Monday, May 16, 2005
Making the Grass Greener on Your Side
Making the Grass Greener on Your Side
© 1995 by Ken Melrose
Results: Specify the quantity and quality of desired results
Guidelines: Focus on principles, not on procedures
Resources: Identify available human financial and physical resources
Accountability: Schedule progress reports and specify performance criteria
Consequences: State both the positive and negative rewards that reflect the natural consequences of actions taken.
Ranking by employees:
Feeling of being “in” on things
Interesting work
Full appreciation of work done
Job security
Good pay
Promotion and growth
Vision: The first order of business is to establish, communicate, and incorporate into the organization’s life a well-defined vision that’s understood and embraced by all.
Focus: Decide what’s really important, define the key factors for success and your key business values - put fist things first.
Anticipate and respond to the future, live your vision, give power away, create an environment for personal growth, champion positive change, integrate results and relationships. Develop a passion to do the right things and then do them.
Leaders
I was going to produce leaders who could produce other leaders.
Momentum - leaders model the leadership they desire.
Focus on the potential - find the one thing that you believe is the potential leader’s greatest asset and focus on that. Give 100 percent of encouragement to that area.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1881052214
© 1995 by Ken Melrose
Results: Specify the quantity and quality of desired results
Guidelines: Focus on principles, not on procedures
Resources: Identify available human financial and physical resources
Accountability: Schedule progress reports and specify performance criteria
Consequences: State both the positive and negative rewards that reflect the natural consequences of actions taken.
Ranking by employees:
Feeling of being “in” on things
Interesting work
Full appreciation of work done
Job security
Good pay
Promotion and growth
Vision: The first order of business is to establish, communicate, and incorporate into the organization’s life a well-defined vision that’s understood and embraced by all.
Focus: Decide what’s really important, define the key factors for success and your key business values - put fist things first.
Anticipate and respond to the future, live your vision, give power away, create an environment for personal growth, champion positive change, integrate results and relationships. Develop a passion to do the right things and then do them.
Leaders
I was going to produce leaders who could produce other leaders.
Momentum - leaders model the leadership they desire.
Focus on the potential - find the one thing that you believe is the potential leader’s greatest asset and focus on that. Give 100 percent of encouragement to that area.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1881052214
Creating a New Civilization: The Politics of the Third Wave
Creating a New Civilization: The Politics of the Third Wave
© 1995 by Alvin Toffler
Knowledge systems push the cost of diversity to zero. They cut down on warehousing, transportation, tracking of shipments. They allow the creation of new materials, allowing substitution of one material for another.
We ship large quantities around the world because we do not have local substitutes. Knowledge is a substitute for both resources and shipping. Time is a hidden input. Space is conserved and conquered by knowledge.
Knowledge substitutes for capital. Human capital has replaced dollar capital.
Knowledge is for all intents inexhaustible. Knowledge can be used by two companies at the same time. And it can be used to generate more knowledge.
Companies in the Third Wave sector tend to be young, both in corporate age and work force. They invest more in R&D. They must innovate continuously. This means short product life cycles and rapid turnover of people, tools, and administrative practices. The key assets of these firms are symbols inside the skulls of their people.
Third Wavers dominate the Internet and numerous grass roots efforts in the country. The Third Wave forces in America have yet to find their voice. The political party that gives it to them will dominate the American future.
Third Wave organizations, instead of adding functions, seek to subtract or subcontract them to stay alive. Contract out as many tasks as possible.
Some generations are born to create, others to maintain, a civilization.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1570362246
© 1995 by Alvin Toffler
Knowledge systems push the cost of diversity to zero. They cut down on warehousing, transportation, tracking of shipments. They allow the creation of new materials, allowing substitution of one material for another.
We ship large quantities around the world because we do not have local substitutes. Knowledge is a substitute for both resources and shipping. Time is a hidden input. Space is conserved and conquered by knowledge.
Knowledge substitutes for capital. Human capital has replaced dollar capital.
Knowledge is for all intents inexhaustible. Knowledge can be used by two companies at the same time. And it can be used to generate more knowledge.
Companies in the Third Wave sector tend to be young, both in corporate age and work force. They invest more in R&D. They must innovate continuously. This means short product life cycles and rapid turnover of people, tools, and administrative practices. The key assets of these firms are symbols inside the skulls of their people.
Third Wavers dominate the Internet and numerous grass roots efforts in the country. The Third Wave forces in America have yet to find their voice. The political party that gives it to them will dominate the American future.
Third Wave organizations, instead of adding functions, seek to subtract or subcontract them to stay alive. Contract out as many tasks as possible.
Some generations are born to create, others to maintain, a civilization.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1570362246
Quality Service
Quality Service
© 1989 by Keith Denton
Stanley Marcus: You're not in business to make a profit, but you're in business to render a service that is so good people are willing to pay a profit in recognition of what you're doing for them.
Customers generally appreciate the fact that someone asks for their opinions and appears to be truly concerned with their response.
Sam Walton: It's our people who make the difference and our attitude towards each other makes our people different.
Don’t' assume customer needs, find out. Stay in touch with your customers. Invest in customer research. Use appropriate consumer technology. Communicate your desires to your personnel.
Responsiveness is of little value if the service is not reliable.
There must be standards of performance, and monitor their standards.
Spend the advertising money on service. For long-term success, a business must differentiate itself from others. You have to offer the customer something special.
Customers associate risk more highly with the purchase of services rather than goods.
Concern for nonconforming costs. The price of noncormformance is what it costs to do things wrong, resulting in losses of money, time, and opportunity.
Nonconforming calls are calls because something does not work.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0872015513
© 1989 by Keith Denton
Stanley Marcus: You're not in business to make a profit, but you're in business to render a service that is so good people are willing to pay a profit in recognition of what you're doing for them.
