough. . .
Downsizing, rightsizing, and reorganization are pleasant terms for lay-offs. Salary adjustments, benefits reductions, eliminating overtime, hiring freeze, and mandatory vacations are symptoms of cost containment measures. Sometimes tough decisions in the company can make global economic conditions a little too close to home. You may have lost friends and colleagues during reorganization, or your pay may have been adjusted, or you may wonder about the security of your career. A natural reaction is to blame the company, to feel fear in the stability of the company, or to feel that the company has let you down. The problem with blaming the company or holding the company responsible is that it belies the very nature of employment, because you are the company.
If you are part of an organization and you have felt the impact of losing friends and colleagues, then you have first-hand experience to appreciate the magnitude of the contributions that other people make to an organization. It hurts to see good friends lose their jobs, even the ones that complained about those jobs in the past. There is shared burden of the responsibilities that must be achieved, even when there are fewer people in the organization to do them. Tough times can make the environment challenging and sometimes threatening. You may be looking to other individuals for reassurance, solace, or inspiration. Most likely, there are many other people who are looking for the same things from you. You have the opportunity and the responsibility to have as much impact as those around you, and more than those who have gone before you. You are the company.
Regardless of the size of the company, or your tenure, or your position, you are an important part of the organization. If you are a sole proprietor or a consultant, then you may very well be the entire company. If you are part of a larger organization, no matter what you do, there are others counting on you. It does not matter if you have been in your position for six weeks, six months, or six years, your contributions are important to the success of the organization and thereby affect everyone in it. Your contributions are valuable, and your demeanor has a significant impact on everyone around you. People are counting on you, because you are the company.
You are the Handshake to Vendors and Partners. . .
Do you interact with current or potential vendors, partners, service providers? To the outside world, your commitments and your actions are inseparable from the company. Vendors and partners will form an opinion of everyone in the company based on the experiences of interacting with you personally. It is presumed that your attitude and your reliability are formed by the culture of the organization and are representative of the value instilled by company policy. Your attitude is synonymous with the demeanor of the organization. If you are trustworthy, compassionate, consistent, and fair, then vendors and partners will expect the same to be true of nearly everyone in the company. Moreover, your actions and attitude can even overcome inadequacies in other areas of the organization and renew confidence with vendors and partners, because you are the company.
No amount of advertising dollars, marketing, or branding will overcome personal interaction and experience. You can put perfume on a pig, but it is still a pig. No logo, slogan, or rhetoric can compensate for poor performance, dishonesty, or a negative personal experience. On the other hand, earning a reputation as a reputable individual, a knowledgeable resource, and a dedicated partner are individual qualities that are powerful endorsements for the organization. Quality individuals are necessary assets to an organization, and much more valuable than a good logo or slogan. Good partners build lasting and mutually beneficial relationships. Good personnel are able to identify mutually rewarding relationships with partners, and great personnel know how to identify and deal with unfair or unreasonable partnerships. Creating, managing, and nourishing mutually rewarding relationships requires skill, experience, talent, and determination. To those vendors and partners you are more than the handshake, you are the company.
You are the Face and the Voice to Customers. . .
With customers and clients there are two primary activities during which you are the face of the voice of the company. You are the face and the voice of the company when you are asking the prospective customer to buy from you, or you are the face and voice of the company when you are asking the customer to buy from you again. Sales and marketing activities are intended to convince a prospect that purchasing goods or services from the company is not only a good idea, but the best idea. Sometimes the sales representative is the only face or voice that a customer will ever associate with a company on a personal level. This is a very big responsibility. Sometimes sales occur through a channel, which means that the company sales representative must effectively communicate, motivate, and enable a channel partner to sell goods or services on his or he behalf. This is a special talent, because the person and company acting on behalf of the sales representative must have complete confidence in the person that they are dealing with, so the channel partner can pass on this confidence through the channel and to the ultimate customer. Such confidence comes from relationships that established between people, not between buildings, logos, or contracts. To customers and channel partners, the face and the voice of the sales representative are the face and voice of the company.
Customer service and operations activities are intended to convince existing customers that the original investment commitment was the best idea, and that it would be a good idea to do it again. Customer Service and operations are responsible for protecting the company reputation, delivering on commitments, and enabling repeat sales. The sales, operations, and service departments must be synchronized and aligned in an organization to voice accurate expectations and commitment, and then to deliver them. In many cases, the only personal interaction that occurs with a company may be the result of a problem or a service event. The responsiveness, compassion, and resolution are representative of the entire organization. Empowering customer service demonstrates commitment to live up to expectations. Compassion demonstrates care, and cements a lasting relationship when reliable results are produced. To the customer, the customer service experience is the face and the voice of the company.
With Great Power comes Great Responsibility. . .
Your decisions, actions, and reactions have tremendous impact on your colleagues, partners, and customers. Your decisions may directly impact a partner today, or the performance of your responsibilities may influence the response of a colleague or customer tomorrow. It is important to recognize the value of your contributions. Your comments, optimism, and enthusiasm may be the motivation that someone else needs right at this very moment. Acting with determination and commitment demonstrates leadership and responsibility that both internal and external customers are actively searching for right now. You have the ability to influence relationships and reputation with and within your company. It does not matter how important or insignificant you may have thought your job duties to be. What matters is how much you personally can contribute to the success of your colleagues, your partners, and yourself, because you are the company.
Footnote to Job Hunters . . .
If you are in career transition and looking for your next company, remember that you are your own company. Treat your career transition with the same diligence and commitment that you would treat job responsibilities. Develop an active campaign to promote your capabilities, nurture communications with former colleagues, and maintain a rigorous and disciplined schedule to invest your time in locating an opportunity to advance your career. As with any job, there will be some setbacks and disappointments. Some tasks are not as enjoyable as others in the doing of them, but may be equally satisfying on the completion of them. When hunting for your next job, treat the transition as part of your career development. Learn to market yourself, sell your capabilities, and take care of prospective employers as your customers. The commitment and discipline that you put into the career transition is often reflected in the attributes of the organization that recognizes these qualities in you. If you want the next company to see the quality in you, then let them see that you are your company.
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"Sometimes we think that we are holding bronze and only realize that it was Gold when we do not have it anymore. Treat everyone like Gold, and most often they will show you the Gold within them."- Samson Eshetu
"Customers don't distinguish between you and the organization you work for. Nor should they. To your customer's way of thinking, you are the company. Customers don't know how things get done behind doors marked 'employees only'. They don't know your areas of responsibility, your job description, or what you can and cannot personally do for them. And they don't care. To customers, those things are your business, not theirs."- Ron Zemke, author of 'Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service'
"You don't have to spend a jillion dollars on advertising to get your word out. What matters is that customers have a good experience with your product at every single point of contact. We completely obsess about execution. Doing good is good business.”- David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue Airlines
"Others can stop you temporarily - you are the only one who can do it permanently.”- Zig Ziglar, author of 'See You at the Top'
______________________________________________________
Sunday, March 29, 2009
New Release for The eBook Store from Sony, The Trusted Advocate by John Mehrmann and Mitch Simon
Visit the eBook Store from SONY to download the latest award winning book, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, by John Mehrmann and Mitchell Simon.
Orange County, CA (EBINews) March 29, 2009 – The award winning book, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity is available as an electronic book for the SONY eBook Reader.
The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity is empowering individuals to overcome challenges, eliminate objections, and supercharge careers. In an era with global economic change, jobs in transition, and organizations searching for survival, The Trusted Advocate is a compelling compass to personal achievement and ultimate financial success.
“John Mehrmann is the greatest sales person I have ever worked with, yet in reality, he is not a sales person at all. His ethical, honest, caring approach allows him to find areas that he can help you, while not asking for your business. You just want to work with someone like him.” – Michael Moore
“Reading The Trusted Advocate was a real déjà vu experience for me because it captured every situation that I personally experienced and often struggled with in representing my customers and the companies that I worked for. The practical approaches and solutions in Trusted Advocate provide clear, explicit, and factual examples of how to address the strategic and tactical issues that often crop up when the need exists to be a company loyalist and customer advocate while maintaining personal integrity and providing a win, win solution for both constituents being represented.” – Barnes & Noble Reader Endorsement
“John Mehrmann is an amazing talent, but more importantly, an amazing person. He is rich in experience and talent, and is eager to share. He is a born leader and teacher, and I thank him for writing The Trusted Advocate. He truly lives his words, and reading The Trusted Advocate was like reading the manual to his success!" – Jessica Joyce, Global Account Manager
“John Mehrmann is the epitome of professionalism. His communication skills surpass anyone I have ever had the pleasure to conduct business with. He is a wonderfully positive individual go radiates warmth, kindness, fairness -- all in combination with being a truly great human being. He is also highly intelligent blended with common sense approaches. I highly endorse John to one and all!" – Marcia Sanguinetti, Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation
The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity received the Editor’s Choice Award and the Publisher’s Choice Award for excellence. This incredible book is available online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and many booksellers around the globe.
To purchase the SONY eBook Reader version of The Trusted Advocate, simply visit The eBook Store from SONY and follow the instructions to download an e-book version.
For more reader reviews, chapter summaries, excerpts from the book, and a list of international booksellers, please visit www.TheTrustedAdvocate.org
Orange County, CA (EBINews) March 29, 2009 – The award winning book, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity is available as an electronic book for the SONY eBook Reader.
The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity is empowering individuals to overcome challenges, eliminate objections, and supercharge careers. In an era with global economic change, jobs in transition, and organizations searching for survival, The Trusted Advocate is a compelling compass to personal achievement and ultimate financial success.
“John Mehrmann is the greatest sales person I have ever worked with, yet in reality, he is not a sales person at all. His ethical, honest, caring approach allows him to find areas that he can help you, while not asking for your business. You just want to work with someone like him.” – Michael Moore
“Reading The Trusted Advocate was a real déjà vu experience for me because it captured every situation that I personally experienced and often struggled with in representing my customers and the companies that I worked for. The practical approaches and solutions in Trusted Advocate provide clear, explicit, and factual examples of how to address the strategic and tactical issues that often crop up when the need exists to be a company loyalist and customer advocate while maintaining personal integrity and providing a win, win solution for both constituents being represented.” – Barnes & Noble Reader Endorsement
“John Mehrmann is an amazing talent, but more importantly, an amazing person. He is rich in experience and talent, and is eager to share. He is a born leader and teacher, and I thank him for writing The Trusted Advocate. He truly lives his words, and reading The Trusted Advocate was like reading the manual to his success!" – Jessica Joyce, Global Account Manager
“John Mehrmann is the epitome of professionalism. His communication skills surpass anyone I have ever had the pleasure to conduct business with. He is a wonderfully positive individual go radiates warmth, kindness, fairness -- all in combination with being a truly great human being. He is also highly intelligent blended with common sense approaches. I highly endorse John to one and all!" – Marcia Sanguinetti, Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation
The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity received the Editor’s Choice Award and the Publisher’s Choice Award for excellence. This incredible book is available online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and many booksellers around the globe.
To purchase the SONY eBook Reader version of The Trusted Advocate, simply visit The eBook Store from SONY and follow the instructions to download an e-book version.
For more reader reviews, chapter summaries, excerpts from the book, and a list of international booksellers, please visit www.TheTrustedAdvocate.org
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Coping with Career Change
Lost your Job? Experiencing a sudden or unexpected career change? Worried about your future?
The emotional response to career change is similar to dealing with loss as characterized by Kubler-Ross.
Denial
There are typically two stages of denial that occur with sudden or unexpected career transitions. The first stage is typically very brief. There may be a short suspension of belief in which it is hard to imagine that you no longer have that job. The facts are pretty hard to deny, the position was there one day and you were gone the next day. Regardless of the circumstances, it is fairly difficult to deny when this fact when that door has been closed.
The second and more dangerous period of denial occurs when lifestyle is not altered, even though the income has changed. In many cases, denial is subsidized by a severance package, a golden parachute, or unemployment benefits. The employer no longer provides the ongoing checks or benefits coverage, but the income if otherwise subsidized and therefore lifestyle if not substantially altered. This form of denial can be very dangerous and should be quickly resolved. With time the severance package, unemployment benefits, or personal savings will start to diminish and eventually run dry. It is difficult to predict exactly when the next position or career will create a new source of income, and it is difficult to determine how the compensation and benefits will compare to previous position. When the change occurs, it is a very good time to begin assessing your financial responsibilities and expenses.
Each month as the credit cards statements, rent or mortgage, and other expenses arrive, use that as an opportunity to evaluate the necessity of the expenses that you incur. It is a common habit that expenses grow in proportion to an individual's ability to support the expenses. Clothes, cars, and eating habits are examples of expenses that easily adjust with a person's ability to sustain the expense. Subscriptions, hobbies, and miscellaneous expenses are often forgotten or disguised personal expenses. Every time that you pay an invoice, consider how that costs compares to your personal hierarchy of needs and how you can be a little more frugal in your expenditures. If you can reduce your expenses now, it will continue to bear fruit, even when your income is restored.
