Even in this environment, there are impressive stories of industry executives rapidly growing sales and increasing profits by obsessively and aggressively automating their business processes and integrating their technology with their customer’s systems.

Automation

For example, about four years ago, one local delivery business was generating about $2.5 million in annual sales and spending $375,000 or 15% of sales on salaries and benefits.

During the next 48 months, the leaders focused on growth by expanding relationships with existing clients and finding new customers and they focused on automation. They asked: How can we get our technology to do what our people are doing? How can we automate and remove the potential for human error? How can we get technology to do this particular process? Or do it better? Or do it faster? Or cheaper?” They looked closely at all the ways the company interacted with employees, clients, contractors and other vendors.

Their automation focus was not about reducing staff. Their focus was all about eliminating the requirement for additional staff as the company continued to expand.

The results? Four years later, their business has grown to $4 million in annual sales. The business is 60% larger, and because of their automation efforts, they have the same salary overhead of $375,000. Since sales increased and salary expenses stayed the same, their salary costs went from 15% of sales to 9.4% of sales, which means they can put another 5% of sales on the bottom line, or invest more in sales, or marketing, or make further investments in technology. (Nice problem to have eh?)

Their obsessive growth and automation efforts paid off. They wound up with a larger business and a more profitable business – but not a more complex business. Their success with automation meant they did not have to add people and manage a larger staff as the business grew.

They became VERY committed to a constant development mindset. They invested in and completed a custom software development project every month or two. Every time they saw an opportunity to automate, they did a quick ROI calculation and moved ahead with the project if:

1. It was clear there would be a financial return, or
2. It would eliminate the need to hire additional people, or
3. The change would allow them to better serve their clients and further differentiate their business from their competitors.

Management Development

An important by-product of automation is the development of daily operational dashboards and improved operational execution. For example, one company took automated, real-time cost data for each main service type and each major customer and put the data in the hands of the people managing the drivers and warehouse operations. Historically, those folks were only responsible for on-time service results.

Management decided to (a) inform the operations teams about the cost targets for each service type and for each major client and (b) provide an automated report card each morning. The report card provided each operations person with their actual costs vs. plan, every day for the prior day. The leaders said, “Here are the goals. Here’s how you are doing vs. those goals. You are accountable to maintain or surpass those goals. We are here to help if you need advice, information or resources. And we will talk to and negotiate with the clients if you can see opportunities to take waste or inefficiency out of our current processes or theirs.”

The results were very positive. The operations people reacted to their scorecards. They brainstormed together and they innovated. The cost and service numbers improved. And the overall capabilities and value of the operations staff increased because they were given better and timely information and tools, plus clear accountabilities and targets to hit. They understood how their cost and service results affected the company and their customers. They took their additional responsibilities seriously and goal achievement became an important source of personal, professional and departmental pride!

Customer integration

In order to accomplish all of this, the leaders had to integrate their systems with their clients systems. This integration allows for minute-to-minute status on drivers, vehicles, shipments, service and costs. In other words, a real-time, automated flow of information and data between customer and supplier. This type of integration activity is never ending. The real industry leaders are constantly looking for and finding ways to better integrate with and service existing clients, and using their experience and enhanced systems to win new business.

End Game

What’s the “return” related to client integration and on-going development? By making investments in solid technology and by making smart development investments, you are, without a doubt:

• Creating “sticky” integrated relationships with clients who will not want to give up the connectivity and unique systems you have developed.
• Building customer loyalty because of your innovative and tailored solutions.
• Continuously strengthening your value proposition, your overall market position and your ability to get more customers and grow.
• Continuously differentiating your company from MANY of your direct competitors.
• Enhancing management focus and operational execution.
• Setting the stage for better financial results and greater enterprise value.

What’s the alternative to this type of ongoing development and improvement? What happens if a business does not invest and evolve? In my view, that business will ultimately find itself positioned somewhere between mediocrity and extinction.

Technology has never been cheaper. It has never been more flexible. It has never been easier to use and leverage. My advice? Take full advantage. Soon.