Customers generally appreciate the fact that someone asks for their opinions and appears to be truly concerned with their response.
Sam Walton: It's our people who make the difference and our attitude towards each other makes our people different.
Don’t' assume customer needs, find out. Stay in touch with your customers. Invest in customer research. Use appropriate consumer technology. Communicate your desires to your personnel.
Responsiveness is of little value if the service is not reliable.
There must be standards of performance, and monitor their standards.
Spend the advertising money on service. For long-term success, a business must differentiate itself from others. You have to offer the customer something special.
Customers associate risk more highly with the purchase of services rather than goods.
Concern for nonconforming costs. The price of noncormformance is what it costs to do things wrong, resulting in losses of money, time, and opportunity.
Nonconforming calls are calls because something does not work.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0872015513
Customers for Life
Customers for Life
© 1990 by Carl Sewell
Don't charge the customer for any service you wouldn't charge a friend for.
Ask customers what they want. Provide systems, not smiles. Underpromise and overdeliver. When the customer asks, the answer is always yes. Encourage your customer's to tell you what you're doing wrong. Measure everything. Pay people like partners. Show people respect. Be polite.
Nothing paid off better than visiting successful companies. We borrowed a lot of ideas.
The only thing that matters is what the customer wants. And the only way to know for sure what they want is to ask them.
The secret is to identify the three things that are most important to the customer.
We don't want to bother our customers. We give them every opportunity to tell us what they think, but we make it optional. Make it easy for them to tell you. Don't pester them.
Whenever possible we want to help our customers. Our job is to take care of the customer so well that he keeps coming back for the rest of his life.
One call should do it all. Don't worry about people taking advantage of you.
Build in a cushion so you can always charge a little less.
Doing a good job has two parts: doing the job right the first time and having a plan in place to deal with things when they go wrong.
The important thing is designing systems that allow you to do the job right the first time.
The more variations you can eliminate, the better your product or service.
What can go wrong? What can be automated?
If a job is done wrong, the person who made the mistake must fix it and he shouldn't be paid for setting it right. Since the company doesn't get paid for doing a job over, neither should the person who did it wrong.
Each comeback is talked about in the morning quality meeting.
We try to do root cause analysis to figure out what went wrong the first time and fix it so it does not go wrong again.
Customers want firms to do what they say they are going to do.
What is the benefit to the customer? Will the customer understand the benefit?
First we apologize, and then we fix the problem. We have to make a big deal about being wrong.
We have to keep adding new ideas and improving the ones we have.
If you're not getting better, you're getting worse. The Japanese call the process of continuous improvement KAIZEN. Getting better - continuously is absolutely necessary if we are going to survive.
Have you thanked your employees today? There are a lot of things you can delegate. Take a longer-term view of the value of a customer.
Explain to customers how you do things. Thank customers over the phone, thank you notes, etc.
I don't believe you can run an above-average business with average employees. To be the best, we need to find people who are 10s on a scale of 1 to 10.
If people have performed well in the past, they'll probably perform well in the future. So, in interviewing, look for people who have been successful and leaders.
Look for history of success, energy, intelligence, character, will they fit?
If you mistreat a customer, you lose your job. Don't be afraid to fire people.
Is the measurement important? Is the measurement easy to track? Will the employees understand the measurement? Is the measurement stated in positive terms?
The more you post, the more effective it is. We track the number of jobs done correctly.
It would be demeaning to display the number of mistakes publicly.
Measure what is relevant, post results, keep raising the level of acceptable performance, and limit your goals.
Decide to be the best, the boss must set the example, celebrate your success.
In whatever you do, make sure there is a "wow factor" something that will grab people's attention.
Look the part, act the part.
How much could a person spend with you in the course of a lifetime?
When we do a real good job with customers, they tell their friends.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385415036
© 1990 by Carl Sewell
Don't charge the customer for any service you wouldn't charge a friend for.
Ask customers what they want. Provide systems, not smiles. Underpromise and overdeliver. When the customer asks, the answer is always yes. Encourage your customer's to tell you what you're doing wrong. Measure everything. Pay people like partners. Show people respect. Be polite.
Nothing paid off better than visiting successful companies. We borrowed a lot of ideas.
The only thing that matters is what the customer wants. And the only way to know for sure what they want is to ask them.
The secret is to identify the three things that are most important to the customer.
We don't want to bother our customers. We give them every opportunity to tell us what they think, but we make it optional. Make it easy for them to tell you. Don't pester them.
Whenever possible we want to help our customers. Our job is to take care of the customer so well that he keeps coming back for the rest of his life.
One call should do it all. Don't worry about people taking advantage of you.
Build in a cushion so you can always charge a little less.
Doing a good job has two parts: doing the job right the first time and having a plan in place to deal with things when they go wrong.
The important thing is designing systems that allow you to do the job right the first time.
The more variations you can eliminate, the better your product or service.
What can go wrong? What can be automated?
If a job is done wrong, the person who made the mistake must fix it and he shouldn't be paid for setting it right. Since the company doesn't get paid for doing a job over, neither should the person who did it wrong.
Each comeback is talked about in the morning quality meeting.
We try to do root cause analysis to figure out what went wrong the first time and fix it so it does not go wrong again.
Customers want firms to do what they say they are going to do.
What is the benefit to the customer? Will the customer understand the benefit?
First we apologize, and then we fix the problem. We have to make a big deal about being wrong.
We have to keep adding new ideas and improving the ones we have.
If you're not getting better, you're getting worse. The Japanese call the process of continuous improvement KAIZEN. Getting better - continuously is absolutely necessary if we are going to survive.
Have you thanked your employees today? There are a lot of things you can delegate. Take a longer-term view of the value of a customer.
Explain to customers how you do things. Thank customers over the phone, thank you notes, etc.
