Impossible, Nightmare, Take Over, Rescue MBA

The three things I’ve learned from watching Gordon Ramsey, Robert Irvine, Jon Taffer, Tabatha Coffey and Anthony Melchiorri about business – no matter the industry. I love these shows, it is like watching a train wreck turn into something new and possible. While the personalities of the celebrities are way different and so are their backgrounds, in the end there are a few things that jump out at me with each and everyone of them, and the same formula works for the turn around.

1. It's the Food Stupid (or room or drink or hair cut or whatever business you are delivering) – So many of the owners in these shows seem lost or full of their own ballyhoo / woo is me that they miss the simple truth. People go to restaurants for good food and good service; people go to hotels for clean rooms and good service; people go to bars for a fun time and fast good drinks, and so on. This first and basic truth is the most obvious thing in almost 100% of these problem businesses.  When asked what the issues is – they answer “the market” or “the recession” or “the competition” – meanwhile there is rotting food in the refrigerator, or roaches crawling on the bar, or a bathroom reeking of urine – there is more at play – something is deeply wrong and the owners are in denial. 

What can be applied to any business is the point – are you delivering on what you say you are? Do you have client complaints? Long lines? Unhappy staff? Are you living a lie of what the business was/should be vs. what it really is? Many years ago I had a client that I met with at lunch and after a review of the business and the idea they were developing (which was all great) I asked to meet them at their offices. They got a bit weird but said OK. When I showed up I came to realize that what they shaded on paper was no were near what they were. The offices were a mess, the employees were not interested in doing anything to help them grow and they were living in a PowerPoint dream.

2. It’s the leadership, or the lack of it. What I have come to realize is that the issues in the business are stemming from the business owners ability to lead, manage, direct the business. About 90% of the time in these shows the issue is all in the head or worse yet heart of the owner. They have gotten lost somehow. A family member has died, a partner hurt them, employees were caught stealing or worse yet they are in business with their spouse and are fighting to the point their marriage is on the rocks. Across the board, the show host and turn around person is focused on first fixing the leader and what is going on in their head. All the bad in the business is just a symptom of something deeper. 

What can we apply to business from this? Many times the leadership will say one thing and exhibit something different. I always like to meet with the owner first and them spend time with the team, one on one. Many times the leader thinks that the things they are doing are not noticed – not realizing they are sending unspoken direction. This goes through an organization like ripples on a pond. If a leader is distracted, worried, off focus or not engaged the organization will follow their lead. 

3. It’s about right now, the last meal, the last haircut, etc. So many of the businesses that were once great but now are a mess keep thinking and focusing on what was. Seeing a bar that 20 years earlier was the first of its kind to now be locked in a time warp and a total mess is sad. It is so hard for the founder to realize what was means very, very little if you are not living and performing in the here and now.

What this means to business is simple. What made you great in the past will most likely not make you great in the future. You need to live by the last whatever it is you serve/ do. The last meal served, the last product shipped, the last service call made. History in someway can be a burden of expectations – meaning you need to over perform, over serve to even meet the basic level of expectations. 

I love these shows, almost to an obsession. I see so much of human nature at play, so many of the things that make use great as a person also are the same weakness that can make us fall. Each show is like a case history, like a mini-text book on what we all need to do in business. We can’t all have a Gordon, Robert, Anthony, Jon or Tabatha in our business lives – but we can ask these three questions:

• Is what we are selling/ offering really quality, are the customers really happy?
• Are we in the business, engaged, truly here and in the here and now, if no why not?
• What is today like, about, seen? Have we exceeded our past history and expectations or are we swimming in a stagnant pool of past success? 

The last thing is, sometimes we all need tough love. The yelling, the rubbing in their faces, the Look – Look are you seeing this!!!! Is about waking the business owner up to the reality. When we are willing to accept change, be awake and willing then the change will start. 

Ron Johnson & J.C. Penney

While past performance is a strong indicator of future performance there are a few small variables to take into account.

1. Is it the same field/industry/product line or even close? 

2. What is the starting point – complete clean slate or existing baggage? 

3. What is the support structure and team surrounding some one – weak, new, worn out?

4. How much time and flexibility do they have?

There are very few people that can do the same amazing things in one area/sport/business and then show the same level of skill in another. Finding a Jim Thorpe in business is rare and without knowing the starting field and unseen issues it is easy to miss the point with Johnson and J.C. Penny.

