As I’ve travelled in the past month I’ve come across different people and been privy to hear different quotes from people. One of the most precious ones actually comes out of a book. I visit a dear friend, who is in his 80’s, as often as I can get to his home; a prolific writer who’s written over a 150 books and still as articulate as ever. Every time I go to his home, we go down to his basement where he has thousands of books; he’ll rifle through them asking me if I’ve read this one or that and if I haven’t, he’ll ask me to take it and read it. I come away with books which are nuggets of gold for me.
On this trip he handed me a book which was so old, it doesn’t even have a date of printing on it. It’s called ‘Living Above the Average’ by Mary S. Wood. It has a wonderful quote that goes, “Those who would reach summits must know how to face the wind as well as the sun, negotiate dizzy heights, crutch along monotonous levels, press on through mist and snow and be able to adjust themselves to changing atmospheres and altitudes. Nothing must intimidate.” Somerville of Everest fame writes, “Fair weather climbers are not much good on mountains. There is no such thing as a sheltered climb.
All of you who are in the market place and the corporate world know that the climb can get difficult. Climbing is par for the course; if you do your job and do it well, then you will climb up that ladder, but it’s not for those who want a sheltered climb. The corollary to that quote of getting up high is another one that I heard that kind of brings you down to earth. “The more influential you become, the less accessible you are.” That is so true! The higher you climb the less connection you have with people lower down the order, people around you; people who are way down have difficulty connecting with you. Sometimes that can be so detrimental to your own progress.
I remember many years ago when Tata’s were putting up the first 500 megawatt power plant at Trombay. The project manager at that time was Mr. C.R. Ponnaiah, who was a dear friend of ours whom we respected. The people from the plant would talk about how he would visit the plant at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning and walk around checking on things, meeting people working the night shift and come away with valuable pieces of information that would help him in the work that he was doing.
Had another dear friend who was CEO and Managing Director of Mentos when it was launched in India and heard from him how at one point he went out into the market place into the shops just to see how the product was doing. He noticed that the jar containing the Mentos was the same size as the ones containing Cadbury’s and all the rest of the other candy. He came back to the thought that if they could raise it just 2”, the jar would stand out for customers. That catapulted sales. It had to do with leaving the place where he was, at the CEO/MD level and connecting with people lower down the order, with customers who you depend upon. It made a huge difference.
I was reading an article out of Harvard Business Review and it talks about how this particular Office Depot president, Kevin Peters, realized that there was a big gap between the sales and the customer service calls. On one hand, sales were declining while on the other hand, customer service calls for Office Depot were going through the roof. He said, “How could it be that we were delivering phenomenal service to our customers, yet they weren’t buying anything?” So he decided to experience Office Depot in the same way as customers did. Over the next several weeks, he visited 70 stores in about 15 states across North America. Some of the things that he saw were so mind-blowing. One of them which is etched on his mind was a picture of an employee arguing with a customer. Unbelievable! At another store, he saw an associate leaning up against the brick façade smoking a cigarette. Meanwhile customers were walking out without any bags. The employees did nothing; just watched them leave empty-handed.
At that point he had a tough decision to make – whether he should blow his cover and alert the store manager or stay silent. After a few minutes he decided that he couldn’t just let this go. So he went into the store and looked at the stanchion that stands at the front of every location displaying the name of the manager and his/her picture. Guess who the store manager was? Yes – the guy smoking outside the store. So he went up to him and had a few words with him. He was able to get new insights about the functioning of the store that helped turn around Office Depot.
Three insights came out of all these clandestine visits.
1. They had to reduce the size of their store. It was too large and too difficult to shop in.
2. They had to focus on customers, not on systems and other stuff, but on customers.
3. They needed to be relevant to the customers: if they wanted copying, printing or shipping, they needed to help rather than just helping them find the products in the store. All this is to say that being able to move down to a different level helped him have insight that was crucial in turning around the company.
I wonder where all of you are on this call. Are you still accessible, do you still have insight into the people who matter, that make your company a good company or even a great company?
Morten Hansen writing in Harvard Business Review, ‘Three Leadership Skills that Count’ and this comes out of the book he wrote in collaboration with Jim Collins called ‘Great by Choice’.
The 3 important skills are:
· Productive Paranoia
· Empirical Creativity
· Fanatic Discipline
He says, “It was the first one that really caught my attention – Productive Paranoia. That’s the ability to be hyper-vigilant about potentially bad events that can hit your company and then turn that fear into preparation and clear-headed action. Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines insisted on cutting costs and running lean operations in good times, so that they would be prepared for the next storm, imagined or real.” Productive Paranoia – just constantly keep your eyes open, your antennae up, looking for what would possibly be a pitfall or some insight into helping the company to grow.
I travelled on Cathay Pacific coming back to India and was so impressed with the entire experience. Just before landing, one of the stewardesses handed me a customer feedback form and asked if I would fill it. I took it from her and was surprised to see that it was a booklet that asked questions about everything to do with the experience that I had with Cathay Pacific. That’s what makes them good; that they maintain the connection with the customer, with people on the ground. They don’t sit in an ivory tower.
Reflecting on that, I thought that I need to throw this out as a challenge to all of you. Wherever you are, are you sure that what you are seeing, what you hear, reports that you get on your desk are accurate reflections of what’s happening on the ground? Do you take the trouble to be accessible? Do you take the trouble to go out and meet the customer base that is so important for your company and know what they want and where they are? The gap between what we may hear, see and read and what actually is on the ground could be a hole of irrelevancy and redundancy. And that hole is a hole that can suck you in and make you lose everything that you’re working for.