Anger
It is natural to be angry when events impact a person's routines. It is natural to feel anger when events interrupt an individual's ability to support a family or otherwise jeopardize financial responsibilities. It is natural, but is it productive? If the career change is due to personal lack of performance on the job, then there is nobody to blame but yourself. If the career change is due to financial hardship by the company, thereby resulting in overall job reductions, then there is nobody to blame at the company that is also struggling to survive. Organizations have a responsibility to support clients, customers, shareholders, and the remaining employees to the best of the ability of the company. Whatever the cause of the career change, the natural responses of anger and frustration lack direction and therefore offer no source of consolation.
Do you feel the energy that comes from frustration, anger, or enthusiasm? Emotions charge the body with adrenaline and create energy. Even negative emotions like frustration, anger, or worry can create an emotional charge that can be redirected into positive energy. If you sit still and let negative emotions take control, then you may find yourself drowning in continuous waves of negative thoughts and concerns. Rather than slip into depression or self-pity, use that energy to give you incentive to concentrate on positive projects. For example, invest your energy in reworking your resume. Begin making lists of opportunities and invest your time in researching companies that are showing positive growth. Start educating yourself on other aspects of your industry or profession. Use that energy that makes you shake with frustration to put your fingers to work on the keyboard, flipping pages, or dialing phone numbers. If you still have energy left over after you have worked every possibility, then go for a walk and release that energy with some positive exercise.
Depression
The hunt for your next career position may take some time. Economic challenges may restrict the job market and create seemingly overwhelming competition for a limited number of positions. Constant concerns, coupled with a sense of responsibility, can create fertile grounds for depression. If you feel this happening to you, remember that it is a choice and you have control over it. Depression occurs when you allow yourself to feel remorse because events and timelines are not occurring according to your plans. This does not mean that the forces of the universe are working against you, but it could be a strong indication that it is time to change your plans. Sometimes it is necessary to abandon your plans completely and pause to properly evaluate the options available to you. This may mean changing your lifestyle, changing your career, or allowing yourself to take an intermediate transition in another direction. Allow yourself the flexibility to adapt to the situations and opportunities that are available to you. This does not mean that you are settling for less than your full potential, but it does mean that you have the self-confidence to allow yourself to expand your talents and experience in previously unexpected areas. Allow yourself the flexibility to abandon or temporarily shelf those expectations that are causing your depression and give yourself the freedom to adjust your career or lifestyle to take advantage of what is available to you at the moment. When it seems that you cannot make any progress in the direction that you are going then allow yourself to move in the direction that gives your life momentum.
Bargaining
Once you have overcome denial and accepted the sometimes life-altering changes to control your expenses, and after you have overcome or bypassed the feelings of anger or depression, it is natural to begin a process of personal bargaining. This phase is the internal conflict of balances wants and needs with reality and resources. It is a process of justifying small concessions for the greater good. It means offsetting minor sacrifices by placating yourself with some rational of purpose or personal reward.
The process of internal bargaining can be a positive process if it means an awakening realization of the positive outcome of your decisions and actions in contrast to the investment of selective sacrifice. However, it is very important to consider the long term commitment associated with such bargaining. If the sacrifices are worth the return of a lasting career or long term relationship, then it is merely an acknowledgement of personal investment. If the sacrifice results in ethical conflicts or may otherwise require sustained commitment that you are not willing or able to make, then the bargain lacks substance and is doomed to failure. Do not negotiate commitments that you are unwilling or unable to sustain, not even to yourself.
Acceptance
Welcome to the club! There are millions of individuals experiencing various stages of career transitions. You are not alone and you are not really competitors. Each person is looking for the next opportunity to match personal talents and capability with the appropriate corresponding position. Likewise, organizations are searching for the most appropriate candidate in accordance with the job requirements. It is not a competition or a popularity contest. It is a giant puzzle in which all of the pieces are trying to find the perfect fit. As you look for your next opportunity, help those in your network to do the same. If you find a position that is suitable for someone else who is in career transition, take the time to make a recommendation and help good people discover good organizations. Helping others in your fellow career transitioning tribe may encourage them to help one another, and inspire them to help you too. Even if the favors are not returned, you will have the personal satisfaction of helping others.
Once you have accepted that your life has changed, there are countless new opportunities that are open to you. Be ready for new experiences and be prepared for more unexpected challenges. The experiences are all part of the learning process. You could have spent countless months or years in the rut of your routine, but you have been given an unexpected opportunity to apply your talents and experience in new ways. You have been given a personal invitation to expand your capabilities and to meet new friends. It can be unsettling when it is unexpected, but you can use this is an opportunity to invest in yourself and in your future.
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"'There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair. The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there. There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years — block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand."- Barack Obama, Election Night Speech
"If government could create jobs and raise children, socialism would have worked."- George Gilder
"Emergencies have always been necessary to progress. It was darkness which produced the lamp. It was fog that produced the compass. It was hunger that drove us to exploration. And it took a depression to teach us the real value of a job.”- Victor Hugo
______________________________________________________
The emotional response to career change is similar to dealing with loss as characterized by Kubler-Ross.
Denial
There are typically two stages of denial that occur with sudden or unexpected career transitions. The first stage is typically very brief. There may be a short suspension of belief in which it is hard to imagine that you no longer have that job. The facts are pretty hard to deny, the position was there one day and you were gone the next day. Regardless of the circumstances, it is fairly difficult to deny when this fact when that door has been closed.
The second and more dangerous period of denial occurs when lifestyle is not altered, even though the income has changed. In many cases, denial is subsidized by a severance package, a golden parachute, or unemployment benefits. The employer no longer provides the ongoing checks or benefits coverage, but the income if otherwise subsidized and therefore lifestyle if not substantially altered. This form of denial can be very dangerous and should be quickly resolved. With time the severance package, unemployment benefits, or personal savings will start to diminish and eventually run dry. It is difficult to predict exactly when the next position or career will create a new source of income, and it is difficult to determine how the compensation and benefits will compare to previous position. When the change occurs, it is a very good time to begin assessing your financial responsibilities and expenses.
Each month as the credit cards statements, rent or mortgage, and other expenses arrive, use that as an opportunity to evaluate the necessity of the expenses that you incur. It is a common habit that expenses grow in proportion to an individual's ability to support the expenses. Clothes, cars, and eating habits are examples of expenses that easily adjust with a person's ability to sustain the expense. Subscriptions, hobbies, and miscellaneous expenses are often forgotten or disguised personal expenses. Every time that you pay an invoice, consider how that costs compares to your personal hierarchy of needs and how you can be a little more frugal in your expenditures. If you can reduce your expenses now, it will continue to bear fruit, even when your income is restored.
Anger
It is natural to be angry when events impact a person's routines. It is natural to feel anger when events interrupt an individual's ability to support a family or otherwise jeopardize financial responsibilities. It is natural, but is it productive? If the career change is due to personal lack of performance on the job, then there is nobody to blame but yourself. If the career change is due to financial hardship by the company, thereby resulting in overall job reductions, then there is nobody to blame at the company that is also struggling to survive. Organizations have a responsibility to support clients, customers, shareholders, and the remaining employees to the best of the ability of the company. Whatever the cause of the career change, the natural responses of anger and frustration lack direction and therefore offer no source of consolation.
Do you feel the energy that comes from frustration, anger, or enthusiasm? Emotions charge the body with adrenaline and create energy. Even negative emotions like frustration, anger, or worry can create an emotional charge that can be redirected into positive energy. If you sit still and let negative emotions take control, then you may find yourself drowning in continuous waves of negative thoughts and concerns. Rather than slip into depression or self-pity, use that energy to give you incentive to concentrate on positive projects. For example, invest your energy in reworking your resume. Begin making lists of opportunities and invest your time in researching companies that are showing positive growth. Start educating yourself on other aspects of your industry or profession. Use that energy that makes you shake with frustration to put your fingers to work on the keyboard, flipping pages, or dialing phone numbers. If you still have energy left over after you have worked every possibility, then go for a walk and release that energy with some positive exercise.
Depression
The hunt for your next career position may take some time. Economic challenges may restrict the job market and create seemingly overwhelming competition for a limited number of positions. Constant concerns, coupled with a sense of responsibility, can create fertile grounds for depression. If you feel this happening to you, remember that it is a choice and you have control over it. Depression occurs when you allow yourself to feel remorse because events and timelines are not occurring according to your plans. This does not mean that the forces of the universe are working against you, but it could be a strong indication that it is time to change your plans. Sometimes it is necessary to abandon your plans completely and pause to properly evaluate the options available to you. This may mean changing your lifestyle, changing your career, or allowing yourself to take an intermediate transition in another direction. Allow yourself the flexibility to adapt to the situations and opportunities that are available to you. This does not mean that you are settling for less than your full potential, but it does mean that you have the self-confidence to allow yourself to expand your talents and experience in previously unexpected areas. Allow yourself the flexibility to abandon or temporarily shelf those expectations that are causing your depression and give yourself the freedom to adjust your career or lifestyle to take advantage of what is available to you at the moment. When it seems that you cannot make any progress in the direction that you are going then allow yourself to move in the direction that gives your life momentum.
Bargaining
Once you have overcome denial and accepted the sometimes life-altering changes to control your expenses, and after you have overcome or bypassed the feelings of anger or depression, it is natural to begin a process of personal bargaining. This phase is the internal conflict of balances wants and needs with reality and resources. It is a process of justifying small concessions for the greater good. It means offsetting minor sacrifices by placating yourself with some rational of purpose or personal reward.
The process of internal bargaining can be a positive process if it means an awakening realization of the positive outcome of your decisions and actions in contrast to the investment of selective sacrifice. However, it is very important to consider the long term commitment associated with such bargaining. If the sacrifices are worth the return of a lasting career or long term relationship, then it is merely an acknowledgement of personal investment. If the sacrifice results in ethical conflicts or may otherwise require sustained commitment that you are not willing or able to make, then the bargain lacks substance and is doomed to failure. Do not negotiate commitments that you are unwilling or unable to sustain, not even to yourself.
Acceptance
Welcome to the club! There are millions of individuals experiencing various stages of career transitions. You are not alone and you are not really competitors. Each person is looking for the next opportunity to match personal talents and capability with the appropriate corresponding position. Likewise, organizations are searching for the most appropriate candidate in accordance with the job requirements. It is not a competition or a popularity contest. It is a giant puzzle in which all of the pieces are trying to find the perfect fit. As you look for your next opportunity, help those in your network to do the same. If you find a position that is suitable for someone else who is in career transition, take the time to make a recommendation and help good people discover good organizations. Helping others in your fellow career transitioning tribe may encourage them to help one another, and inspire them to help you too. Even if the favors are not returned, you will have the personal satisfaction of helping others.
Once you have accepted that your life has changed, there are countless new opportunities that are open to you. Be ready for new experiences and be prepared for more unexpected challenges. The experiences are all part of the learning process. You could have spent countless months or years in the rut of your routine, but you have been given an unexpected opportunity to apply your talents and experience in new ways. You have been given a personal invitation to expand your capabilities and to meet new friends. It can be unsettling when it is unexpected, but you can use this is an opportunity to invest in yourself and in your future.
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"'There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair. The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there. There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years — block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand."- Barack Obama, Election Night Speech
"If government could create jobs and raise children, socialism would have worked."- George Gilder
"Emergencies have always been necessary to progress. It was darkness which produced the lamp. It was fog that produced the compass. It was hunger that drove us to exploration. And it took a depression to teach us the real value of a job.”- Victor Hugo
______________________________________________________
Sunday, March 8, 2009
T-Ball Lessons
Watching children at play offers valuable lessons for adults.
Many years ago I had the privilege of being a coach for my son's t-ball team. For those who may be unfamiliar with the term t-ball, it refers to a form of baseball for beginners. The main principles of baseball apply. There is a first base, second base, third base, and home plate. There is an infield and an outfield with all of the same positions. There is a pitcher’s mound that is occupied by a player, but the pitcher does not pitch. The baseball is placed on a short pole that is referred to as a "tee". The tee is very similar to an enlarged golf tee, with the notable exception that it rests on a rubber mat as opposed to being pushed into the ground. The baseball is placed on the tee and the young batter gets three swings to hit the ball and, if successful, attempts to run to first base before being tagged out.
The game of t-ball provides an excellent opportunity to teach children the fundamentals of baseball and to participate in a team environment. Watching a successful baseball team is like watching the harmony emerging from a well rehearsed symphony orchestra. The players are aware of respective roles, placement, responsibilities, and the importance of well choreographed coordination with other players. Individual players may be exceptionally talented, but success can only be achieved if that talent is properly integrated with the abilities of the other players. A perfect throw can only be achieved if there is someone to catch. It is as simple as that. For youthful beginners, achieving such harmonious rhapsody of coordination requires a little patience.