~   ~    ~

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” -Charles Darwin

Accountability is defined as follows: A concept in ethics and governance with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as responsibility, answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving within the scope of the role or employment position and encompassing the obligation to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences. Let’s translate this definition and look athow it applies to our staff and organizations: Hold people to the obligation and liability for their daily results – Period.There are some people out there that believe that accountability is an impossible thing to develop in a company and I couldn’t disagree more completely! Accountability is the very glue that holds a company together. It’s the dedication of employees living up to the expectations of management and clients that keeps us in business each and every day. Take away these expectations and things begin to fall apart very quickly.

Over the past years, many companieshave opted for management philosophies of a more freedom based management conceptincluding, self governance, task assignment and even working timelines as only a few examples. These concepts were put in place mostly following very hierarchal – dictatorial management experiences and failures. In these cases freedom provided a very attractive relief from the pressures and employee disenchantment that accompanied those tough periods. However, the solution lies not in one extreme or the other but in fact, in compromise between the two. Viktor Frankl, neurologist, psychiatrist and authorin his book Man’s Search for Meaning stated: “Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.” Too much of a good thing (freedom) can be the end of business as we know it. The basic belief that people will do well and that they want to perform at their best for the company remains as a core desire for all of us. However, we are faced daily with examples of where too much freedom has led to complacency, disengagement and sometimes even a sense of entitlement to certain privileges. Employees and management alike must always remember to strive for and propagate the necessary balance between freedom and responsibility, thus leading to a higher perceived accountability of all of the members of the team.

Accountability is not something you do or demand of your team. It is a state of mind! It’s away of being if you’d prefer. It is a way of managing, a way of working and a way of communicating. It is developed and propagated by providing very clear guidelines and objectives for where we are going as a company. Then it is lived every day by providing the proper feedback on daily activities and tactics while allowing people the freedom of finding their “own way home” on how they see best to get the task done. At the same time, making sure that every employee understands that for every action or in-action there is a result that they will have to answer to. The oddest thing about accountability however, is that it’s very contagious as a state of mind. Most teams will tease each other at first about this new concept of being responsible for their actions. This will quickly lead into discussions of how cross-accountability plays out on certain departments that are in a co-dependency state. All the while, management’s role is to set them up for success, by setting clear expectations and removing obstacles that will stop the team from hitting their objective.

It isn’t uncommon to see small and medium start-up companies live and prosper in a given state of microclimate accountability. Start-ups traditionally don’t have enough people to go around and literally everyone, from the dishwasher to the CEO are called onto the deck to get things done. These “accountability hotbeds” are exciting, invigorating, stimulating and even sometimes exhausting places to be! They require constant correction and a trial and error concept of getting things done. Then as companies grow into a more mature state of development, we start to compartmentalize tasks and assignments in order to get more done in less time with larger groups of resources. By pure definition as a medium sized business we get into silos of management struggles and limit our confident, energized and forward thinking new employees to defined roles written out on a piece of paper as job descriptions and responsibilities. Then as time goes by we ask where that Entrepreneurial Spirit has gone? We scratch our heads in bewilderment wondering why people don’t see the bigger picture and struggle to get the bare minimum from our teams on a daily basis. Our biggest challenge in today’s day and age in business is not whether or not we will hit out financials and business objectives – these are simply the results we will see if we focus on the right task at hand – The challenge is in re-engaging our team on every level of the company. Helping them understand that every action they take, even the smallest of actions, have a direct influence on the outcome of our company. Accountability is not about working in an environment of “do it or you’re fired” it is about people caring and assisting each other when need be.

One CEO that I was working with a number of years ago demonstrated his view of accountability and responsibility in a very clear and precise manner to me one morning at the office. It was close to noon and that meant that most of the organization would be on their way to the in-house cafeteria for a quick lunch. As we walked towards the area, the CEO grabbed a piece of paper from a printer and crumpled it into a ball. As we neared, we went into an office with a clear view of the hallway leading to the cafeteria where he told me to wait a moment. As I waited, he went to the mid point of the hallway and dropped his paper ball on the floor making sure no one would catch him in the act. As he came back into the office he looked me in the eye and said, “Let’s see who really cares for this company!” We sat there trying not to be noticed while glancing at the paper on the floor. Easily more than 80 people walked right by that paper without even the slightest hesitation to even think of picking it up! This was the foundation to which his concept of a new way of looking at accountability and responsibility began. When asked in a general meeting why no one picked up the paper that day, the common response was “It was someone else’s job to pick it up!” A truly shocking but true story on how employees can sometimes become so task-blinded. Change for that organization was not only a nice to do but indeed critical to their continued growth and ability to thrive in their market though teamwork and innovation. It has often been said that when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change!

