Innovation and the Challenge

/in , /by

Innovation and the Challenge

Last week we talked about the challenge in the acquisition and retention of the talented people that you would need over the coming years. We also addressed the challenge of the new partnerships required between businesses and the education system.  Through this partnership, we can fill the learning to employment chasm.

Now I would like to turn to where we have more direct control: Innovation.

This year we are seeing rapid and healthy capital spending by business across the country. This is the precursor to improvements in productivity in the workforce which will lead to higher wages.  These are all good things.

However, what are YOU doing to innovate your way to higher productivity?

Let’s quickly review some high-performance benchmarks for parts and service.

Parts & Service Sales > 40% of Total Dealer Sales.

No matter what you think, you can achieve this level of sales IF you achieve higher market share numbers. BUT that will not be easy. It will not be achieved if all you do is continue to do what you have always done.  You would do well to remember the definition of insanity here, as I reference it so often: continuing to do what you have always done, while expecting a different result.

Some key steps to achieving higher market share:

 Obtain complete accurate machine ownership lists.
 Segment your marketplace.
 Establish a market coverage strategy.
 Assign customers to external and internal sales teams; in the filed and on the telephone.
 Train your market coverage personnel in territory management.
 Establish specific objectives for purchases for each of your assigned customers.

THEN YOU NEED TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Operations need to be tuned up as well. Let’s start with productivity. Do you think that with your current structures and personnel levels you will be able to handle the business that will come with the above action steps? No matter what you think you can achieve this level of sales It will never be achieved if all you do is continue to do what you have always done.

We need to attack the structures. So, let’s go back to our fundamental question:

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE WHEN IT IS RIGHT?

To start with all parts and service sales prices are at retail customer price for the following benchmarks. No, you don’t need to change how you price things, although that would be the right thing to do, you can simply do the arithmetic.

To operate at high levels of productivity requires the following benchmarks be achiever. Personnel Costs as a percentage of Sales Revenue.

Parts < 7%
Service < 15%

The above two measures will lead to sales per employee numbers. If you are higher than the above measures then you need to focus on innovation. Improve methods, processes, systems and everything you can to achieve the personnel numbers above. The only way you can achieve radical improvements in operational performance is if you get all of your employees involved in the process.

Remember: Understanding, Acceptance and then Commitment.

More on that next time.

The Time is NOW.

The Challenge

/in , /by

The Challenge

We are getting close to being in a position of complete saturation in the jobs market. We now have more jobs open than we have workers looking for a job. That has not happened for a long time.

We now have over 6,000,000 jobs open across the country.

The most recent Gordon report, from Edward Gordon, one of our colleagues who focuses on training and education, said:

“Today is a watershed era similar to the Industrial Revolution of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Then new methods of production required more educated workers. The factory system and the consequent growth of American cities sparked the development of public schooling at the local levels, that in turn led to the passing of compulsory schooling laws at the state level. The United States was the first nation in the world to institute compulsory tax-supported public education, and it was a key component in the economic and industrial expansion of the United States. It was history’s first comprehensive education-to employment system.

The spread of computer technology in today’s workplaces is again raising the demand for a more educated workforce. While there are some pockets of progress, too many Americans are not receiving the education needed for 21st-century jobs and careers. Our education-to-employment system clearly needs re-invention, but entrenched bureaucracies in business, education, and government stand in the way. Too many components of American society are caught in the blame game, instead of working together to find solutions.

There were deep divisions in American society one hundred years ago. Just as today, immigration and economic inequality stoked tensions. Yet as community after community discovered that the pain of defending the status quo was greater than that of systemic change, solutions were forged. I believe that we are at this point again. The United States was founded and still stands because of our belief in a better future for all. Americans have overcome formidable obstacles in the past. We can do it again!”

One of the keys here is the education to employment system. We are not satisfying the needs of our employers.

You have all read that I believe greatly in apprentice programs and mentorship programs as a means to get motivated people with good attitudes into the workforce. You also know that I am a huge fan of the German apprentice programs. Every year about half a million Germans enter the workforce through these apprenticeship programs. Apprenticeships are one of the foundations of Germany’s manufacturing prowess. Felix Raunier, a professor ate the University of Bremen, says even the US has started to notice. Raunier says “US society has stigmatized vocational education, so most parents see college as the only path to status and a good career for their children.” Ludger Deitmer, is international research coordinator at the Institute of Technology and Education at the University of Bremen. He thinks that vocational training should be one of the medicines, perhaps the key medicine, in how to make America Great Again.