An early challenge for first year t-ball players is to learn the rules of the game and position on the field. There is very little or no scientific method to assigning positions in the first year. There are no scouting reports. There are no tryouts. There are no t-baseball cards with statistics and profiles.
Watching the children take their positions on the field, I could not help but imagine how personalities and character are well defined at such an early age. The actions, decisions, and responses of the youth on the baseball field could easily be compared with characteristics displayed by adults. I wondered how much of the personalities of my colleagues had been displayed at such an early age, and how similar mannerisms in the office would be similarly evident if those individuals donned baseball caps and took their corresponding places on the field.
The pitcher stared intently at the batter. Leaning forward at the waist, one hand tucked firmly behind his back as if hiding a knuckleball, the boy clenched his teeth and glowered at the batter. Evidently the pitcher had watched some baseball games and accurately mimicked the facial expressions of a professional. Lacking chewing tobacco or a large wad of gum, the pitcher pushed his bottom lip forward with his tongue. His protruding left cheek and lower added to the intensity of his concentration. He had come prepared to play ball.
The boy on first base stood upright. His arms dangled loosely at his sides. His gloved hand bounced up and down alternately in front and behind him. His other hand adjusted his cap, scratched a runaway itch, and adjusted his cap once more. Each time that the batter prepared a swing, the boy on first base would immediately jump into action. As the bat swung forward, the boy at first base squatted at the knees as if to prepare for something. He was prepared for anything, even though he had no idea what to expect. Ready to protect his base, or chase the ball, or chase the batter. You could tell from the look in his eyes that he was ready to respond, even if he did not yet know what to expect or what was expected of him.
Two young girls had gladly accepted the responsibilities for second base and shortstop. The proximity of the positions on the field made it convenient for them to socialize. As the batter approached the tee with grim determination, the girls giggled and whispered to each other about the latest fashion accessories and the silliness of the boys on the team. Little faces, slightly shielded by the big baseball gloves, could not disguise the chorus of laughter and the tiny fingers that pointed at the boys who took the game so seriously. The girls stood shoulder to shoulder. Their legs crossed below the knees, slightly turning side to side, and occasionally extending their arms above their heads to complete tiny pirouettes. They were completely content to be at the center of the field and the center of attention, both fully aware and completely impervious to the stares of the other players.
The young lad on third base stared at the stands and waved to his parents. His glove tucked neatly under his arm, it was rarely on his hand. Being on third base, the lad did not expect to see any action, at least not until after a runner had passed first and second bases. The time for a runner to make it halfway around the diamond was more than enough time for him to put on his glove, or at least so he thought. Having a position so close to the bleachers made it easy for him to entertain the crowd. One moment standing still and searching the faces of the attendees for an attentive audience, and the next moment dancing a small jig around third base. He was the star of his own show, infrequently looking over his shoulder to make sure that his own team was still on the field with him.
Then there was the outfield. The outfield is a very special place in baseball. Despite the fact that in t-ball the ball is placed on an immobile stick, a pedestal at the throne of the batter, the players in the outfield did not expect to get very much challenge. As they each walked away into the calm seclusion of the open field, they quietly enjoyed a lack of expectation. Center field laid down on the ground, arms and legs crossed comfortably. Center field's glove was propped under his head like a pillow. Meanwhile, right field and left field were sitting cross-legged and gingerly plucking blades of grass from beside their respective knees. Right field would throw a blade of grass in the air and try to catch it, or watch which way it would blow in the gentle breeze. Left field cupped a blade of grass in his hands and examined it in thorough detail. Left field picked up another blade of grass, compared them, tied them together, and then tried to fold them in half. As center field searched for animal shapes in the clouds, right field and left field were busy carrying out scientific experiments with grass.
As I reflected on how I could equate each of these wonderful antics with characteristics that I had witnessed in a business environment, my revelry was interrupted by the sound of bat meeting ball. The determined young batter had successfully connected with a swing that would make Babe Ruth proud. The ball sailed in a straight line past the pitcher's mound, skipped up some dust near second base, and bounced merrily into the outfield. By way of response, the pitcher jumped out of the way and then turned to chase the ball after it was safely beyond him. The girls at second base and shortstop clung to each other and squealed with a mixture of fright and delight. The actor at third base spun around like a top to see what the commotion was all about and tripped over third base in the process. The intense young boy at first base squatted nervously, stepping away from his post and back again, unsure of what to do in such an emergency. The entire baseball field seemed to buzz with excitement.
Just then, someone yelled "RUN!" I could see that the coach of the other team was running up to the batter and pointing excitedly in the direction of first base. He shouted, "What are you waiting for? RUN!"
Apparently the shouting of the other coach was exactly what the team needed. All at once they started to run. All of the players dashed madly in the direction of the baseball. The boy from first base was racing the boy from the pitcher's mound. The boy from third base jumped up from the ground and starting in such a hurry that he left his glove next to third base. The girls from second base and shortstop waved their hands in the air wildly as they trotted in the direction of the entire team that chased the ball. Right field and left field scrambled on hands and knees in the direction of the ball as it came to rest. Just as center field discovered the shape of a goldfish in the clouds, he was distracted by the sounds of thundering feet coming in his direction. Center field rolled to get out of the way of the oncoming crowd, the ball coming to rest near his glove pillow.
As I watched the entire team rush from the infield and into the outfield to chase the ball, I was reminded of countless conference calls and meetings that had resulted in exactly the same situation. How often have a multitude of colleagues gathered for meetings and conference calls, consuming the attention and enthusiasm of the masses, but leaving nobody behind to cover the bases? With everyone chasing the ball, who would be left behind to receive it? Certainly there were opportunities to get engaged at the pitcher's mound, or thwart the extent of the offensive rally with shortstop or a play from the preoccupied colleague at second base. With everyone consumed by chasing the ball, nobody was left to cover their own responsibilities and get their own jobs done. Having back-up and helping hands on the play would have been a good idea, but covering the bases and the areas of responsibility were equally important. This was an important lesson for the young players that day, and hopefully one that would be remembered in their adult years.
I smiled to myself and walked in the direction of the other coach, prepared to compliment him on the score of his young player. With no member of my team remaining to cover the bases, it was inevitable that the batter would be free to casually walk the bases and earn the first home run of his career. Yet, the other coach stood sternly with his hands on his hips, and his baseball cap pushed backwards on his head. I followed his unyielding gaze to the crowd of young players that jumped up and down with enthusiasm in the outfield. The children cheered wildly, as if they had all just won first prize. The group ran together from the outfield to home plate. In the middle of the herd of jubilant youngsters, a hand held aloft the baseball that had been retrieved from its place of rest in center field. There, in the middle of the cheering and celebration, was the batter. Upon hearing the command to 'RUN", he had joined the chase and in the subsequent celebration. As far as the players were concerned, there were no teams or rivalry, only the shared excitement.
There were many lessons that season. I only hope that the young players learned as much about teamwork and sportsmanship from their coaches and parents as we learned from them.
Play ball!
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical."- Yogi Berra
"One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork."- Edward Abbey
"Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.”- Lou Durocher
______________________________________________________
About the Author:John Mehrmann is author of The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, the fundamental guide to achieve extraordinary sales and sustain loyal customers. John Mehrmann is a freelance writer and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital. www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com provides resource materials for trainers, sample Case Studies, and educational articles. http://www.InstituteforAdvancedLeadership.com provides self-paced tutorials for personal development and tools for trainers. Presentation materials, reference guides and exercises are available for continuous development.
Many years ago I had the privilege of being a coach for my son's t-ball team. For those who may be unfamiliar with the term t-ball, it refers to a form of baseball for beginners. The main principles of baseball apply. There is a first base, second base, third base, and home plate. There is an infield and an outfield with all of the same positions. There is a pitcher’s mound that is occupied by a player, but the pitcher does not pitch. The baseball is placed on a short pole that is referred to as a "tee". The tee is very similar to an enlarged golf tee, with the notable exception that it rests on a rubber mat as opposed to being pushed into the ground. The baseball is placed on the tee and the young batter gets three swings to hit the ball and, if successful, attempts to run to first base before being tagged out.
The game of t-ball provides an excellent opportunity to teach children the fundamentals of baseball and to participate in a team environment. Watching a successful baseball team is like watching the harmony emerging from a well rehearsed symphony orchestra. The players are aware of respective roles, placement, responsibilities, and the importance of well choreographed coordination with other players. Individual players may be exceptionally talented, but success can only be achieved if that talent is properly integrated with the abilities of the other players. A perfect throw can only be achieved if there is someone to catch. It is as simple as that. For youthful beginners, achieving such harmonious rhapsody of coordination requires a little patience.
An early challenge for first year t-ball players is to learn the rules of the game and position on the field. There is very little or no scientific method to assigning positions in the first year. There are no scouting reports. There are no tryouts. There are no t-baseball cards with statistics and profiles.
Watching the children take their positions on the field, I could not help but imagine how personalities and character are well defined at such an early age. The actions, decisions, and responses of the youth on the baseball field could easily be compared with characteristics displayed by adults. I wondered how much of the personalities of my colleagues had been displayed at such an early age, and how similar mannerisms in the office would be similarly evident if those individuals donned baseball caps and took their corresponding places on the field.
The pitcher stared intently at the batter. Leaning forward at the waist, one hand tucked firmly behind his back as if hiding a knuckleball, the boy clenched his teeth and glowered at the batter. Evidently the pitcher had watched some baseball games and accurately mimicked the facial expressions of a professional. Lacking chewing tobacco or a large wad of gum, the pitcher pushed his bottom lip forward with his tongue. His protruding left cheek and lower added to the intensity of his concentration. He had come prepared to play ball.
The boy on first base stood upright. His arms dangled loosely at his sides. His gloved hand bounced up and down alternately in front and behind him. His other hand adjusted his cap, scratched a runaway itch, and adjusted his cap once more. Each time that the batter prepared a swing, the boy on first base would immediately jump into action. As the bat swung forward, the boy at first base squatted at the knees as if to prepare for something. He was prepared for anything, even though he had no idea what to expect. Ready to protect his base, or chase the ball, or chase the batter. You could tell from the look in his eyes that he was ready to respond, even if he did not yet know what to expect or what was expected of him.
Two young girls had gladly accepted the responsibilities for second base and shortstop. The proximity of the positions on the field made it convenient for them to socialize. As the batter approached the tee with grim determination, the girls giggled and whispered to each other about the latest fashion accessories and the silliness of the boys on the team. Little faces, slightly shielded by the big baseball gloves, could not disguise the chorus of laughter and the tiny fingers that pointed at the boys who took the game so seriously. The girls stood shoulder to shoulder. Their legs crossed below the knees, slightly turning side to side, and occasionally extending their arms above their heads to complete tiny pirouettes. They were completely content to be at the center of the field and the center of attention, both fully aware and completely impervious to the stares of the other players.
The young lad on third base stared at the stands and waved to his parents. His glove tucked neatly under his arm, it was rarely on his hand. Being on third base, the lad did not expect to see any action, at least not until after a runner had passed first and second bases. The time for a runner to make it halfway around the diamond was more than enough time for him to put on his glove, or at least so he thought. Having a position so close to the bleachers made it easy for him to entertain the crowd. One moment standing still and searching the faces of the attendees for an attentive audience, and the next moment dancing a small jig around third base. He was the star of his own show, infrequently looking over his shoulder to make sure that his own team was still on the field with him.
Then there was the outfield. The outfield is a very special place in baseball. Despite the fact that in t-ball the ball is placed on an immobile stick, a pedestal at the throne of the batter, the players in the outfield did not expect to get very much challenge. As they each walked away into the calm seclusion of the open field, they quietly enjoyed a lack of expectation. Center field laid down on the ground, arms and legs crossed comfortably. Center field's glove was propped under his head like a pillow. Meanwhile, right field and left field were sitting cross-legged and gingerly plucking blades of grass from beside their respective knees. Right field would throw a blade of grass in the air and try to catch it, or watch which way it would blow in the gentle breeze. Left field cupped a blade of grass in his hands and examined it in thorough detail. Left field picked up another blade of grass, compared them, tied them together, and then tried to fold them in half. As center field searched for animal shapes in the clouds, right field and left field were busy carrying out scientific experiments with grass.
As I reflected on how I could equate each of these wonderful antics with characteristics that I had witnessed in a business environment, my revelry was interrupted by the sound of bat meeting ball. The determined young batter had successfully connected with a swing that would make Babe Ruth proud. The ball sailed in a straight line past the pitcher's mound, skipped up some dust near second base, and bounced merrily into the outfield. By way of response, the pitcher jumped out of the way and then turned to chase the ball after it was safely beyond him. The girls at second base and shortstop clung to each other and squealed with a mixture of fright and delight. The actor at third base spun around like a top to see what the commotion was all about and tripped over third base in the process. The intense young boy at first base squatted nervously, stepping away from his post and back again, unsure of what to do in such an emergency. The entire baseball field seemed to buzz with excitement.