Always remember that the value of true leadership and a partnership between employees and management is measured by the respect they have for each other and their abilities to accomplish more than the simple science of management says is possible. Walk the talk and start by holding yourself more accountable every day, then watch it spread like wildfire throughout your organization!

We live in a time and economy where the streets are filled with rushing vehicles and busy schedules with drivers anxious to make it to their destinations. It is the business of most commercial fleets to be dutiful with service level agreements designated by their companies and to be before time or on-time for the paying customer.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, accidents involving 18 wheelers and other commercial vehicles are on the rise in the U.S. In 2010, 500,000 commercial trucks were involved in accidents. Over 100,000 serious injuries and over 5,000 fatalities occurred as a result of those accidents. Only 3,200 fatalities from large truck accidents occurred during the previous year. Additionally, the number of commercial trucks on the nation’s roadways is expected to increase by 20 percent by 2012, which will increase the possibility for accidents even further.(Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/pr/502197#ixzz1loCHu8Re)

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration concluded that driver fatigue as well as driver vehicle speeds and driver performance are a major issue in commercial vehicle accidents.Federal law limits truckers to no more than 11 hours behind the wheel in one shift, and further requires drivers to rest for at least 10 hours between shifts. Proper documentation and regulation of Hours of Service is an extremely important measure to ensure the safety of commercial fleet drivers and others sharing the road with them.

Sometimes speed is the issue

Do you know the rate of speed of which an accident can cause injury? With a commercial vehicle its can be as little as 5mph.

We understand drivers expose themselves to a number of dangers when they exceed the speed limit, speeding can create an inability to react to road changes, it increases the risk of not being able to stop suddenly and control the vehicle resulting in the danger of vehicle collision.

What are some facts about commercial truck driving accidents?
Commercial trucks are involved in 2.4% of all car accidents.
One person is injured or killed in a truck accident every 16 minutes.

GPS Tracking Technology provides you the ability to pro-actively manage and react to fleet exceptions as well as provide the ability to report on reoccurring events. By utilizing key application features such as reporting, alerts, and maintenance tracking you are able to manage, monitor and improve on driver behaviour.

Not all accidents are preventable but the management; monitoring and utilization of definable data can have a significantimpact on the outcome of driver safety on the road.

Take a moment to watch a real-life success story!

Once this customer deployed GPS Fleet Tracking technology they were able to monitor and track driver behaviour resulting in increased driver safety &great reduction in accidents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smqWZmXovhU

Innovating can take the form of changing the way you do business by using information obtained from clients, trade magazine articles, industry press releases, competitor reconnaissance, your front line people and even practices in other industries or other countries.

The best innovators are often (a) life long learners, (b) very determined to succeed, (c) extremely curious and (d) prepared to change and take calculated risks.

It’s never been easier to network and learn from others who have gone down a different, but successful, road. You can identify networking targets (“friendly competitors”) when attending industry association conventions and using internet search engines. By scrutinizing web sites, you will see evidence of product focus and commentary on the principle industries served. You may even see reference to specific clients they have.

Networking helps you identify new ways to expand the market for your services and new ways to leverage core operating competencies. You will see practices that have been tested and successfully implemented by others, which will give you the confidence to put the ideas to work. Networking takes fear away!

If you (a) pick the right people to talk to (innovators, people with a “can do” attitude), (b) develop a good agenda and fact finding questions and  (c) REALLY listen, you will be amazed at the number of great ideas you will get.

What’s the best way to get important information from another owner? Provide it! In other words, successful networking involves reciprocity. Giving what are you are trying to get. You share information, if that’s what you want the other party to do. And it’s best to take the lead. For example, you say, “In my business, our favorite industry verticals are automotive and retail. We’re in that space because we’ve developed a strong value proposition tied to those industries, we can often get solid gross margins, and very few of our direct competitors have discovered the space. What are your favorite industry verticals? What attracted you to them? And what’s your value proposition?”