In all business there is risk. That risk can be so great that the chances of success are almost nil. The question should be, is JCPenny’s able to evolve and become relevant once again or has the world so changed and the brand has not that no matter who steps in there is almost not chance? Was this a DOA business turn around? Its one thing to launch the Apple store concept, it is a completely different thing to take something from the 1890’s and make it “a new!”

Maybe it is less about trying to bring in someone to create a change or even someone to try and bring back once was. Is it time for J.C. Penny’s, Sear’s, Kmart and other turn of the past century retailers to merge and become something new, something different? 

3 Reasons Email Is Damaging Your Business RIGHT NOW!

While dating myself, I remember the days before email in business. Communications was as tough then as now. There was the misuse of voice mail, the inter office mail pouches with little strings to hold closed. Orange pouches for rush memo’s (within 24 hours delivery) – I can share a funny story on how one company added Rush Red envelopes that guaranteed delivery within one hour and ended up having 90% of all internal mail go this way; I still laugh thinking of all the golf carts they bought and people they hired to do this on a campus of 15,000 employees and in 3 months killed the whole idea because everything was Rush Red critical.

I can share horror stories of how in the olden times of the early 1980’s in business the challenge was to not have so many face to face meetings, or phone conferences that would go for hour after hour; staff meetings with the single goal for everyone to share how busy they were.  I get the chills thinking of a stack of those little pink call back notes that would be clipped outside my door after lunch.

All of these and many other past examples pale in comparison to the danger that is sitting in front of almost 100% of every employee in the country today – email. It is a business killer like nothing before.

1. Not A Relationship Builder – It happens all the time. People have an emotion, an issue, want to make people aware of something and what do they do? Give someone a five-minute call? Walk down the hall and say, “hey I noticed XYZ and wanted to talk with you…” Schedule a meeting to talk it over. No they craft an email and shoot it off thinking “there now I have done my job!” (off my plate and now stuck in some else’s windpipe.) Best yet when they copy a whole department of people – now I’m cooking I showed everyone.

Wrong.

Maybe it is the sense that email is electronic, 100% controlled by the sender and not forever paper, but I have seen some emails in my time that are just so off base, personally attacking and well not accomplishing anything beyond making the person writing the email feel in the right and taking fake action. I know some people would never put pen to paper and write what they would in an email if they stopped and thought “oh my this letter will go in a file/document my message/ get posted to a wall somewhere.”

E-mail is so, so dangerous not just internally to team building and moral, but most importantly to clients and partners. Every email sent can tear down a client relationship in nano seconds. Email is great at documentation, great at project clarification, super to confirm or ask a question, but it is NOT a relationship tool. If there are issues in a project, an account, a relationship – something is wrong – do not use email to try and fix, address or even clarify. It will only worsen the situation.

Encourage your team members to schedule time to talk face to face or if that can’t happen there is this great thing called a phone they can use. Yes, the harder the conversation is or on the more likely email is not the right approach or tool. It makes the one sending the message feel good, accomplished, done – but whoever is getting it well that is where the trouble starts.  

Imagine getting an email “Subject: Your Life – first sentence, I wanted to inform you that you have cancer and are going to die. While we feel horrible about this, please be aware there is nothing we can do.”  Well people contact clients on mortal issues to their accounts everyday via email. Same with team members critical to the success of a business.

Email is not a conversation – it is a one way messaging tool that breeds a false sense of relationship and care.

2. Creates Misunderstandings Instantly – “Can you tell John to stop yelling at me?” Excuse me? “Well his emails are all in capital letters and I am not sure why he is yelling at me and I am about to just call it quits and walk from this job…”

This was a real conversation between an employee and me. They were very upset and felt belittled, angry, hurt. So I took the person and we walked (yes walked) 47 steps to John’s office and I asked, “are you mad at Russ?” John (57 years old) – No, why? “Well you keep sending him emails with all the words capital. “ He started laughing and was like “no man, I can’t see the letters if I don’t and what the heck if I was mad I’d walk down and have a face to face conversation. “

Yes, this really happens everyday. People get an email and they take it in many different ways. People look for meaning in any and everything. Even spelling someone’s name wrong or get the wrong title can trigger this “end of days” emotion and reaction.

