Monday, January 30, 2006

Creating Sales is like being a farmer....

you have to plant some seeds before you can harvest!!

I was recently talking with a business person and we got on to the subject of sales and his ONLY comment was:

What are your Sales numbers?

While I don't disagree that sales numbers show results and results are what matters, what HE failed to realize is that results come from activity to produce numbers and results. You can't find out how much a farmer harvests unless you know how much he plants and how much he "maintains" his field in preparation for planting and the next step of planting in search of getting more of a harvest. So, in more detail:

Field Preparation + Planting + Plant Maintenance = Harvest

Same goes for business, but with different terminology:

Planning + Designing + Marketing = Sales

Poor leaders focus on EITHER one or the other side. POOR workers focus on EITHER side as well. Good leaders AND good workers will notice BOTH sides of the equation rather than only on one side, results OR process.

So, next time you are talking with a person whether that person is a business owner or a person who works for someone else, listen to how they measure themselves or how they are measured or even how they've been measured.

If a leader states "I don't care how you do it but reach this number or you'll be ...." is a VERY POOR leader because they fail to understand HOW their business will GROW!! It shows that they will NOT be able to duplicate what has been done.

If a worker states "I don't care how I do it but I have to reach this number or I'll be ..." it shows that the worker is willing to possibly swap out ethical behavior with something less truthful.

In both cases we've seen how Enron, Tyco, and other companies bow to pressure to perform and begin to perform unethically.

If you take care of your customers, they care about how you perform, Wall Street can take a hike.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Free software posted on a Commercial Web site

Here's a neat example of a company that is concerned with their customers, Bare Bones Software has a section of their web site that lists free software on the Mac. Nothing is more important to me starting a business than finding free or low cost software to get my tasks and jobs done. But what is really nice is the fact that here's a company that that lists it on their web site. Good job in my view.

This should be a suggestion for every commercial web site that sells products, placing links to free software that either helps with your products or that you find that have been helpful to you.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Golden Rules: Here are some, what are yours?

I was glancing at this site about "49 Golden Rules" by CEOs and thought this interesting. But the real question is: how many companies work it?

As W. Edwards Deming stated once: "I don't know of any employee that walks into their work with an attitude of 'I'm going to really screw up today.' "

What do you think?

iPods: Maintaining them and finding answers

My wife has an iPod mini that I got for her less than a year ago and she's been having an issue with it. But after going to Apple's Support web site or the iPod Support site and the iPod Updater Software web site I realized that my wife had not updated her iPod software since she got it last year. But another thing happened that I was not aware of: that by using the Mac "Software Update" I had actually automatically downloaded all of the iPod Updater software that was located under the Applications > Utilities > iPod Updater folder and when I checked this folder all of the updates to the iPod software were there. Wow!! And I thought I had to download the newest version each time one came out.

The other part was that the "Five R's" do work. Fortunately, my wife's issue was not a hardware issue but a software one which, for those that have been around computers for any length of time, most of the time issues are with software and not hardware. This means that you can do things at home and not have to call your friends and visit an Apple technician.

So, my wife is happy again with her iPod and I learned something new today.

Company Metrics: Measurement for the Company or measuring for the Customer?

Recently I was discussing measurements with a QA professional friend of mine and we got into the a discussion about metrics, or the measurement of something. Most companies today have begun measuring productivity of each BU (Business Unit) in terms of various metrics, but just like the ISO 9000 of old, just because you have a measurement does NOT mean you have customer satisfaction. Just because you have a process documented does not mean you have customer satisfaction. Just because you have a measurement does not mean you get customer satisfaction.

In most QA circles (such as American Society for Quality) there are two terms that are discussed: outcomes and output. Outputs are what you produce based on the defined process, outcomes are what you want, the goals that you define. However, if you define a metric of only what management wants and not what the customer wants or do not take into account what a customer wants you'll drive your customers away while patting yourself on the back as far as your metric goes.

In the past I worked for one company that made sure you did a certain percentage of transactions through BU "A" of the company because it affected the bottom line and payroll of each of the BUs when in reality the customers got better service in BU "A" because of the newer and faster machines. While the customer's wanted the faster service, the metric of management kept certain customer's waiting longer, thus making some of them go elsewhere.

On the other hand, when I was having a discussion with another computer user over the use of Windows, Mac, and Linux the one thing the person asked was "what about getting 24 hour support for Macs while I may not get any for Linux but where I can with Windows." The one part that most people don't understand from this person's or company's "metric" is that having 24/7 support for the product they buy can be had for probably a price and while it may indicate "high quality customer service," it may also be indicative of a poor product quality! With a high quality product you won't have to call anyone because there are no issues to resolve.

Or, you can also relate that a customer's view that "you're having more tech support calls" means that you're having a product quality but could really mean that you've sold more of your product.

The same goes for measuring an employees performance. Many a metric that has been established to measure a manager's performance actually hinders an employees chance for advancement. If a manager has a good employee who keeps a metric high and the employee wants to advance, the manager might dissuade the employee to stay just to keep their metric high while preventing the employee's real talent to shine in a promotion. The manager's manager might look at the "metric" and see that if it goes down that either the person was "promoted," a positive outcome, or "quit", a negative outcome, because of a failure of the employee to advance in the company.

Make sure that the metric you use is based on reality and customer feedback and not following "Enronish" expectations. For those that think that no one is watching them and can get away with doing bad things either to their customers or their employees or others, just remember that God is measuring your output as indicated by in 1 Corinthians 3:4-8.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Off today, doing some writing and thinking

I'm off today from my regular job and getting into writing my book. Came a cross a number of sites that added information to my book:

Marc's Outlook on Productivity
apennyfor.com

I'll be back with more, I'm still looking....

Update 1/23/2006: I never did finish this, but hopefully the links wills spark some new ones when I have the time.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Added use for iPods: Kids Emergency Info/Medical Source

When I do my computer writing, software updating, and all around thinking about computers I come up with ideas that can be helpful to others. Well, while I was updating my wifes iPod with the newest Apple iPod Updater for all iPods, I was reviewing my wifes iPod Mini and came up with a thought for parents who get their iPods for their kids:

Place your kids emergency medical and contact information information on your kids iPod so that it's easy for those around during an emergency to be able to respond quickly and appropriately.

Since most kids carry their iPods with them most anywhere, especially with their friends, it's easy to find the information.

Any comments?

Hope this helps someone's kid at some point.