By taking the lead, you will seriously engage the owner or CEO on the other side of the table as he or she becomes just as curious and intrigued about you and the road you’ve been going down. I’ve often taken my P&L’s into a networking session and walked the other person through them line-by-line – before asking any questions about their numbers, growth rates by product or cost ratios etc. In my experience, if you are prepared to share, there is almost no topic that will be completely “off-limits”.

As part of your visit to a networking partner, be sure to ask for a physical tour of their facilities and ask to meet with other executives such as the sales or operations VP,  CFO or HR manager. That way you can talk to others in management about how they “win” in their areas of the business. What does success look like to them and how do they go about making things happen? You will hear lots of interesting opinions and ideas and learn about their “tricks of the trade”.

Here’s a sample networking “wish list” of topics for discussion:

• General business profile and strategic direction
• Business history.
• Industry verticals served along with what they like least and best about them.
• Industry verticals they are thinking of entering – and why?
• Industry verticals they dislike – and why?
• Overall market position strategies.
• Trends in the industry they are most focused on.
• The P&L
• Gross sales.
• Business mix.
• GM by product.
• Growth rate and growth potential of each product or service.
• Principle cost ratios.
• Operating ratio.
• People systems
• Organizational structure.
• Sale production norms.
• Compensation systems.
• Performance management systems.
• Communication systems.
• Management and staff development systems.
• Tactical or strategic priorities over the next 12/24/36 months.
• Technology: Automation initiatives and ways they are using technology to differentiate and create distinctive value.

You may not get everything you are looking for, but I can just about guarantee that you will come away from most meetings feeling motivated, invigorated and full of fresh ideas.

So go ahead; indentify some targets and start making phone calls and appointments. Complete 4-6 visits and then reflect on what you heard and observed. I’ll bet you’ll make it an annual practice to get outside the norms and standard practices in your own business in order to see how other leaders are responding to industry opportunities and challenges.

~   ~   ~

‘If we always do what we’ve always done, we will get what we’ve always got.’

            -Adam Urbanski

“Your power is almost directly proportional to the thickness of your Rolodex, and the time you spend maintaining it. Put bluntly, the most potent people I’ve known have been the best networkers – they “know everybody from everywhere” and have just been out to lunch with most of them!”

-Tom Peters

—Robert Kaplan, Renown Military Analyst 

Top generals know that it is the sergeants who make or break the front line troops. And those generals know that if they can produce an outstanding sergeant, they will get outstanding results when the action starts. Conversely, if they produce poor sergeants, they will suffer badly. In fact, the results could be lethal! It is the same in a business environment.

One barometer of front line management “quality” is employee turnover. Your company can be great in many ways, but if your front line leaders are poor they will drive the people they manage right out of the business. People don’t quit companies as much as they quit the people they report to.

It is the front line managers who influence the morale, productivity and retention of the people who make the business go every day. Front line managers can be a source of frustration and discouragement or they can be the reason your company beats the competition every day and delights your customers.

If you’re serious about beating the competition and delighting customers you must become be serious about the selection, orientation, training, mentoring and on-going development of your front line leaders. You have to help them be all they can be.

If you have an interest in upgrading your People Systems in this area, you may want to start by pulling together all of your current documents and practices related to front line manager induction and training and then have your best front line managers edit the documentation and the processes. In other words, ask your best front line managers to help you shape and enhance the systems you use when new managers come on board or when someone is promoted into that role.

Additionally, allowing some of your top managers to participate when interviewing prospective front line managers can help weed out folks that aren’t going to be a good fit.  A “buddy system” can help new front line leaders – by working alongside a veteran manager, new front line managers will see how to effectively use time, resources and their communication skills. This will enhance their competence and confidence.

Front line mangers can make or break a company. Their contributions (positive or negative) will determine if a company will be average – or an industry leader.

That’s the bottom line!

The use of independent contractors has emerged as a major workforce trend.  A recent study shows that the contingent workforce accounts for 25 to 35% of the North American labour market.

