Category Archives: Manufacturing & Operations

How Do You Build a New Channel? Four Cases

Situation: A company wants to increase business by building a new channel. The new business is different from the company’s base business, but won’t change the company’s focus on its base business. What lessons have been learned by other CEOs who have accomplished this? How do you build a new channel?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • One company created a new channel without changing the base business.
    • They responded slowly to the opportunity before deciding to change.
    • They needed to change infrastructure by adding more people.
    • They also needed to redefine the offering to meet the needs of new clients.
    • This involved adding additional data which had been accessible previously but hadn’t been presented.
    • At first the hand off wasn’t smooth. Hiccups that could have been foreseen with more planning were extra data fields and rough hand-offs. Future new releases will focus on improved process review and more challenging of assumptions, and more patience in the scoping stage.
  • The second company created a new branch with different products and operations, but maintained one financial and inventory management system.
    • The initial produce was sold and installed, utilizing union labor. The new product is sold wholesale business to businesses and is non-union.
    • After struggling with attempts to house both operations under one roof the new operation was moved to a separate location.
    • This enabled company to set up separate operations and to fully understand the financials of both operations. It also makes it easier to assess the viability of each business and to implement changes in one without disrupting the other.
  • The third company created a new offering to sell to the same customer base, with no change in the back-end systems.
    • The new business created an insurance model for the company’s services as an alternative to the original break-fix model.
    • The two systems use a common sales team, network engineers, and back-end system. Customers choose either insurance or break-fix.
    • The challenge was that the two models need completely different monitoring and incentive systems for the engineers. This took time for development and training.
  • The fourth company created two production operations: turnkey and component.
    • This called for different sales and contracting processes and separate production areas on the plant floor, with clear delineation but using the same back end, financial, and engineering support systems.
    • The component process is short-run, high value, high margin; the turnkey is high volume runs, lower value, low margin.
    • The challenge has been in setting up a new set of contract agreements and monitoring systems to monitor the financial success of the turnkey operation.
  • What is the common thread?
    • Put sufficient time into planning and evaluating options and challenges so that there is a solid understanding of the new channel before starting.

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What are Best Practices for Interviewing and Hiring? Three Points

Situation: A company typically interviews candidates for open positions in a two-day process. The candidate talks to four or more people. The total time with a candidate is about 6 hours, and the hiring process, once a good candidate is identified, takes about 1 week. Is this typical of other companies? What are best practices for interviewing and hiring?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Extend the process – add some pressure to it.
    • All companies deal with pressure and stress from time to time. The team is frequently under pressure. Artificially create a pressure situation for a candidate – preferably later in the day when they are tired. This will help to identify whether they are cool under pressure, irritable or sloppy.
    • For example, put an engineering candidate in front of a computer and give them 30 minutes to do a job that you know would normally take 60 minutes. Don’t mention the mismatch to the candidate. The point is NOT whether they can complete the task, but to watch how they respond under high pressure.
    • This is not unfair to the candidate. It puts them precisely in a situation that they will find while working at the company. Give them the opportunity to demonstrate through their behavior that they either respond positively or really don’t want to be put into these situations.
  • Conduct thorough reference checks – including past employers or clients.
  • DISC profiles (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Compliance) are used to improve teamwork and understand different communication styles
    • Identify an experienced local resource who can help to assess the DISC profile of the company.
    • This individual can advise human resources and hiring managers on the use and interpretation of DISC profiles of candidates to help assure good company fit.

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How Do You Encourage Others to Take the Initiative? Five Points

Situation: A CEO has a challenge getting employees to take initiative in areas that she wants to delegate. Part of the challenge is that she needs to “let go” and tends to do too much checking in. She is concerned that this results in employees’ hesitation to demonstrate the initiative that she desires. How do you encourage others to take the initiative?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Continual checking-in alters the “urgency.” It feels more like a lack of confidence in the individual’s ability to complete the task to specifications and on schedule.
  • Work to establish more trust. Do this incrementally – start with less urgent / important responsibilities or tasks and move toward more urgent / important ones.
  • Determine boundaries and clearly establish deliverables.
    • Write the objective down ahead of time – as well as how much information to give them.
    • Ask yourself: Is this providing “just enough” information to guide them without micromanaging or over specifying the solution?
  • Is an objective being set, or are you trying to teach a methodology to reach the objective?
    • Unless the methodology is critical, focus on the objective and let them determine the methodology.
    • Once the objective is completed review and learn from them how it worked. Ask how they prefer to complete the objective so that you can provide the appropriate level of guidance in the future.
  • Delegating takes more time than doing it yourself.
    • Employees will complete a task differently than you will. As long as an acceptable result is achieved, be tolerant that the method or tone is different. They may be coming up with a better way!