Companies in the US are not completely on board to this approach. Apprentices, in Germany, earn income as they work in companies and go to school. There is a partnership between the schools and the employers.

Marilyn Hewson, Chairman, President and CEO of Lockheed Martin, recently testified “to a new and pressing challenge: the shortage of skilled workers to fill the jobs being created by robust growth.” One survey by Industry Week found that nearly 40% of the aerospace companies believe that the skills gap has had an “extreme” effect on their ability to innovate and grow.

Last year the administration created the apprenticeship Task Force and issued an executive order to identify and remove the bureaucratic and regulatory impediments to apprenticeships. Apprenticeships help workers train on a specific craft or skill that a company needs. Lockheed Martin is creating 8,000 apprenticeship and workforce development opportunities in the next five years.

Let’s bring this back to our Industry.

Should you employ a High School student on a part time basis, as they continue to go to school, so that they can learn what happens in your dealership and if they, and you, think there are opportunities. If there are then together, the apprentice and the company, can develop a plan. You can explore specific learning programs that local Junior Colleges and Vocational Schools offer. You can work with the schools to create new classes to fit your needs.

As Hewson says; “it is up to this generation of leaders in government, industry and across society to invest in and to develop a workforce equal to the global challenges ahead. It is now time to act across every sector to ensure that every worker has an opportunity to grow, achieve, improve, train and excel over the entirety of their careers – regardless of where they start, where they work, or how high they aspire to go.”
Should you have apprentices working in your parts department? Should you have apprentices in your service departments? Absolutely.

The Time is NOW.

Automation

/in , , /by

Automation

Are you noticing the changes?

The world is becoming even more confusing and complicated as we are faced with increasingly rapid and dramatic technological advances. The most disquieting aspect of it now is that it is not just physical activities, using robotics for example, but now it is cognitive skills as well.

We are surrounded by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Autonomous Vehicles (AV), and Disrupting Demographic Destinies (DDD). Things are changing very rapidly.

This is sometimes called the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

We are also seeing this affect different generations in different manners. From Millennials to Baby Boomers these technological changes are viewed very differently. And not everything is positive.

The technology around us has been something that millennials have grown up with and they are very comfortable with it. Baby Boomers not so much. But there are other aspects of technology that are beginning to come under more critical scrutiny. It seems that social media has the same effect on the brain as alcohol and drugs. You get a hit of dopamine, the very same response in your brain to alcohol and drugs, every time you get a response to your posts. Think about that for a moment.

Technological advances, particularly in cognitive activities, are not going to be slowing down anytime soon. Robotics will be coming to your operations. Order processing in the parts departments have been changing over the past four or five decades. I first saw an automated distribution center in Stuttgart, Germany. It was a Kodak plant. When I walked in the warehouse the lights went on. There was not one person in the building. This was the central distribution center for Kodak for Europe. When an order was entered, at any region in Europe, for which there was a need for a “part” robots went to work. They were given instructions by computer and they then went out to the warehouse, found the right aisle, turned into it, found the right elevation, went up to it, found the specific location and centered in front of it and then it picked the parts. They scanned the units and in so doing they were able to pick the correct quantity. It was very eye-opening experience for me. That was 1973.

Today, a friend of mine, who currently works for Google, has multiple patents pending where he can control the cursor of your computer only with his eyes. No mouse, no keyboard, exclusively with his eyes. Imagine that? Just pause and think about the prospects of things to come when there are inventions and innovations taking place like that already in the works.

The problem with all of these advances in technology seems to be that we are not realizing the gains in productivity that should be a byproduct of these changes. After all the main indicator of productivity gains is the average hourly wage. That hourly wage is starting to increase again after a few decades of gradual declines. That is not a good thing for society as a whole as the haves get more and the have nots struggle more.

As a society we need to work on solving this productivity problem. I have often said that we spend trillions of dollars on technology but very little on sociology. How society evolves to embrace the new technologies and jobs will be interesting to observe.

