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| Volume 6, Issue 1 |
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In This Issue:
 The man who said no to Wal-Mart
 U.S.: One big reason to expect a good year for jobs
Stamping out cookie-cutter managers
A tale of two goof-off employees
When Chutzpah crosses the line
The struggle to measure performance
 How to make a potential employer fall in love with you
 Quantity, not Quantity
Cost-effective team building exercises
 Seven no-no’s when asking for a raise
Dying at work
 What customers want from your products
When Benchmarks don’t work
Making credibility your strongest asset
What really drives your strategy?
Show me the green stuff
Beware of battling Bios
The easiest commute of all
 Can [your] B2B newsletters survive the preview pane?
A few brand campaigns are forever (Well, almost)
 Six more reasons to exercise in 2006
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The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart
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We're not obsessed with volume," says Wier. "We're obsessed with having differentiated, high-end, quality products." |
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Every year, thousands of executives venture to Bentonville, Arkansas, hoping to
get their products onto the shelves of the world's biggest retailer. But Jim Wier
wanted Wal-Mart to stop selling his Snapper mowers.
What struck Jim Wier first, as he entered the Wal-Mart vice president's office,
was the seating area for visitors. "It was just some lawn chairs that some other
peddler had left behind as samples." The vice president's office was furnished
with a folding lawn chair and a chaise lounge. And so Wier, the CEO of
lawn-equipment maker Simplicity, dressed in a suit, took a seat on the chaise
lounge. "I sat forward, of course, with my legs off to the side. If you've ever
sat in a lawn chair, well, they are lower than regular chairs. And I was on the
chaise. It was a bit intimidating. It was uncomfortable, and it was going to be
an uncomfortable meeting." It was a Wal-Mart moment that couldn't be scripted,
or perhaps even imagined. A vice president responsible for billions of dollars'
worth of business in the largest company in history has his visitors sit in
mismatched, cast-off lawn chairs that Wal-Mart quite likely never had to pay for.
The vice president had a bigger surprise for Wier, though. Wal-Mart not only
wanted to keep selling his lawn mowers, it wanted to sell lots more of them.
Wal-Mart wanted to sell mowers nose-to-nose against Home Depot and Lowe's.
"Usually," says Wier, "I don't perspire easily." But perched on the edge of his
chaise, "I felt my arms getting drippy." Wier took a breath and said, "Let me
tell you why it doesn't work." Tens of thousands of executives make the pilgrimage
to northwest Arkansas every year to woo Wal-Mart, marshaling whatever arguments,
data, samples, and pure persuasive power they have in the hope of an order for
their products, or an increase in their current order. Almost no matter what
you're selling, the gravitational force of Wal-Mart's 3,811 U.S. "doorways"
is irresistible. Very few people fly into Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport
thinking about telling Wal-Mart no, or no more...
Read the article. Back to top
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U.S.: One Big Reason To Expect A Decent Year For Jobs
Companies can no longer meet demand with existing forces.
The Labor Dept.'s monthly employment report contains perhaps the government's
most politically sensitive data, especially in an election year.
Take the December
jobs numbers. The Bush Administration and other Republicans are playing up the good
news in the 4.9% jobless rate. Democrats are pouncing on the
much-smaller-than-expected 108,000 rise in payrolls. By the time politicians and
media folk run it all through the spin cycle, it's hard to know what to think...
Read the article. Back to top
Stamping out Cookie-Cutter Managers
People who use the same approach to any challenge can hinder your business.
Here's how to spot them -- and how to improve their performance.
A few months ago, my husband and I sold our house. Based on advice from a few
friends, I called in a "stager" -- a person who would help us spruce up the
place and get it ready to go on the market -- and asked for her recommendations...
Read the article. Back to top
A Tale of Two Goof-Off Employees
What should you do about a co-worker who doesn't get the job done? The answer depends on how it affects you.