Companies need to be clear on the compliance with contract labour law and tax regulations. There have been stories of large companies that have experienced contract labour disputes as a result of drivers filing lawsuits stating illegal classification, in not following the Fair Labor Standards Act, the following are some headlines you may remember seeing:

In December 2007, the Internal Revenue Service determined that FedEx Ground independent contractors should be reclassified as employees for tax purposes, and ordered the company to pay more than $319 million in back taxes and penalties for 2002.

- A California appeals court last year upheld a trial court’s ruling that FedEx Ground drivers were entitled to reimbursement for work-related expenses, and awarded $11 million in damages (Estrada v. FedEx Ground Package System, 154 Cal.App.4th 1).

- Massachusetts’ attorney general in December 2007 fined FedEx Ground more than $190,000 for intentionally misclassifying 13 drivers as independent contractors rather than employees

Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/legal-services-litigation/8956609-1.html#ixzz1kOiGmNzI
 
Written by Jennifer Young, Director of Marketing, Complete Innovations Inc.

A friend of Complete Innovations, Industry Expert Rick McClelland, clearly articulates below the benefits and potential downfalls.

You can change–or be changed.

That’s the bottom line.

Our industry is seeing a great deal of activity and pressure related to the worker reclassification issue, and this pressure is not going to go away.

The federal government is out of money. States are out of money.  Cities are out of money. All are after new sources revenue, and they’re all going to keep coming after it. Meanwhile, labour unions will continue to challenge and try to discredit the IC (independent contractor) model, since workers who are reclassified as employees are eligible to join a union.

There are serious operational and financial implications if you are found to be on the wrong side of a reclassification challenge. My advice: Get it right, and get it right soon. It’s MUCH easier on you and your business to get it right before “they” come!

People have the right to be a “contractor” of course. People have a right to operate a business and try to grow it. The transportation industry has seen many people start with one truck and then vigorously expand–JB Hunt is a good example! And business owners have the right to use contractors to expand and improve their business.

But… there are rules and stipulations. Many of the rules are imperfect, and there are no guarantees about how an audit will turn out. This uncertainty of consequences is why some folks ignore certain rules or apply them in a half-hearted way. And they do so at their peril; these folks are playing Russian roulette.

There are practices you can implement that can stack the deck in your favor in the event of an audit. These “best industry practices” strongly support an IC relationship. You can learn about these best practices from those people in our industry who are well educated on the subject of worker classification. The experienced folks know what solid compliance looks like, and they’ve seen many local, regional and national companies successfully defend their use of ICs. These people can provide step-by-step advice—and it won’t cost you more than your time.

For those who decide to strengthen their compliance systems, my advice would be to take a very determined and formal approach. This involves using the advice you obtain and:

1. Detailing specific steps that needs to be taken
2. Assigning responsibilities (get others on your team INVOLVED)
3. Setting timelines
4. Holding people accountable for their piece of the plan by reviewing progress every week until you cross the finish line
5. Tackling issues or challenges with determination as they come up

It other words, develop a plan using best industry practices, get the right people on your team involved, and then start to execute! Keep putting one foot in front of the other.

What if something comes up that stumps you? Just get back on the phone with the industry gurus and the people you know who have gone down the same road and ask for help! They will be flattered you asked—and they will help. You are not alone.

“Crystallize your goals. Make a plan for achieving them and set yourself a deadline. Then, with supreme confidence, determination and disregard for obstacles and other people’s criticisms carry out your plan.”

—Paul J. Meyer

“Thirty years ago when I worked for McKinsey, we were looking at companies that did things well. We went to visit Hewlett-Packard. We met the president who told us fascinating stories and he also revealed one of the “Hewlett-Packard secrets,” which was something that they called, MBWA, or Managing By Wandering Around. It’s over 30 years later and I’m even more in love with the term. It is more or less a metaphor for being in touch, a metaphor for not losing touch with your employees, your vendors or your customers. And I’m trying to sell you the discipline of getting out of your office and getting close to where the work is really done and working like hell to make sure the normal course of affairs does not keep you from doing that.” 

