As this month’s State of the Industry focus on corporate culture draws to a close, we offer some nuggets of wisdom from dealers who have forged a collection of core values, along with others that needed to make significant changes in order to create a team-based atmosphere.
One aspect with which our dealers were nearly completely in agreement is the notion that all businesses have a culture, whether it is intentional or not. But setting a tone is paramount in reeling in one that has negatively run amok. John Lowery, president and CEO of Applied Imaging in Grand Rapids, Michigan, stresses the importance of codifying the desired culture, pulling input upstream through the managers to the top-level executives, to come up with a descriptive code and the values it embraces.
Lowery gained critical insight from Disney Institute, the professional development and external training arm of The Walt Disney Company. One element he found most compelling was the belief that passive leaders undermanage values, while proactive leaders over-manage them.
“We feel that over-managing the values we have helps people understand the environment that we’re trying to create and the type of people we’re trying to be,” Lowery said. “Because of those things, and because we codified it, I feel we have an increased ability to attract talent, sustain it and perpetuate it. We’ve got an energized and enabled workforce that really helps build the team and is great for employee retention. We have motivated employees with high morale and enhanced financial performance. I think it’s much more powerful than a mission statement because it really encompasses what your values will be.
“It is an investment, but it’s a worthwhile one, and probably the most important one in helping us create the type of organization that we want to have. It permeates from our people when they get in front of a client.”
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Barry Simon, the president of Datamax, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, believes it is imperative that the dealer’s leadership is not only fully behind the initiative, but personally embraces all it stands for…otherwise, the inauthenticity will bleed out through the organization. He also feels all the managers need to be involved in the process.
“Having a career path with stability, that part came from our service managers,” Simon noted. “Many of their fathers didn’t have stable jobs, so they wanted to do better than their fathers. Get your people involved—it’s not about you, it’s about them. The more people that get involved, the better it will be.”
For those dealers who are seeking to perform a reset, particularly with newly acquired companies or situations involving leadership changes, Robert Woodhull—marketing manager for Woodhull LLC of Springboro, Ohio—suggests gathering as much input as possible prior to acting. Employees have a way of separating bluster from genuine talk that leads to change.
“You have to listen, because I guarantee the employees have been clamoring for (a quality culture) during the years the previous leadership was in place,” he said. “The only way I can make an informed decision is to understand where they’re coming from and what’s been going on.
“If someone was to ask me to advise them from an outside point of view, I’d probably say listen, but set the precedent through actions. I think too often, in higher leadership roles, we hear a lot of talk but don’t see a lot of do.”
Van Seretis, a partner with Premium Digital Office Solutions in Parsippany, New Jersey, stresses the importance of not following age-old traditions for success and motivation, particularly among the sales department. He remembers the days in which hammering on reps about their forecast and challenging them to top another rep’s performance were acceptable motivational tools.
“That old way of grinding people, pitting one against the other, that’s old school,” Seretis said. “That may have worked in the 80s, but we’ve evolved into a different culture now. It all comes back to creating a company people want to come work for, as a career and not a job.”
Taking a strategic tack in hiring practices is an optimal way to ensure employees can reflect a dealer’s desired culture, notes Ray Belanger, president of Bay Copy in Rockland, Massachusetts. Ensure new additions are a good fit, he noted, and lead by example.
More than Money
“Empower your employees to take ownership of their work and to understand that, as the saying goes, there’s no ‘I’ in team,” Belanger said. “Treat your employees – and your customers – as you would want to be treated. Your employees are your biggest single asset. Treating them well goes beyond issues of compensation; people are motivated also by praise and recognition.”
It also helps to have outside counsel provide an independent perspective, notes Scott Flaherty, director of operations for Altek Business Systems of Telford, Pennsylvania. Flaherty credits owner Ray Derstine with taking some huge gambles, not the least of which was hiring a young Flaherty to head up sales and accepting new, unorthodox ways of selling. Without the bold strokes, Flaherty notes, the company would not be in the strong position it has garnered from a cultural standpoint. And the guidance of a consultant can pay even bigger dividends for any major overhaul.
“Having a consultant come in is huge if you’re looking at overhauling everything,” he said. “If you feel lost and don’t have a feel for where your culture is, hire a consultant. As business owners, the focus is generally on the bottom line. If you have a stale culture or a culture that you feel is a failure, I’d start with a consultant and be willing to make decisions that might seem a little bit risky.”
