Management

A few years ago, I wrote on my blog about an interesting dilemma at “The New York Daily News.” What is more commonly known in New York as the “Daily News” is one of the most popular NYC Subway papers. On a weekly basis, the Daily News holds a “scratch and win game” with up to $100,000 in prizes. On on Saturday in March a few years ago, there were hundreds - or perhaps thousands - of ecstatic people throughout Manhattan. Unfortunately, due to a printing error, there were a few thousand too many winners. And they were angry.

I can only imagine the editor’s concern and fear as hundreds of protesters showed up to collect their winnings. Luckily, the agency that conducted the prize had some fine-print that protected the newspaper’s liability. However, the embarrassment and a number of irate readers remained.

Rather than duck or move on quickly, the leaders at the Daily News made a surprising decision, they decided to run with it. They ran a front page article on Monday morning proclaiming, “News offers $1 Million to Say Sorry, Folks.” read more

On this, the last day of 2008, I provide a list of ten tiny things that every small business owner should do in 2009—hopefully in early 2009. Don’t consider it a New Year’s resolution because there’s a whole psychology behind such things. Just do it.

1. Act like a prospective customer and call your company to see how the phone system and receptionist treat you.

2. See if your website has a “Contact Us” section. If it doesn’t, add one. Ensure that it has a street address.

3. Send your company an email asking for customer support and see if someone responds to it.

4. Answer customer support calls or emails (not the one you sent in) for a day.

5. Go out on a sales call with your salespeople and a service call with your service people.

6. Read the documentation or manual that your company provides. Extra credit: See if you can do this without reading glasses.

7. Pretend that you lost the documentation or manual that came with your product or service and try to find it on your website.

8. Register your product or service including finding and reading the serial number of your product. Extra credit: See if you can read your serial number without reading glasses. Extra extra credit: If you use a Captcha system for registration, see how many times it takes to get the word right.

9. Add a signature to your email. A “signature” is a block of text at the end of your emails that contain all your contact information. It saves your recipients the hassle of asking for your address and phone number or searching for them on your website.

10. Join Twitter and then search for your company name, your product, your competition’s name or product name, or market sector terms from your business. For example, let’s say you’re in the web design business. Extra credit: Use Twitter as a twool.

If these tasks are helpful, you would probably enjoy “The Top Ten Stupid Ways to Hinder Market Adoption” and CustomerService.alltop. Kick butt in 2009!

One of the awful side effects of the new new economy (you know, the one that’s tanking) is that the people in your organization are going to do exactly the wrong thing. They’re going to start saying “no”. They’re going to freeze up, hunker down, play it safe, cease to innovate and give up the single best chance your organization has to grow and to thrive.

This is your moment. The competition is either scared silly, out of business or paralyzed. Rents are down, asset fire sales are going on all over and there’s a huge opportunity waiting for someone who comes up with high value, highly remarkable innovations.

So that should be you.

But how? How to overcome the desire to say no to everything.

Here’s my simple riff:

Right now, “no” is all upside. “No” keeps the manager out of trouble, because “no” means no investment, no money, no risk, no failure. Might as well say no to every opportunity, no matter how wonderful, right?

Ads at 95% off? No, we can’t afford them.
Freelancers willing to work for free just to improve their portfolio? No, might present a legal hurdle.
A blog to spread the word for free? No, who will approve it?

Here’s what you do: make yourself the person in charge of saying no.

Anyone who wants to say yes to a project that fits within their purview is encourage to do just that. If you have the budget and the guts, say, “yes.” Say it loudly and immediately. Start. If it fails, kill it.

But, if you want to say “no”, you have to ask your boss for permission. And she has to ask you. “No”s get pushed all the way up the ladder. It’s a big deal to get a “no”, so you better be sure you want to pass this up. In fact, it might be easier to just say yes.

There is an old joke about two campers who stumble across a bear in the woods.  Angered at being disturbed, the animal runs headlong at the campers. The campers turn and flee. The beast shows no sign of giving up the chase, so after a while one camper worriedly says to his pal: “I don’t think we can outrun this bear.” The other says: “I’m not trying to outrun the bear. I’m just trying to outrun you.”

