February 6th, 2008
In Business What is The Objective of Your Firm
I have owned my search business for 1 year. I started as a head hunter and work by myself. There is one employee, me, the President and Managing Director. I have the realization for my business there are two occurrences, one is expense the other is revenue. Saying all that to say this; currently I am very busy with several interviews involving my candidates interfacing with 4 top companies. It would be very easy to become elated over this tremendous activity except for my realization. Expense or revenue, right now it is all expense.
This reminds me of a story about 2 salesmen. They met at the national sales meeting; salesman 1 said to salesman 2, how was your week, sales man 2 replied, “Great, I had 25 new business calls, presented 3 proposals, did a demo and had a VIP visit!” Salesman 1, whom is the top ranked salesman replied, “I didn’t sell anything either.
Do not get me wrong, activity can be a predictor of future success but it does not pay the bills.
One of the firms I am dealing with is a household name and one of the world’s greatest companies. They have an opening for a clinical application manager. This is a technical position working closely with a sales team. My canidate has the prerequisite technical degree and experience. She has since become a sensational sales talent and has a stellar track record. This great company exhibited concern because my canidate had not worked in a lab for over 10 years. I pointed out; the true objective for any position is to contribute toward business growth by excelling in their position. Who could be a better canidate than a technical person that knows how to sell? Long story short, the corporate recruiter would have passed on this great canidate if not I and the hiring manager had not reminder her of the objective of business growth.
In closing, what ever you do for your firm, from answering the phone to being a service engineer, you are paid to contribute to the companies growth or you are an unnecessary expense. What category do you fall into.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Very nice post!
You can apply the same philosophy to life…
We should all live our lives with purpose and direction aiming to be a PRODUCTIVE part of society. Why waste time doing absolutely nothing?? Where is the glory in that? We need a “Can’t Stop, Wont Stop” attitude!
I try to teach my kids to be the BEST at whatever they do, contribute the best you that you can be! In business, in Life, in everything!
February 8th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Regina, you have said it all, if you wake up in the morning, you do not have to wait one more moment to make a difference in someone’s life. Keep Hope alive
February 8th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
JD - Years ago I owned a restaurant with a good friend of mine. It was a simple soup-salad-sandwich place that we opened in an industrial section of San Diego - we were open from 10am to 4 pm 5 days a week (weekends we were closed) and there were no restaurants within walking distance from these businesses and we were in the black within 9 months.
So far so good.
We had mandatory staff meetings every Friday after 4pm. to discuss, in an open forum, whatever was on their minds as well as mine.
We had a 6 employees of which 4 were great and the other 2 were marginal.
In one of these meetings, about 3 months after we had opened for business, I told a story about some employees who were ’stealing’ money from the business at which they worked and said the same thing was happening at our business. They all looked shocked and glanced around at everyone else. I said, they weren’t stealing money from the register nor were they stealing someone else’s tips nor were they stealing food. One of the employees asked what they were stealing to which I answered - “They were stealing time.’ Everyone looked at me like a deer in the headlights. Without singling anyone out, I explained to them that if one is paid a wage and not working to the best of their own ability, shirking their duties while the rest of the employees took up the slack, then, in fact they were stealing.
I ended my ’sermon’ saying, in most companies those slackers would be fired and told them to have a great weekend.
You know what’s coming.
The 2 marginal employees became the best employees I had and I even promoted one of them to asst. manager.
This may seem off-topic, but I think it goes the heart of every business - lack of communication and lack of work ethics. Had I not told the story, but just fired these 2 kids, then I would have, in my mind, been at fault for not teaching them the value of working for your pay. And what kind of message would I have sent to the other 4 kids?
Thanks for ‘listening’ to my gab.
Hope your deal goes through.
Peace.
February 14th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Morgan, great story and it appears you made a big difference in your problem workers, you helped them understand what is your vision. Thanks for stopping.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Jim,
In my haste to get the comment finished, I left out one of the most important part of the story.
From day one, I would always praise the emloyees for their hard work, good attitude, being on time, etc.
Once a month my partner and I would take the crew out for pizza and beer. You can just imagine how the moral was boosted by this attention and our willingness to ‘treat’ them to dinner.
February 16th, 2008 at 7:32 am
There is a similar saying: NATO (No Action Talk Only). At the end of the day, I always ask myself: Have You Been Doing Something Productive Today? Something Useful Today (might be for myself, my family and my surrounding area. From business point of view, the very basic formula is Revenue - Expense = Profit. Those that cannot contribute to profit will be given a chance and if they fail, well, they have to be dismissed (as simple as that). Thanks.