I speak to a lot of employee groups, and the folks in the audience always have
terrific workplace questions. There's one question that comes up in almost every
group, and everyone laughs when it does, but it's almost impossible for me to answer
it on the spot. The question is: "What do you do about a co-worker who goofs off
all the time?" When I get that question, I have to ask the inquirer to see me
afterward, so I can learn more about the situation. The reason is that over the
years, I've learned that there are two very different kinds of workplace
work-shirkers. One might be called the Optical Slacker, and the other could be
nicknamed the Physical Slacker. And there's a huge difference between them.
ACTION REQUIRED. The Physical Slacker works with you so closely that you rely
on his or her results. That's a problem, because the Physical Slacker doesn't do
what he or she promises to. When you say you need something by Friday and he
says "Sure," you're lucky to get it the following Tuesday...
Read the article. Back to top
When Chutzpah Crosses the Line
Whether you're an employer or a job candidate, be mindful of attitudes and
behaviors that signal it's time to walk away.
My friend Sue got a call from a recruiter about an out-of-state job opportunity.
She had a great talk with both this person and the company recruiter, then one more
with a vice-president of marketing. Then they asked Sue to send over her references.
"Sure, I'll send them right away," she said, "but you're not going to call them
right now, are you?" The company recruiter said, "Of course we are. We need to know
more about you, before deciding whether to spend the money to bring you in for
a face-to-face interview."Now, that's chutzpah! If you want to express the
recruiter's statement as a mathematical expression, it would be "x > y," where
"x" is the cost of Sue's round-trip plane ticket, and "y" is the value of
those treasured reference-givers' time.Expressed in words, the company's statement
would be: "Your trusted reference-givers' time and energy costs us nothing, but
the plane ticket costs us something, so we don't mind leaning on your references
now in order to check you out, even before we've laid eyes on you." Sue did not
send her references' contact information -- and did not pursue the opportunity...
Read the article. Back to top
The Struggle To Measure Performance
Rigid rankings hinder the teamwork and risk-taking necessary for innovation. But what combination of methods works best?
Holiday shopping, yearend deadlines, and emotional family dramas aren't the
only stresses in December. 'Tis the season for companies to embark on that
dreaded annual rite, the often bureaucratic and always time-consuming
performance review. The process can be brutal: As many as one-third of U.S.
corporations evaluate employees based on systems that pit them against their
colleagues, and some even lead to the firing of low performers. Fans say such
"forced ranking" systems ensure that managers take a cold look at performance.
But the practice increasingly is coming under fire. Following a string of
discrimination lawsuits from employees who feel they were ranked and yanked based
on age and not merely their performance, fewer companies are adopting the
controversial management tool. Critics charge that it unfairly penalizes groups
made up of stars and hinders collaboration and risk-taking, a growing concern
for companies that are trying to innovate their way to growth. And a new study
calls into question the long-term value of forced rankings. "It creates a zero-sum
game, and so it tends to discourage cooperation," says Steve Kerr, a managing
director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS ), who heads the firm's leadership
training program...
Read the article. Back to top
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How to Make a Potential Employer Fall in Love With You
Do the Right Things Right.
Looking for ways to impress a potential employer? Want to make your resume or
job application stand out from the pack? In the past few weeks, I've reviewed
485 resumes and applications for 18 different positions. I've interviewed 23
candidates and brought six back for a second, more intense round of interviews.
Believe me, I can tell you what rang my chimes. Some of this advice may surprise
you. Some may even make you angry because it doesn't seem fair or right to you.
I can't guarantee that all employers will agree with me, but why take a chance
in this employers' market?...
Read the article. Back to top
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Quantity, Not Quantity
In the beginning, there was The Monster Board (today’s Monster.com). Then
came HotJobs, CareerBuilder and a flood of other online job boards, where
companies could pay to post their talent needs and job seekers could post resumes.
Back in those pre-dotcom-bubble days, employers sought out this fascinating
thing called the World Wide Web, looking to find a new, easy way to manage
their talent pipelines. On the flip side, job seekers wanted to get their
credentials in front of the right eyes in a much less painful process. Today,
while Monster and the rest of the online boards are still going strong (Monster
was on pace to generate $630 million in 2005 revenue at press time, which is
about 12.5 percent of the estimated $5 billion help-wanted marketplace), the
Internet is spawning a new breed of job sites...