Today there are more job openings than there are people looking for work. The employment participation rate is finally starting to grow again after nearly a decade of decline. New and younger employees approach their lives in different ways than my generation. They are less patient than we were in their progress in a company. They want to be constantly learning. They are very curious – often asking the magic question “Why do you do it that way?” They don’t like the answer “because that is the way we have always done it.” They also want to continue to learn, to continue to grow as individuals. If they aren’t learning something from you they will leave. Gone are the days when people would think that when they left school learning was over. Today it is just the beginning.

With more job openings than employees to fill them we are on the cusp of some big changes in wages. John G Fernard, an economist at the Federal reserve Bank of San Francisco is quoted as follows – “You could meet the demand for a while by hiring workers, but with the unemployment rate at 3.8%, eventually you are going to run out of easy-to-find workers. Because workers have other opportunities, you end up having to pay them. And once you see wages going up, you say -We have to become more productive to cover our costs.” We are right at this point today. What is interesting to note is that the last time productivity grew dramatically was also when unemployment was at 4%.

This Fourth Revolution, is about adapting yourself to the New Realities of the work place. There will be differing methods, and processes, and systems brought into life. That will also require more adaptable employees. People who will embrace change because that is what they expect to happen. A constant evolution of work. This will focus on the customer and their needs and wants and also about being the “Lowest cost supplier of the highest value products or services.” That will only be possible with talented, well trained, properly paid loyal employees.

We are presenting you with the learning tools. You have to provide the opportunity to your employees.

The Time is NOW.

 

The Learning of Tomorrow Is Available Today

/in , /by

The Learning of Tomorrow Is Available Today

At Learning Without Scars we are on the leading edge of internet-based employee development. We have developed Industry specific programs within the capital Goods Industries. We are following in the footsteps of the Khan academy, learning for elementary, middle school and high school students, and Udacity, a more recent platform for University learning specific to the technology Industry.

We develop our programs from a subject specific beginning. Each of our programs follows a similar path. A pre-test, the learning program and a final assessment.

Using In-depth personnel assessments help business identify the specific skill level and knowledge of each employee which also allows them to develop on a timeline of their choosing. These assessments present twenty multi-choice questions. This allows the employer to place each employee along one of our many learning paths. The results help you identify potential top performers in key areas of sales, finance, operations and leadership. Employers can leverage this knowledge to transform their company, ensure specific competitive advantages and in the end to realize significant sales and profit growth. Each of our video programs contains slide content, audio tracks matched to the slide and we insert film clips during the programs to break up the learning and provide emphasis on specific aspects of each program.

Learning is becoming more of a life long program with tools such as these. No longer does an employee have to attend a school at night or weekends, they simply sit in front of their computer. There is no shame in the learning process. Often in classrooms students don’t ask questions when they don’t understand a specific topic. In the online world there is no embarrassment in asking questions, as many times as the student desires. The important truth is that each student wants to learn, they want to understand the content and in the online world it is easier for them to accomplish.

Each program is assigned a badge. There are four categories of badges; sales, finance, leadership and operations. As the student’s progress through the various programs they accumulate badges. This accumulation leads to higher levels of skills and knowledge and this is recognized with a learning status; platinum, gold, silver and bronze. Each student then is recognized for their specific knowledge across the four disciplines. Those disciplines cross the parts business, the service business, parts and service selling and parts and service marketing. Each employer can see the status of each employee. They will have a much better understanding about what the student knows before hiring or in the annual performance review.

This is the learning platform of tomorrow. However, it is currently available at Learning Without Scars. So what is holding YOU back?

The Time is NOW.

Management Mentoring and Coaching Program Conclusion

/in , , , /by

Management Mentoring and Coaching Program Conclusion

Last week, we covered the second portion of our tailored mentoring and coaching program with the instructional videos/skype sessions description.  This week, we cover the third, and final, portion of our individually tailored mentoring and coaching program.

For this final part of our program, we provide each manager with individual Work Assignments.

Establishing assignments is aimed at furthering the learning experience. Learning is about remembering and with these work assignments we can establish a deeper base of understanding. These assignments will be specific to the job function with which we are working. They will fit into the alternating weeks of the overall program. Implementation is a crucial element in committing knowledge to memory, thereby furthering the learning of each manager.  A key component in achieving any learning objective is in the implementation of the knowledge acquired.  These work assignments are designed to put that newly gained knowledge to work.

