Friday Filosophy 2013-01

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

Henry David Thoreau

Dreams are the touchstone of our character

Henry David Thoreau

All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers

Orison Swett Marsden

The time is now…..

Management Musings 2.2

There continues to be more research suggesting that incentives don’t work. This should lead us to reexamine our commission programs shouldn’t it?

Barney Frank, that once famous or infamous (your call) congressman, spoke at the Annual Awards dinner of the trade newspaper “American Banker” in 2004. He began his talk with a question “At the level of pay that those of you who run banks get, why the hell do you need a bonus to do the right thing?” Of course there was no answer given there was silence, so he continued. “Do we really have to bribe you to do you jobs?”

The same holds true for incentive programs on all manner of jobs. Are we truly trying to modify behavior with these programs or just pay more money?

I think it is time to ask some questions for instance:-

  • Why do we pay the same commission to equipment sales people who replace one of your brans as the commission for replacing a competitive brand?
  • Why do we pay a higher commission on the lowest margin products, undercarriage, as we do on the highest margin products, maintenance programs?

Just wondering why but then again that is what I do. Check out the studies and you will find that salaries are a better payment plan than commission programs.

The time is now.

 

 

 

Management Musings 2.1

In bouncing around the internet this morning I found an article from Forbes contributor Mike Maddock on “Ten Resolutions Most Successful People Make and Keep.” It was interesting and particularly so when it came to the tenth resolution.

“#10 Plan vacations (now)

You have probably heard the saying, “Life is what happens when you are not paying attention.” Unfortunately for many of us, we let this become true. Do yourself a favor and plan your vacations for the next year today. I promise you that the days around your vacation will fill in nicely. I also promise you that you’ll have something to look forward to and the life that happens during your vacations will be precious.”

 

With the exception that I believe that “Life Is What Happens When You Are Planning Other Things,” it brought to mind an item in Peter Senge’s book “The Fifth Discipline” which I have tried to follow religiously since I read it in the 80’s.

He puts forward that when planning the activites of your work year you should plan your personal time before anything else. He suggests that if you don’t do that you won’t have any personal time. I found that to be true in the early years of starting our business. So I changed. From that point on I put on the schedule personal time and held it out of bounds for any other activity. It worked. I was more refreshed – I could think more clearly, my family liked me better – I was less of a bear to be around, and we ultimately became more successful. Try it you will like it.

 

The time is now.

Management Musings 2.0

Today is a wonderful day. Welcome to 2013 and I hope that your every desire is accomplished; Health, Happiness and Prosperity to each and every one of you.

 

– Don’t let anyone take away your dreams.

– Always assume the other person is twice as smart as you are and work twice as hard to prove they aren’t.

– Be happy in your work or work and be happy but you can’t escape you have to work.

– You can do more than you thought you could and you can be more than you thought you were

 

All the best – The time is NOW.