Read the article. Back to top
Cost-Effective Team Building Exercises
Instead of trying to design a team building exercise where people play
games or climb rocks to develop team spirit, explore fun, cost-effective ways
to engage your team. Below are three proven team building strategies that
embrace community, meaningful dialogue and learning.
Studies show that companies that encourage and support their staff to get
involved in the community is a great way to motivate employees and increase
team spirit. But instead of sending folks out on their own to volunteer, take
your team out for a day to support a local group. This builds collaboration and
a sense of respect and accomplishment. Taking your team out to volunteer has a
direct impact on retention and morale. According to Council on Foundations,
employees who participate in community-based efforts through work are more likely to...
Read the article. Back to top
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Seven No-Nos When Asking For A Raise
You want more money. Great. Who doesn't?
Asking for a raise requires preparation, skill, timing and a fallback plan.
It also demands wrapping your mind around a basic fact many employees miss: A
pay increase is based on performance and the market for your skills. "The worst
thing you can do is base a request for a raise on personal issues," says Bill
Coleman, senior vice president for compensation at Salary.com in Needham, Mass.
"Saying, 'I need a raise because I have a gambling problem' is a loser. It's also
a bad idea to ask for a raise if the company is having layoffs. Superstars can get
a raise because the company must retain its best performers. If you're not sure
that you're among the elite, you're not." Build your case for a raise by making a
list of your accomplishments in the previous year. If, for example, you've
outperformed other sales representatives, have the figures handy to back up
your statement. Remind the boss of the new accounts you've landed, or the
current customers you've kept from jumping to the competition. Don't be bashful
about listing your accomplishments, but don't be boastful, either. Let the numbers
tell the story. If you're a manager...
Read the article. Back to top
Dying At Work
The tragic accident that caused the deaths of 12 men at International Coal
Group's Sago Mine in West Virginia is a sad reminder of how dangerous the
mining occupation is for its workers.
In fact, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s
Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mining industry has the second-highest fatality
rate per 100,000 employees. Only the agriculture industry (which includes
forestry, fishing and hunting) has a higher rate of death on the job. In 2004,
a total of 5,703 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States, an
increase of...
Read the article. Back to top
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What Customers Want from Your Products
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| Marketers should think less
about market segments and more about the jobs
customers want to do. A Harvard Business Review excerpt
by HBS professor Clayton M. Christensen, Intuit’s
Scott Cook, and Advertising Research Foundation’s
Taddy Hall. | |
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The job, not the customer, is the fundamental unit
of analysis.
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Marketers have lost the forest for the trees, focusing too much on creating
products for narrow demographic segments rather than satisfying needs.
Customers want to "hire" a product to do a job, or, as legendary Harvard
Business School marketing professor Theodore Levitt put it, "People don't want
to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!". With Levitt's words
as a rallying cry, a recent Harvard Business Review article, "Marketing
Malpractice: The Cause and the Cure," argues that the marketer's task is to
understand the job the customer wants to get done, and design products and brands
that fill that need. In this excerpt, the authors look at designing products that
do a job rather than fill a product segment...
Read the article. Back to top
When Benchmarks Don't Work
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| Benchmarks have their virtues, but professor Robert S. Kaplan argues they should be saved for surveys of commoditized processes or services. From Balanced Scorecard Report. | |
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Armani would probably not benefit from studying Wal-Mart's selling process.
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Benchmarking certainly has its virtues.
Comparing production time or the cost of a standard process to that of peer
companies can yield important insights about your own efficiencies—and
ultimately, competitiveness. But benchmarking also has its limits. When you ignore
the differentiated output that internal support or shared services groups provide,
such straight-across cost or numeric comparisons become meaningless. Today's
successful support unit earns its keep by being a trusted partner to the business
units it serves. So, comparing its results to those in a benchmarking survey is
counterproductive. Companies should save the benchmarking surveys for
commoditized processes or services. Benchmarking became popular several decades
ago as part of the total quality management movement. An IBM executive defined
it as
" . . . the ongoing activity of comparing one's own process, product, or
service against the best-known similar activity, so that challenging but
attainable goals can be set and a realistic course of action implemented
to efficiently become and remain best of the best.