This approach will be discussed with the Company to develop a strategy which satisfies the needs of the Company, as well as the needs of the individual who will be the subject of the mentoring/coaching.

The program will continue weekly, alternating between a Learning On Demand program and then a film with work assignments injected at the appropriate time in the program. This will continue until the program is completed. This will be adjusted to satisfy the needs of the individual to be coached.

The price of this coaching/mentoring program will be established on a case-by-case basis. It will be dependent on the time involved and the assets utilized.

There you have it: our Management Mentoring and Coaching Programs.  Keep this in mind for those managers and supervisors you want to cultivate to become your heroes.

The time is now.

Management Mentoring and Coaching Program Continued

/in , , /by

Management Mentoring and Coaching Program Continued

This week, we are continuing our discussion of the new Mentoring and Coaching Program we are now offering here at LWS.  Last week, we discussed the first component of the program, with our Learning On Demand Programs for Managers.  This week we are covering the next component of our program: films.  These films will be used to expand upon the knowledge students will gain in the individual Mentoring and Coaching Program.

B. Films

Using a Skype call or GoToMeeting the manager will watch a specialized training film. These films are designed to build upon the foundational skills presented in each Learning On Demand program, therefore refining the skill set of each manager. Upon completion of the film, the manager will be engaged in a real-time discussion about the content and how it applies to the job.
We will recommend specific film topics that apply to the work of the manager. For instance:

A. The Business of Paradigms
B. The Unorganized Manager.
C. Flight of the Buffalo
D. Performance Matters – Praise
E. Performance Matters – Criticism
F. The Clarity Imperative
G. Gung Ho
H. Leadership: An Act of Possibility
I. The Three Signs of a Miserable Job
J. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

 

Next week, we will cover the third, and final, portion of the Mentoring and Coaching Program.

 

The time is now.

Management Mentoring and Coaching

/in , , , /by

Management Mentoring and Coaching Program

A coach’s job is to bring out the best in the individual and the team.

We always work here to develop programs that fill needs within our industry.  We have now developed a mentoring and coaching program addressing client needs in the area of individual employee development. We were approached with the need to assist with individual managers in accelerating their development on the job. This also covered those instances where an employee was having difficulty in adjusting to a new role.

These programs have been divided into three pieces: Learning On Demand, Films and Work Assignments.  Over the course of this next week, we are going to tackle each of these pieces in an individual post.

Learning On Demand

The Learning On Demand programs consist of a pre-test, a video program and a final assessment. The course program itself lasts approximately two hours.  There will be discussions with the manager to review the program and to consider specific action items for the week ahead after the course has been completed.

We will recommend Specific Learning Programs – LOD – that apply to the work of the manager. For instance:
1. Basic Management
2. Leadership
3. Make It Matter
4. Time Management
5. Change
6. The Art of the Possible
7. Standards of Performance
8. Best Practices
9. The Balanced Scorecard
10. Activity Based Management

These programs will be enhanced, and the individual learning and knowledge deepened, with individualized coaching to follow up on the classes.  In addition, Ron tailors live online coursework for each manager who is taking a Mentoring and Coaching program.

Next, we will cover the learning films that Ron uses to build upon the knowledge in the online courses.

The time is now.

How Do You Measure Learning?

/in , /by

How Do You Measure Learning?

Over the past two months or so you have heard me talk about the end of college as we know it today. Kevin Carey goes into a lot of detail about this in his terrific book “The End of College.” He exposes the fact that Colleges and Universities have a monopoly on “the degree.” Without this monopoly there would be a significant change in the view of the value of this piece of paper: the parchment, the degree. You need that degree on your resume. It tells your prospective employer something about you. But it really doesn’t tell them much about what you know. It doesn’t really measure your learning.

The Internet is disrupting the universe of education,  just as it has most other aspects of our lives. As an example, the Khan Academy can take your children all the way from Kindergarten through graduating from High School.  It provides wonderful learning opportunities for children and young adults. There are learning avenues for professionals and university level courses. Businesses such as EdX and CorpU are disrupting this aspect of learning as well. We are involved with Learning Without Scars in this area: adult education.

