MAY 2006
LESSONS FROM THE NEWS
By Tony Mulkern
Looking for new insights that will increase your effectiveness and provide a competitive edge? Recent news stories from a variety of areas demonstrate how such lessons are all around us—and not just in the business section. Some examples to muse upon, together with Questions to Ponder (QP):
- Killer alligators are plaguing Florida communities, and several people have suffered fatal attacks. Recently, a woman discovered an alligator attacking her dog on her front porch. She retrieved her gun from the house and returned to shoot and kill the alligator and save her dog. Incredibly, news reports say she was cited by the police for hunting without a license! No doubt, the officer was simply following regulations.
QP: How many ridiculous or outmoded rules or policies do you have in your company, especially as they apply to customers? Even the best rules and policies cannot possibly foresee every situation that can arise, however. So do you encourage your employees to apply the rules in a thinking way or mechanically and inflexibly?
- Barbaro, winner by six and one-half lengths at the Kentucky Derby, was considered to have a good chance of being one of those very rare horses to take the Triple Crown, that is, win the Preakness and Belmont as well. That hope ended suddenly in a bizarre and tragic accident at the Preakness where he shattered his right rear leg in 23 places. His jockey Edgar Prado, not knowing if his beloved mount would survive, was overcome by grief and shock and was in tears for days. But he overcame that which overcame him. The day after the tragedy he went off —to race more horse and win two races, because that’s what he does.
QP: Having a Plan B is fine, but there are an infinite number of things that can go wrong, and you cannot have an infinite number of alternative plans. But you can have resilience, commitment, and determination, as Prado does. This is why some companies seem to get better or stronger after every reversal, and others never recover. What are you doing to ensure that such resilience is part of your character and that of your company.
- The DaVinci Code movie was launched amid enormous controversy. What appears to be uncontroversial among experts, including people of faith and non-believers alike, is that the author’s claim to factual accuracy regarding architectural, historical and artistic background is in many cases just plain false. Similarly, Oprah Winfrey recently said she felt conned after endorsing the alleged memoirs of James Frey, which turned out to be largely fictional. The problem is that millions of people take what these authors say as facts. To compound the problem, many young adults rely solely on Jay Leno’s monologue and Comedy Central as their source of national and international news!
QP: How much of your employees’ and customers’ views of your business and business in general is fictional? For example, a common belief is that mortgage bankers make more money when interest rates rise. (They don’t, because loan volume decreases.) Much of the public is skeptical that supply and demand have anything to do with rising gasoline prices. Misinformation undermines employee morale and customers’ willingness to engage in fair dealing. What are you doing to increase financial and business literacy in your circle of influence?
- The new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke caused the market to tank with an off-hand remark to a reporter that investors had mistakenly taken him to mean that the Fed was nearly done with raising rates. Bernanke later regretted his “lapse of judgment” in making a comment on such matters through unofficial channels, but, of course, that did not do much to help stocks.
QP: How careful are you with what you say and to whom? One uncomfortable fact that comes with being in charge and successful is how closely everything you say or do is listened to or watched. For example, you may extol the virtues of customer service and respect for employees, but only one act of inconsistency on your part in a moment of stress can quickly inflame cynicism and degrade the good will you have fought hard to establish. Do your colleagues, employees and customers believe that you and your company really “walk the talk?” How do you know?
- NASA Adminstrator Michael Griffin said that the President’s vision to go back to the moon will be accomplished through an enhancement of the Apollo technology used for the original moon landings several decades ago. Instead of incurring the expense of inventing new technology, NASA will employ “Apollo on steroids,” he said.
QP: What “moon landings” have you made that were never fully leveraged or taken advantage of? Published authors regularly add a few new pages to an already successful book, and the publishers release a whole new edition. What project or assignment were you particularly proud of that was never replicated or fully marketed? How could it be today?
- Most fatal auto accidents are caused by aggressive driving—excessive speeding, unsafe passing, tailgating, etc. How many career and corporate wrecks are caused by over aggressiveness? Wyatt Earp, the famous lawman of the Old West, lived to enjoy a peaceful and advanced age. He was asked what accounted for his survival when most of the famous gunfighters of the West died violently. Was it a faster draw, better marksmanship, superior weapons? He replied, “I learned to take my time in a hurry.”
QP: Where in your business could impulsiveness or lack of steely-eyed focus cause you to become a casualty?
- Archaeologists have recently made some astounding discoveries, including remains of an older city below the ancient Roman forum, an Egyptian tomb filled with untouched mummies and sarcophagi, and evidence of a people that predated the Toltecs, Mayans, and Aztecs of Mexico. Just when you think they have found all that there is to find!
QP: What treasure troves of creativity and new ideas lie within your workforce that you have not begun to “excavate?” Do you have a regularly established process for stimulating creative input—or even plain griping—that may be the source of the “next great thing” for your company? Or do you believe that you have heard it all before?
- Barry Bonds matches Babe Ruth’s 714 homers, and the controversy begins. He took steroids, it is alleged, while Ruth did it on beer and hot dogs, they say. Maybe so, come the replies, but Ruth played in a racially segregated era, pitchers were not as powerful, and all athletes today benefit from modern sports training, medicine and nutrition. Perhaps what this all points up is the folly of obsession with record keeping and breaking. At the original Olympic Games in ancient Greece, athletes competed only with each other, not with records, which were not even kept, so far as we can tell.
QP: Are you measuring yourself and your company by what really matters? (Does Bond’s stardom strengthen his team and baseball as a whole, and will his record help the Giants win the pennant?) Sometimes it makes no sense to compete on quality, service, price, and innovation all at the same time. How this year’s performance compares with last year’s may be less important than how you compare with your competition today. Are you monitoring all the changes in the environment that will affect how well you do? Do you know who your real competition is?
- Finally, Starbucks continues to grow and thrive and diversify product offerings. Bottled water continues to have new entrants into the market. Coffee shops and water in bottles are simple services and products that a couple of decades ago only a visionary could have seen had the potential for worldwide success. In our frantic, wired world of sometimes tormentingly complex technology there must be many more simple solutions that millions of people would pay for. How about computers that work as easily and reliably as automobiles? What about airliners that are as easy to enter and exit as a train? Ever think of the need for street signs that are easy to read at night, especially in L.A.? (And whom do you notify when there is no sign at all?) Or supermarkets where you can find what you want in an instant?
QP: What can you offer that is brilliantly simple, doable, desirable, would delight your customers—and is something they might even pay extra to get? Your answer might make news.
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Copyright, Mulkern Associates, 2006
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