In one dramatic benchmarking example, General Motors, in the early 1980s, learned
that a Toyota assembly plant could change its stamping presses from one model to
another in eight minutes, compared with the eight hours GM plants spent to change
over the same basic equipment. Clearly a deviation of this magnitude between its
current performance on a critical process and industry best practice served as a
wake-up call for GM. Benchmarking works well when...
Read the article. Back to top
Making Credibility Your Strongest Asset
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| Dealmakers often forget the power of a good reputation. In this article from Negotiation,
HBS professor Michael Wheeler tells why having a
storehouse of credibility will put you head and shoulders above the competition. | |
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You can succeed without explicitly swapping favors.
The fact that [Tony] Lucci didn't condition his helpfulness made it more likely he'd get calls in the future.
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Negotiation is a breeze if you're selling a unique product or service that others desperately need: Just sit back and let the bidding begin.
Likewise, if you're a buyer in a buyer's market, getting a bargain is a snap.
But what happens when lots of other people are selling what you've got, or many
others are bidding for what you want? One solution to distinguishing yourself
in competitive environments is to build your bargaining endowment—storing up
credibility and resources by developing relationships, burnishing your reputation,
and controlling key assets.When you're trying to prevail amid fierce
business competition, your bargaining endowment can spell the difference between
closing the deal and being shut out. A healthy bargaining endowment explains how
Darren Rovell won a job on national television while other journalism graduates
were lucky to be doing programs on cable access. It's also how Tony Lucci got box
seats for the World Series when thousands of others were shut out. And it explains
how Bob Kraft positioned himself to buy a professional football team.Although
Rovell, Lucci, and Kraft operated in very different contexts, they all met their
goals by enhancing their own credibility and discerning the interests of other
key players. Their three stories illustrate different elements of the process of...
Read the article. Back to top
What Really Drives Your Strategy?
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| For better or worse, why do so many companies veer off
their strategic plan? Look for a disconnect between
strategy and how resources are allocated, say Harvard Business School’s Joseph L. Bower and Clark G. Gilbert. | |
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If I’m the top management, how can I shape that process,
manage it, and give it direction? —Joseph L. Bower
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"While companies might have an intended strategy, the strategy that actually
emerges can be very different," says HBS professor Clark G. Gilbert.
It is a topic that Gilbert and professor Joseph L. Bower have explored at length
for a new book they have edited, From Resource Allocation to Strategy, published
by Oxford University Press. Contributors to the book include Harvard Business
School's Clayton M. Christensen, Walter Kuemmerle, and Thomas R. Eisenmann, as
well as nine other scholars.Bower and Gilbert recently sat down with HBS
Working Knowledge to explain how internal and external factors play a surprising
role in strategy formulation and execution. As Gilbert explains, "A lot of our book
is about understanding (a) that realized strategy is often different from
intended strategy, and (b) there are forces that shape strategy in unintended
ways."...
Read the article. Back to top
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Show Me the Green Stuff
Negotiating a salary can be the trickiest step when jockeying for a position. Here's how to keep yourself in the race.
Money makes people act so strangely. Even my kids, who are in elementary school,
turn down the $5 bill I offer them for lunch, and insist on an "AJ" -- an Andrew
Jackson $20 bill. Mind you, nothing in the school cafeteria costs more than $1.50.