I tell people all the time to have thicker skin when reading/dealing with email. To pick up the phone or walk over and say, “hey, what are you trying to say, do, get across???” and have a conversation. Really share. Really listen. Really hold a conversation. 

Years ago I was assigned to an account to be a copy writer/ project manager. So I wrote some copy for a new reward program and sent it to the president of the client division I was working with (via fax, this was pre-email) to review. He wrote across the top of the copy page and faxed back “THIS SUCKS!” I laughed and told my boss at the time. He freaked out with a whole “we need to hold an emergency meeting and review the client relationship and strategy. This maybe them sending us a message that they are leaving us…” I said, “Wait, can’t I simply call the client and talk with him?”

When I called I said, “Hi, I’m David and I just want to find out what Sucks? The whole thing? Me? Us?” The client started laughing and said – “no I hated the headline everything else was great...”  

In the world of email imagine I had responded with an email that was more in line with my bosses feelings “we have spent years developing our skills and ability, we take great offense to being told we suck, no it is you who sucks…” Actually the way it went we ended up with a better relationship and the program grew.

Email is not good for sharing intent, emotion or clear understanding. It really is a muddy pool with much of the picture of the sender missing from the story.

3. Gives A False Sense Of Doing Your Job – How many times have you heard the old “wow I’m busy I have like 300 emails to get through…” Email is not a result, it is not a business, and it is not revenue. It is also this false sense that people are “getting things done” and in many ways it’s like yelling to the wind that makes people forget what their business is really about - results.

Email is not a job, it is not even a requirement, right or qualification of a job. It's a tool – and like someone running around the office with an Ax would be a concern so should people using email to be his or her job or weapon of choice. 

When teammates start to use email to bash others or bring issues to light in a group you need to stop them and get to the root issues. I find that when a business team uses email to address a problem (either a person or a situation) I feel like they are chicken, just not that committed, want to play at being a professional but not do the heavy lifting. It is so easy to craft a painful email vs. hold a painful face-to-face conversation. Which helps more? For me it's the conversation, because that is a human-to-human interaction vs. human to computer to human one.

Our careers are based on relationships, experiences and who we are as a person. Email is not a good way to show this depth, this trust, this care from who you are and what value you bring. You can't see peoples eyes of see their body language. 

Email is so easy, so fast - but it has long term impact when the topic is tough or the emotion is deep.  

So think about the person, think about the impact, think and about what the email could do to your relationship. If there is any doubt – stop and don’t send it. If there is real need than make the hard call, set up the time to talk. Because if that will not work then why the heck do you think an email would? Remember you want a result not a "there I sent the email now I'm done.." 

Now lets talk about this twitter thing...

Has The Pony Left The Station? Is The USPS Relevant Today?

I have always thought that the USPS has a world-class brand, is visible in our everyday world (on trucks, post boxes, buildings, etc.) and it has limited itself to the world of physical mailing or using the web to print stamps.

After reading Do We Really Want to Live Without the Post Office? http://www.esquire.com/features/post-office-business-trouble-0213 I think even more so, USPS is a bridge from person to person, town to town, nation to nation.

Not sure why the USPS hasn’t looked at the idea of re-directing their thinking and what they truly mean to:

1. Finding a way to bring us virus free, secured email that we would be willing to pay a bit to only get the email we want, the way we want and virus free. Be a gateway for cleaning and clearing.
2. Build a kid friendly, family focused web platform that is secured and that only businesses, and other organizations, allowed on it are pg-13 and free of the wrong things.
3. Find a way to bridge the physical world of marketing and the virtual. Things like being able to say catalogs we want sent to our homes and which ones we don’t (think of the impact on print production costs and targeting only those that want hard copy).
4. Even the idea of being a place that non-profits can manage who gets what solicitations in the mail and other, if they donate, can turn that cost and annoyance off.
5. Even the creation of a virtual Postal Money Order – or instead a card – that allows to get up to $1,000 stored value card to send to whomever like a Postal Money Order.
6. What about being the gateway for US citizens to the stuff we need from the government – make it easy to get your Tax Forms sent to you, or you need to get a form filled out and sent to the VA – why not via a USPS phone app that lets you do it securely, electronically and gives you a tracking number and reference of proof sent.
7. Confirmation of important documents emailed? Or even a service allowing for the sending of larger sized electronic documents.
8. Could they be like Constant Contact or other email communications providers?

