Entries from May 1, 2007 - June 1, 2007
It's YOUR Game...So CONTROL It!
One of my ex-Duquesne University students asked me to join him for lunch with a woman whom he knew quite well, and whom also owns a small, but rapidly growing business.
This lady, whom I’ll call “Mrs. Smith”, immediately struck me as a winner. She was energetic, enthusiastic, and clearly willing to listen. “I’d hire her”, I thought to myself.
Her business? She sells business supplies to wholesalers, who in turn sell those supplies to end-users. (And, yes … I know that this sounds like the classic example of “one who will become disintermediated”.)
So why did she want to meet with me? Well, it turns out that, and although she had built a pretty decent company over the years, she really was “flying blind”. That is, she had no experienced person to discuss her business with. And as such, she was almost always making her moves instinctively. So, I asked her to just talk about her business, and in our more than two-hour conversation, I learned of a number of problems --- many of which I perceived to be potentially fatal if not acted upon right away. For example:
Ron Morris
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YOU'RE EITHER MAKING SOMETHING OR YOU'RE SELLING SOMETHING!
And if you’re doing neither of these two things, just what the hell are you doing in my company?
It’s true. All business comes down to just two primary functions:
- Businesses MAKE stuff, and,
- Businesses SELL stuff.
And people who do neither of these two things are just what they technically define to be … OVERHEAD!
Oh, sure … somebody has to keep SCORE … and that’s why the Great Creator invented BEANERS.
And, I “allow for” ONE beaner per company. One. Plus, outside beaners as required.
Look around at your company right now. What do you see?
Because if you see lots of people who cannot tell you how they either make or sell YOUR “stuff”, then my advice is “update your resume”.
OF BUTCHERS AND BYPRODUCTS
About twenty or so years ago, I sold a company by the name of “ISR” (Information and Systems Research) to a British Corporation. The affable but completely ruthless guy who headed that corporation taught me many, many things during the approximate year that we transitioned our company to his. And even though this transition was quite painful, all of the lessons I learned from it have stuck with me over the years.
One of the stipulations of the sale was that I had to spend the better part of one year living and working in both England and South Africa. During one of my U.K. stints, the new buyer, we’ll call him “Barry”, took me to see an “old mate’s” animal processing plant. This plant was located in the tough and seedy town of Liverpool.
I should have been more suspicious of Barry. Maybe if only for the fact that his was clearly a cockney accent covered by a relatively fresh coat of paint. Nonetheless, I genuinely liked the guy. Maybe it was because we shared a certain “street” background. Maybe it was because he recognized the value of sales people.
(Regardless, I should also have been forewarned by the tattoo of a bloody dagger on his inside, right forearm. He told me he was in the Royal Navy. But by the time I got around to checking out this apocryphal tale, I had already been sunk!)
SPARE THE ROD
As many of you regular show listeners know, I first became a poppa seven years ago at age 50. And just to show that,” nobody pushes the envelope more recklessly than an entrepreneur”, I went and did it again … this time at age 52.
AND YOU THINK MANAGING EMPLOYEES IS TOUGH?
(I can hear all of you parents out there now … laughing at the expense of non-parents who THINK they have worked hard in their lifetimes!)
At one point early on, my wife and I discussed the fact that Jaxon (aforementioned first born) might just be getting a little out of hand. Nothing horrendous, but things like not obeying. And, mouthing back. And, screaming. And stuff like that.
And as such, I was nominated, campaigned for, and then quickly elected to the position of “Hammer” in our family. Something about, “the male influence”, I think my wife said. But between the lines, we both know what it is that I had to do. I had to discipline him somewhat better than I had previously been doing.