I don't believe you can run an above-average business with average employees. To be the best, we need to find people who are 10s on a scale of 1 to 10.
If people have performed well in the past, they'll probably perform well in the future. So, in interviewing, look for people who have been successful and leaders.
Look for history of success, energy, intelligence, character, will they fit?
If you mistreat a customer, you lose your job. Don't be afraid to fire people.
Is the measurement important? Is the measurement easy to track? Will the employees understand the measurement? Is the measurement stated in positive terms?
The more you post, the more effective it is. We track the number of jobs done correctly.
It would be demeaning to display the number of mistakes publicly.
Measure what is relevant, post results, keep raising the level of acceptable performance, and limit your goals.
Decide to be the best, the boss must set the example, celebrate your success.
In whatever you do, make sure there is a "wow factor" something that will grab people's attention.
Look the part, act the part.
How much could a person spend with you in the course of a lifetime?
When we do a real good job with customers, they tell their friends.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385415036
Inside America's Fastest Growing Companies
Inside America's Fastest Growing Companies
© 1988 by M. John Storey
The best way to grow is to start the process of growth. There is no substitute for doing something. Good management is the art of making the problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to work and deal with them.
Have a vision or dream. Believe passionately in their product or service. Entrepreneur’s want to build something, are innovators, are impatient, believe in adding value to the process, are persistent, have a profit objective, plan to be around for years, are not afraid of starting over again, are confident, want to grow, understand the primacy of the customer, are difficult to intimidate, are willing to be embarrassed.
Andrew Carnegie: I believe the true road to preeminent success in any line is to make yourself master in that line. Be the best, deliver the best.
Hire experience, go for quality people especially when they will be hiring additional people, try to match their skill with the company’s culture, try to find people you have worked with in the past, keep the team as small as possible, focus on money, profit is the goal.
Get good people and let them go to work for you. Don't hamper them, don't nitpick; be supportive and attentive be a mentor and advisor, make them feel free to talk to you whenever your input can be helpful, let them do their jobs.
When I showed up for the first day of work at Gore, Bill Gore shook my hand and said "Why don’t you look around and find something you'd like to do."
Customers want peace of mind. Customers are anxious for someone to take care of problems that are bigger than they can manage. Companies gain lifetime customers by solving their problems for them. Customers also want satisfaction.
Leadership emerges naturally when people attract followers.
Lessons of fast growth companies: All leaders have a crystal clear vision as to where they want to get in the long term, incurable sense of optimism, do everything possible to maintain sense of smallness, market driven, high quality, strong and positive attitude about customer service, strong sense of focus, ability to attract and then keep talented people, exhibit increasing amounts of flexibility, great willingness to share success with employees once positive cash flow develops, offer employees attractive quarters to work, and learn how to listen,
Twenty three publishers rejected a children's book written by an author who called himself Dr. Seuss. The twenty-fourth publisher published it and the book sold six million copies.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471602493
© 1988 by M. John Storey
The best way to grow is to start the process of growth. There is no substitute for doing something. Good management is the art of making the problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to work and deal with them.
Have a vision or dream. Believe passionately in their product or service. Entrepreneur’s want to build something, are innovators, are impatient, believe in adding value to the process, are persistent, have a profit objective, plan to be around for years, are not afraid of starting over again, are confident, want to grow, understand the primacy of the customer, are difficult to intimidate, are willing to be embarrassed.
Andrew Carnegie: I believe the true road to preeminent success in any line is to make yourself master in that line. Be the best, deliver the best.
Hire experience, go for quality people especially when they will be hiring additional people, try to match their skill with the company’s culture, try to find people you have worked with in the past, keep the team as small as possible, focus on money, profit is the goal.
Get good people and let them go to work for you. Don't hamper them, don't nitpick; be supportive and attentive be a mentor and advisor, make them feel free to talk to you whenever your input can be helpful, let them do their jobs.
When I showed up for the first day of work at Gore, Bill Gore shook my hand and said "Why don’t you look around and find something you'd like to do."
Customers want peace of mind. Customers are anxious for someone to take care of problems that are bigger than they can manage. Companies gain lifetime customers by solving their problems for them. Customers also want satisfaction.
Leadership emerges naturally when people attract followers.
Lessons of fast growth companies: All leaders have a crystal clear vision as to where they want to get in the long term, incurable sense of optimism, do everything possible to maintain sense of smallness, market driven, high quality, strong and positive attitude about customer service, strong sense of focus, ability to attract and then keep talented people, exhibit increasing amounts of flexibility, great willingness to share success with employees once positive cash flow develops, offer employees attractive quarters to work, and learn how to listen,
Twenty three publishers rejected a children's book written by an author who called himself Dr. Seuss. The twenty-fourth publisher published it and the book sold six million copies.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471602493
Pushing up People
Pushing up People
© 1985 by Art Williams
Your people are your company's most important asset. I've found that people who are exceptionally smart spend too much valuable time trying to analyze things. A lot of people have "millionaire ideas" but nothing in the world is cheaper than a good idea without any action behind it. The problem is finding someone willing to implement it.
Experience has shown me that the perfect person to hire at any level is the person who wants to be a winner. He's not looking for a handout. All he wants is an opportunity. He can still dream, and still hope, and still make a commitment.
I really believe that people want three things. To be their own boss, to control their own destiny, and to work at something they believe in.
You've got to be proud of your people. You can't just say the words. You've got to be sincerely excited and enthused about their success and appreciate the efforts they make. When you hire a person, you've got to assume that person will be with you for life and you've got to treat him or her that way.
Praise and recognition are the most powerful forms of motivation. Nothing encourages people to work harder and produce quality results like having their accomplishments noticed and praised.
