Strategic Planning

One of the things my father taught me was the spirit of competition.  As a result, I’ve always been a competitive person.  When I decide I want to participate in something, I want to win.  Period.

That is, when I choose to make it a competitive situation.  I don’t view everything in my life as a competition.  Some people do.  Every single thing they engage in must be a competition.  And, every single person they deal with is a competitor.

Years ago, I worked for a company that viewed EVERYONE as a competitor.  It was crazy - any person who owned their own company was a competitor…even if they didn’t do the same kind of work.  It would be like saying staffing companies and insurance brokers are competitors.  Yes, they might share some clients…but they really don’t provide the same product/service.

That’s when I realized I needed to understand when to compete and when to collaborate.  (Note to our candidates and elected officials in Washington DC, here are some tips below.)

When an issue impacts a large group of people, that’s not the time for competition.  For example, when a hurricane, flood, or snow storm happens.  Or we have a financial crisis.  That’s not the time to point fingers, bad-mouth your colleagues, throw folks under the bus, or be perceived as opportunistic.  It is the time to roll up your sleeves and, as Tim Gunn says, “make it work”.

When an issue has a long-lasting impact on our everyday lives, like health care, education, or the environment.  These are the times when competitors should pull their strengths together to remove major obstacles and solve problems.  Just as an example, health care will always exist…because we all need our health (seems obvious, right?)  If we could work together to actually fix what’s broken with health care, maybe we would have more people using the system.  That’s called more customers.

It’s possible that we could create more demand, greater participation, and stimulate economic growth if we cooperate a little with our competitors.  Then all of us can turn our energies to gaining greater market share.

Make it work!

It’s hard to imagine during these tough economic times that anyone would turn away a piece of business, but it happens.  A lot.  And it might not be for the reason you think…some might say that price drives this decision but it’s really talent.

Could your employees be a reason that you turn down a sale?

Well, the answer hit me while I was sitting in Charlotte, North Carolina at Count Me In’s Make Mine a Million event.  I’m proud to say that I was there to be recognized as one of the Sam Walton Emerging Entrepreneurs.  During the event, they interviewed several women business owners about their greatest successes and biggest challenges.  One common theme was ‘invest in your people’. 

And, then someone said it.  They had to turn down a major project because they didn’t have confidence that their team could pull it off.  Ouch!

I’ve said it before.  Now is not the time to cut back on customer service.  It’s also not the time to cut back on quality.  People are willing to spend money…on a quality product or service.  Is your customer base putting more emphasis on getting a quality return on their investment?  Are they being pickier about who they do business with?  You bet they are!

Yes it’s difficult right now…but our economy will survive all of this.  And, when we start to pull out of the hole we’re in…will your organization be ready to service customers and deliver quality?

Think about the things you can do to ensure success.  Whether it’s employee training or just fixing that systemic problem that’s been driving everyone crazy, those efforts will not only make your organization stronger now but it will prepare you to make a lot of money in the future.

I’ve figured out what’s wrong with the economy - vanilla creamer.  Well, maybe vanilla creamer isn’t solely responsible for all of our economic problems, but the bad economy is definitely tied to vanilla creamer.

Let me explain.   Dedicated foodie that I am, I really enjoy drinking my morning coffee with fat-free vanilla creamer.  I buy the Coffee-mate brand every time because it tastes much better than the International Delight variety.  That is, when I can get it.  You see, 9 times out of 10, my local Publix will be out of the Coffee-mate brand so I have to buy International Delight.

What’s that got to do with the economy?  The Coffee-mate brand costs nearly 50¢ more.  Yep, I actually want to spend more money, but my local Publix won’t let me.  If it happened once or twice I could understand.  But almost every time I go to the store, it’s out of stock.  Now, multiply that times all the other shoppers who want the more expensive brand of an item, times all of the stores in the country, times shopping 1.5 times per week and it adds up to some serious money that’s not being put into circulation.

Okay, so maybe it’s possible that this issue is limited only to Publix and maybe it’s only the store near me.    But, I bet it’s not an isolated case.  I would wager you can find some form of this issue in nearly every company in America.  It’s a matter of accountability.  Someone needs to hold themselves accountable for knowing what their customers like, knowing their buying patterns, and maintaining inventories to satisfy demand.  Then they need to hold their employees accountable for embracing the corporate vanilla creamer philosophy, and making sure their actions support it.

The sad thing is the training that could make the vanilla creamer philosophy happen is usually a front-line budget casualty when the economy is bad.  Companies will spend money on hiring warm bodies who throw any old item on the shelf just so they can get their eight hours in.

It’s usually not catastrophic circumstances that cause big financial problems for most businesses.  It’s the small things.  If a company has the vision to fix their vanilla creamer problem, they might just excel in this shaky economy.