Just then, someone yelled "RUN!" I could see that the coach of the other team was running up to the batter and pointing excitedly in the direction of first base. He shouted, "What are you waiting for? RUN!"
Apparently the shouting of the other coach was exactly what the team needed. All at once they started to run. All of the players dashed madly in the direction of the baseball. The boy from first base was racing the boy from the pitcher's mound. The boy from third base jumped up from the ground and starting in such a hurry that he left his glove next to third base. The girls from second base and shortstop waved their hands in the air wildly as they trotted in the direction of the entire team that chased the ball. Right field and left field scrambled on hands and knees in the direction of the ball as it came to rest. Just as center field discovered the shape of a goldfish in the clouds, he was distracted by the sounds of thundering feet coming in his direction. Center field rolled to get out of the way of the oncoming crowd, the ball coming to rest near his glove pillow.
As I watched the entire team rush from the infield and into the outfield to chase the ball, I was reminded of countless conference calls and meetings that had resulted in exactly the same situation. How often have a multitude of colleagues gathered for meetings and conference calls, consuming the attention and enthusiasm of the masses, but leaving nobody behind to cover the bases? With everyone chasing the ball, who would be left behind to receive it? Certainly there were opportunities to get engaged at the pitcher's mound, or thwart the extent of the offensive rally with shortstop or a play from the preoccupied colleague at second base. With everyone consumed by chasing the ball, nobody was left to cover their own responsibilities and get their own jobs done. Having back-up and helping hands on the play would have been a good idea, but covering the bases and the areas of responsibility were equally important. This was an important lesson for the young players that day, and hopefully one that would be remembered in their adult years.
I smiled to myself and walked in the direction of the other coach, prepared to compliment him on the score of his young player. With no member of my team remaining to cover the bases, it was inevitable that the batter would be free to casually walk the bases and earn the first home run of his career. Yet, the other coach stood sternly with his hands on his hips, and his baseball cap pushed backwards on his head. I followed his unyielding gaze to the crowd of young players that jumped up and down with enthusiasm in the outfield. The children cheered wildly, as if they had all just won first prize. The group ran together from the outfield to home plate. In the middle of the herd of jubilant youngsters, a hand held aloft the baseball that had been retrieved from its place of rest in center field. There, in the middle of the cheering and celebration, was the batter. Upon hearing the command to 'RUN", he had joined the chase and in the subsequent celebration. As far as the players were concerned, there were no teams or rivalry, only the shared excitement.
There were many lessons that season. I only hope that the young players learned as much about teamwork and sportsmanship from their coaches and parents as we learned from them.
Play ball!
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical."- Yogi Berra
"One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork."- Edward Abbey
"Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.”- Lou Durocher
______________________________________________________
About the Author:John Mehrmann is author of The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, the fundamental guide to achieve extraordinary sales and sustain loyal customers. John Mehrmann is a freelance writer and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital. www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com provides resource materials for trainers, sample Case Studies, and educational articles. http://www.InstituteforAdvancedLeadership.com provides self-paced tutorials for personal development and tools for trainers. Presentation materials, reference guides and exercises are available for continuous development.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
In Memory of Circuit City Stores
In Good to Great by Jim Collins, Circuit City was acknowledged as one of the companies that rose from good to great status by virtue of the appropriate culture and exceptional business strategy. The recognition bestowed on Circuit City was considerable and well deserved. The growth and success of Circuit City was contrasted sharply by the collapse of Silo Stores during the same period of two decades. What happened to a good to great company that it is now gone, and what can we learn from this closing chapter of the second largest electronics retail chain that is painfully relevant during the current economic challenges?
There are many factors that contribute to the success or failure of any organization. Intense pressures from external market conditions can impede profitability. The rise and fall of consumer confidence, investments, and economic turmoil can create overwhelming obstacles. Competition and the evolution of technology can wreak havoc in the best laid plans. Nonetheless, these are factors that are faced by all companies to virtually the same degree. It is not the challenge that distinguishes the success of an organization, but rather the response to the challenge. Companies that slay the economic and competitive dragons survive and eventually thrive. Occasionally the internal response to external challenges can weaken and organization infrastructure to the point of collapse. Let us reflect on this with the example of Circuit City.
Through the 1980's and 1990's Circuit City succeeded in expanding a network of stores from coast to coast. This network of stores was supported by a framework of logistics centers to minimize freight and inventory. This gave Circuit City an advantage for securing and protecting margins on products by reducing overhead and freight. The stores were connected by a carefully constructed nerve center of technology that enabled the consumer electronics retail giant to track loyal customers, identify purchasing trends, and provide world class customer service. As market conditions changed, Circuit City management carefully adapted strategies to accommodate service needs, relying on a network of best-in-class service provider partners to provide professional and courteous customer support. The collaboration and carefully connected network was consistent with a culture that allowed the retail kingdom to remain flexible, profitable, and prosperous for two decades.
As with any great tragedy, there is typically one pivotal decision that defines the collapse of an empire. In the case of Circuit City, this is most often attributed to the decision to release the highest paid sales personnel from the local stores. One might surmise that this decision was based on a desire to effectively reduce the cost of manpower while maintaining the highest number of bodies at the lowest possible price. It would be unjust to speculate a hypothesis on exactly what was in the mind of the executives that crafted this plan, but it is not difficult to guess about what was in the minds of the employees at the local stores when the announcement became public. The highest paid employees were the more tenured and experienced. Some may even say that the most tenured employees are the most loyal, having elected to stay with the retail company through thick and thin. These experienced, successful, well paid, and loyal employees were trimmed from Circuit City and quickly became a wealth of talent available for their competitors.
That seemingly insignificant decision to relieve the Circuit City bottom line by alleviating the company of top shelf employees had a significant impact on employee morale, public perception, and customer interaction. This single act by Circuit City remains decisively contrary to the very core of the culture that was so highly praised in Good to Great. Alan Wurtzel, former CEO of Circuit City, wrote of his experience in the early success of the company, "Instead of firing honest and able people who are not performing well, it is important to try to move them once or even two or three times to other positions where they might blossom." Alan Wurtzel recognized the importance of maintaining the truest competitive edge, the one asset that can truly transform business, and that is quality human capital. By removing the most experienced personnel at local stores without properly evaluating the financial impact of individual performance and contributions, Circuit City removed many top performers without a proper impact analysis of how this would impact revenue. The sudden sucking sound was not the impromptu jettison of employees, but rather the evacuation of revenue associated with them. It was a bleeding of talented resources from which the much lauded retail giant would never recover.
In the final months of the slow decline, the retail giant considered mistakes that had already sealed the fate of other former store chains. Following in the footsteps of Montgomery Wards, plans were proposed to reinvent the stores, copy the competition, or expand into other unfamiliar retail space. A prominent proposal was fueled by discussions of merger or acquisition by Blockbuster. At the time, Blockbuster was also experiencing threats from rising competition of downloadable movies on demand and video by mail. Unlike Circuit City, Blockbuster elected to make strategic changes to leverage the core strengths of their own organization with focus on the brand and organization. Blockbuster decided not to pursue the acquisition of Circuit City, but rather updated a business plan that built upon an already established brand, company culture, core competency, and loyal consumers. This decision for Blockbuster placed the fate of the organization in the hands of the loyal employees to successfully implement a gradual evolution of the business model, rather then a wholesale change in direction. Without a Blockbuster partner on the dance card, Circuit City tumbled into a maelstrom search for new direction from which it never emerged.
Just a few years prior to the catastrophe, Circuit City reported several hundred million dollars in retained earnings. With appropriate and flexible organizational adjustments, Circuit City might have responded to external economic pressures with greater dexterity and still retained the competitive advantage of experienced sales personnel. By fiercely protecting the core competencies and culture on which the organization had built success for two decades, Circuit City could have reinvigorated a unique value proposition and continued to differentiate the brand with loyal customers and a competitive edge. Perhaps the revenue would have been different if Circuit City had maintained the experienced and top performing sales professionals. Perhaps the goals of the company could have been achieved if clearly defined, and if the widespread personnel were actively engaged in pursuing those goals.
With mounting pressures from external conditions and competition, many companies are similarly forced to reconcile internal costs. The need to reduce expense may require organizational adjustments and redistribution of manpower. Of course, these are polite business terms for layoffs, cut backs, and elimination of personnel. Even if this is inevitable, before it occurs, think above the bottom line. Carefully consider how the performance and value to the organization can be measured by the individual contributors. Do not merely measure manpower by the cost of payroll, but also consider the financial repercussions to revenue. How much has been invested in the development and experience of the personnel in question, and how much would it cost to replace them? How much does an individual contribute to the brand image, recognition, and marketability of your organization? How does the individual contribute to revenue? How does the individual contribute to the performance of the organization with leadership, motivation, discipline, direction, or unique skills? How much would your competition be willing to pay for the personnel that you let go, and what would that cost you?
In recognition of a theme identified by Jim Collins in Good to Great, it is important to have the right people on the bus and then to decide where to drive it. During periods of sustained growth, this means carefully selecting and grooming the right people to drive your business. During harshly challenging times, this means making sure that you keep the right people at the helm of your business, even as you are forced to let some people go. Layoffs and restructuring can be damaging enough to motivation, adding shared pressures and responsibilities to the personnel that remain to bereave the loss of former colleagues. Make sure to consider all of the financial implications of such decisions, not just the payroll. Be aware of impact to customers, revenue, and company performance as alternative financial measurements. The fate of your company may depend upon it.
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"The biggest mistake Phil Schoonover [former Circuit City chairman, CEO and president] made was deciding to fire all of their best salespeople and keep only the marginal sales people. If Circuit City really had to cut back, I would have recommended that he do exactly the opposite."- Jeannette Howe, Executive Director of SEN
"The old adage that people are your most important asset is wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are."- Jim Collins, Good to Great
"In the absence of purpose we are enslaved by the mundane. It is only in defining the pinnacle of the mountain that we can find the path.”- John Mehrmann, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity
______________________________________________________
There are many factors that contribute to the success or failure of any organization. Intense pressures from external market conditions can impede profitability. The rise and fall of consumer confidence, investments, and economic turmoil can create overwhelming obstacles. Competition and the evolution of technology can wreak havoc in the best laid plans. Nonetheless, these are factors that are faced by all companies to virtually the same degree. It is not the challenge that distinguishes the success of an organization, but rather the response to the challenge. Companies that slay the economic and competitive dragons survive and eventually thrive. Occasionally the internal response to external challenges can weaken and organization infrastructure to the point of collapse. Let us reflect on this with the example of Circuit City.
Through the 1980's and 1990's Circuit City succeeded in expanding a network of stores from coast to coast. This network of stores was supported by a framework of logistics centers to minimize freight and inventory. This gave Circuit City an advantage for securing and protecting margins on products by reducing overhead and freight. The stores were connected by a carefully constructed nerve center of technology that enabled the consumer electronics retail giant to track loyal customers, identify purchasing trends, and provide world class customer service. As market conditions changed, Circuit City management carefully adapted strategies to accommodate service needs, relying on a network of best-in-class service provider partners to provide professional and courteous customer support. The collaboration and carefully connected network was consistent with a culture that allowed the retail kingdom to remain flexible, profitable, and prosperous for two decades.
As with any great tragedy, there is typically one pivotal decision that defines the collapse of an empire. In the case of Circuit City, this is most often attributed to the decision to release the highest paid sales personnel from the local stores. One might surmise that this decision was based on a desire to effectively reduce the cost of manpower while maintaining the highest number of bodies at the lowest possible price. It would be unjust to speculate a hypothesis on exactly what was in the mind of the executives that crafted this plan, but it is not difficult to guess about what was in the minds of the employees at the local stores when the announcement became public. The highest paid employees were the more tenured and experienced. Some may even say that the most tenured employees are the most loyal, having elected to stay with the retail company through thick and thin. These experienced, successful, well paid, and loyal employees were trimmed from Circuit City and quickly became a wealth of talent available for their competitors.
That seemingly insignificant decision to relieve the Circuit City bottom line by alleviating the company of top shelf employees had a significant impact on employee morale, public perception, and customer interaction. This single act by Circuit City remains decisively contrary to the very core of the culture that was so highly praised in Good to Great. Alan Wurtzel, former CEO of Circuit City, wrote of his experience in the early success of the company, "Instead of firing honest and able people who are not performing well, it is important to try to move them once or even two or three times to other positions where they might blossom." Alan Wurtzel recognized the importance of maintaining the truest competitive edge, the one asset that can truly transform business, and that is quality human capital. By removing the most experienced personnel at local stores without properly evaluating the financial impact of individual performance and contributions, Circuit City removed many top performers without a proper impact analysis of how this would impact revenue. The sudden sucking sound was not the impromptu jettison of employees, but rather the evacuation of revenue associated with them. It was a bleeding of talented resources from which the much lauded retail giant would never recover.