One of the primary mistakes managers make is trying to change people. They focus all their energy on a person's weakest area and try desperately to turn that weakness into strength. I am here to tell you that you cannot do it. You've got to focus on a person's strengths and build on them. Everybody has at least one area in which he's really special. Find that area of strength and build on it, forget the weakness.
When you work with people one-on-one, you can say 99 positive things and one negative thing and the only thing they'll remember is the negative. Your emphasis has to be positive. You must be slow to criticize. I believe the most acceptable form of punishment is lack of praise.
When you want to criticize - don't. Spend your time making heroes out of people. Give the people who are doing the job love and attention. Before you know it, the poor performer will be dying to get back into the group that's getting praise and respect, and he'll improve his performance to do so. You'll accomplish the same end without saying anything hurtful. When you single out poor performance, you make people feel rotten.
Hint and motivate - hint at the problem then tell them about confidence in them and the good things they have done. If you ask 10 people what they dislike about their job most of them will complain that they are not recognized for their work or that they do not have enough responsibility.
When you give a person a job to do, let them do their job. Don't tell them how you would do it. Let them play. Let them have the freedom and responsibility to win or lose.
Nothing excites people more than being around someone who has a purpose and a goal. When it comes to leading by example, you can’t do anything more important than set an example of total commitment to your work.
In your business you must learn to pass negatives up and pass positives down. You must let people know that you won't listen to just plain old griping and whining and complaining. You must encourage them to discuss their work problems with you, but you must be careful not to encourage complaints and negativism.
People will rise to the standards you set for them. Leaders set goals in all areas of their lives.
Have specific goals and a specific plan for reaching them. Have a specific goal, set a specific time in which to achieve your goal, develop a plan, decide on what price you are willing to pay, write it down, and think about reaching your goal everyday.
Be aware of The Magic of 90 Days. Anyone can do anything for 90 days.
In business, I see four basic fears: Fear of competition, fear of controversy, fear of what other people say, fear of things you can't control. Leaders never ask anything of their people that they wouldn't do themselves. Never sacrifice quality, there's no substitute for building it right.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9996455416
© 1985 by Art Williams
Your people are your company's most important asset. I've found that people who are exceptionally smart spend too much valuable time trying to analyze things. A lot of people have "millionaire ideas" but nothing in the world is cheaper than a good idea without any action behind it. The problem is finding someone willing to implement it.
Experience has shown me that the perfect person to hire at any level is the person who wants to be a winner. He's not looking for a handout. All he wants is an opportunity. He can still dream, and still hope, and still make a commitment.
I really believe that people want three things. To be their own boss, to control their own destiny, and to work at something they believe in.
You've got to be proud of your people. You can't just say the words. You've got to be sincerely excited and enthused about their success and appreciate the efforts they make. When you hire a person, you've got to assume that person will be with you for life and you've got to treat him or her that way.
Praise and recognition are the most powerful forms of motivation. Nothing encourages people to work harder and produce quality results like having their accomplishments noticed and praised.
One of the primary mistakes managers make is trying to change people. They focus all their energy on a person's weakest area and try desperately to turn that weakness into strength. I am here to tell you that you cannot do it. You've got to focus on a person's strengths and build on them. Everybody has at least one area in which he's really special. Find that area of strength and build on it, forget the weakness.
When you work with people one-on-one, you can say 99 positive things and one negative thing and the only thing they'll remember is the negative. Your emphasis has to be positive. You must be slow to criticize. I believe the most acceptable form of punishment is lack of praise.
When you want to criticize - don't. Spend your time making heroes out of people. Give the people who are doing the job love and attention. Before you know it, the poor performer will be dying to get back into the group that's getting praise and respect, and he'll improve his performance to do so. You'll accomplish the same end without saying anything hurtful. When you single out poor performance, you make people feel rotten.
Hint and motivate - hint at the problem then tell them about confidence in them and the good things they have done. If you ask 10 people what they dislike about their job most of them will complain that they are not recognized for their work or that they do not have enough responsibility.
When you give a person a job to do, let them do their job. Don't tell them how you would do it. Let them play. Let them have the freedom and responsibility to win or lose.
Nothing excites people more than being around someone who has a purpose and a goal. When it comes to leading by example, you can’t do anything more important than set an example of total commitment to your work.
In your business you must learn to pass negatives up and pass positives down. You must let people know that you won't listen to just plain old griping and whining and complaining. You must encourage them to discuss their work problems with you, but you must be careful not to encourage complaints and negativism.
People will rise to the standards you set for them. Leaders set goals in all areas of their lives.
Have specific goals and a specific plan for reaching them. Have a specific goal, set a specific time in which to achieve your goal, develop a plan, decide on what price you are willing to pay, write it down, and think about reaching your goal everyday.
Be aware of The Magic of 90 Days. Anyone can do anything for 90 days.
In business, I see four basic fears: Fear of competition, fear of controversy, fear of what other people say, fear of things you can't control. Leaders never ask anything of their people that they wouldn't do themselves. Never sacrifice quality, there's no substitute for building it right.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9996455416
Managing Service as a Strategic Profit Center
Managing Service as a Strategic Profit Center
© 1991 by Donald Blumberg
The service opportunity is significant in terms of both value and worth. Service can be used to add value to tangible products. Products generate service needs. Service is governed primarily by the customer's perception of time. Service pricing is different from product pricing. Service must be totally managed, delivered, and controlled just like a product line of business.
The typical customer spends more than twice the initial tangible product price over the life cycle of use.
Service and support can be used to extend the basic product lifecycle.
Comfort in knowing that the service is available when it is required. For the user, the need for service is created as soon as the requirement exists - not when the vendor is notified of the service need.
It is essential to provide a constant level of service quality over time. This consistency is critical added value in developing a long-term perception of quality service commitment.
