Management Musing v1.7

Manager is a hyphenated word – Man Ager. I am sorry that is not gender neutral but I am sure you know what I mean. Aging a person is from having to depend on others. Aging is from waiting for others to “get it” especially if you think that you have it. What is terribly wrong with this is that by following old fashioned styles of management the manager is the limit to the capacity of the group. That is right isn’t it? Can you see that and understand that?

Well I don’t like being a limit to anything. There really should never be limits to anything. The limit that might be acceptable is our inability to get it done. We simply are not capable. No schooling, or fitness programs, or special pharmaceuticals will solve the mystery of each of our limitations. Just reconcile yourself to the fact that you have limits and move on. The joy of management is you will be able to find and attract and hire and retain people who don’t have the same limitations that you do and watch them succeed in areas that were not possible for you to succeed. This is a wondrous thing.

Last time I talked about mentoring as a method to develop new talent and new employees. This is something different isn’t it? You have hired talent and they are on the job. Control oriented top down structures are toxic to creativity. Innovation, particularly of the disruptive sort, is unlikely to flourish when a few key executives have the choke hold on resource allocation. (Clayton Christenden). What the employees need today is freedom and responsibility. You need to allow them to fail but not in such a way that they hurt themselves or your group. That is where you the manager come on to the field of play. You are the conductor ensuring that everything works together in harmony. And yes that accelerates the aging process. But just imagine the joy you have watching your children succeed at something. This new reality allows you to experience that joy at work too. The time is now.

Words of Wisdom #12

From my days in the Systems business are these beauties. From a consultant who worked for IBM as a project manager.

  • Ø Nine men impregnating the same woman cannot deliver a baby in one month.
  • Ø If it ain’t in writing it don’t exist.

Two important lessons – first is that putting more people on a job doesn’t guarantee anything and second that it is easy to remember things that aren’t in writing as completely different than what was agreed to in the beginning.

The time is now.

Thought of the Day # 6

Mises said in a lecture in the 1960s:

“The government and the journalists who were writing for the government told us about this ‘deficit spending.’ It was wonderful! It was considered something that would improve conditions in the whole country. But if you translate this into more common language, the language of the uneducated, then you would say ‘printed money.’ The government says this is only due to your lack of education; if you had an education you wouldn’t say ‘printed money,’ you would call it ‘deficit financing’ or ‘deficit spending.’

“Now what does this mean? Deficits! This means that the government spends more than it collects in taxes and in borrowing from the people; it means government spending for all those purposes for which the government wants to spend. This means inflation, pushing more money into the market; it doesn’t matter for what purpose. And that means reducing the purchasing power of each monetary unit. Instead of collecting the money that the government wanted to spend, the government fabricated the money. Printing money is the easiest thing.

Every government is clever enough to do it.”

Book of the Week – August 25th, 2012

With the beginning of the political conventions I thought it would be instructive to return to Milton Friedman. Free to Choose was written in 1980 and reprinted in 1990. It talks about the changing opinion of socialism and capitalism. But it gives warning which had we heeded it we would never be where we are today.

“Idealistic faith in socialism still lives on, but only in some ivory tower enclaves in teh west and in some of the most backward countries elsewhere.” If that isn’t a repudiation of the “Harvard and Yale” intellectually arrogant belief in Keynes rather than Hayek and the “we know better than you” bureaucrats in all of our capitals I don’t know what would be. Read the book and you will see we have been forewarned about our government encroaching on free enterprise for capital, defending indefensible programs “as is” such as social security and medicare, teaching for teachers and unions not for parents and especially for students and much much more.

This is a time like few others in our brief history. This is akin to the civil war in import. Do we want more government or less. The time is now.

Thought of the Day #5

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.

Justice Louis Brandeis – 1928

Truer words applicable to the current election are rarely found.

The time is NOW.

Friday Filosophy #26

The more I practice, the luckier I get.

Jerry Barber

 

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

George Eliot

 

Only that which is temporary endures.

French Proverb

Remembering Phyllis Diller

With credit to the AP

I once wore a peekaboo blouse. People would peek then they would boo

I never made Who’s Who but I’m featured in What’s That?

When I told Fang I was going to get my face lifted, he said, Who’d steal it?

You know you’re old when your walker has an airbag

I was the world’s ugliest baby. When I was born the doctor slapped everybody.

I became a stand-up comedienne because I had a sit-down husband.

They say housework can’t kill you… but why take a chance.

The time is now

Marketing Missiles v1.6

Why do your employees work for you? Three Harvard professors, Hesketh, Sasser and Schlesinger wrote a very definitive book called “The Service Profit Chain.” In it they posited that Employee Satisfaction and Loyalty delivered Service Value. That is the “thing” that customers “feel” when they do business with you. It is not about you or your business it is about the employees. This Service Value is what drives Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty and keeps them coming back. That is all you need to drive profit and growth. Have you got it?

Why don’t you ask the employees how they feel? It doesn’t take much to ask and you will be amazed what you can find out if only you listen. After all if your employees are not satsified and loyal then all the marketing in the world will not correct it. The time is now.

Forecasting in this “wierd” world

For a number of decades econometric forecasting has been conducted by a couple of men named Fanter. First there was Dick and then along came Andy. Cyclcast and Intercast are the two groups that conduct the economic analysis. Never a precise science and one that is constantly being second guessed Andy faces the winds of the markets with a calm model which can help dealers think about their circumstances more clearly. Never radical or flamboyant this Kansan provides good solid advice. The time is now.

Parts Pondering v1.7

Let’s review the basics truths about a parts business and how it should operate.

Ron’s Rules:-

  1. Ship every part that was ordered today
  2. Find every part that was ordered today
  3. Trans ship every backorder received today
  4. Put away all stocks received today

And do all of these BEFORE you go home for the day. And do this every day.

Many parts businesses have lost their sense of urgency. The customer needs to believe deeply that the business that they have given to the dealer will be treated at an extremely high level of priority. If not the number one priority certainly very near to it.

This is a return to the basics of the business. Too often we overlook the basics. The time is now.