Advice for Small and Medium Sized Companies

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So You Think You’re a Good Boss?

In Management on 01/16/2010 at 9:43 am

Bringing a new employee onboard is not unlike starting a brand new relationship.  You want to make sure they are happy and like their new environment, plus you could not be more attentive be better behavior.  At the same time you are cautious and hopeful that this one will work out.  Fast forward a year or two.  Did things change?  Probably.

Maybe it’s a natural occurrence, but after a while you begin to take certain things for granted.  You stop using “please” when making requests, and “thank you’s” nearly  vanish from your vocabulary.  Let’s face it, the honeymoon is over.  The first step is to realize that this is a normal part of any relationship.  The second, is to do something about it.

As managers and owners we assume lots of things about our employees.  The first is that money cures all ills.  If I pay them enough they will be happy.  Yet, in the days of do more with less, salary freezes, pay cuts, furloughs and one hundred other ways that companies ask employees to sacrifice every day, strokes and basic politeness is a currency with no substitutes.  I have yet to see a person not get an uplift by hearing their boss say to them “good job.”. In fact, just the opposite happens.  They wear it as a badge of honor, plus you can be sure it will keep them motivated to repeat their performance.  Even more can be said about a simple “thank you”. What makes it so hard for some to mutter those words and why?  I will leave the Freudian psychoanalysis for another day, but in reality our society has become impolite, we have become more discourteous, and that has unquestionably seeped into our workplace.

Happy employees results in profitability.  I can hear it already, “well now you’re really stretching it Bob”. Not at all.  Happy equals motivation which equals productivity which inevitably leads to efficiency and then to the promise land of profit.   When you come in to the office tomorrow, don’t run straight to your office.  Make it a point to say “good morning” to your staff.  Whether it is natural for you or not, also make it a point to sprinkle your day with “thank you’s”, “good job’s” and “I appreciate it.”  If you really feel dangerous then offer to make them coffee.  Sure you may get hesitant looks, but your work environment will feel new again, happier.  And here is the added benefit, you will too.

Bob Shoykhet
http://cxoeffect.com/about/bobshoykhet
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Bad Economy Equals Good Opportunity?

In Finance on 12/28/2009 at 12:00 am

I know, current business conditions have already proved to be challenging for the best run companies.  Yet, there is another way to look at it.  Maybe without an economic shake-up companies would be drowning in pools of wasteful management and inefficiency, and doing little about it.  As much as businesses try to live by the virtue of maximizing stakeholders’ value, the reality is that when times are good it becomes a lot easier to forgive a little more spending (or a lot), allow more extravagant purchases and pay little concern or even overlook negative variances.  What company hasn’t thrown over-the-top business parties, or created full time positions without evaluating if there is enough work to warrant them?  In one version or another most businesses have, and now, looking back at their spending, probably wish they acted differently. 

That’s why today’s difficult economic conditions have brought companies back down to earth.  Businesses are forced to cut back in order to survive or stay above water.  Forget lavish parties, every dollar counts.  Every negative variance is viewed as a security breach that needs to be fixed immediately.  At least, that’s what smart companies are doing.  If you are not asking “why do we need this?” before you approve a purchase order, if you are not questioning the status quo, you are doing your business a disservice.  This is the best time to change how much you spend, on what, and what you consider important.  Poor economic times provide the best opportunity to right-size you company and set it up for tremendous profitability when the economy picks up again.  Once you have asked the tough questions and made the necessary business changes, the next step is to ensure such discipline remains in place when the market returns to growth. 

The positive impact of right-sizing your business today will be lucrative tomorrow.  If a company generates net income of 5% of revenues, permanently eliminating enough expenses that increase net income by only 1% would mean 20% of additional profit.  An additional 2% to the bottom line would mean 40% more in net income.  Those are huge potential returns that no company can ignore.

Bob Shoykhet
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Marketing Campaign: Are Your Expectations Unrealistic?

In Marketing on 12/05/2009 at 12:00 am

How do you react when you get a phone call during family dinner from a solicitor trying to sell you a timeshare in Florida, especially when the one you own is already on the market?  You would probably ask them never call you again, end the conversation as quickly as possible and feel frustrated by the dummies that didn’t do their homework before they added your name to the calling list.

Now, think for a moment about your marketing campaign. Do you want your target audience to feel the same way about your company? Of course, not. You start every campaign with the best intentions and high expectations. You plan and budget for it, develop the idea, create a design, align the vendors, implement the creative, push the “Go!” button, and then sit back and anxiously await the results. You track every variation of the response, from bounced emails and returned mail to the amount of time the end user spent on your website. And then you measure the final, most important piece of information – conversion rate. All of a sudden the reality crushes your expectations – the conversion rate is nowhere near where you need it to be, certainly not close to justify the expense of the campaign.

Where did you go wrong? Did you overestimate the response rate or is this campaign yet another victim of tough economic times? Well, maybe it’s time to look at your marketing efforts from your customer’s point of view. Was your marketing campaign a welcome and much needed piece of information, or was it just white noise?

It is unrealistic to expect great results from an isolated campaign that is not a part of an integrated marketing plan. It is crucial to know your target audience and to segment it as much as possible. We live in the world of customization and personalization, the “my page” world, where even kids can customize their avatars. How can you expect your prospects to become your customers when you don’t take the time to get to know them? Every interaction with your target audience is building a relationship, and it is up to you, the marketer, to determine what kind of relationship it will be – trusting and open, or hostile and frustrating.

Gini Shoykhet

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