Product-related services include: design and engineering and other professional services related to the application, installation, or use of the product, supply of consumables and other materials used by the product, refurbishment and replacement, upgrades, additions, and changes.
Service time: Waiting time to obtain service, reaction time to deliver service, length of time of the service.
Creating a service portfolio geared to the requirements of a specific market segment or customer group can generate a significantly higher perception of service quality than delivering an average level of service to all segments.
Some customers are simply willing to wait longer than others. Others want accelerated service performance.
Customers want a single source vendor. Customers want to reduce total service costs and charges from all service vendors; to avoid finger pointing; to improve overall service responsiveness and quality; to reduce time and effort required to find the correct service provider and report the service needed.
The service-based firm primarily utilizes labor, parts, and data to provide both a service capability on a timely basis and the actual service performance. The capability to produce can generate revenues directly, even though there is no apparent production of a "unit of service."
Service is a mechanism for long-term market control. Service has considerable value in "pulling through" future product and service sales.
Provide specific services and service related products: installation, initial warranty, maintenance and repair, remote diagnostics, moves and changes, training, documentation, software, parts and supplies, depot or rehabilitation.
Elements of Service Strategy Plan:
1) The dimensions of the services or products to be supported
2) The desired level of service revenue and profit and the expected profit margins
3) Levels of support and service to be offered
CUSTOMERS VALUE TIME ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE!!!!
The purchaser will recognize that the product or service will fail to perform at some point in time.
Service factors of importance: availability of a full range of services, quality of the maintenance service, cost of the maintenance service, reputation of the service organization, service response time, speed of equipment repair, ability of service rep to fix equipment right the first time, technical skill and ability of service engineer, availability of software support, ability to perform self-maintenance, availability of extended hours of service, availability of preventative maintenance service, availability of spare parts, long-term service commitment, availability of site surveys and consultation, availability of turnkey systems and support, availability of equipment leasing programs, availability to service multiply types of equipment, single point of contact, proximity of service locations.
Call avoidance and remote diagnostics - what possibilities for call avoidance exist? What mechanisms and technology exist which can be used to identify problems and avoid service calls. What procedures for employing call-avoidance mechanisms exist?
Customer characteristics, site installation, status, service requirements, failure rate and service demand data, service performance data, service resources, call escalation, unassigned calls, call history, MTBF, MTTR, inventory status, open purchase orders.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0070061890
© 1991 by Donald Blumberg
The service opportunity is significant in terms of both value and worth. Service can be used to add value to tangible products. Products generate service needs. Service is governed primarily by the customer's perception of time. Service pricing is different from product pricing. Service must be totally managed, delivered, and controlled just like a product line of business.
The typical customer spends more than twice the initial tangible product price over the life cycle of use.
Service and support can be used to extend the basic product lifecycle.
Comfort in knowing that the service is available when it is required. For the user, the need for service is created as soon as the requirement exists - not when the vendor is notified of the service need.
It is essential to provide a constant level of service quality over time. This consistency is critical added value in developing a long-term perception of quality service commitment.
Product-related services include: design and engineering and other professional services related to the application, installation, or use of the product, supply of consumables and other materials used by the product, refurbishment and replacement, upgrades, additions, and changes.
Service time: Waiting time to obtain service, reaction time to deliver service, length of time of the service.
Creating a service portfolio geared to the requirements of a specific market segment or customer group can generate a significantly higher perception of service quality than delivering an average level of service to all segments.
Some customers are simply willing to wait longer than others. Others want accelerated service performance.
Customers want a single source vendor. Customers want to reduce total service costs and charges from all service vendors; to avoid finger pointing; to improve overall service responsiveness and quality; to reduce time and effort required to find the correct service provider and report the service needed.
The service-based firm primarily utilizes labor, parts, and data to provide both a service capability on a timely basis and the actual service performance. The capability to produce can generate revenues directly, even though there is no apparent production of a "unit of service."
Service is a mechanism for long-term market control. Service has considerable value in "pulling through" future product and service sales.
Provide specific services and service related products: installation, initial warranty, maintenance and repair, remote diagnostics, moves and changes, training, documentation, software, parts and supplies, depot or rehabilitation.
Elements of Service Strategy Plan:
1) The dimensions of the services or products to be supported
2) The desired level of service revenue and profit and the expected profit margins
3) Levels of support and service to be offered
CUSTOMERS VALUE TIME ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE!!!!
The purchaser will recognize that the product or service will fail to perform at some point in time.
Service factors of importance: availability of a full range of services, quality of the maintenance service, cost of the maintenance service, reputation of the service organization, service response time, speed of equipment repair, ability of service rep to fix equipment right the first time, technical skill and ability of service engineer, availability of software support, ability to perform self-maintenance, availability of extended hours of service, availability of preventative maintenance service, availability of spare parts, long-term service commitment, availability of site surveys and consultation, availability of turnkey systems and support, availability of equipment leasing programs, availability to service multiply types of equipment, single point of contact, proximity of service locations.
Call avoidance and remote diagnostics - what possibilities for call avoidance exist? What mechanisms and technology exist which can be used to identify problems and avoid service calls. What procedures for employing call-avoidance mechanisms exist?
Customer characteristics, site installation, status, service requirements, failure rate and service demand data, service performance data, service resources, call escalation, unassigned calls, call history, MTBF, MTTR, inventory status, open purchase orders.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0070061890
Competing on Value
Competing on Value
© 1991 by Mack Hanan
You must price your value. And you must sell your value. Unless you know your value, you cannot sell it. If you do not know your value, all you can sell is your cost. If you cannot price your value, all you can price is your cost. Your customers and your competitors will drive you back to your cost every chance you give them.
If your customers do not know your value either, they cannot perceive it. They will end up taking it from you. You will end up giving it away. On the other hand, a customer who knows your value will have no trouble affording it because he knows it represents a good investment. He will always get back more then he pays out. He will not think in terms of affording your value. He will not be able to afford doing without it.