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How Do You Improve Communication with a Key Employee? Three Points

Situation: A CEO has a challenge. While a key employee does excellent work and has fresh, new ideas, he can be overly protective of these and how they are implemented. The result is that conversations often become combative. How can the CEO better lay out alternatives and improve these conversations? How do you improve communication with a key employee?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Have a conversation with the employee about communication and competitiveness.
    • Be honest. Acknowledge your own combativeness during previous conversations. Discuss and develop alternatives to avert this in the future.
    • If future communications take the same turn toward combativeness, be conscious. Admit what’s happening and shift the tone. Keep the conversation civil.
  • When this employee offers an idea, listen and repeat the idea first to confirm that that was said was understood.
    • Ask questions to clarify specifics of the idea prior to offering a different perspective.
    • When offering an alternative, ask for the employee’s thoughts on that perspective and whether this would complement or conflict with his idea.
    • The objective of the conversation is to develop alternatives which will benefit the company and its operation. Keep the focus on this.
  • Take some time and sketch out your own thought process before responding to his proposal. Ask for some time to consider this, if necessary.
    • Repeat his words and objective as you heard it and ask whether you heard correctly.
    • Identify any challenge that may arise implementing his suggestion, and ask whether he sees the same challenge. Could his suggestion be tweaked to avoid this challenge.
    • Present another alternative only after the previous steps, and ask what the employee thinks about this alternative. Work together to design and decide on the appropriate solution. Assure that he receives credit for his idea.

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How Do You Improve Communication and People Management Skills? Three Points

Situation: As his company grows and adds new employees, a CEO wants to improve his skills working with employees as well as managing time when employees come to him with suggestions or issues. Occasionally there is confusion between what is said and how his directions are interpreted. How do you improve communication and people management skills?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • How can one improve conversational skills when meeting others, breaking the ice and establishing a conversational relationship?
    • The easiest way is to ask benign questions. How was your weekend? How are you doing? Actively listen to what they say.
    • Remember their responses. Probe more deeply to prompt them to go into more detail. Show an interest in them. Most people love to talk about themselves and their experiences.
    • If they in return ask about you, give them a pleasant but brief response, and return with a question about them. This is like a tennis volley – keep on returning the ball.
    • The important point is to show an interest in others, and to improve the ability to recall what they have shared. Don’t cross personal boundary lines of what is “too personal.” Others will appreciate this attention and will warm to you.
  • If the concern is confirming understanding, start by repeating what you hear and confirm your understanding before responding.
  • Some individuals come into the office, plant themselves in a seat and just chat to waste time.
    • When one of these individuals comes into your office, stand to greet them with a smile and a friendly question of how you can help them. Do not sit down. Remain standing as long as they are in your office. This will naturally shorten the conversation and prevents them from “settling in.”
    • When you stand up, smile and greet them with a friendly question you are not putting them off. In fact, you are giving them more attention than they have received in the past. As a result, while preventing them from settling in, this is being done in a way that shows them respect.

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How Do You Balance Scalable Growth with Quality Service? Five Thoughts

Situation: A CEO wants to determine whether and to what extent his company’s service model is scalable. He wants to determine whether it is possible to add additional clients by adjusting the ratio of clients to staff. The tricky part is determining whether the company can increase the client to staff ratio while minimizing the impact on client service. This is critical because client service is the company’s “secret sauce”. How do you balance scalable growth with quality service?

  • Start by profiling the current client base from high to low maintenance. For example, set up a grid with axes of sophistication and frequency of desired contact as follows:
    • A – unsophisticated and desire frequent contact
    • B – sophisticated and desire frequent contact
    • C – unsophisticated and desire infrequent contact
    • D – sophisticated and desire infrequent contact
  • Analyze the client base and assign each current or new client to category A, B, C or D.
  • Distribute client relationships so that no member of the team has too many A’s. This may make it possible to assign more clients to each staff member.
  • Also consider matching staff to client type. Some staff may be better working with unsophisticated clients, while others are more adept with sophisticated clients.
  • As this model is developed and built, try different alternatives for matching staff to clients. This can help to identify additional alternatives for achieving the company’s objective.

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How Do You Maintain the Chain of Command? Three Suggestions

Situation: A CEO finds that some employees are going directly to her to address issues or suggestions rather than working with their managers to develop solutions. She is concerned on two fronts. First, these matters should be handled between the employee and their manager. Second, this distracts her from higher priorities facing the company. How should the CEO convey this to both the manager and the employee. How do maintain the chain of command?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Concerning the situation where a manager’s direct report is going to the CEO, what is the follow-up with both the manager and the employee?
  • The message to the manager:
    • You are in your role for a reason.
    • You are accountable, and your responsibility is for your team to deliver against company strategy and plans.
    • If this situation is repeated I will send these questions back to you, and will count on you to keep me in the loop as appropriate to assure that the solutions are consistent with company policy and objectives.
  • The message team member
    • It’s okay to share your thoughts with me.
    • But in the case of new ideas or suggestions, you need to bring these to your manager so that your manager understands what is going on and can coordinate your suggestions with the activities and priorities of the team.
  • How do you set boundaries so as not to step on the toes of managers?
    • Set deliverables for the managers, but leave them the authority and latitude to manage those who report to them.
    • If an employee comes to the CEO rather than their manager, refer them back to their manager.
    • After the fact, follow-up with the manager to assure that the issue or suggestion has been addressed.
    • HR issues are handled through the HR process, not by the CEO.