I want to pray for you this morning that your eyes may be opened, that you may see beyond what is visible, that you will hear the things that you need to hear, be able to connect with the people who really matter and to be able to make sure that wherever you are, you’re still accessible to people.
God bless you all.
On this trip he handed me a book which was so old, it doesn’t even have a date of printing on it. It’s called ‘Living Above the Average’ by Mary S. Wood. It has a wonderful quote that goes, “Those who would reach summits must know how to face the wind as well as the sun, negotiate dizzy heights, crutch along monotonous levels, press on through mist and snow and be able to adjust themselves to changing atmospheres and altitudes. Nothing must intimidate.” Somerville of Everest fame writes, “Fair weather climbers are not much good on mountains. There is no such thing as a sheltered climb.
All of you who are in the market place and the corporate world know that the climb can get difficult. Climbing is par for the course; if you do your job and do it well, then you will climb up that ladder, but it’s not for those who want a sheltered climb. The corollary to that quote of getting up high is another one that I heard that kind of brings you down to earth. “The more influential you become, the less accessible you are.” That is so true! The higher you climb the less connection you have with people lower down the order, people around you; people who are way down have difficulty connecting with you. Sometimes that can be so detrimental to your own progress.
I remember many years ago when Tata’s were putting up the first 500 megawatt power plant at Trombay. The project manager at that time was Mr. C.R. Ponnaiah, who was a dear friend of ours whom we respected. The people from the plant would talk about how he would visit the plant at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning and walk around checking on things, meeting people working the night shift and come away with valuable pieces of information that would help him in the work that he was doing.
Had another dear friend who was CEO and Managing Director of Mentos when it was launched in India and heard from him how at one point he went out into the market place into the shops just to see how the product was doing. He noticed that the jar containing the Mentos was the same size as the ones containing Cadbury’s and all the rest of the other candy. He came back to the thought that if they could raise it just 2”, the jar would stand out for customers. That catapulted sales. It had to do with leaving the place where he was, at the CEO/MD level and connecting with people lower down the order, with customers who you depend upon. It made a huge difference.
I was reading an article out of Harvard Business Review and it talks about how this particular Office Depot president, Kevin Peters, realized that there was a big gap between the sales and the customer service calls. On one hand, sales were declining while on the other hand, customer service calls for Office Depot were going through the roof. He said, “How could it be that we were delivering phenomenal service to our customers, yet they weren’t buying anything?” So he decided to experience Office Depot in the same way as customers did. Over the next several weeks, he visited 70 stores in about 15 states across North America. Some of the things that he saw were so mind-blowing. One of them which is etched on his mind was a picture of an employee arguing with a customer. Unbelievable! At another store, he saw an associate leaning up against the brick façade smoking a cigarette. Meanwhile customers were walking out without any bags. The employees did nothing; just watched them leave empty-handed.
At that point he had a tough decision to make – whether he should blow his cover and alert the store manager or stay silent. After a few minutes he decided that he couldn’t just let this go. So he went into the store and looked at the stanchion that stands at the front of every location displaying the name of the manager and his/her picture. Guess who the store manager was? Yes – the guy smoking outside the store. So he went up to him and had a few words with him. He was able to get new insights about the functioning of the store that helped turn around Office Depot.
Three insights came out of all these clandestine visits.
1. They had to reduce the size of their store. It was too large and too difficult to shop in.
2. They had to focus on customers, not on systems and other stuff, but on customers.
3. They needed to be relevant to the customers: if they wanted copying, printing or shipping, they needed to help rather than just helping them find the products in the store. All this is to say that being able to move down to a different level helped him have insight that was crucial in turning around the company.
I wonder where all of you are on this call. Are you still accessible, do you still have insight into the people who matter, that make your company a good company or even a great company?
Morten Hansen writing in Harvard Business Review, ‘Three Leadership Skills that Count’ and this comes out of the book he wrote in collaboration with Jim Collins called ‘Great by Choice’.
The 3 important skills are:
· Productive Paranoia
· Empirical Creativity
· Fanatic Discipline
He says, “It was the first one that really caught my attention – Productive Paranoia. That’s the ability to be hyper-vigilant about potentially bad events that can hit your company and then turn that fear into preparation and clear-headed action. Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines insisted on cutting costs and running lean operations in good times, so that they would be prepared for the next storm, imagined or real.” Productive Paranoia – just constantly keep your eyes open, your antennae up, looking for what would possibly be a pitfall or some insight into helping the company to grow.
I travelled on Cathay Pacific coming back to India and was so impressed with the entire experience. Just before landing, one of the stewardesses handed me a customer feedback form and asked if I would fill it. I took it from her and was surprised to see that it was a booklet that asked questions about everything to do with the experience that I had with Cathay Pacific. That’s what makes them good; that they maintain the connection with the customer, with people on the ground. They don’t sit in an ivory tower.
Reflecting on that, I thought that I need to throw this out as a challenge to all of you. Wherever you are, are you sure that what you are seeing, what you hear, reports that you get on your desk are accurate reflections of what’s happening on the ground? Do you take the trouble to be accessible? Do you take the trouble to go out and meet the customer base that is so important for your company and know what they want and where they are? The gap between what we may hear, see and read and what actually is on the ground could be a hole of irrelevancy and redundancy. And that hole is a hole that can suck you in and make you lose everything that you’re working for.
I want to pray for you this morning that your eyes may be opened, that you may see beyond what is visible, that you will hear the things that you need to hear, be able to connect with the people who really matter and to be able to make sure that wherever you are, you’re still accessible to people.
God bless you all.
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