What the USPS has meant in times past, the delivery of messages from one person to another, or from a business to many either clients or prospects. It has connected loved ones with those in service on the war front to getting word that you have been accepted to college of your choice. The thoughts go on and on of what could be.

In the world of electronic communications there is still a need to bring some level of standards, some level of security in delivery, some level control and management. Might the USPS have a place in that?

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USPS could be so much more in our daily lives as people and businesses, but it requires looking at the core values and what it could be vs. what it is today. 

Things We Can Do Right Now To Protect Kids @ School

So, while we wait for the political process to take place on the gun front (whatever the out come), lets do a few simple things right away to help improve some level of security and protection in schools:

1. Connect Teachers & Class Rooms To Instant Help: Get in every class room and give to every teacher in the class room the same type of technology we have for seniors, the Life Alert type of technology (the teacher gets an emergency button to wear and the rooms have the sound listening technology so if someone calls for help the police/fire/medics can listen in and ask "do you need help.."  http://www.lifealert.com/ or something like this. Maybe the PTA's at the schools could raise the funds and a company could get them in ASAP. That way no teacher is ever alone in a class room OR anywhere in the building - one push of a button and help is on the way. We are always amazed how the system at my parents in-law home works instantly when they push the button and no matter where they are in the house they can hear someone asking do they need help and at the same time the person on the system by the provider can hear the parents no matter where they are.

If this technology can help keep Grandma and Grandpa safe and connected - what about schools?

2. Give The Teacher A Simple Way To Slow Bad People Down: Just like many class rooms have fire extinguishers, maybe we have for every teacher and class room pepper spray - the bear type - can put someone out of commission at 30 feet: http://www.thehomesecuritysuperstore.com/bearpepper-spray-mace-bear-pepper-spray-repellent-80346-p=664 

This would be some level of self defense at the hands of teachers and admins at schools ASAP. Local law enforcement could give training - just like local fire protection does on the extinguishers? 

3. Give A Simple Connection To The OutSide World: Get all people working at schools to have panic alarm apps on their phones: http://www.brite-strike.com/iphone/index.html While not the total answer - it can be part of the whole system of protection. 

4. Narrow Access/ Make It Harder To Get In: Better control and access to the schools - make it harder going in. Add in double door entries and wireless keys for teachers and staff - but all others can not walk right in, they get caught between two locked door ways. http://www.gokeyless.com/product/257/2/trilogy-pdl3000-card-lock-access-system 

Just like the barrier between the waiting room and the examining rooms we need barriers between anyone off the street and the school hall ways. Its not 1940's/1950's America anymore so what is the design of schools still back in that time. Why is it harder to get access to a doctors office (and more secure) than many schools? 

5. Make It Harder To Get To The Building: Secure the grounds around schools. Better fencing, gates, cameras and ground security. The same protection that any Gov. Bld. gets so should our schools (drive around Northern VA and you can tell what buildings have gov work going on by the fence, barbed wire and security cams. If we are willing to protect our Gov buildings and people with tons of security and access control - why not our centers with our kids and our futures at stake?

If we are spending billions as a nation to put a fence across the borders of the US, why not some improved level of security around schools?

6. School Watch Program - With the school shootings over the past ten years there seems to have been a missed pre-attack chance to hear about the mental state and issues around the attackers (as peers in the schools or as people living in the communities). We have neighborhood watch models and groups - why not a School Watch approach, that allows people to share information, maybe in such away they don't feel at risk of being picked on for coming forward (in schools and communities) - create an early warning system to help?

We need ways to find out about those people that want to do harm or who are planning on doing harm at schools sooner?

I know as a parent, if a bond measure to fund increased protection at schools I would put vote yes (short and long term). At the same time we need to tap into existing technologies, get existing groups like the PTA and do something that matters today.