After 30 years of studying and meeting with the best leaders in business, Tom is still passionate about “being in touch” with what is REALLY going on in the business. It’s about seeing and experiencing things from the point of view of the people on your team and the people they work with and the customers they serve. It’s also about understanding the things that are helping your people “win” and the things that are holding them back and disappointing your clients. The process is simple, but the Return On Time Invested can be huge.

MBWA literally involves walking around in your plant, warehouse or office, and walking around inside your customers operations and asking questions in order to really understand how your business impacts everyone involved and probing to understand how you may be able to do more, or better, or both.

The process involves:

1. Personal organization and discipline (Scheduling the activity and actually doing it!)
2. Sharing information (Informally talking to people about the key things you are trying to achieve – and why you think those things are important.)
3. Great open-ended questions and superb listening skills.

Tom has seen highly effective leaders use 2 very simple, open-ended questions when they are “wandering”.

The first question is “What do you think?”

After describing a challenge or opportunity (point 2 above), you ask the question. And then listen – without interrupting. Just listen. And then ask for embellishment. You push through the surface of the issue asking for perspective and input from the people who are closest to the action. Most people want to help make a positive impact. Most people want (and need) to feel valued. “What do you think?” is a great way to involve and utilize your people, show respect for their knowledge and perspective AND get right to the root of an issue.

The second simple question is “How can I help?” Once again, it is essential to listen without interrupting and then ask for embellishment in order to obtain additional information and make sure you completely understand the situation. This question is obviously important because, as the leader, you have the power to act and bring resources to bear on an issue. And why wouldn’t you want to know how best to use that power – from the vantage point of the folks that are in the thick of the battle every day.

You will get LOTS of input. Some conversations will fail to yield useful information. Not everybody is a V8. But when you engage people in this way – if you are being genuine – you will receive great input and suggestions. While these two questions are simple, they can open the door to highly productive discussions that help you fully understand and diagnose a situation, set a final course of action and achieve strong buy-in from those who will have to implement and live with the plan.

Care to make a commitment to MBWA?

How about a small percentage of your gross calendar time? How about just 5% of your gross calendar time? That’s just 1 day per month based on 21 working days in the average month. We’re talking about 5% of your gross calendar time spent “wandering” (and learning) with workers on the front line, clients and vendors. Out where the rubber meets the road doing things like:

-  Understanding and solving problems.

-  Understanding and taking advantage of opportunities to increase productivity and quality and reduce waste.

-  Responding to opportunities to better service and expand relationships with clients and prospective clients – and form closer ties in the process.

-  Keeping abreast of ways to fully leverage the evolving capabilities of your most important vendors, including new ways to bring technology to bear on your business.

Think there’s return on the investment of that time? You bet. So go ahead; plug that day right into your schedule every month. You will not regret it!

“I’m always stopping by our stores— at least 25 a week.  I’m also in other places: Home Depot, Whole Foods, Crate & Barrel. I try to be a sponge to pick up as much as I can.”         —Howard Schultz , CEO Starbucks Coffee

It is definitely a good time to consider thinking about the following questions: “What am I trying to achieve with my business in the near to midterm? What is my current position in my market and what do I want my position in my market to be? What’s changing with my customer base and with my competitors that is affecting my business and what should I be doing about that? What do we have to do in order to make positive change happen? What are the right things (tactics and metrics) to focus on? How can the people on my team help me get at that? How will we know if we are making the right things happen?

 Right Metrics?

Here is a three-part definition of business metrics:

• A business metric is any type of measurement used to measure a component of the company’s performance, such as return on investment (ROI), employee and customer churn rates, revenues, income and so on.
• Business metrics are part of the broad area of business intelligence, which involves gathering, storing and analyzing business information in order to make good business decisions.
• Metrics can be used to transform an organization’s mission statement and business strategy into specific and quantifiable goals, and to monitor the organization’s performance towards achieving those goals.

In short, business metrics are the things you FOCUS on in order to help you move your business in the direction you want it headed in! You may want to review certain metrics on a daily basis (e.g. on time performance numbers for the prior day) and you may want to review others on a weekly or monthly basis (e.g. P&L results, cost ratio trending and new sales activity).