But there's social value in flashing that AJ in the lunch line: It impresses the
other kids. Job seekers get weird about money, too. They'll invest three or four
months in a job search that involves meeting recruiters at odd hours in
inconvenient places and sharing their life histories and most treasured references
with a potential employer -- only to walk away at the last minute over money. It's
a shame to go so far down the road and then see the deal go south. Luckily,
there are ways to forestall a last-minute hitch over money: Here are some tips:
First, decide on your asking price. One of the annoying aspects of the tango
between employer and prospective employee is "who goes first" when it comes
to discussing salary. Now, I don't approve of employers requiring the salary
history of candidates -- that's the job-seeker's business. Conversely, though,
a job seeker should be able to say what compensation he or she wants...
Read the article. Back to top
Beware of Battling Bios
A workplace fight to prove who has the best credentials makes losers of anyone who takes part. Here's how to steer clear.
The business workplace, no less than the most remote Stone Age society,
presents incredible opportunities for the junior anthropologist. A budding
Margaret Mead can, without much effort, fill notebooks with details on the
strange habits, rituals, and norms in the typical business ecosystem. There's the jargon:
- "Let's put the pedal to the metal."
- "We're gonna storm the beaches."
- "Kick *ss and take names."
- "We'll focus on blocking and tackling."
- "Let's pull the trigger on this deal."
- "This is where the rubber meets the road."
And so on. For the corporate newcomer, it isn't always clear whether these
conversations are related to a business enterprise, a sports arena, a
military operation, the shooting range, or an auto race...
Read the article. Back to top
The Easiest Commute Of All
The ranks of remote workers are swelling as companies see the sense in freeing them.
On the edge of Albuquerque lies a mammoth expanse of hills and horizon called
Mesa del Sol. This celluloid-worthy, clay-colored plateau sprawls for over 25
square miles. It's the last parcel of its size in North America that is so close
to both a central business district and an international airport. When ground broke
in October, the unspoiled scrub began giving way to what will eventually become one
of the largest planned -- and technologically tricked out -- communities in the
nation, a place that will offer 310 sunny days a year in a climate balmier
than Colorado's, cooler than Arizona's, and cheaper than either. A place where
you can hit the slopes in the morning, tee off after lunch, and then jam in
some collaboration with co-workers in India before David Letterman. In other words,
a desert idyll for those who want to go off the grid but remain connected, and
keep their New Economy-size paychecks while living a New Mexico-priced lifestyle...
Read the article. Back to top
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Can B2B Newsletters Survive the Preview Pane?
It's been long known that preview pane and the blocked-images feature in
email clients are problematic for business-to-business (B2B) marketers.
A recent survey that our company conducted confirmed the significance of this
problem, as the majority of B2B readers are using both the preview pane and the
default blocked-images functions to decide whether to open emails and block
unwanted downloads. Companies that do not take steps to address these findings
with their email design and format will be doing a disservice to their subscribers.
A survey conducted in September 2005 of one of our subscriber lists showed that
90% of email newsletter subscribers have access to a preview pane, and 69% say
they frequently or always use it...
Read the article. Back to top
A Few Brand Campaigns Are Forever (Well, Almost)
Just do it. Drivers wanted. Got milk? A Diamond Is Forever.
Recognize these? They're all breakaway campaigns. Each, launched more than a
decade ago, has survived to this day. Brands become breakaway brands because
of breakaway branding campaigns. For a new brand, a campaign is its introduction
to the public. For an existing brand, a campaign can increase interest and drive
up sales and profits. For a declining brand, the right campaign can renew
consumer interest and rejuvenate sales. A breakaway campaign stands out in the
crowd because it cuts through the clutter, connects with the consumer,
differentiates the brand from all of its competitors—and it sells. It can be for
any product in any market...
Read the article. Back to top
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6 more reasons to exercise in 2006
It's not just about weight loss, as a look back at the year's headlines shows.
Once again it's that time when many Americans will resolve to lose weight. Health
clubs will run membership specials, hoping to draw in legions of people
freshly committed to making 2006 the year they finally shape up and slim down.
But if history repeats itself, most people will have fallen off the weight-loss
wagon before spring — some even before the Super Bowl. More than half of people
who begin exercising drop their program within three to six months, according
to the American College of Sports Medicine. We know why...
Read the article. Back to top
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