The best customers you can have are customers who cannot afford to do without your value. Your competition will appear to be unaffordable no matter how cheap their price may be because they will seem to be less reliable.
Sell on value:
1) What critical success factors do we affect in our customer's business?
2) How do we affect them most significantly: by displacing or constraining some of their costs or enhancing their revenues, earnings, or market shares?
1) What do you want to be compared against -- your competitor's prices or your customer's current values?
2) Where you want to attach your price: to your product or to the added values your represent to your customer?
3) Who you want to make your buying decisions: customer purchasing managers who buy on price or business managers who live or die on value?
Value is the added competitive advantage you bring to your customers. Quality is what goes into your products. Value is what your customers get out of them. This requires more than zero defects. It requires a dedication to help customers maximize their ability to derive value by training and education, information, application, and consultation.
You must prove how sure the customer will be of achieving the extra value and how soon they will start to receive it.
Add value to counteract a customer's most crucial costs. Add value to accelerate a customer's most crucial profit generators.
Is the business based on turnover volume or margin?
The more you know your customer's business, the more you can affect it, and the more readily you can measure your contribution. Then, the greater your value will be and the greater leverage you will have on price.
Three types of values:
Restorative: Correct problems in costs or productivity
Opportunistic: Seize sales opportunities
Preventive:
Partnering is based on value. To the extent that you add value, you add to your partnerability. "Making partner" means making the highest value impact on your customer's competitiveness.
The proper response to low-cost competition is better application, better implementation and installation, better education, and better information and consultation.
Value assessment requires: a set of benchmark measures, a series of milestone measurements, and a final measurement.
Measuring value: meantime between new product introductions, time and cost of product development lifecycle, forecasting accuracy, inventory costs, process scheduling accuracy, speed of order entry, meantime between billing and collections, receivables outstanding, reject and scrap rates, downtime rates, meantime between downtimes, product movement from warehouses, product movement at retail.
Hard-to-measure values: time saved, quality improved, productivity gained, capability enhanced, motivation increased, communication speeded, information learned.
Branding is the name of the process by which a product's value comes to justify its premium price. A brand is price-insensitive or, discount-resistant.
The secret of margin control is to brand your customers with competitive advantage in their own industries and markets.
Define the product in terms of its value.
Price is either a cost or an investment.
An investment leads to a return on that investment. This is found money. It is therefore, our money, mutually earned by and for the partnership of the two of you. By all rights, the partnership should have first call on the recycling of the returns from investments as long as it can propose fast reliable returns at competitive rates.
Concentrate on a single product line and know the customer's industry very well. Customize the product to fit the customer's critical success factors. Consult on application engineering of the products. Be an applier of technology rather than a supplier of products.
When you base your business on adding value to your customers, you "brand" it.
If product quality is superior to competition, it must be accompanied by superior applications services to make sure that your quality is fully realized by each customer.
Each time you succumb to the temptation to believe that "the value is in the box" and you make it faster, smaller, or more powerful just because you can, you will be a value-overadder. You customers will be unable to use your excess value. They will be unwilling to retrain their people to implement it and to connect it to their existing systems where it may interrupt or obsolete long-established procedures. As a result, they will not repay you for your overcosted investment with the super premium margins that would be required.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0814450369
© 1991 by Mack Hanan
You must price your value. And you must sell your value. Unless you know your value, you cannot sell it. If you do not know your value, all you can sell is your cost. If you cannot price your value, all you can price is your cost. Your customers and your competitors will drive you back to your cost every chance you give them.
If your customers do not know your value either, they cannot perceive it. They will end up taking it from you. You will end up giving it away. On the other hand, a customer who knows your value will have no trouble affording it because he knows it represents a good investment. He will always get back more then he pays out. He will not think in terms of affording your value. He will not be able to afford doing without it.
The best customers you can have are customers who cannot afford to do without your value. Your competition will appear to be unaffordable no matter how cheap their price may be because they will seem to be less reliable.
Sell on value:
1) What critical success factors do we affect in our customer's business?
2) How do we affect them most significantly: by displacing or constraining some of their costs or enhancing their revenues, earnings, or market shares?
1) What do you want to be compared against -- your competitor's prices or your customer's current values?
2) Where you want to attach your price: to your product or to the added values your represent to your customer?
3) Who you want to make your buying decisions: customer purchasing managers who buy on price or business managers who live or die on value?
Value is the added competitive advantage you bring to your customers. Quality is what goes into your products. Value is what your customers get out of them. This requires more than zero defects. It requires a dedication to help customers maximize their ability to derive value by training and education, information, application, and consultation.
You must prove how sure the customer will be of achieving the extra value and how soon they will start to receive it.
Add value to counteract a customer's most crucial costs. Add value to accelerate a customer's most crucial profit generators.
Is the business based on turnover volume or margin?
The more you know your customer's business, the more you can affect it, and the more readily you can measure your contribution. Then, the greater your value will be and the greater leverage you will have on price.
Three types of values:
Restorative: Correct problems in costs or productivity
Opportunistic: Seize sales opportunities
Preventive:
Partnering is based on value. To the extent that you add value, you add to your partnerability. "Making partner" means making the highest value impact on your customer's competitiveness.
The proper response to low-cost competition is better application, better implementation and installation, better education, and better information and consultation.
Value assessment requires: a set of benchmark measures, a series of milestone measurements, and a final measurement.
Measuring value: meantime between new product introductions, time and cost of product development lifecycle, forecasting accuracy, inventory costs, process scheduling accuracy, speed of order entry, meantime between billing and collections, receivables outstanding, reject and scrap rates, downtime rates, meantime between downtimes, product movement from warehouses, product movement at retail.
