Socrates Says

Product Support Marketing: A Guide…#MarketingMonday

October 6, 2014/in #MarketingMonday, Marketing, Parts, Service/by learningwithoutscars

Let me introduce you to#MarketingMonday. With the arrival of Learning Without Scars and our embedding the blog in the www.learningwithoutscars.org web site we are kicking off a fresh series of activities. You are by now quite familiar with my Friday Filosophy. Well this is the first of our #MarketingMondays. We will post a new blog […]

Friday Filosophy #2014-39

October 3, 2014/in Filosophy/by learningwithoutscars

“The key to happiness is having dreams. The key to success is making your dreams come true.” Author Unknown “This life is worth living, we can say, because it is what we make it.” William James “If we do not plant knowledge when young, it will give us no shade when we are […]

Parts Operations Webinars

October 2, 2014/in Parts, Training/by learningwithoutscars

October 28th and October 29th Don’t miss any of the four webinars being offered on Parts Operations. TeleSelling: learn how to grow your parts business. From market segmentation to using the phone as a customer service tool, this webinar has it all. Basic Inventory Control: the more we know about managing the parts inventory assets, […]

Learning Without Scars Membership Offer

September 30, 2014/in Business Services, Consulting Services, Training/by learningwithoutscars

Special Offer To welcome you to our new learning business we are offering an introductory special membership. The normal membership is $35.00 for a calendar twelve month membership. For the remainder of 2014 we will extend the period of your membership up to a maximum of fifteen months until December 31, 2015. With your membership, […]

Service Management Webinars

September 29, 2014/in Service, Training/by learningwithoutscars

Upcoming Webinar Notice! October 21st and October 22nd Don’t miss any of the four webinars being offered on Service Operations. Inspections: so that you perform the work the way it should be done, we explore the major inspections necessary to maintain and repair capital equipment. Work Order process; this is the ABC structure you have […]

Friday Filosophy #2014-37

September 27, 2014/in Uncategorized/by learningwithoutscars

If you are doing your best, you won’t have any time to worry about failure. H. Jackson Brown Jr. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Plato Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final. Roger Ward Babson Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are […]

TESTIMONIALS

It is more than job descriptions and standards of performance

Management gurus and management theory changes like the wind. From Peter Townsend to Peter Drucker to Porras and Collins and Lencioni and many more. It is much more than a cottage Industry it is a full blown educational and consultative foundation. We have gone through multiple iterations of significant things we MUST do.

We must have job descriptions and then we have to have standards of performance for each job function. That was a starting point way back when. Then we got into vision and mission statements and other buzz words. Or how about Total Quality Movement and Continuous Quality Improvement. Now let’s not forget Six Sigma and all of us needing to become “black belts.” Oh and now we have “Lean Management.” In the midst of this we have the Balanced Scorecard and Activity Based Management. Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of benefits to each of these various “movements.” It is not just a series of passing fads. After all I grew up with Industrial Engineering. At the AED we have the Product Support series. The Handbook. The Opportunities Handbook and the Best Practices Handbook. It is a cookie cutter solution to all of our problems that we are looking for in all of these theories and from each of these guru’s. Would that it were that simple.

But let’s take a breath here and get back to some basics. There is a terrific new book out there from the Chairman of Koch Industries, called the largest private company in the world. In it one of the subjects broached is roles, responsibilities and expectations. I think that this is an extremely important book and it contains a series of good pieces of advice to contemplate.

The roles of the individuals in the parts department and the service department and the product support sales department. What are those roles? What do the employees think those roles are? How about their responsibilities? I believe this is important. Do each of the employees have a clear understanding of that which they are expected to be doing within the company? No, not their job descriptions what is their role? Or have they got to the place that they know what the process is and they repeat it as often as is necessary. This is the curse of our American business structure. We teach you how to do the job and then expect you to do it over and over again until you get really good at it. The Asians with Kaizen have a much better approach; Do the job better each and every day. Do the employees invest their intellectual capital in improving their jobs? Or do they find out how to do the job and then just keep on keeping on? This is a symptom I find in a lot of dealerships. People are doing what they are told to do and working in the business. They are not working ON the business. Do you understand the distinction there?

I believe that the employee who is doing the job knows how to do the job better than anyone else. Particularly better than the boss. So with the arrival of summer I thought it would be good to have each of us read this book on holiday. And then to ask how we can improve our daily lives by doing our jobs more effectively, more with the customer in mind, and more with making ourselves live fulfilling lives. Don’t forget In Search of Dignity by R.C. Sproul either. He reminds us that everyone wants to feel they have made a difference in their lives.

That brings us finally to expectations. What are the expectations that the employee has for their job? What are the expectations that the company has for each employee? This is much more than job descriptions and standards of performance. It becomes almost a “what do you want to be when you grow up” question. Those of you that are still reading might think this is too soft a subject but expectations are hard things. The struggle to attract and retain talented employees is all about expectations. Keeping employees happy keeps customers happy and makes money for the owners. This is not easy stuff.

So there is your vacation reading. The Science of Success by Charles Koch of Koch Industries in Wichita, Kansas. A great read and it is full of excellent points for your consideration and implementation.

Happy reading.

The Time is NOW...

November 24, 2014

When And Where Should You Spend Money?

Guest writer Jennifer Albright addresses the money issue head-on by asking the question "When and Where Should You Spend Your Money?"

As a supply chain professional, I pretty much had to buy this when I saw it on the sale table at a local museum. This topic actually comes up quite often in our consulting life – advising dealers on when to cut corners and when to spend. It could be anything from office supplies to personnel to software and anything in between, the dealers we work with are constantly asking us when and where to invest their time, money, and people.

While the answers will vary from dealer to dealer depending on a number of factors – company size, years in business, geography, the commodity in question, and many others, there are a few constants that are always worth the investment.

People.

It is always worth investing in people. Hire the best folks you can, and invest in training and development. Your people are your brand, and they will make or break your dealership. Whether someone is answering the phone, turning wrenches, selling equipment, or paying the bills, invest in your people. While salaries can take a chunk out of your operating budget, it’s a lot less expensive to pay for a highly skilled employee than to train up someone with less experience or to clean up after someone who was in over their head – and much less than the cost of turnover.

Planning

This is another area where investment pays big dividends. Budgetary planning helps keep everything in check. We’ve worked with a number of folks who overspent in one area when they really needed investments in another and regretted it after the fact because they hadn’t taken the time to budget or plan for the expense. Facility planning, especially during times of growth, is huge. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve spoken with dealers who rushed through facility planning and had outgrown the new building before construction was even completed, or hadn’t taken the time to design the space appropriately and it didn’t fit their needs well despite appearing to be large enough on paper. Planning takes time which can be frustrating, and can seem expensive in terms of hiring design firms, financial folks, or investing in software, but it is well worth it.

Technology.

There are so many choices available right now in every area of dealer business and many of them can bring efficiency and in turn savings to the dealership. If nothing else it can be a bigger challenge to weed through all of the options and decide which technology tools best fit your dealer size, complexity, and will address your biggest challenges versus chasing each shiny new tool that catches your eye.

Priorities.

At the end of the day, it’s about priorities and risk. Looking back at our raccoon friend Reuben in the photo, there will be times when a cheap plastic sword will serve your purposes because it’ll get the job done 90% of the time and you can have a plan B to handle exceptions. In other situations, investing in a metal sword may be the best tool for the job or the risk involved with the plastic sword failing is too great. By investing in your people, focusing on planning, and leveraging technology where it makes sense, you’ll be in a much better position to make these spend decisions effectively.

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September 27, 2022