In the final months of the slow decline, the retail giant considered mistakes that had already sealed the fate of other former store chains. Following in the footsteps of Montgomery Wards, plans were proposed to reinvent the stores, copy the competition, or expand into other unfamiliar retail space. A prominent proposal was fueled by discussions of merger or acquisition by Blockbuster. At the time, Blockbuster was also experiencing threats from rising competition of downloadable movies on demand and video by mail. Unlike Circuit City, Blockbuster elected to make strategic changes to leverage the core strengths of their own organization with focus on the brand and organization. Blockbuster decided not to pursue the acquisition of Circuit City, but rather updated a business plan that built upon an already established brand, company culture, core competency, and loyal consumers. This decision for Blockbuster placed the fate of the organization in the hands of the loyal employees to successfully implement a gradual evolution of the business model, rather then a wholesale change in direction. Without a Blockbuster partner on the dance card, Circuit City tumbled into a maelstrom search for new direction from which it never emerged.
Just a few years prior to the catastrophe, Circuit City reported several hundred million dollars in retained earnings. With appropriate and flexible organizational adjustments, Circuit City might have responded to external economic pressures with greater dexterity and still retained the competitive advantage of experienced sales personnel. By fiercely protecting the core competencies and culture on which the organization had built success for two decades, Circuit City could have reinvigorated a unique value proposition and continued to differentiate the brand with loyal customers and a competitive edge. Perhaps the revenue would have been different if Circuit City had maintained the experienced and top performing sales professionals. Perhaps the goals of the company could have been achieved if clearly defined, and if the widespread personnel were actively engaged in pursuing those goals.
With mounting pressures from external conditions and competition, many companies are similarly forced to reconcile internal costs. The need to reduce expense may require organizational adjustments and redistribution of manpower. Of course, these are polite business terms for layoffs, cut backs, and elimination of personnel. Even if this is inevitable, before it occurs, think above the bottom line. Carefully consider how the performance and value to the organization can be measured by the individual contributors. Do not merely measure manpower by the cost of payroll, but also consider the financial repercussions to revenue. How much has been invested in the development and experience of the personnel in question, and how much would it cost to replace them? How much does an individual contribute to the brand image, recognition, and marketability of your organization? How does the individual contribute to revenue? How does the individual contribute to the performance of the organization with leadership, motivation, discipline, direction, or unique skills? How much would your competition be willing to pay for the personnel that you let go, and what would that cost you?
In recognition of a theme identified by Jim Collins in Good to Great, it is important to have the right people on the bus and then to decide where to drive it. During periods of sustained growth, this means carefully selecting and grooming the right people to drive your business. During harshly challenging times, this means making sure that you keep the right people at the helm of your business, even as you are forced to let some people go. Layoffs and restructuring can be damaging enough to motivation, adding shared pressures and responsibilities to the personnel that remain to bereave the loss of former colleagues. Make sure to consider all of the financial implications of such decisions, not just the payroll. Be aware of impact to customers, revenue, and company performance as alternative financial measurements. The fate of your company may depend upon it.
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"The biggest mistake Phil Schoonover [former Circuit City chairman, CEO and president] made was deciding to fire all of their best salespeople and keep only the marginal sales people. If Circuit City really had to cut back, I would have recommended that he do exactly the opposite."- Jeannette Howe, Executive Director of SEN
"The old adage that people are your most important asset is wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are."- Jim Collins, Good to Great
"In the absence of purpose we are enslaved by the mundane. It is only in defining the pinnacle of the mountain that we can find the path.”- John Mehrmann, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity
______________________________________________________
Monday, December 8, 2008
NY Times Business Best Sellers and Recommended Reading
NY Times Business Best Sellers & Recommended Reading
The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey
The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity by John Mehrmann
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman
Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey
Money, and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Wealth, Health, and Happiness by Esther Hicks
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Pink Daniel H.
The Speed of Trust by Rebecca R./ Merrill, Rebecca R. (CON) Merrill
Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
A Sense of Urgency by John P. Kotter
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy by David M. Smick
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future by T. Boone Pickens
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
http://www.amazon.com/NY-Times-Business-Best-Sellers/lm/R3DU9GN0H2SJ7V/ref=cm_lm_byauthor_title_full
The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey
The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity by John Mehrmann
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman
Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey
Money, and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Wealth, Health, and Happiness by Esther Hicks
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Pink Daniel H.
The Speed of Trust by Rebecca R./ Merrill, Rebecca R. (CON) Merrill
Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
A Sense of Urgency by John P. Kotter
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The World Is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy by David M. Smick
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future by T. Boone Pickens
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
http://www.amazon.com/NY-Times-Business-Best-Sellers/lm/R3DU9GN0H2SJ7V/ref=cm_lm_byauthor_title_full
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
The Trusted Advocate is the Most Recent Award Winning Book for the Amazon Kindle Reader
The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, by John Mehrmann and Mitchell Simon, is now available for the Amazon Kindle Reader at a discounted price.
PRLog (Press Release) – Nov 24, 2008 – The award winning book, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity is available as an electronic book for the Amazon Wireless Reading Device.
Released just in time for holiday shopping, the paperless electronic copy of The ‘Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity’ is the perfect gift for colleagues, peers, employees, managers, and family members. Available from the Amazon Kindle Store for less than US Ten Dollars, this small investment can alter the course of a career, guiding the reader and the organization to new levels of success in the coming year. It is a gift that continues giving with a new discovery in every chapter of the book.
Popular talk show host Oprah Winfrey announced her endorsement for the Amazon Kindle e-book reader. On her talk show, joined by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oprah proclaimed the Kindle as her favorite new gadget. Books on Oprah’s Kindle include ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho, ‘The Forever War’ by Dexter Filkins, and Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones’ by Suzanne Somers.
“I recommend that once you read ‘The Trusted Advocate’, you will not want to put it down. You will find extraordinary ideas in this book which will transform your way of thinking, create a positive customer experience and create a happier you,’ said Rick Driscoll, President and CEO
The electronic version of ‘The Trusted Advocate’ is available at a mere fraction of the price of the Hard Cover version, but contains all of the same inspirational, motivational, and educational material.
“There are a few books in my collection that I keep close at hand to refer to again and again. ‘The Trusted Advocate’ is one of those books. John Mehrmann shows you how to build a business with integrity that keeps customers coming back because you are considered a valued resource and advocate for their business. You will learn how to engage customers and build relationships,” said Mike Coleman, speaker, author, and marketing consultant with Charting My Course. www.ChartingMyCourse.com
“John’s extensive experience in the arena of sales and his system of selling are right for the times we live in. John Mehrmann’s books and articles should certainly be at the top of your reading list,” said Will Fultz, author of www.TopSalesBlog.com
‘The Trusted Advocate’ has received both the Editor’s Choice Award and the coveted Publisher’s Choice Award in 2008. Hard Cover copies and Paperback versions of the book are available for purchase online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble Bookstores, and Borders. In addition, international recognition for ‘The Trusted Advocate’ have fueled international sales of the book.
For more information on ‘The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity’, and a list of suggested international online sales outlets, please visit www.Trusted101.com
To purchase the Amazon Kindle version of ‘The Trusted Advocate’, simply visit the Kindle Store at Amazon and follow the instructions to download an e-book version. For more reader reviews, chapter summaries, excerpts from the book, and a list of online booksellers, please visit http://www.Trusted101.com
# # #
John Mehrmann, author of The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity. Visit http://www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com for free articles, free download presentations and training materials, case studies, and incredible information
http://www.prlog.org/10145391-the-trusted-advocate-is-the-most-recent-award-winning-book-for-the-amazon-kindle-reader.html
PRLog (Press Release) – Nov 24, 2008 – The award winning book, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity is available as an electronic book for the Amazon Wireless Reading Device.
Released just in time for holiday shopping, the paperless electronic copy of The ‘Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity’ is the perfect gift for colleagues, peers, employees, managers, and family members. Available from the Amazon Kindle Store for less than US Ten Dollars, this small investment can alter the course of a career, guiding the reader and the organization to new levels of success in the coming year. It is a gift that continues giving with a new discovery in every chapter of the book.
Popular talk show host Oprah Winfrey announced her endorsement for the Amazon Kindle e-book reader. On her talk show, joined by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oprah proclaimed the Kindle as her favorite new gadget. Books on Oprah’s Kindle include ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho, ‘The Forever War’ by Dexter Filkins, and Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones’ by Suzanne Somers.
“I recommend that once you read ‘The Trusted Advocate’, you will not want to put it down. You will find extraordinary ideas in this book which will transform your way of thinking, create a positive customer experience and create a happier you,’ said Rick Driscoll, President and CEO
The electronic version of ‘The Trusted Advocate’ is available at a mere fraction of the price of the Hard Cover version, but contains all of the same inspirational, motivational, and educational material.
“There are a few books in my collection that I keep close at hand to refer to again and again. ‘The Trusted Advocate’ is one of those books. John Mehrmann shows you how to build a business with integrity that keeps customers coming back because you are considered a valued resource and advocate for their business. You will learn how to engage customers and build relationships,” said Mike Coleman, speaker, author, and marketing consultant with Charting My Course. www.ChartingMyCourse.com
“John’s extensive experience in the arena of sales and his system of selling are right for the times we live in. John Mehrmann’s books and articles should certainly be at the top of your reading list,” said Will Fultz, author of www.TopSalesBlog.com
‘The Trusted Advocate’ has received both the Editor’s Choice Award and the coveted Publisher’s Choice Award in 2008. Hard Cover copies and Paperback versions of the book are available for purchase online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble Bookstores, and Borders. In addition, international recognition for ‘The Trusted Advocate’ have fueled international sales of the book.
For more information on ‘The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity’, and a list of suggested international online sales outlets, please visit www.Trusted101.com
To purchase the Amazon Kindle version of ‘The Trusted Advocate’, simply visit the Kindle Store at Amazon and follow the instructions to download an e-book version. For more reader reviews, chapter summaries, excerpts from the book, and a list of online booksellers, please visit http://www.Trusted101.com
# # #
John Mehrmann, author of The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity. Visit http://www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com for free articles, free download presentations and training materials, case studies, and incredible information
http://www.prlog.org/10145391-the-trusted-advocate-is-the-most-recent-award-winning-book-for-the-amazon-kindle-reader.html
Performance Management
Data is worthless, but knowledge is priceless. Perhaps no single event in history underscored this more dramatically than the rise and fall of the Dot Com Era. Accumulating massive data warehouses of information and customer records proved to be worthless when data could not be converted into real world revenue.
During the Dot Com Era, some organizations recognized the benefits of using data as a means to provide meaningful and informative results. These organizations enjoyed exponential growth with intelligent decisions, both for themselves and as a service for their customers. The organizations that collected massive amounts of data and failed to transform the data into business intelligence and performance management became colorful examples of failed business plans. The failed organizations became vacant high rise versions of ghost towns, lined with ping pong tables and beanbag chairs. Meanwhile, the organizations that turned data into knowledge, metrics into performance management, and fed intelligent responses to customers, became dominant forces in a new economy. One need not look any further than Google to see a brilliant example of turning access to data into a responsive, informative, and intelligent tool for client convenience and generating internal revenue. The Internet is an ocean of publicly accessible data, most of which may be considered worthless when taken out of context. However, when this enormous vault of human knowledge and creativity is harnessed and focused through the single microscopic lens of a search engine to sort, filter, and present the relevant data, then the data becomes knowledge on a silver platter.
Does your organization harness the power of data or the power of knowledge?
Does your organization collect information for reporting or for informed real time business decisions?
Does your organization use data to measure the performance of the past or to apply measurements to predict and alter the course of the future?
You really do have a crystal ball, because history really does repeat itself. If you have collected historical data and measurements, then you have the framework to begin building your the future according to your own plans and blueprints. If you understand the cause and the effect of your actions and your decisions in market conditions and environments, then you can make knowledgeable decisions to chart the course of your destiny. You can respond to external conditions, you can react to internal changes, and you can change the course of your own destiny.
You can choose to use information to deliver focused and informed results for better understanding and decisions, using your data like Google. Alternately, you can collect data to make colorful roadmap reports of where you have been, and select the graphs that portray only the desired perspectives. Reports tell the truth, and nothing but the truth, but often do not portray the whole truth. You will know when you are on the right track when your metrics, dashboards, and performance management look forward at least as much as they report backward on historical trends.
Cashing in data and history for performance management, knowledge, and revenue is not just for big organizations. The same principles apply for individual planning and performance as well.
Advance Alerts and Exception Based Reports
Gather your most relevant data and reports that demonstrate the key metrics for measuring success. The key metrics for measuring success quite often include the following topics
Finance, revenue or costs
Customer satisfaction
Quality
Productivity
Speed
Performance
Refer to the data that you have been using to measure your performance in the past. Identify the critical components that have influenced finance, customer satisfaction, quality, productivity, speed, or performance. Make a list of events, internal, and external catalysts that have resulted in specific desired or undesired outcomes. Using your experience and historical data, make a note of the cause and effect illustrated in your trends. Study the causes to extract meaningful measurements that result in desired and undesired trends.