Hard-to-measure values: time saved, quality improved, productivity gained, capability enhanced, motivation increased, communication speeded, information learned.
Branding is the name of the process by which a product's value comes to justify its premium price. A brand is price-insensitive or, discount-resistant.
The secret of margin control is to brand your customers with competitive advantage in their own industries and markets.
Define the product in terms of its value.
Price is either a cost or an investment.
An investment leads to a return on that investment. This is found money. It is therefore, our money, mutually earned by and for the partnership of the two of you. By all rights, the partnership should have first call on the recycling of the returns from investments as long as it can propose fast reliable returns at competitive rates.
Concentrate on a single product line and know the customer's industry very well. Customize the product to fit the customer's critical success factors. Consult on application engineering of the products. Be an applier of technology rather than a supplier of products.
When you base your business on adding value to your customers, you "brand" it.
If product quality is superior to competition, it must be accompanied by superior applications services to make sure that your quality is fully realized by each customer.
Each time you succumb to the temptation to believe that "the value is in the box" and you make it faster, smaller, or more powerful just because you can, you will be a value-overadder. You customers will be unable to use your excess value. They will be unwilling to retrain their people to implement it and to connect it to their existing systems where it may interrupt or obsolete long-established procedures. As a result, they will not repay you for your overcosted investment with the super premium margins that would be required.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0814450369
Successful Large Account Management
Successful Large Account Management
© 1993 by Robert Miller
Ford operated with a strategy of resource concentration. 5% of your customers bring in 50% of your business.
What other orders do we want? What orders do we not want?
Charter Statement: define your field of play: what portion of your client's business can you manage? Review your sales history in field of play. Define what you will sell them. Define the contribution you make to their business. Draft your charter statement.
If you can help reduce the logjams in your customer's internal affairs, if you can help their ships sail smoother, day to day, they will consider you as much an external asset as you consider them.
As you move up the hierarchy, competition decreases, there is less sensitivity about price, importance of features decreases.
Stop investment scenarios: You're on the "outside" track, it's not your real business, and you’re flying blind in the Large Account, new products/new market.
Solving customer's problems: What actions can we take to remedy a customer's service problem? What can we do to solve a customer's product problems? Is there a problem on the horizon we can help head off? What activities could we pursue to position us higher up the buy-sell relational hierarchy? How can we help this account increase sales revenue from its own accounts? How can we improve the account's own productivity? Can we do something to help reduce its costs? Can we have positive impact on profit?
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0961907320
© 1993 by Robert Miller
Ford operated with a strategy of resource concentration. 5% of your customers bring in 50% of your business.
What other orders do we want? What orders do we not want?
Charter Statement: define your field of play: what portion of your client's business can you manage? Review your sales history in field of play. Define what you will sell them. Define the contribution you make to their business. Draft your charter statement.
If you can help reduce the logjams in your customer's internal affairs, if you can help their ships sail smoother, day to day, they will consider you as much an external asset as you consider them.
As you move up the hierarchy, competition decreases, there is less sensitivity about price, importance of features decreases.
Stop investment scenarios: You're on the "outside" track, it's not your real business, and you’re flying blind in the Large Account, new products/new market.
Solving customer's problems: What actions can we take to remedy a customer's service problem? What can we do to solve a customer's product problems? Is there a problem on the horizon we can help head off? What activities could we pursue to position us higher up the buy-sell relational hierarchy? How can we help this account increase sales revenue from its own accounts? How can we improve the account's own productivity? Can we do something to help reduce its costs? Can we have positive impact on profit?
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0961907320
The First Book of Common Sense Management
The First Book of Common Sense Management
© 1989 by Diane Tracy, 1989
Rewards of training: People produce better work, they produce more work. They are happier because they feel respected and appreciated. Happy people don't get sick so often. They don’t quit. They don’t sit around wondering what they are supposed to be doing. You will soon find yourself with time to plan, to be creative.
Why people join teams: Security, Belonging - provides identification, Individuality, the group recognizes and supports valuable differences of its members, Pride, members share in group achievement. Recognition, the outside world respects the group as a more powerful entity than it would an individual.
Delegation: All routine tasks and decisions should be delegated. This applies even if it means that someone else will be representing the group to higher-ups.
The benefits of reviews: Employees are more motivated. It gives positive feedback to employees. Employees learn and grow. It helps the manager plan. It helps the company. It opens communication lines.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688083463
© 1989 by Diane Tracy, 1989
Rewards of training: People produce better work, they produce more work. They are happier because they feel respected and appreciated. Happy people don't get sick so often. They don’t quit. They don’t sit around wondering what they are supposed to be doing. You will soon find yourself with time to plan, to be creative.
Why people join teams: Security, Belonging - provides identification, Individuality, the group recognizes and supports valuable differences of its members, Pride, members share in group achievement. Recognition, the outside world respects the group as a more powerful entity than it would an individual.
Delegation: All routine tasks and decisions should be delegated. This applies even if it means that someone else will be representing the group to higher-ups.
The benefits of reviews: Employees are more motivated. It gives positive feedback to employees. Employees learn and grow. It helps the manager plan. It helps the company. It opens communication lines.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688083463
Japanese Business Pioneers
Japanese Business Pioneers
© 1988 by Kazuyoshi Kamioka
Quality control is the responsibility of all employees.
The Japanese company educates its new employees to a very high level.
Hattori tried to make clocks by imitating the American clocks. At age 40, he visited America to buy watch-making equipment.
Matsushita Konosuke. At age 22, he set out on his own. Within two years, he had 30 people employed. He believed in Bushido. He never gave discounts and became well-known for his consistency. He did innovative advertising of distributing samples of the National brand. His talent was in organizing his subcontracting network, and developing the next hit product quickly.
