Good Products, Serve Customers
There was one of those confluences of occurrences during the last week that psychologist Carl Jung referred to as synchronicity. First I happened upon a guy who was the first real finance MBA that I ever worked with. Not that he[base ']s a bad person, but that time a little over 25 years ago was the first time I ran into an accountant who thought he should be running a company. Prior to that in my limited experience with a manufacturing company, the leaders were drawn from product development, marketing or those who had experience in both.
Before very long, financial types, including some McKinsey dropouts, were running the company. The company tanked. Today it is a tiny division of a company built by acquiring many companies in similar doldrums. Every time I see this person, and living in a small town that happens several times a year, I have flashbacks of my reflections from 1977 that I believe still hold true today. Companies should be built on solid, yet innovative, products of good quality that serve the needs of its customers. In addition, the company should see its existence owed to these customers and serve them accordingly.
I finally got around to Bill George[base ']s book, [base "]Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value.[per thou] The thing about George is that he not only knows the theory, he practiced it. And the results at the company he headed, Medtronic, testify to the usefulness of the theory.
George says, [base "]The best kept secret in business is that mission-driven companies create far more shareholder value than do financially driven firms.[per thou] He continued, [base "]It is true that a sharp eye to cutting costs can result in significant improvements in a company[base ']s short-term position, but unless the cost cuts are followed by much larger ling-term investments, the company is bound to lose its way.[per thou]
That last remark reminds me of the primary reason that I[base ']m not there any more. I was laid off when the financial geniuses shut down product development. Leaving there was good for me, and many laid off workers found employment at Honda making more money. But it is a shame about a proud old company still just squeaking by 25 years later.
These reflections were reinforced by a column I saw July 7 in the Dayton Daily News. Dale Dauten, who writes a weekly column called The Corporate Curmudgeon, tells the story of Rick Hamada. Hamada was a computer technician who sometimes was asked to go along on sales calls incase the conversation got technical. Sometimes he would go alone when a salesperson had more calls than could be made. Eventually the sales manager noticed that whenever Hamada made the calls orders increased. Hamada went into sales and eventually came to head up a $5 billion division of Avnet. His philosophy? [base "]I didn[base ']t know I was selling; I was just helping.[per thou]
Lessons we all need to keep relearning.
1:34:55 PM 
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