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How Do You Improve Communication with Your Team? Six Thoughts

Situation: A CEO is concerned that communications with her team regarding tasks, goals and operational objectives are insufficiently clear. Members of her team sometimes express confusion with her directions and what has been assigned to them. What have others done to better communicate with their teams? How do you improve communication with your team?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Write down what you plan to say and how you will say it before meeting with member(s) of the team. Once direction has been given, ask them to restate the directions or instructions. Ask whether these were clear and whether more detail is needed.
  • Assume that it will take team members 3-4 times the time that it may take you to do the same thing. This will improve over time as they approach your level of skill performing specific tasks.
  • Heartily congratulate achievement – be a cheerleader!
  • If the individual brings up other thoughts that are off point to the planned or immediate objective thank them for the input. Respond – let’s note this separately for the time being and come back to it later once when we address the immediate challenge.
  • Set deadlines for accomplishing objectives and ask where there will be conflicts. Negotiate mutually acceptable adjustments if these are necessary.
  • Communicate the bigger picture. Help them to understand how the assigned task or objective will further company objectives and improve or augment operations or functions. Share the larger vision and their role in achieving it.

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How Do You Transition and Mix Leadership Styles? Five Points

Situation: A CEO has shepherded his company from a start-up to a viable enterprise. Early on, his management style was based on facilitation and his “likeability”. This worked well with a tight-knit team. Now the company is much bigger and he feels a need to be respected and able to act as a dominant leader when this is required rather than as a facilitative leader. How do you transition and mix leadership styles?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • What does a dominant mode of leadership entail?
    • Defining the starting point, desired end and important characteristics of the solution – then ask for input on getting there.
    • One can mix dominant behavioral modes with facilitative modes – the difference will be the focus on the end to be achieved.
  • If one were moving the opposite direction – from dominant to facilitator – one would:
    • De-entrench oneself from one’s own position.
    • Become more open to others’ ideas.
    • Change tone / words to express openness.
  • Conversely, to move from facilitative to dominant:
    • Decide what one wants to achieve and express it clearly.
    • One can remain open to the ideas of others, but make sure that the exchange is staying on topic and moving toward the desired objective.
    • Change tone / words to become more assertive.
  • How does one plan ahead to determine what one wants?
    • Review notes / priorities ahead of meetings – decide on the agenda and the objectives for the meeting.
    • Write reminder notes to ask questions or push issues that will drive the agenda.
  • Focus on the framing of the discussion – when one is being dominant the framing is more structured and determinant; when one is being facilitative the framing is more flexible and undetermined.

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How Do You Create a Professional Development Plan for Employees? Four Points

Situation: A CEO wants to develop employment growth/professional development plans to help individual employees reach their next level of skill and/or responsibility. This includes determining company needs, skill sets requirements, etc., and a plan to fulfill these.  How do you create a professional development plan for employees?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Start by defining company needs and the skills required to meet these needs. Ask:
    • Do we currently have staff in place with the requisite skills? How deep is our resource base?
    • Do we have individuals who desire to acquire skills where we are not deep?
    • Do we need to be looking outside for these skills?
  • Create a mechanism to enable employees to express their expectations and aspirations.
    • Ask about individual employee’s aspirations during quarterly manager / employee 1-on-1s.
    • Look for alignment between employee aspirations and company needs. If there is alignment draft a training plan to meet both the employee’s and the company’s needs.
    • Explore alternative options for them available within company. List skill sets needed. Develop a growth plan.
    • Ask employees to set three objectives for next 12 months. This is best done with a standard self-evaluation and aspiration form.
  • How often is the plan reviewed with each employee?
    • For specific action items – track follow-up to milestone dates.
    • Manager one-on-ones – monthly.
    • Quarterly or semi-annual evaluations.
    • Annual formal performance reviews.
  • How does the company, demonstrate that they are paying staff more than fairly?
    • Research salary surveys to determine how the company’s salaries measure up to typical local or regional salaries for comparable companies in the industry. Plan adjustments if necessary.
    • On the company level, produce data that shows overall company salary levels vs. industry averages in the company’s locale.
    • In individual salary discussions, let the employee know how their salary measures up against area averages for their position.

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