Matushita creed: Progress and development can be realized only through the combined effort and cooperation of each member of our company. Each of us, therefore, shall keep this idea constantly in mind as we devote ourselves to the continuous improvement of the company. He outlined seven objectives: National service through industry, fairness, harmony and cooperation, struggle for betterment, courtesy and humility, adjustment and assimilation, gratitude.
Honda: One day he found a defect in a light attached to a newly manufactured motorcycle which was being tested. He immediately took it off and threw it to the ground, shouting, "Make a better one by tomorrow!"
Akio Morita, only 250 employees. Akio was shrewd enough to take note that every big business had once been a small or medium-sized one and had developed from there.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0893463035
© 1988 by Kazuyoshi Kamioka
Quality control is the responsibility of all employees.
The Japanese company educates its new employees to a very high level.
Hattori tried to make clocks by imitating the American clocks. At age 40, he visited America to buy watch-making equipment.
Matsushita Konosuke. At age 22, he set out on his own. Within two years, he had 30 people employed. He believed in Bushido. He never gave discounts and became well-known for his consistency. He did innovative advertising of distributing samples of the National brand. His talent was in organizing his subcontracting network, and developing the next hit product quickly.
Matushita creed: Progress and development can be realized only through the combined effort and cooperation of each member of our company. Each of us, therefore, shall keep this idea constantly in mind as we devote ourselves to the continuous improvement of the company. He outlined seven objectives: National service through industry, fairness, harmony and cooperation, struggle for betterment, courtesy and humility, adjustment and assimilation, gratitude.
Honda: One day he found a defect in a light attached to a newly manufactured motorcycle which was being tested. He immediately took it off and threw it to the ground, shouting, "Make a better one by tomorrow!"
Akio Morita, only 250 employees. Akio was shrewd enough to take note that every big business had once been a small or medium-sized one and had developed from there.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0893463035
The Ultimate Entrepreneur: The Story of Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corporation
The Ultimate Entrepreneur: The Story of Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corporation
© 1988 by Glenn Rifkin and George Harrar
In 1953, Olsen said in reference to IBM "I can beat these guys at their own game."
The most important thing was to design a product and get it built. Don't ask any employee to do anything that he or his managers would not do themselves.
Olsen purposely ignored military contracts. Government money corrupted a company that wanted to be a commercial success.
Badge numbers were assigned in order of hire so a low badge number became a status symbol within DEC.
He who proposes does.
At the end of the 5th fiscal year they had 6 million in sales and $800,000 in net profits.
In 1964, DEC spent 16% on R&D.
The executive would take ownership of each product line. The manager would have to develop it, market it, nurture it, and turn a profit. Profit and loss accountability was his.
Nobody tells anybody else what to do. Each of you has the responsibility for your part of the company.
We had a very clear idea that the customer must receive value for their investment in the company.
In 10 years, DEC was a $39 million dollar company.
DEC values 1974: We want to be not only technically honest, but also make sure that the implication of what we say and the impressions we leave are correct. Success is measured by profit. With success comes the opportunity to grow, the ability to hire good people, and the satisfaction that comes from meeting your goals. Plans are proposed by managers or teams. These plans may be rejected until they fit corporate goals or until the Operations Committee feels confidence in the plans. But when they are accepted, they are the responsibility of those who proposed them. We must be honest and straight-forward with our customers and be sure that they are not only told the facts, but that they understand the facts.
We want all aspects of DEC to be clear and simple, and we want simple products, proposals, organizations, literature that is easy to read and understand.
Marketing: It is okay to say, I don't know the answer as long as you get back to the customer in a prompt manner with the answer. It is not appropriate to disparage the competition. We should be careful to stress the advantages of our way of doing computing and never the negatives of our competitors. One of the cardinal rules of a successful sales organization is to never argue with the customer. The customer is always right. Nothing leads to the perception of complacency and arrogance more than arguing with the customer, particularly over trivial technical matters.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809245590
© 1988 by Glenn Rifkin and George Harrar
In 1953, Olsen said in reference to IBM "I can beat these guys at their own game."
The most important thing was to design a product and get it built. Don't ask any employee to do anything that he or his managers would not do themselves.
Olsen purposely ignored military contracts. Government money corrupted a company that wanted to be a commercial success.
Badge numbers were assigned in order of hire so a low badge number became a status symbol within DEC.
He who proposes does.
At the end of the 5th fiscal year they had 6 million in sales and $800,000 in net profits.
In 1964, DEC spent 16% on R&D.
The executive would take ownership of each product line. The manager would have to develop it, market it, nurture it, and turn a profit. Profit and loss accountability was his.
Nobody tells anybody else what to do. Each of you has the responsibility for your part of the company.
We had a very clear idea that the customer must receive value for their investment in the company.
In 10 years, DEC was a $39 million dollar company.
DEC values 1974: We want to be not only technically honest, but also make sure that the implication of what we say and the impressions we leave are correct. Success is measured by profit. With success comes the opportunity to grow, the ability to hire good people, and the satisfaction that comes from meeting your goals. Plans are proposed by managers or teams. These plans may be rejected until they fit corporate goals or until the Operations Committee feels confidence in the plans. But when they are accepted, they are the responsibility of those who proposed them. We must be honest and straight-forward with our customers and be sure that they are not only told the facts, but that they understand the facts.
We want all aspects of DEC to be clear and simple, and we want simple products, proposals, organizations, literature that is easy to read and understand.
Marketing: It is okay to say, I don't know the answer as long as you get back to the customer in a prompt manner with the answer. It is not appropriate to disparage the competition. We should be careful to stress the advantages of our way of doing computing and never the negatives of our competitors. One of the cardinal rules of a successful sales organization is to never argue with the customer. The customer is always right. Nothing leads to the perception of complacency and arrogance more than arguing with the customer, particularly over trivial technical matters.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809245590