Once you have identified critical catalysts with associated metrics, then you can create new predictive reports to help guide your business with intelligent information.
Reports that contain all available data may be overwhelming and may actually hide important facts or trends. If you are measuring hundreds or thousands of transactions, the average performance might be acceptable enough to temporarily hide a few individual exceptions that could create a future catastrophe. Augment the reports of overall activity with specific, focused, exception based reports that isolate the data elements that you have determined to be catalysts for your business. The exception based reports are based on those exceptions from normal business that you have identified as the root cause for good or bad effects. These concentrated reports should be reviewed for immediate response, and the overall effects should create a consistent result in the reports for overall accumulated activity.
Short Term Goals and Long Term Goals
Be sure to compare short term and long term plans, goals, and trends. Monthly and quarterly activity may be the result of seasonal trends. Weekly trends may reflect consistent activities on certain days of the week. Marketing and sales activities are especially impacted by daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly trends. These activities may also be greatly impacted by external events. When gathering data for historical analysis to create predictive trends, document footnotes as a reminder of external events and activities that may influence your results.
For personal planning and internal organizational planning, balance short term goals with long term goals. This is especially true when balancing personal and professional budgets. Short term investments should be balanced with long term rewards. Spending a budget when it is available, to avoid losing it, is sometimes in the best interest of both short term and long term goals. Putting off an activity, scheduling time and resources, is often highly influenced by immediate and urgent needs. Compare urgent needs to long term priorities and extended impact to determine the best balanced approach.
Balance Company and Personal Objectives
Are the management reports accurately reflected in the personnel performance metrics? When it comes time to provide yearly reviews, have the specific measurements for individual performance been accurately reflected to coincide with the performance reports administered by the organization?
Each individual should have a personal set of defined goals and objectives that can be measured for performance. The measurement for performance may be based on speed, accuracy, quality, or simply based on completion of certain tasks. Timeliness and customer satisfaction are also common measurements for performance. Individual indicators should be directly connected with the overall performance management reports. This enables each individual to recognize how much personal performance impacts the total team achievement. When this happens it is very easy to conduct performance appraisals in a fair and unbiased manner, with no surprises for anyone. More importantly, the recognition of personal contribution becomes a daily conversation of mutual commitment, rather than a yearly review.
Balance Internal and External Objectives
If you achieve your goals and objectives, is it at the expense of your vendors, suppliers, or clients? If meeting your objectives requires unbalanced sacrifice from business partners or customers, then you have only delayed inevitable decay and your own demise. If your success can only be achieved by sacrificing vendors or suppliers, then the best ones will eventually lose interest and find alternatives to protect their own organizations. Creating this culture with vendors causes conflict and a lack of mutual commitment. Treat vendors and suppliers as partners for mutual success, and expect the same in return.
If your success requires the unilateral sacrifice of clients, then you will likely find yourself without any customers. Clients can be as loyal as vendors and suppliers when treated with dignity, value, commitment, and respect. Clients will not be as patient as vendors if this relationship is lacking.
Use Technology to Empower Business Objectives
Use technology to collect, collate, and isolate the key catalysts for your business. Use historical trends to create exception based predictive reports. Monitor the trends of short term and long term activities and objectives. Use real data to demonstrate individual performance as it contributes to overall performance, and make this available to individual contributors on a daily basis. When you empower individuals to monitor performance on a daily basis, the individuals begin to manage success of the overall business. The individual contributors are most likely to recognize the cause and effect as illustrated in exception based reports, and have the ability to apply effective change when necessary. Individual contributors typically have the most significant personal relationships or interactions with vendors, suppliers, and customers. Technology can be used to enable visibility throughout the entire organization. Technology can facilitate empowered and informed communication, supplying not only the exceptional trends, but also the specific supporting data that is necessary to make real time educated decisions.
Now the decision is yours. Will you use technology to aggregate and communicate relevant data in focused response like Google, or will you be sitting back in your beanbag chair with your colorful graphs of a bygone era?
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."- Alan Kay
"All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse."- Benjamin Franklin
"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
"Data is worthless, but knowledge is priceless."- John Mehrmann
______________________________________________________
The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity is now available for the Amazon Kindle e-book Reader
The Trusted Advocate is also available online in hardcover and paperback from www.Amazon.com (Hardcover), www.Amazon.com (Paperback), www.BarnessndNoble,com, www.Borders.com, and www.Target.com.
"There are a few books in my collection that I keep close at hand to refer to again and again. The Trusted Advocate is one of those books. John shows you how to build a business with integrity that keeps customers coming back because you are considered a valued resource and advocate for their business. You will learn how to engage customers and build relationships rather than 'selling'.
Real world examples of the principles taught in the book are scattered throughout along with activities that will help you apply the principles John teaches. Check out the advocate cycle on page 125. If you do nothing but follow this practical example, you will have a better business, stronger relationships, and increased sales."
Mike Coleman
Speaker, Author, and Marketing Consultant
Charting My Course
www.ChartingMyCourse.com
During the Dot Com Era, some organizations recognized the benefits of using data as a means to provide meaningful and informative results. These organizations enjoyed exponential growth with intelligent decisions, both for themselves and as a service for their customers. The organizations that collected massive amounts of data and failed to transform the data into business intelligence and performance management became colorful examples of failed business plans. The failed organizations became vacant high rise versions of ghost towns, lined with ping pong tables and beanbag chairs. Meanwhile, the organizations that turned data into knowledge, metrics into performance management, and fed intelligent responses to customers, became dominant forces in a new economy. One need not look any further than Google to see a brilliant example of turning access to data into a responsive, informative, and intelligent tool for client convenience and generating internal revenue. The Internet is an ocean of publicly accessible data, most of which may be considered worthless when taken out of context. However, when this enormous vault of human knowledge and creativity is harnessed and focused through the single microscopic lens of a search engine to sort, filter, and present the relevant data, then the data becomes knowledge on a silver platter.
Does your organization harness the power of data or the power of knowledge?
Does your organization collect information for reporting or for informed real time business decisions?
Does your organization use data to measure the performance of the past or to apply measurements to predict and alter the course of the future?
You really do have a crystal ball, because history really does repeat itself. If you have collected historical data and measurements, then you have the framework to begin building your the future according to your own plans and blueprints. If you understand the cause and the effect of your actions and your decisions in market conditions and environments, then you can make knowledgeable decisions to chart the course of your destiny. You can respond to external conditions, you can react to internal changes, and you can change the course of your own destiny.
You can choose to use information to deliver focused and informed results for better understanding and decisions, using your data like Google. Alternately, you can collect data to make colorful roadmap reports of where you have been, and select the graphs that portray only the desired perspectives. Reports tell the truth, and nothing but the truth, but often do not portray the whole truth. You will know when you are on the right track when your metrics, dashboards, and performance management look forward at least as much as they report backward on historical trends.
Cashing in data and history for performance management, knowledge, and revenue is not just for big organizations. The same principles apply for individual planning and performance as well.
Advance Alerts and Exception Based Reports
Gather your most relevant data and reports that demonstrate the key metrics for measuring success. The key metrics for measuring success quite often include the following topics
Finance, revenue or costs
Customer satisfaction
Quality
Productivity
Speed
Performance
Refer to the data that you have been using to measure your performance in the past. Identify the critical components that have influenced finance, customer satisfaction, quality, productivity, speed, or performance. Make a list of events, internal, and external catalysts that have resulted in specific desired or undesired outcomes. Using your experience and historical data, make a note of the cause and effect illustrated in your trends. Study the causes to extract meaningful measurements that result in desired and undesired trends.
Once you have identified critical catalysts with associated metrics, then you can create new predictive reports to help guide your business with intelligent information.
Reports that contain all available data may be overwhelming and may actually hide important facts or trends. If you are measuring hundreds or thousands of transactions, the average performance might be acceptable enough to temporarily hide a few individual exceptions that could create a future catastrophe. Augment the reports of overall activity with specific, focused, exception based reports that isolate the data elements that you have determined to be catalysts for your business. The exception based reports are based on those exceptions from normal business that you have identified as the root cause for good or bad effects. These concentrated reports should be reviewed for immediate response, and the overall effects should create a consistent result in the reports for overall accumulated activity.
Short Term Goals and Long Term Goals
Be sure to compare short term and long term plans, goals, and trends. Monthly and quarterly activity may be the result of seasonal trends. Weekly trends may reflect consistent activities on certain days of the week. Marketing and sales activities are especially impacted by daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly trends. These activities may also be greatly impacted by external events. When gathering data for historical analysis to create predictive trends, document footnotes as a reminder of external events and activities that may influence your results.
For personal planning and internal organizational planning, balance short term goals with long term goals. This is especially true when balancing personal and professional budgets. Short term investments should be balanced with long term rewards. Spending a budget when it is available, to avoid losing it, is sometimes in the best interest of both short term and long term goals. Putting off an activity, scheduling time and resources, is often highly influenced by immediate and urgent needs. Compare urgent needs to long term priorities and extended impact to determine the best balanced approach.
Balance Company and Personal Objectives
Are the management reports accurately reflected in the personnel performance metrics? When it comes time to provide yearly reviews, have the specific measurements for individual performance been accurately reflected to coincide with the performance reports administered by the organization?
Each individual should have a personal set of defined goals and objectives that can be measured for performance. The measurement for performance may be based on speed, accuracy, quality, or simply based on completion of certain tasks. Timeliness and customer satisfaction are also common measurements for performance. Individual indicators should be directly connected with the overall performance management reports. This enables each individual to recognize how much personal performance impacts the total team achievement. When this happens it is very easy to conduct performance appraisals in a fair and unbiased manner, with no surprises for anyone. More importantly, the recognition of personal contribution becomes a daily conversation of mutual commitment, rather than a yearly review.
Balance Internal and External Objectives
If you achieve your goals and objectives, is it at the expense of your vendors, suppliers, or clients? If meeting your objectives requires unbalanced sacrifice from business partners or customers, then you have only delayed inevitable decay and your own demise. If your success can only be achieved by sacrificing vendors or suppliers, then the best ones will eventually lose interest and find alternatives to protect their own organizations. Creating this culture with vendors causes conflict and a lack of mutual commitment. Treat vendors and suppliers as partners for mutual success, and expect the same in return.
If your success requires the unilateral sacrifice of clients, then you will likely find yourself without any customers. Clients can be as loyal as vendors and suppliers when treated with dignity, value, commitment, and respect. Clients will not be as patient as vendors if this relationship is lacking.
Use Technology to Empower Business Objectives
Use technology to collect, collate, and isolate the key catalysts for your business. Use historical trends to create exception based predictive reports. Monitor the trends of short term and long term activities and objectives. Use real data to demonstrate individual performance as it contributes to overall performance, and make this available to individual contributors on a daily basis. When you empower individuals to monitor performance on a daily basis, the individuals begin to manage success of the overall business. The individual contributors are most likely to recognize the cause and effect as illustrated in exception based reports, and have the ability to apply effective change when necessary. Individual contributors typically have the most significant personal relationships or interactions with vendors, suppliers, and customers. Technology can be used to enable visibility throughout the entire organization. Technology can facilitate empowered and informed communication, supplying not only the exceptional trends, but also the specific supporting data that is necessary to make real time educated decisions.
Now the decision is yours. Will you use technology to aggregate and communicate relevant data in focused response like Google, or will you be sitting back in your beanbag chair with your colorful graphs of a bygone era?
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."- Alan Kay
"All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse."- Benjamin Franklin
"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
"Data is worthless, but knowledge is priceless."- John Mehrmann
______________________________________________________
The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity is now available for the Amazon Kindle e-book Reader
The Trusted Advocate is also available online in hardcover and paperback from www.Amazon.com (Hardcover), www.Amazon.com (Paperback), www.BarnessndNoble,com, www.Borders.com, and www.Target.com.
"There are a few books in my collection that I keep close at hand to refer to again and again. The Trusted Advocate is one of those books. John shows you how to build a business with integrity that keeps customers coming back because you are considered a valued resource and advocate for their business. You will learn how to engage customers and build relationships rather than 'selling'.
Real world examples of the principles taught in the book are scattered throughout along with activities that will help you apply the principles John teaches. Check out the advocate cycle on page 125. If you do nothing but follow this practical example, you will have a better business, stronger relationships, and increased sales."
Mike Coleman
Speaker, Author, and Marketing Consultant
Charting My Course
www.ChartingMyCourse.com
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The Trusted Advocate Group on LinkedIn Exceeds 500 Members
One of the fastest growing new networking groups on LinkedIn has exceeded the 500 member mark, demonstrating the importance of core values, authenticity, and integrity in modern business.
London, England (EBInews) September 4, 2008 – More than 500 members have joined the Trusted Advocate Networking Group on LinkedIn, and many new members are joining daily.
LinkedIn is a business oriented social networking site with more than 25 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.