The problem for on-line learning is a fundamental question: how do you measure the learning of the students? I started down this path with the book “The Six Value Medals, The essential tool for success in the 21st century,”by Edward de Bono. This is the gentleman that coined the phrase “Thinking outside of the box.” He assigns medals to knowledge and this got me thinking.

At Learning Without Scars, we are now using badges. We have four categories of badges based on the category of learning in each of our classes. We have split them into: Sales, Finance, Operations, Leadership. And we have four recognition levels for each of these learning categories: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Then we have the badges and categories split into their respective departments: Parts, Service, Product Support Selling and Parts and Service Marketing. We struggled a bit in determining how to assign a specific value to each class. We came to the conclusion that each class would earn a badge and the accumulation of badges would be the differentiator. What we do is set a point value for each knowledge level within each category of learning for each department.

We are currently seeking input from our clients on how we should present these badges. Should they be a patch that can be put onto an employees’ uniform? Should they be put into a holder, like your name plate, with differing badges represented in a manner like a pin? Or even a pin that could be put on your collar. How should be present this? We are designing the badge to include Socrates and thinking we should use the wings to represent the discipline and department. Time will tell.

What I think will be the end game is that this could lead to a skill set requirement for each job category in the Parts and Service businesses. That could be compared to a Skill Set Inventory for each employee. Then we could be on the path to being able to provide a “meaningful” job certification with learning prerequisites. I believe that would be very helpful to the Industry.

I would have appreciated knowing what the prospective employee knew in an interview. Not just information obtained in the interview and discussion but an objective measure of the skills of the employee related to the job I was trying to fill. That is where we are trying to take the measurement of learning. That should allow us to more objectively measure the probability of success of each prospective employee. This will work particularly well when we start adapting and having remote employees, and more part time employees, this would work particularly well for people who have retired and want to keep working. After all they have a lot of knowledge.

Keep tuned in as we will continue to share information on this important area as we come to our conclusions. Please let us know how you would approach this important subject. If you would take a moment and send us an email it would be sincerely appreciated.

The Time is NOW.

Breaking Down Territory Management

/in , , /by

Breaking Down Territory Management

In our training programs, we work hard to de-mystify the details of selling.  Today, I am sharing a small piece from our Territory Management Learning On Demand program.

The time is now.

Personal Responsibility – Part 3

/in , /by

Personal Responsibility – Part 3

In the last two posts, I have discussed the work of Jordan Peterson, and how it ties into education and learning.  I’ve also covered what it is to commit to learning as an adult, and the unique challenges those of use who have real-life and on-the-job experience can face when returning to a “training” program.

R. C. Sproul once said “everyone wants to leave their mark on the world.” So, what will your mark be? There is nothing more powerful than knowledge and learning. Learning is not about getting a better job, although that could happen. It is not about getting more money, and that too could be possible. It is not about power, or some other aspect of your goals and dream. It is about your ability to be able to communicate and to think and to influence. That is your power. And each individual has control of that. They can invest their time in their own development. They can pursue what is meaningful. They can take personal control of that responsibility.

 I believe deeply that everyone wants to be able to do a good job.
 Further than we can all do more than we think we can.
 Finally, though, we are all fundamentally lazy.

 

I believe that success is for everyone. Every person, every individual can be successful. It depends what the definition is of success. Your individual success starts with your honest understanding about who you are as a person.

Each of us has differing likes and dislikes. That allows each of us to have differing dreams and hopes. That means we can create our own paths through life. But the path is not clear and it is not easy. In fact, it is tough. The problem with many of us is that we have a clearer picture of all of this when it becomes too late. We learn wisdom with age and effort. I have not found a substitute for the aging aspect of it. Perhaps there will be people much smarter than I who can find that answer. It might already be too late for me at this point in my career.
As a younger person I was a swimmer. And I learned a lot about life from swimming. You never are competing against the other people in the pool with you. You are competing with yourself. That is a really important truth to learn about life. It is all in your control, it is all up to you.

So, stop hoping for things. My daughter likes to say, “hope is NOT a plan.” Stop wishing for things. It’s time to take an active role, instead of a passive one. Don’t stop dreaming or working through goals. Start acting on your hopes, your wishes and your dreams. Make them happen. Because I believe you can. Don’t put it off. Start.

The Time is NOW.