Useful and not so useful ways to use metrics in your business

Metrics can simply be a standalone gauge or a measurement of a key component of your business that you review periodically, but that’s not how you should use metrics in my opinion. A business metric can and should be a critical part of a performance management system. Metrics aren’t things you monitor or glance at from time to time. They are key success factors in your business and related results that help you focus and navigate. They should function as an operating dashboard for your people and as a dashboard for you, the owner/leader.

One example of a performance management system and the use of metrics is set out in a book called Putting The One Minute Manager To Work – written by Ken Blanchard. It’s a great book and only takes about an hour and a half to read. This book features what is called the PRICE model. “PRICE” is an acronym that stands for the following things:

P: Pinpointing areas of focus. The critical success factors (metrics) related to your business and your strategies.

R: Recording (charting) current and ongoing levels of performance related to each metric.

I:  Involving the people on your team in the process of identifying issues and processes that are getting in the way of improved business performance in the areas of your business they are familiar with and can influence.

C: Coaching and training and supporting the people on your team so that their contributions meet or exceed the expectations you have set for them.

E: Evaluating actual results, which involves monitoring and reacting to the metrics being tracked and modifying tactics where appropriate.

Running a business in any environment – and specially in the environment we are in now – requires careful focus on your part and important contributions from everyone on your team.

The PRICE model is a good performance management process and will address the issue of motivation. You can bully or intimidate people to do certain things, but that’s motivation by fear and it ain’t pretty; and that motivation doesn’t last. Under that kind of rule, the people on your team will only do what you want them to do when they know you are watching and only because they fear repercussions if they don’t do it.

For people to be positively motivated they have to motivate themselves – for their own reasons. A performance management system and related metrics can play a big part in that because:

• It gives people on your team “the big picture” (mission, critical success factors, related goals and measurements)
• It gives them tracking tools (charts etc.) so they can measure their own performance versus target
• It involves them in the process of analyzing, celebrating success in challenging failure.

In other words, a solid system involves helping people understand (a) what is important, (b) why it is important, (c) what their role is and what specific outcomes they are responsible for and (d) how they are doing versus the plan.

You can and should provide metrics to the people on your team who control costs, the customer experience, on-time performance, getting new customers, keeping the customers you have, and your back office processes. (In other words… pretty much everyone!)

For example, after World War II, the US government sent a fellow by the name of Deming to Japan in order to help the Japanese government rebuild their industrial base. A big part of his focus turned to the Japanese automotive industry and Deming is credited with helping the Japanese develop processes that ultimately helped them build the highest quality cars in the world. Part of his process involved giving data and charts to every worker on the assembly line. Deming wanted everyone involved in the assembly process to understand what was important and to understand exactly how they were doing. He wanted people to track their results themselves so that they could make corrections on a real-time basis versus waiting for a supervisor to catch up with them a day or week after the fact. He understood that you can try and do everything yourself – or you can accomplish the goals for your business through the (educated) efforts of the people on your team.

Establishing metrics and ongoing related measurement can enable people to accomplish important things for your business and that’s very motivating to most people because it creates a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging, a sense of accomplishment and confidence as they approach and hopefully surpass targets and goals. Motivated, focused people on your team will do a better job of getting customers, keeping customers and helping you operate a profitable business. You can think of that as “enhanced growth capacity”. As the economy starts to expand again, this growth capacity in your business will be very valuable!

When all is said and done, performance management systems and the related metrics are all about getting better at the most important elements of your business. We all want to get better at what we do. Resting on our laurels is not a good thing. Trying to “ride out” what might be long-term downturn in the economy is not a good idea. This is the time to revisit strategy and tactics and the systems that you are using to determine if your ship is heading in the right direction. It’s about re-setting a course and getting better and better and better at execution via a good plan, good systems, good focus and motivated people around you. It’s all about being ambitious and confident about your business and the capabilities of your team and your systems.

You can’t provide consistent and high levels of service in a professional manner unless you have the right number of qualified drivers who committed to service. And there never seems to be enough of them, leading many industry people to think that there is a shortage of qualified people.

In many cases, the industry’s capacity problem is not one of driver shortage, but rather one of “driver churning”, where drivers move from one company to another. Companies in our industry tend to churn – or turnover – anywhere from 50 to 150% of their drivers every year!