Registered users of LinkedIn can create a profile summarizing professional accomplishments. The profile enables the user to find former colleagues, clients, and partners. LinkedIn also provides access to participate in networking groups, alumni associations, and discussion forums.
The Trusted Advocate Networking Group is a network of business professionals committed to the success of clients and peers. Action with authenticity, advocate with integrity, as recognized and endorsed by fellow trusted advocates. The purpose of the group is to enable empowered business with confidence and community connections with trusted advocates.
Members of The Trusted Advocate Networking Group display a dedication to the personal principles espoused by the group by a logo on the individual LinkedIn profile. The logo makes it easy to identify a Trusted Advocate. Other logos may also be represented based on personal preference, representing alumni associations, groups, or other interests.
Through the network, users can find potential clients, service providers, subject matter experts, offer recommendations and endorsements. This collaboration enables participants to search for new jobs, search for job candidates, and get introduced to other professionals for mutual support and benefit.
The Trusted Advocate Networking Group on LinkedIn was inspired by the award winning book by John Mehrmann and Mitchell Simon, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity. In The Trusted Advocate, readers are encouraged to identify personal strengths and apply individual talents to attain the goals of clients and peers. The Trusted Advocate surmises that personal satisfaction and success can be achieved with selfless commitment and integrity. Furthermore, the book provides instructions for the reader to apply each concept in personal practice.
The overwhelming response and rapid growth of The Trusted Advocate Networking Group on LinkedIn is a testimony to the importance of authenticity and integrity in modern business practices. With the burgeoning growth of social networking sites, blogs, and other online communications, the voice of the customer is louder than ever before in history. Honesty and ethics are no longer merely good behavior, but have risen in awareness to become the competitive differentiator in the consumer selection criteria of potential vendors, partners, products, and services. Members of the Trusted Advocate group know this and embrace the evolution of ethics in business.
Individuals interested in joining the Trusted Advocate Networking Group must have a registered account and profile on LinkedIn. There is no charge to participate in the Networking Group. For more information, or to become a member, simple follow the easy online instructions to apply: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83826/03792148A71A
For more information on The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, reviews, chapter summaries, excerpts from the book, and a list of online booksellers, please visit http://www.Trusted101.com
LinkedIn participates in the EU Safe Harbor Privacy Framework and is certified to meet the strict privacy guidelines of the European Union. All relationships on LinkedIn are mutually confirmed, and no one appears in the LinkedIn Network without knowledge and explicit consent. LinkedIn is located in Mountain View, California.
London, England (EBInews) September 4, 2008 – More than 500 members have joined the Trusted Advocate Networking Group on LinkedIn, and many new members are joining daily.
LinkedIn is a business oriented social networking site with more than 25 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.
Registered users of LinkedIn can create a profile summarizing professional accomplishments. The profile enables the user to find former colleagues, clients, and partners. LinkedIn also provides access to participate in networking groups, alumni associations, and discussion forums.
The Trusted Advocate Networking Group is a network of business professionals committed to the success of clients and peers. Action with authenticity, advocate with integrity, as recognized and endorsed by fellow trusted advocates. The purpose of the group is to enable empowered business with confidence and community connections with trusted advocates.
Members of The Trusted Advocate Networking Group display a dedication to the personal principles espoused by the group by a logo on the individual LinkedIn profile. The logo makes it easy to identify a Trusted Advocate. Other logos may also be represented based on personal preference, representing alumni associations, groups, or other interests.
Through the network, users can find potential clients, service providers, subject matter experts, offer recommendations and endorsements. This collaboration enables participants to search for new jobs, search for job candidates, and get introduced to other professionals for mutual support and benefit.
The Trusted Advocate Networking Group on LinkedIn was inspired by the award winning book by John Mehrmann and Mitchell Simon, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity. In The Trusted Advocate, readers are encouraged to identify personal strengths and apply individual talents to attain the goals of clients and peers. The Trusted Advocate surmises that personal satisfaction and success can be achieved with selfless commitment and integrity. Furthermore, the book provides instructions for the reader to apply each concept in personal practice.
The overwhelming response and rapid growth of The Trusted Advocate Networking Group on LinkedIn is a testimony to the importance of authenticity and integrity in modern business practices. With the burgeoning growth of social networking sites, blogs, and other online communications, the voice of the customer is louder than ever before in history. Honesty and ethics are no longer merely good behavior, but have risen in awareness to become the competitive differentiator in the consumer selection criteria of potential vendors, partners, products, and services. Members of the Trusted Advocate group know this and embrace the evolution of ethics in business.
Individuals interested in joining the Trusted Advocate Networking Group must have a registered account and profile on LinkedIn. There is no charge to participate in the Networking Group. For more information, or to become a member, simple follow the easy online instructions to apply: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/83826/03792148A71A
For more information on The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, reviews, chapter summaries, excerpts from the book, and a list of online booksellers, please visit http://www.Trusted101.com
LinkedIn participates in the EU Safe Harbor Privacy Framework and is certified to meet the strict privacy guidelines of the European Union. All relationships on LinkedIn are mutually confirmed, and no one appears in the LinkedIn Network without knowledge and explicit consent. LinkedIn is located in Mountain View, California.
The Trusted Advocate is Honored with the Publisher's Choice Award
More accolades for the award winning book, The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, by John Mehrmann and Mitchell Simon.
Orange County, CA (PRWEB) September 9, 2008 -- The award winning book, "The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity", is honored with the prestigious Publisher's Choice Award. The Publisher's Choice designation identifies and celebrates new titles that exhibit editorial integrity and outstanding design quality. New titles undergo stringent editorial review and design evaluation. Selected titles display potential for greater commercial success.
"Mitch and I are deeply honored by the awards and accolades," said John Mehrmann, author of 'The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity'. "The recognition is very much appreciated, but the greatest personal reward is the overwhelming feedback of the readers."
"The book provides real life examples that make sense, speaks to integrity and can be applied immediately. It outlines a selling strategy that focuses on the relationship between customer and salesperson to achieve continued and sustainable growth," said Tina Tuccillo, Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Product Planning at Noritsu America Corporation. "A quick read, you will walk away with page after page of highlights and folded corners of information you can't wait to share with others. A goldmine of wealth you can't afford to miss."
Initial inventory of 'The Trusted Advocate' sold out quickly, and some orders were slightly delayed while additional copies were printed. As recognition has grown, so has the geographic distribution of enthusiastic readers. The web site www.Trusted101.com provides links to a variety of online booksellers in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland, and Australia.
"Some of us may start reading this volume somewhat skeptical about the authors' opening thesis that the way we are habituated to define success is entirely illusory. But any doubts will be quickly dispelled as the highly readable analysis of the inseparable relationship between real success and the twin concepts of authenticity and integrity unfolds. And more than that, they make it easy for us to internalize what we have read as we are gently provoked to practically apply the knowledge to our own individual situations," said Azriel Winnit, author of Israel based Hodu.com. "In effect, we are all salespeople, whether our need is to sell the ideas we believe in, to secure the best terms for the services we need, or just to convince our boss to give us a raise. Simply put, applying the concepts presented in this book will help to make the world a better place. Period."
The style of The Trusted Advocate is like a participating in a personal conversation with a close friend. It gently reinforces individual qualities that generate sustainable personal satisfaction and business success. Readers of The Trusted Advocate have reported life-changing revelations, greater confidence, and extraordinary success.
A reader review posted on Barnes & Noble proclaims, "The practical approaches and solutions in The Trusted Advocate provide clear, explicit, and factual examples of how to address the strategic and tactical issues that often crop up when the need exists to be a company loyalist and customer advocate while maintaining personal integrity and providing a win, win solution for both constituents being represented. I strongly recommend this book as a basic learning tool for all new marketers and a fresh approach for old timers to consider."
Eric Nelson, President of Secure Privacy Solutions, writes "'The Trusted Advocate' does an outstanding job of articulating what most successful sales and business professionals inherently understand, that people want to do business with those they can trust and are looking out for their best interest."
Kirkus Discoveries had this to say in a recent review of 'The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity', "John Mehrmann and Mitchell Simon have packed years of experience into a single volume that provides fundamental advice for sales professionals. The straightforward writing style is also accentuated with illustrative vignettes which exemplify the crucial aspects of successful sales."
For more reader reviews, chapter summaries, excerpts from the book, and a list of online booksellers, please visit http://www.Trusted101.com
Orange County, CA (PRWEB) September 9, 2008 -- The award winning book, "The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity", is honored with the prestigious Publisher's Choice Award. The Publisher's Choice designation identifies and celebrates new titles that exhibit editorial integrity and outstanding design quality. New titles undergo stringent editorial review and design evaluation. Selected titles display potential for greater commercial success.
"Mitch and I are deeply honored by the awards and accolades," said John Mehrmann, author of 'The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity'. "The recognition is very much appreciated, but the greatest personal reward is the overwhelming feedback of the readers."
"The book provides real life examples that make sense, speaks to integrity and can be applied immediately. It outlines a selling strategy that focuses on the relationship between customer and salesperson to achieve continued and sustainable growth," said Tina Tuccillo, Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Product Planning at Noritsu America Corporation. "A quick read, you will walk away with page after page of highlights and folded corners of information you can't wait to share with others. A goldmine of wealth you can't afford to miss."
Initial inventory of 'The Trusted Advocate' sold out quickly, and some orders were slightly delayed while additional copies were printed. As recognition has grown, so has the geographic distribution of enthusiastic readers. The web site www.Trusted101.com provides links to a variety of online booksellers in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland, and Australia.
"Some of us may start reading this volume somewhat skeptical about the authors' opening thesis that the way we are habituated to define success is entirely illusory. But any doubts will be quickly dispelled as the highly readable analysis of the inseparable relationship between real success and the twin concepts of authenticity and integrity unfolds. And more than that, they make it easy for us to internalize what we have read as we are gently provoked to practically apply the knowledge to our own individual situations," said Azriel Winnit, author of Israel based Hodu.com. "In effect, we are all salespeople, whether our need is to sell the ideas we believe in, to secure the best terms for the services we need, or just to convince our boss to give us a raise. Simply put, applying the concepts presented in this book will help to make the world a better place. Period."
The style of The Trusted Advocate is like a participating in a personal conversation with a close friend. It gently reinforces individual qualities that generate sustainable personal satisfaction and business success. Readers of The Trusted Advocate have reported life-changing revelations, greater confidence, and extraordinary success.
A reader review posted on Barnes & Noble proclaims, "The practical approaches and solutions in The Trusted Advocate provide clear, explicit, and factual examples of how to address the strategic and tactical issues that often crop up when the need exists to be a company loyalist and customer advocate while maintaining personal integrity and providing a win, win solution for both constituents being represented. I strongly recommend this book as a basic learning tool for all new marketers and a fresh approach for old timers to consider."
Eric Nelson, President of Secure Privacy Solutions, writes "'The Trusted Advocate' does an outstanding job of articulating what most successful sales and business professionals inherently understand, that people want to do business with those they can trust and are looking out for their best interest."
Kirkus Discoveries had this to say in a recent review of 'The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity', "John Mehrmann and Mitchell Simon have packed years of experience into a single volume that provides fundamental advice for sales professionals. The straightforward writing style is also accentuated with illustrative vignettes which exemplify the crucial aspects of successful sales."
For more reader reviews, chapter summaries, excerpts from the book, and a list of online booksellers, please visit http://www.Trusted101.com
Monday, September 15, 2008
New Crime Warnings
With the evolution of society comes the evolution of crime. Items that were overlooked, discarded, scrap, or trash have increased in value so much that these items have become hot commodities for thieves. What you are throwing away could very well be valuable enough for someone to steal.
Copper
Due to global demand in electronics manufacturing and construction, copper prices continue to defy the laws of gravity and are selling at record high prices. Collection and recycling centers are paying increasingly higher prices per pound for copper, and this has incentivized a new breed of crooks to prowl for the precious metal.
Copper theft happens under the cover of darkness, and in broad daylight. Thieves are taking copper from cell phone towers, baseball field lights, and stealing huge spools of copper wire from utility company grounds. Security guards are posted at many construction sites, due to the propensity for some robbers to illegally abscond with copper wire from commercial and home building sites. There have even been reports of individuals returning home from a day at work, only to discover that a mysterious lack of water pressure was due to missing copper pipes that were cut out and removed from the crawl spaces beneath their homes.
Industrious robbers have been so bold as to take massive sculptures from public parks under the cover of darkness, and desperate enough to steal the copper plaques from gravestones. In spite of the bold maneuvers of these thieves, it can be a challenge for law enforcement in some areas to adjust to the new wave of criminals. Proving the illicit activity of a copper robber can be a tricky task for a cop. Some bungling thieves have short-circuited the legal system and suffered immediate consequences by electrocuting themselves in the process of attempting to steal live copper wires.