Almost all markets have turned bearish of late. How should the small business react? Not panicking is a good start. However gloomy conditions may seem, they will be gloomy for competitors, too.

Downturns are the economic equivalent of Darwinism – a test where the fittest survive.  The primary goal is survival, especially for small businesses that lack a deep well of resources to help ride things out.  The secondary goal is living well, keeping strong and gathering the resources that will improve the chances of surviving any unforeseen problems that lie ahead.  Surviving hence means having a keen focus on all the advantages and efficiencies that may seem small in scale, but could make the crucial difference between the business that fails and the business that survives to enjoy the eventual recovery. read more

When you really care about an idea, you are likely to develop an opinion. And when multiple people have a strong opinion, you’re bound to disagree (and clash). A “fight” may ensue…and,while some people shy away from confrontation, we have found that a healthy dose of tension helps ideas thrive.

When a new project or problem rises to the surface, the solution often involves various elements. Perhaps a web design issue requires consideration from both designers and programmers? Perhaps a confusing piece of copy requires a decision from the Art Director and the Account Manager? Especially if you have a team of people, each with a different expertise, you are likely to have many different “answers” (whether people admit it or not). In poorly run teams, the person with the most power or experience just makes the call. Or, sometimes people openly disagree and eventually some people become apathetic and give up. You are left with someone’s supposed answer, but often not the best one.

Rather than focus on the discomforts of fighting, consider the benefits from opposite perspectives duking it out! Imagine that the answer to a problem lies somewhere between A and B. read more

Unfortunately it’s easy for companies to make mistakes when downsizing that lead to costly and time-consuming lawsuits.

Learn how to avoid some common pitfalls when downsizing from Knowledge@Wharton, the Wharton School’s online business journal, in this conversation with Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli.

Even when companies have a clear strategy for their layoff plan, they often do not “prepare front-line managers for how to execute the plan — and it ends up in lawsuits,” Cappelli says. In a layoff environment, “people start suing,” and in a down economy, “they often win higher damages.”

 

 What Are the 3 Biggest Mistakes Small- and Medium-sized Companies Make When Downsizing? [8:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

There are tons of books and articles on goal setting, visioning, reaching for the moon and landing among the stars. But how many of those how-to guides talk about what to do after you set your goal?

As we begin a New Year and thoughts turn toward New Year’s resolutions and wiping the slate clean, I would suggest that once you set your goal, you let your employees know.

They say that “what gets measured gets done” and if you write a goal down it is more likely to become a reality, but still so many managers feel that letting their team know about the goal is just TMI.

Too much information.

“They just need to do as they’re told,” is the old school of thinking.

“If we tell them too much and they leave and go to the competition, they’ll take our plans with them,” those that are a little more paranoid or perhaps have been burned in the past might say.

Yet when we let our team know the big picture, they are more inclined to take ownership in the ultimate success and help you achieve your goals even faster.

When I worked for Pearle Vision I found that many of the franchise owners were reluctant to let their employees know their break- even number.

“They don’t need to know my financial information,” the franchisee would say.

That way of thinking came back to bite one owner who was consistently missing their break even number and money was tight. The employees, clueless to the financial strain, began demanding a raise. The owner stalled and tap danced and finally came to me for help. read more

Laying off employees is never easy. But in tough economic times many companies must consider it. Before taking any action, however, you should answer some critical questions. Should you lay off a poor performer in a critical area — or star performer in an obsolete operation? Could it cost you more in the long run to fire someone now than to keep them on another year?

Learn the answers to these and other crucial questions — including the best way to manage “survivors” — from Knowledge@Wharton, the Wharton School’s online business journal, in this conversation with Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli.

“One of the most important — yet most ignored — questions in layoff situations is, ‘What happens to the survivors?” Cappelli says. After layoffs, “It’s very common for people who survive them to panic. They ask themselves, ‘Why did I survive?’ They freeze or they spend all their time looking for a new job because they figure, ‘I’m next.’”

 

 Should You Downsize, and If So, How Much? [10:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download