Solving driver turnover problems can be an important strategic weapon. Having the right number of qualified and professional drivers can be the most important way to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Conversely, having an effective sales organization, the right price and leading edge technology will not matter if you do not have enough high-quality drivers to do the work.

Successful drivers need to…

• Have a vehicle that is reliable because it is properly maintained
• Have a sense of urgency
• Have strong organizational skills (package handling, selection, routing skills)
• Be able to handle the administrative & paperwork side of the role
• Have a high tolerance for stress
• Have solid communication skills

When you’re fortunate enough to find someone who has these qualities, your focus needs to turn to retention. In other words, a big part of the “How do I get enough drivers?” problem involves keeping the people you already have.

When you understand driver turnover you can manage it

Hiring drivers without understanding why other drivers leave results in chasing your tail. You hire some people, some people leave, you hire some more people. This leaves you behind the wave. You never quite get ahead. You never have exactly enough “quality people” to meet demand. You never figure out the answer to the question: “Why is our program failing for the good drivers who leave?”

Exit interviews are an excellent way to maintain a real-time understanding of the causes behind turnover. The fundamental question is whether you set yourself up for failure by bringing on the wrong driver in the first place, or if you lost a solid driver because you failed to meet expectations established when the driver signed on. The exit interview process essentially involves speaking with each driver who has made a decision to leave and determining the principal causes. The reasons can vary, but can include issues like poor economics or income, the perception of driver favoritism, erratic workload, stress, personality conflicts with operational staff or other drivers etc.

You need to identify if there is something wrong with things like:

• Your background check process
• Interview process
• Orientation and training processes
• Distribution of the available work
• Income or rate quality
• Speed and perceived fairness of problem resolution
• General communication with management, dispatch

In addition to asking questions related to why each driver has chosen to leave, you can also look to departing drivers for solutions. In other words what can you do in the future in order to address the causes of turnover? If you capture and track all of this data, you can start to understand issues and trends. You’ll be able to identify the two or three main causes (or people) responsible for the majority of the turnover. You can chart and review this data with the operations people on your team and some of the drivers, and then brainstorm solutions.

“The right stuff”

Drivers must have a certain set of skills. You can develop a skill inventory list by assessing what skills the best drivers have. What makes your best people “the best”. Skills like: knowledge of the city, mapping skills/routing skills, the ability to plan ahead, a properly maintained vehicle and proactive communication with dispatch and clients. You can set yourself up for success by using your skill inventory as a filter when interviewing new potential drivers. You can incorporate this knowledge into your interviewing process and a background check process in order to determine if a new candidate has the characteristics of the people who tend to leave…with those who tend to stay.

The dispatcher’s role

Dispatchers who have great listening skills and who respond promptly to driver concerns have lower driver turnover rates than those who fail to recognize the importance of professional, dignified communication with drivers. Dispatchers should be trained to understand the financial and service impact related to the loss of a single driver; and their compensation and incentive programs should be tied to improvements in your turnover ratios.

The Bottom Line

The byproduct of reducing driver turnover is a stronger competitive position. Reducing turnover ratios will mean an increase in service capacity and a stronger service commitment from drivers, which will improve customer service, your industry reputation and client retention. The bottom line? The driver wins. The customer wins. Your company wins. How cool is that?

Our Canadian Sales Team raised $5,955, our R&D Team worked hard and raised $3,000, our Professional Services team raised $5,360 in partnership with our customers (Apple Express, A&B Courier and All Canadian Courier). We also had an online private initiative where we received donations from our Customers, Staff, Family, Friends, and Partners.

Drumroll please…Complete Innovations raised a total of…$25,000 BIG ONES for the SickKids campaign in just 31 days and this was even during the holiday season.

We are so proud of our network, they truly helped us reach our goal and we are grateful to be able to give this money to such a wonderful and deserving cause.

Donations in Action

SickKids Foundation Thanks You and We Thank you.. All of you who helped make this donation possible!

 “I am alive today because of SickKids”

These are words we heard many times this year from our past and present “SickKids kids.” They are a testament to the profound impact SickKids has had on the lives of so many. They also reflect what can be accomplished when people come together to improve the lives of children.

Because of your support, SickKids Foundation had a record-breaking year – with donations totalling $106.8 million.