Beer Kegs
For years, the biggest concern for beer kegs was monitoring the drinking age of the consumer. That was until the word got out that the stainless steel kegs are valuable empty, as well as full. Thieves are taking the empty kegs from alleyways behind bars and breweries, or looting the empty kegs from under the unsuspecting noses of inebriated collegiate revelers. The price paid for stainless steel scrap has more than doubled in the last five years, and with demand rising for the metal, it is expected that this trend will continue.
Catalytic Converters
When was the last time that you went shopping for jewelry and noticed the comparative price for platinum? When an album goes platinum, it is cause for celebration. However, when the catalytic converter is stolen from your car in the middle of the night, it is cause for alarm. Catalytic converters contain between three to seven grams of the precious metal that trades at over US $1,471.50 per ounce. As awareness has increased of this rolling goldmine of platinum, so has the rate of theft.
Reports of stolen catalytic converters has gradually reached epidemic proportions, but has managed to avoid making front page headlines. Perhaps the lack of public awareness is due to the fact that many of the defenseless victims had the catalytic converters stolen from their cars while parked at the same party at which the kegs were stolen? This could explain the difficulty in obtaining consistent descriptions of the criminals and the scene of the crime. Some people might suspect that there would be some method for identifying and capturing a suspect that has a pick-up truck loaded with empty kegs, catalytic converters, large copper statues and gravestone plaques. Then again, this does sound like a typical night on campus.
Manhole Covers
This is not an urban myth. Manhole covers have become such a coveted item for trade-in value that many streets have become littered with unsafe gaping holes. According to the New York Times description of the situation in Philadelphia, "thieves have so thoroughly stripped the neighborhoods on the city's north and southwest sides that some blocks look like slalom courses, dotted with orange cones to warn drivers and pedestrians of gaping holes, some nearly 30 feet deep." The New York Times reports, "More than 2,500 covers and grates have disappeared in the past year, up from an annual average of about 100."
For the citizens of Philadelphia, the theft of manhole covers is no laughing matter. The criminals are not deterred by the changing of the seasons. A slalom course of roads pitted with thirty foot holes is dangerous enough in daylight, but how much worse will this situation become with snow and ice? It is not only dangerous for the unsuspecting driver, but also for every other vehicle that may be beside or behind the unfortunate family that is first into the scene of the crime.
Restaurant Grease
Processed fryer oil is called yellow grease, and is traded on the commodities market. It is a form of biodiesel fuel that can be used in some cars and trucks. As the prices of gas and ethanol have risen dramatically, so has the value of yellow grease. From 2000 to 2008, the price of processed fryer oil increased on the commodities trading market from 7 cents per pound to 33 cents per pound, which is nearly US $2.50 a gallon.
Yes, it's true. That grease that is used to cook your French Fries is also a lower cost alternative to the stuff that you are probably pumping into the tank of your automobile. As oil prices continue to increase relentlessly, so does the price of yellow grease, and the gas that fills your tank.
A New Economic Engine
With so much attention on sustainability, environmental protection, electronic waste, and compliance, society has made tremendous strides to protect mother earth. In the process of reusing precious metals to alleviate the depletion of natural resources, and avoid dumping toxic waste into landfills and water supplies, we have created a rapid new marketplace for those items that were formerly regarding as scrap, waste, or trash. That is the good news, that your trash really is someone else's treasure. The bad news is that some unsavory individuals want to take that treasure with inappropriate means. It is a situation that will continue to escalate and aggravate society until proper controls are created to monitor and manage the buying, selling, and trading of metals, materials, and even grease.
The proper response to this situation is not to create costly and unenforceable regulations, but rather to embrace this new economic engine with appropriate guidelines and traceable transactions. There are millions of dollars exchanged in the processing of electronic waste, scrap, and metals. There is an enormous river of currency that flows like an aqueduct under the foundations of society, with almost no notice except for the thirty foot holes that open in front of our very eyes. The days of treating reusable materials as inconsequential garbage have passed and are buried in an unmarked grave, because someone stole the copper plaque. There is a new resource in renewable materials, and an evolving marketplace that demands our attention. In the process of being environmentally conscious, we have created a new source for sustainable green dollars in the economy. As the price for new resources continues to grow, so does the demand for the old.
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success - or are they holding you back?"- Clement Stone
"Engineering is the professional and systematic application of science to the efficient utilization of natural resources to produce wealth."- T. J. Hoover and J. C. L. Fish - 1941
"Engineering is the professional art of applying science to the optimum conversion of natural resources to the benefit of man."- Ralph J. Smith
"The engineer is the key figure in the material progress of the world. It is his engineering that makes a reality of the potential value of science by translating scientific knowledge into tools, resources, energy and labor to bring them into the service of man ... To make contributions of this kind the engineer requires the imagination to visualize the needs of society and to appreciate what is possible as well as the technological and broad social age understanding to bring his vision to reality."- Sir Eric Ashby
"Engineers participate in the activities which make the resources of nature available in a form beneficial to man and provide systems which will perform optimally and economically."- L. M. K. Boelter - 1957
"Engineering is the professional and systematic application of activities for translating scientific knowledge to achieve optimum conversion of natural resources for the benefit of man, wealth, society, and economy. Engineers are incredibly effective at reusing knowledge, but are not very creative at redefining themselves."- Ralph Abramo - 2008
______________________________________________________
The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity is available now online in hardcover and paperback from www.Amazon.com (Hardcover), www.Amazon.com (Paperback), www.BarnessndNoble,com, www.Borders.com, www.Target.com, www.Buy.com, ,www.iUniverse.com, and many other fine booksellers.
About the Author:
John Mehrmann is author of The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, the fundamental guide to achieve extraordinary sales and sustain loyal customers. John Mehrmann is a freelance writer and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital. www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com provides resource materials for trainers, sample Case Studies, and educational articles. http://www.InstituteforAdvancedLeadership.com provides self-paced tutorials for personal development and tools for trainers. Presentation materials, reference guides and exercises are available for continuous development.
Copper
Due to global demand in electronics manufacturing and construction, copper prices continue to defy the laws of gravity and are selling at record high prices. Collection and recycling centers are paying increasingly higher prices per pound for copper, and this has incentivized a new breed of crooks to prowl for the precious metal.
Copper theft happens under the cover of darkness, and in broad daylight. Thieves are taking copper from cell phone towers, baseball field lights, and stealing huge spools of copper wire from utility company grounds. Security guards are posted at many construction sites, due to the propensity for some robbers to illegally abscond with copper wire from commercial and home building sites. There have even been reports of individuals returning home from a day at work, only to discover that a mysterious lack of water pressure was due to missing copper pipes that were cut out and removed from the crawl spaces beneath their homes.
Industrious robbers have been so bold as to take massive sculptures from public parks under the cover of darkness, and desperate enough to steal the copper plaques from gravestones. In spite of the bold maneuvers of these thieves, it can be a challenge for law enforcement in some areas to adjust to the new wave of criminals. Proving the illicit activity of a copper robber can be a tricky task for a cop. Some bungling thieves have short-circuited the legal system and suffered immediate consequences by electrocuting themselves in the process of attempting to steal live copper wires.
Beer Kegs
For years, the biggest concern for beer kegs was monitoring the drinking age of the consumer. That was until the word got out that the stainless steel kegs are valuable empty, as well as full. Thieves are taking the empty kegs from alleyways behind bars and breweries, or looting the empty kegs from under the unsuspecting noses of inebriated collegiate revelers. The price paid for stainless steel scrap has more than doubled in the last five years, and with demand rising for the metal, it is expected that this trend will continue.
Catalytic Converters
When was the last time that you went shopping for jewelry and noticed the comparative price for platinum? When an album goes platinum, it is cause for celebration. However, when the catalytic converter is stolen from your car in the middle of the night, it is cause for alarm. Catalytic converters contain between three to seven grams of the precious metal that trades at over US $1,471.50 per ounce. As awareness has increased of this rolling goldmine of platinum, so has the rate of theft.
Reports of stolen catalytic converters has gradually reached epidemic proportions, but has managed to avoid making front page headlines. Perhaps the lack of public awareness is due to the fact that many of the defenseless victims had the catalytic converters stolen from their cars while parked at the same party at which the kegs were stolen? This could explain the difficulty in obtaining consistent descriptions of the criminals and the scene of the crime. Some people might suspect that there would be some method for identifying and capturing a suspect that has a pick-up truck loaded with empty kegs, catalytic converters, large copper statues and gravestone plaques. Then again, this does sound like a typical night on campus.
Manhole Covers
This is not an urban myth. Manhole covers have become such a coveted item for trade-in value that many streets have become littered with unsafe gaping holes. According to the New York Times description of the situation in Philadelphia, "thieves have so thoroughly stripped the neighborhoods on the city's north and southwest sides that some blocks look like slalom courses, dotted with orange cones to warn drivers and pedestrians of gaping holes, some nearly 30 feet deep." The New York Times reports, "More than 2,500 covers and grates have disappeared in the past year, up from an annual average of about 100."
For the citizens of Philadelphia, the theft of manhole covers is no laughing matter. The criminals are not deterred by the changing of the seasons. A slalom course of roads pitted with thirty foot holes is dangerous enough in daylight, but how much worse will this situation become with snow and ice? It is not only dangerous for the unsuspecting driver, but also for every other vehicle that may be beside or behind the unfortunate family that is first into the scene of the crime.
Restaurant Grease
Processed fryer oil is called yellow grease, and is traded on the commodities market. It is a form of biodiesel fuel that can be used in some cars and trucks. As the prices of gas and ethanol have risen dramatically, so has the value of yellow grease. From 2000 to 2008, the price of processed fryer oil increased on the commodities trading market from 7 cents per pound to 33 cents per pound, which is nearly US $2.50 a gallon.
Yes, it's true. That grease that is used to cook your French Fries is also a lower cost alternative to the stuff that you are probably pumping into the tank of your automobile. As oil prices continue to increase relentlessly, so does the price of yellow grease, and the gas that fills your tank.
A New Economic Engine
With so much attention on sustainability, environmental protection, electronic waste, and compliance, society has made tremendous strides to protect mother earth. In the process of reusing precious metals to alleviate the depletion of natural resources, and avoid dumping toxic waste into landfills and water supplies, we have created a rapid new marketplace for those items that were formerly regarding as scrap, waste, or trash. That is the good news, that your trash really is someone else's treasure. The bad news is that some unsavory individuals want to take that treasure with inappropriate means. It is a situation that will continue to escalate and aggravate society until proper controls are created to monitor and manage the buying, selling, and trading of metals, materials, and even grease.
The proper response to this situation is not to create costly and unenforceable regulations, but rather to embrace this new economic engine with appropriate guidelines and traceable transactions. There are millions of dollars exchanged in the processing of electronic waste, scrap, and metals. There is an enormous river of currency that flows like an aqueduct under the foundations of society, with almost no notice except for the thirty foot holes that open in front of our very eyes. The days of treating reusable materials as inconsequential garbage have passed and are buried in an unmarked grave, because someone stole the copper plaque. There is a new resource in renewable materials, and an evolving marketplace that demands our attention. In the process of being environmentally conscious, we have created a new source for sustainable green dollars in the economy. As the price for new resources continues to grow, so does the demand for the old.
______________________________________________________
Words of Wisdom
"You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success - or are they holding you back?"- Clement Stone
"Engineering is the professional and systematic application of science to the efficient utilization of natural resources to produce wealth."- T. J. Hoover and J. C. L. Fish - 1941
"Engineering is the professional art of applying science to the optimum conversion of natural resources to the benefit of man."- Ralph J. Smith
"The engineer is the key figure in the material progress of the world. It is his engineering that makes a reality of the potential value of science by translating scientific knowledge into tools, resources, energy and labor to bring them into the service of man ... To make contributions of this kind the engineer requires the imagination to visualize the needs of society and to appreciate what is possible as well as the technological and broad social age understanding to bring his vision to reality."- Sir Eric Ashby
"Engineers participate in the activities which make the resources of nature available in a form beneficial to man and provide systems which will perform optimally and economically."- L. M. K. Boelter - 1957
"Engineering is the professional and systematic application of activities for translating scientific knowledge to achieve optimum conversion of natural resources for the benefit of man, wealth, society, and economy. Engineers are incredibly effective at reusing knowledge, but are not very creative at redefining themselves."- Ralph Abramo - 2008
______________________________________________________
The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity is available now online in hardcover and paperback from www.Amazon.com (Hardcover), www.Amazon.com (Paperback), www.BarnessndNoble,com, www.Borders.com, www.Target.com, www.Buy.com, ,www.iUniverse.com, and many other fine booksellers.
About the Author:
John Mehrmann is author of The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity, the fundamental guide to achieve extraordinary sales and sustain loyal customers. John Mehrmann is a freelance writer and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital. www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com provides resource materials for trainers, sample Case Studies, and educational articles. http://www.InstituteforAdvancedLeadership.com provides self-paced tutorials for personal development and tools for trainers. Presentation materials, reference guides and exercises are available for continuous development.
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