Executive Wisdom for Business

It's okay to challenge your clients

My final postcard from Dubai for this particular trip; I hope you have enjoyed these memoirs.

The owner of a large shipping and logistics company in Iran flew to Dubai to have two days alone, one-on-one seeking my counsel about leadership, management, people, strategy and alike. A member of my mentor program who lives in Dubai and is the CEO of a $100 million company shared a full-day with me the day after, discussing similar matters.

I am frequently asked why owners and CEOs of such significant organizations seek my advice, join my mentor program, and occasionally have lunch with me when they are obviously, already very successful. And, there are probably many answers to this question. However, I personally believe that one of the major reasons is that these fine people all, know that I will challenge them. And, that's exactly what they are searching for ... to be challenged.

These people are surrounded by 'Yes-Men' on the payroll who would never dare challenge, contradict or question their boss. That is however, what they need. They are smart enough to understand that success is a process not an event, and they must continually keep reaching out towards stretch goals. I demonstrate what they are missing without fear. I am not here to support them but to provoke their thinking and have them questioning conventional assumptions (there's no wisdom in unchallenged or untested assumptions). I am not here to rub their tummies and pat their heads, giving false platitudes.

As consultants and advisers to our clients (and most of you reading would fall into this category being accountants, lawyers, recruiters, financial planners, etc) we provide great value in using four basic patterns of thinking.

1. What are we doing? Gain clarity and take an objective look at what it is we (or our clients) are actually doing. Is it appropriate? Is this what really should be happening right now?
2. Why is the business like it is? Is the business reacting to the environment or taking advantage of the environment?
3. Determine what options you have available to you. Leverage upon what you already do well.
4. What should we do next? What is the future? Are we making the future or are we being swept along for the ride? Test the assumptions, arguments, philosophies and strategies. Critically assess if they are valid or if they are contradictory to the facts and forecasts. Identify any future problems, design specific and appropriate responses to those problems and measure the progress.

Pilots set a flight plan, receive weather forecasts, and get air traffic clearance before taking off from any airport. Business leaders also must set a plan, gather the necessary data, and seek sound counsel before implementing. Surround yourself with people who wish to help you grow.

In a movie I watched last night in my hotel room, one of the characters articulately stated: "Commiseration is insidious; competition is invigorating." He could have easily been speaking of business, and of what we must do as professionals advising our clients.

© Ric Willmot 2008 All rights reserved.

I'm not who I say I am ... apparently

Last night at the hotel where I am residing, there was an “Aussie Barbeque” around one of three swimming pools located on the hotel grounds. I had to attend.

Not being a red meat eater, I asked if chicken was being offered besides beef.

“Sir, this is an Australian barbeque.”
“What’s your point?”
“Australians eat beef sir, not poultry.”
“Really?”

As I turned to walk towards one of the fourteen restaurants inside the hotel, I overheard the drinks waiter enquire: “Why didn’t Mr Willmot stay for the barbeque?”

“No, that wasn’t him, Mr Willmot is Australian. That man wanted poultry. At an Aussie barbeque; can you imagine?”

© Ric Willmot 2008 All rights reserved.

Clichés stifle business improvement

It is the second day of the Change Management seminar I am running here in Dubai. During some lively group discussion one of the delegates explodes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

The truth for organizations that wish to be innovative, cutting-edge and ahead of the game, is you must have continual performance improvement at all levels. Else, your competitors will pass you by.

Much is being written and discussed about the difference between management and leadership. Most of it hackneyed causing more harm than good; but that’s another story. Limited thinking will cause people to turn to clichés as an excuse for not stretching themselves to achieve better and more improved levels of performance and output. If you only seek to manage, then clichés will satisfy your needs. If however, you seek to lead, clichés will only stifle your business improvement aspirations.

In this current business environment where your competition may be global, the ability to gain market intelligence has never been easier. So, the past formulas for success today could be the triggers for the failures of tomorrow. Organizations can no longer rest on their past successes and expect those to carry them gloriously into the future with same measure of success. Just look at the American motor vehicle industry over the past fifteen years.

The group conversation became even livelier, when I further espoused that the successful organizations of tomorrow will be those that are not seeking perfection, stability and rational processes. Rather, the rewards will come to those organizations who are led by people that embrace and enjoy chaotic environments, charged with emotional and intellectual curiosity!

Young children break things; most of the time attempting to pull them apart and see how it actually works. Maybe we should break things more often, analyze how it works, and then determine if we can rebuild it to perform even better? Cancel the clichés and champion the child within.

