Tag Archives: Management

A coffee house guy hired by corporate America

April 29, 2015 by 123outsource
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His name was Dale. He worked at a local coffee house. Dale was easy going, very sociable, smart, but also hard working. He liked music, the arts, but had also worked in landscaping, call centers, and other types of jobs. He prefered a low key profession, and hadn’t decided what he wanted to do with his life.

Then Max came around. He had just left one of his daily corporate board room meetings. There was stress, there were arguments. Many people who would have been critical to the conversation had been left out due to a combination of office politics and negligence. Max’s boss was one of the several VP’s of the company. They had decided that they needed a change of pace from this typical corporate head banging sessions. But, what to do? Max had an idea. He noticed how Dale was so pleasant to talk to, so laid back, yet attentiive to his work. A personality like Dale’s could do wonders for their insane corporate environment — if only they could figure out how to not scare him away.

So, Max went to visit Dale. They shmoozed, and talked about the regular things. Then Max asked Dale if he would like to try to work in their office as a personality coordinator. His job would be to talk with different people, compare ideas, invite people to meetings, and be a part of meetings. Max decided that Dale would need to have a serious of seminars about business, marketing, and the widget industry that they were in. He would need to be clued in to the company’s clients, their needs, and the various issues they faced.

Dale was given a little cubicle and was to manage a lot of the daily meetings. Although Dale was just learning about their business and their business model, he was so pleasant to talk to, that everyone enjoyed working there all the more. Everyone, except for Dale. But, the salary was so good. Dale finally talked to Max.

DALE: Max, I like the job I’m doing, but I don’t like working here. Or, should I say I don’t like being here. I feel so confined, there is no fresh air, and something is missing. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Let’s go out and talk about it over a cup of coffee.

MAX: Okay…. let’s visit the one down the street

(5 minutes later)

MAX: (sipping his mocha) I figured out what is missing that you can’t put your finger on.

DALE: (sipping a latte) What is it? I’m stumped!

MAX: How do you feel now?

DALE: I’m in my natural habitat. This is where my species exist in nature. At a coffee house with people chatting, browsing the internet and enjoying biscottis.

MAX: Exactly. What is missing is: coffee, fresh air, people, and the coffee house atmosphere. But, there is one thing you should know. Your personality IS the coffee house atmosphere and you bring that atmosphere wherever you go which is why we hired you. The problem is that the atmosphere we put you in is like a type of soil that your roots don’t take to.

DALE: You have figured me out to a T. So, I have another idea. Since I don’t want to give up my $60,000 entry level salary which is unheard of, let’s create that coffee house atmosphere on your property. We can build one outside, on the roof, or in the board room. I’ll need some fresh air piped in, or some plants to create oxygen. I feel so stifled in your building.

MAX: I’ll talk to my boss, and I’ll bet he can do it. Since you’ve come on board, people who never interacted before have been interacting. It is exciting to see. Marketing would never talk to Tech for example. The marketing guys were too busy to talk, and the tech guys were too nerdy and focused to interact. But, you brought them together, and now they have found common ground — or since you are in the coffee business — common “grounds.” If they would have the same interaction over a mocha, I bet the conversation would be even better.

DALE: Yeah, they could palpitate while talking about the next merger!

MAX: I have an ever better idea to add to this idea. We can invite some laid back people to hang out in our cafe once its built to create a mood. The people who hang out in our cafe now are uptight administrators, stressed our secretaries, and busy executives. We need to build a more laid back and interactive mood.

DALE: I can save you the trouble, instead of building a new cafe and inviting the crowd from the cafe down the street, why not hold your business meetings down the street. We could reserve hours, and put the tables in a circle which is the most optimal shape for a meeting.

MAX: Hmm, well, we could try it both ways. But, I like the way you think kid. That’s why we hired you!

A month later, corporate built a large coffee house that was only open to certain people in the law in front of the high rise. The open aired building had its seating section shaped in a circle to optimize the flow of conversations at meetings. Coffee and other drinks were served at all meetings. The most important fact of all is that Dale and Max were finally happy. Dale could be in his natural habitat while expanding his mind and helping others to connect ideas in a healthy way. Oh, and one final though.

In dream dictionaries, a coffee house is a powerful dream symbol. If you dream about a coffee house it represents, philosophizing, deep thought, interaction, and stimulation. If you ask me, it is my favorite dream symbol of all — besides tsunamis.

How to create a company culture like Google’s & have fun while doing it

March 14, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is it possible to run a successful business and still have fun?
In this modern business culture, having fun might be the only way. Too many companies out there have uninspired employees. There is no enthusiasm about work, innovating, or connecting with the others at work. Try being a customer of a company like that! No thanks! I’ll pass.

Google invests heavily in its culture, having the right offices formatted the right way, and paying people to work on their own little projects. What is the result? A job that means something. Most people find no satisfaction at work, but Google employees work in a stimulating atmosphere where it is hard not to find meaning in their work.

1. Start by hiring the right people
If you hire people who have no enthusiasm, you will not be able to create a culture around them. Even one toxic or boring person will ruin your culture. Culture is a hard thing to build and a lot can go wrong. You might be advised to find people whose last job was in a cool culture. But, if they were in such a cool environment, why would they quit unless they were forced to move?

2. Some companies out there are learning that the most dynamic conversations happen when people bump into each other in the hall way, or by accident somewhere. Some companies are designing their offices specifically to engineer more of these spontaneous combustion type conversations that lead to innovations. It might be hard to rebuild your building, but I’m sure there are things you could do to keep people bumping into each other by accident.

3. Many call centers who do BPO outsourcing do Google type things like having contests, prizes, and winners to keep the excitement going. Call center work is not quite as innovative as being part of the Google culture, but by keeping the momentum going, they do create a positive culture at some of the more successful call cneters. Remember, that they have the highest burnout rate of any profession, so they have to keep the environment positive.

