Business Thoughts

I graduated from a Big Ten University with a Mechanical Engineering degree back in the 80’s and have been fortunate enough to change roles within the Fortune 100 Company that I work for every 3 to 5 years to positions of increasing responsibility. I currently run a small $15M business for said corporation whom will remain nameless, and have held positions such as Engineering Manager, Field Engineer, Operations Leader, Six Sigma and Quality Manager, Business Leader, etc.

I am saddened by the number of blogs that I’ve run across where people have become so obviously disillusioned with the companies that they work for and they rant and rave about the things they dislike, how they’re mistreated, and how it feels to have it stuck to them by “The Man”!

You won’t find much in the way of sympathy from me, I’ve afraid, nor will you find me corporation bashing, or manager bashing, or any other type of whining about how I’ve been so whipped and beaten by the American Industrial Machine that I’m running off and joining a commune and raising organic radishes by saving my personal waste products instead of spreading them around cyberspace.

Corporate America has been pretty good to me, actually, and I’m happy to report that I try very hard to do things that will improve the quality of work life for the people that I’m charged with leading.

I thought I might pass along some of the learning’s I’ve found along the way, both the easy and the hard way.

Productivity: The golden rule of leadership is this:

Happy employees are MUCH more productive than unhappy employees.

Productivity means higher profits. Higher profits means happier stockholders. Happier stockholders means more capital investment and a higher stock price. More capital investment and a higher stock price means happier upper management. Happy upper management means happier middle management.

That then is worth repeating: Happy employees are MUCH more productive than unhappy employees.

Politics: If you don’t/didn’t get along with people in high school then you probably will have a hard time getting along in corporate life. Learn how to get along well with people or plan on staying out of positions where you will lead people. Oh, and trying to get ahead by playing dirty never pays off in the long run. Too many people will be out to get you when you’re not looking.

Diplomacy : If you piss off someone today it almost guarantees that you’ll have to work for them tomorrow. A little Diplomacy is a skill that goes a long way.

Mistakes: People, no matter how lofty their position, are still people, with the same worries, neuroses, wants, desires, and general weirdness. They also have a habit of making decisions, just like everyone else, with too little or the wrong information on the fall-out. They will make mistakes just like everyone else, but it’s a sad fact that other people will pay for those mistakes as well. Defecation does roll downhill, to paraphrase an old axiom.

Leave if you’re not happy: If you don’t like the way things are going for you at your current job, spend the energy and time to find another one you may like better. Staying just makes everyone unhappy and guess what, you’re not fooling ANYONE.

Be the best: To be good at your job focus on the fundamentals. A good sports’ analogy would be focus your time on learning to block and tackle. The rest will come in time. Business is about making money. That, in fact, is the main product of EVERY corporation on the planet; MONEY. Learn how your job affects sales, profit, and cash flow. If you don’t know what these things are, LEARN. Then you can make and justify your decisions based on what is important to everyone upstream, Sales, Profit, and Cash Flow. Working within this structure you can do an amazing amount of good for those around you. Also, figure out what the big picture is. If your company sells razor blades then ask questions, read articles, and dig around to find out why your organization sells razor blades the way they do. You'll be surprised to find out that it's usually done the way it's done for a reason.

Play the Game Clean: Cheaters never win, they just do jail time … Ask Enron. Companies pay a lot of people a lot of money to check on everyone else.

No Surprises: Let your boss know about an issue early and what you’re doing to try to prevent bag things from happening. Last minute surprises make you look incompetent.

People: People will respond to leadership, People will NOT respond to management. You can only manage numbers and things, people need, want, and crave leadership. What is leadership? Many use the term but few can define it. In short, Leadership is instructing others while sincerely respecting them, affording them dignity, and enhancing their self-esteem. If you haven’t read the One Minute Manager, read it, and apply it. It’s simple and effective, as long as you MEAN it. People can spot someone being a fake a mile away.

That’s enough for now ….

Am I the only one that blames the Media?

We here in Houston now have to deal with the aftermath of Rita, and the legacy that that entails. For the week prior to the Hurricane the entire nation was assaulted by images of Katrina, bodies floating down the streets, tales of how horrible conditions would be here in Houston by a direct strike, the deaths that would occur, and other obviously alarmist information presented in a calculated method to inspire the one thing that seems to cause TV News ratings to soar, Fear.

Government, at all levels, in fact did an FANTASTIC job at planning, executing, and communicating, but the news media inspired, skirting the edges of legality but in my opinion throwing ethics out the window, such a blind panic that the recommended evacuation plan quickly went out the window as 2.5 Million people PANICKED and fled the Greater Houston Area, all at the same time, on but three main roads, US 59, I 45, and I10, not to mention a host of Farm to Market roads.

The plan was simple ... everyone that is in a likely flood zone or a weaker structure, evacuate. Everyone else, shelter in place. If the plan had been followed, only about half of the people that evacuated would have been on the roads and lives would have been spared.

My family followed the local government's recommendation to shelter in place, being as we are 70 miles from the coast and well outside the 100 year flood plain. Some of my co-workers from the Beaumont area are in Houston until the power returns to their subdivisions, but they sheltered in place with almost a direct hit and survived quite well, many with no damage to their homes in fact.

34 people lost their lives, not including those poor people that burned to death in a bus right outside of Dallas, during the evacuation. Funny thing, most didn't evacuate during Ivan last year, or other hurricanes previously, but why, suddenly, did they change their minds and decide that the shelter that sustained them during previous hurricanes would suddenly not be enough to ensure their fate would not be that of a lazy news image of a body floating down a flooded street in New Orleans.

The Media is no longer in the business of discovering and reporting the TRUTH, but now have sadly been bastardized by another base emotion, GREED, and market their products, panic and fear, as well as any snake oil salesman that ever existed, ensuring that the public awaits breathlessly for the next installment of information to ensure their perception of safety.