I just returned from the SHRM Strategy Conference in Palm Springs.  Nice event - I would recommend it to my colleagues who are looking for substantive content that doesn’t dwell on the transactional side of human resources.

One of the things I was able to participate in during the conference was a SHRM Governmental Affairs focus group on how pending legislation regarding sick pay and FMLA might impact our profession and workplaces.  SHRM uses this information to develop position papers and educate legislators about the impact of their decisions.

Over the years, I’ve heard plenty of HR Pros say that they don’t want to be involved in the political process.  They don’t want to hear a legislator speak and they don’t want to write a letter to their congressional representatives.  In fact, Edwin Foulke, the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA spoke at last year’s HR Florida conference . . . less than 50 of our 1300 attendees came to listen.

And when I say ‘political process’, I think it’s less about donkeys and elephants, and more about knowing which party and which candidates support things that benefit our companies and employees.  As business people, we need to know the views of our elected officials.  The actions of our legislators impact us at home and in the workplace.  As such, we need to be aware of what they do and how they make things happen.

I’ve never heard the CEO of a company say they steer clear of politics.  In fact, every CEO I know is keenly aware of how their local, state and national legislators impact the bottom line of their business.  If your CEO came to you about a bill in Congress that could cost your company thousands of dollars each year, what would you do?

It’s time to realize that government and politics are an important part of our jobs.  Be informed and get involved!

I never latch onto hit television shows while they are happening.  I became a fan of Seinfeld in syndication.  Watched the Sex and the City and the Sopranos via Netflix.

My latest discovery is Scrubs and my favorite character is Dr. Cox (played beautifully by John C. McGinley.)  There are times whenI would kill to have his chutzpah.  And, there are moments that his raw emotion and sense of right are so compelling that you forget for a few minutes what a jerk he is.  I guess that’s the point.

I recently watched an episode about ‘the perfect game.’  Dr. Cox was working with the other doctors to keep everyone in the hospital alive for 24-hours.  Doing so constituted ‘the perfect game.’  (SPOILER ALERT:  In the final minutes, a patient dies.)  Another doctor tells Dr. Cox that only they know so they can wait to report the time of death.

Dr. Cox’s response? 

It’s not about winning under false pretenses. It’s about the endless pursuit of perfection.

Translate this into our work environment.  In our workplaces, perfection is often viewed as a bad thing.  How often have we heard that we should not be striving for perfection because it is impossible to obtain?  Or when has a job applicant told you their weakness is ‘they are a perfectionist’?

While we’re not all in medicine, shouldn’t we all be striving for perfection?  Let’s face it - if we strive for perfection and fall short of the mark, isn’t that better than shooting for less and hitting it?

Maybe we all need to be a little bit more like Dr. Cox - not the critical, harsh guy - but the guy that encourages us to pursue perfection.  Because aiming for perfection pushes us to improve.  To be the absolute best we can be.

You may have already guessed the last topic in my ‘need to know’ series…yep, you need to know BUSINESS.  And, there are two kinds of business:  internal and external.

Internal business is basically your business.  How does your business make money?  That may seem pretty straightforward but not necessarily.  For example, I volunteer to produce an annual educational conference.  I know there are people who would say the conference makes money from the attendees.  Not true.  The attendees just cover expenses.  It’s our sponsors and exhibitors that help us achieve our profit goal.

Also, knowing what contributes the most to your profit line is important (i.e. what items have the highest profit margin?)  For instance, Mr. Bartender and I had lunch out the other day.  What was served wasn’t exactly what we expected according to the menu.  The manager came over and offered us dessert.  He didn’t offer to take money off the bill…he just offered his apologies and dessert.  Now, what do you think the chances are that dessert has a much better profit margin than discounting the check?  Of course it does!  He provided good service, gave us a gift (which we didn’t take) and we still paid the full check.  Knowing how your business makes money allows you to keep customers happy and still produce a healthy profit.

External business means understanding how the world affects your business.  When you read about oil prices, rice shortages and banks going belly up, how does that impact what you do?  You can’t assume that all businesses are impacted the same way.

I used to work at a hotel where, when a hurricane was coming, the hotel got busier.  No one needed to evacuate.  At that time, the Sheriff’s Department actually used it as a command center.  So while other places were losing money because of abandoned tourists, we were making it from the evacuating locals.

No matter who you are or what you do…you have to understand how all of the pieces fit together.  And if you spend the energy to really know it, it’s really quite fascinating.

So let’s recap, successful business people know how to build relationships, manage projects, use technology, read financials, and they really understand their business.  Do you have to be an expert at all of them?  Not really.  But you do need to have a decent working knowledge of them all. Will you use them every day?  Maybe not.  But when you need them, you want to have that ability.

If these competencies aren’t in your top five, think about a plan to get there.  More on that in a future post.