“When it ain’t broke may be the best time to fix it!”

© Ric Willmot 2008 All rights reserved.

Get out of jail free card

I am delivering a two-day program on Change Management in Dubai. Today was our first day with a wonderful group of executives and senior managers. During our discussions a comment was made, “People’s perceptions are their reality, we have to honor that.”

Perception does inform behavior, but that is not an excuse for poor performance. Oscar Wilde said, “Just because a man dies for his beliefs does not necessarily make them true.”

As managers and leaders of people, we are obligated to understand the psychological underpinnings of people’s actions and behaviors so as to be better managers and leaders. However, it does not mean that we must accept these actions and behaviors. The phrase, perception is reality, has been inappropriately held hostage by those unwilling to do something which they perceive as unappealing to their own self-interests. While this is understandable, it does not always make it right.

Catchphrases can sometimes be used by people believing it is their get out of jail free card. Our role as managers and leaders is to know when to hold the cards, and to know when to fold them. We have to steel our courage and sometimes call another’s bluff!

No matter how much we may like to think differently, business is not a democracy. An employee may have the perception that it is their right to have unlimited access to personal e-mails during working hours, or be allowed unlimited cigarette breaks because the tobacco companies caused them to be addicted against their own free will, or that taking stationery supplies home is not theft.

The reality however, is quite different. Employees are paid to produce results and outcomes. As managers and leaders of those people, we are charged with the responsibility of assisting and supporting those employees to achieve those objectives, no matter how differently it may be perceived.

© Ric Willmot 2008 All rights reserved.

Loyalty versus resentment

Flying Emirates Airlines to Dubai, one cannot help but be impressed with the level of customer service and care afforded passengers by this organization.

My flight departed Australia at 8.30 pm and after twenty hours we arrive in Dubai at 6.00 in the morning. Alighting the aircraft, an immaculately dressed woman greets me at the air bridge, welcomes me to Dubai and requests that I follow her. The typical niceties are exchanged and she comments that I must feel weary after such a long journey. Especially considering the time of departure from Australia. As we are walking, she takes my passport and escorts me through a number of shortcuts, bypassing every queue, whisking me in record time to Customs, where I am magically jumped to the head of the line and swiftly approved for entry again to the UAE.

On the other side of Customs a porter has already collected my luggage. How on earth he was able to do that I have no idea; and as he couldn’t understand my Aussie accent, I will never know. My entourage now briskly takes me to the curb where a Mercedes limousine is waiting to take me to my hotel. What a pleasure. Thank you, Emirates.

I arrive for my six-day stay at Le Meridien Dubai, the most beautiful resort hotel on Airport Drive not more than five minutes drive from the international airport. A private concierge meets me and a porter collects my luggage and I am lulled into a false belief that this wonderful service will continue.

“I telephoned ahead and requested a two-day extension as I am meeting a client who I have recommended stay here at this hotel so he and I can have some quality time together.”
“Mr Willmot we have no record of that.”
“Please check your records again, and check that my client has booked in.”
“Mr Willmot, yes your client has booked in, but we have no record of your stay ... there is no problem we can accommodate you. The rate for the two additional nights will be $1,500 per night.”
“Well, I am glad my client has booked in. I am also pleased you can accommodate me. However, my rate is $1,150  per night for my Executive Club Room.”
“Mr Willmot we cannot provide you with that special rate for the two extended nights.”

Really? I am staying six nights, wanting to add another two. I have brought in new business by recommending my client stay at the same establishment, and I was planning to dine on site every night and host quite a number of clients over the entire stay. Added to this I have a conference room booked for two full days.

Interestingly, both organizations are high quality establishments. One generated loyalty by providing exceptional service, care and consideration; the other has created resentment by adhering to a company policy and failing to recognize the holistic impact I am having on their revenues.

Now, as I connect to the internet in my suite to check email and send “Postcards from Dubai,” I learn that even though complimentary high-speed wi-fi internet access is advertised in all of the marketing collateral for Executive Club Members, there has been a change in policy and I have to contribute $30 per day to have internet access.

Which organization has been smartest with their customer service model, to encourage repeat business, referrals, recommendations and positive word-of-mouth? In a free market economy, people voluntarily enter into commercial transactions where each receives more than they surrender; this is what one commentator coined, “Capitalist acts between consenting adults.” I surrender cash to gain air travel and accommodation. Le Meridien Dubai surrenders the use of its facilities for my cash.

Guess which firm I will continue to surrender my dollars to? And, it won’t be both!

© Ric Willmot 2008 All rights reserved.