4. Fitness counts, but try getting your employees to the mountains or beach. Google offers on-site fitness like swimming pools, gyms, and more. Nothing builds that winning feeling like working out. Fat, unhealthy workers might not contribute much to a vibrant culture, but if you get them moving, you might be surprised. I have an innovative job, and I need to keep my life exciting just to function. I go hiking, walking, and try new restaurants in my area. That is how I personally maintain a positive one-person culture if there is such a thing!

5. Do more for your employees to make them feel special.
I drive to my employees homes to give them a check on a regular basis. Perhaps they take this for granted, but no other boss would do that. It personalizes the work. Giving people unique birthday celebrations, or celebrating special occasions in an unusual way is another way to foster a positive and innovative culture.

6. Google has a billiards room, a slide, a rowboat, table soccer, and other unusual objects. At Google, work is designed to be mixed with play. After all, you won’t be at your smartest or happiest if you never have any fun.

7. Google hires people who are from all walks of life, speak dozens of languages and who pursue a wide range of interests including beekeeping, frisbee and fox-trotting. It might be a good idea to find out what types of hobbies your applicants have before hiring them if you want a lively job atmosphere. And if someone doesn’t have a hobby, you might try having a program to help incubate new hobbies.

8. The Google culture is associated with a startup culture, but Google has thousands of employees. The secret to maintaining the startup culture is to maintain an environment where employees can communicate freely with higher ups, and people in other departments in a casual way in the cafeteria, gym, or other parts of the company.

9. Do things outside of the office as a team. Google employees often go hiking, skiing or have picnics together. Building the bonds of a recreational culture in the workplace create strong bonds and good feelings. Personally, I think that rock climbing builds the healthiest relationships between people. Rock climbers are the coolest, not to mention the fact that you are putting your life in someone’s hands if they belay you which builds trust in the work place (assuming nobody dies.)

So, you can be more like Google. It’s easy. Just think of things you can do. But, if you think it is too hard, then you’re probably a boring defeatist and aren’t up to Google’s cool standards anyway — so give up! You’ll never make it! But, for the rest of us — we can — and success starts with a short brainstorming session and a few quick actions.

Good judgement comes from experience; Experience comes from bad judgement

January 29, 2015 by 123outsource
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Hmmm. Yet another quote that uses circular logic which is the only type of logic that I enjoy. I guess the only reason the elderly have good judgment is that they have been burned so many times that they learned. Sure you can teach children right from wrong, but until they have a few really bad experience and suffer some really real consequences that they feel, they might never learn.

I remember the old days when I wanted to make money fast. I worked hard on my paper route and lawn mowing business. I saved up money and purchased a penny stock. It went out of business a few years later and I lost everything. It was after that experience I decided to be a lot more cautious about investing. Now, I have a very stable portfolio of stocks that are mostly the same that Warren Buffet owns. Sure, none of them are fast growth stocks, but they are stable, and I made a little money from them too.

In my business, I have learned a lot too. When I started many years ago, I thought that you just set up certain functions and they maintain themselves. I put a bunch of people on a directory and thought that I had a directory. I didn’t realize that I would have to continue giving 3000 free listings every year for the rest of my life which is very time consuming. What I did was to add 4000 all at once, and then do nothing for two years until the total head count on the directory got really low. Now, I have a monthly system of putting new people on the directory in the beginning of each month. My behavior now demonstrates my realistic and good judgement which arose from being an idiot in the past and learning from my mistakes.

But, what about your business? Do you learn from your mistakes or are you oblivious and keep making the same mistakes over and over without realizing? Try to learn from your bad judgment and refine your decision making skills as that is what defines a good business person. If you have made twenty wrong turns in the past, and now know the right place to turn, you are a business person. If your correct turn changes over time and you adapt swiftly to the change, then you are a real business person who understands that change is constant.

Just remember — the difference between a successful business person and a very successful business person is that the very successful one compares a much larger number of options and says “no” a higher percentage of the time!

Hiring difficult personality types

January 28, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Leadership, Management | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

There are many personality types out there. But, dealing with them in the business world is just not easy. If you have a small company, you might not have easy access to the cream of the crop as they prefer to work for Google or other big companies with stellar reputations. So, how do you survive? You need to decide if you want to hire difficult people or not.

But, there are different types of difficult people. You might be able to handle some of them, but not others.

The mediocre type
Some people don’t argue much. They just do their work in a mediocre way. They don’t care if they made a mistake, and if they have to take the day off at a critical time, that is your problem, not theirs. They will be uncooperative about returning phone calls or about doing anything that you are not forcing them to do. In a sense, the mediocre type are sort of like adults with the psychology of American 13 year olds. Personally, I don’t like the mediocre type, because their performance is too pathetic to justify a normal paycheck in my opinion. Also, they dull my enthusiasm for work which is another factor which you should consider. If you work with underachievers, they will lower your standards without saying a word.

The complainer
Every company has one of these. They complain about everything. If you are nice to them on Monday, they will complain that you weren’t nice on Tuesday. If they didn’t get a bonus they complain. If they get a bad customer they complain. If someone does good work, I will tolerate a lot of complaining. But, complaining can bring you down. See if you can master the art of handling a complainer. Try to get them to see the good side of their job. Compare their situation to someone’s that is much worse. The Dalai Lama uses this technique to teach happiness by the way (not that I read Dalai Lama’s literature.)

The egomaniac
Some people are just into themselves. I had a friend who was like this. Some people say that egotists are not good team players, but that is not necessarily the case. Egotists in the long run care about coming out on top themselves, and not about your operation even if they seem to be cooperating. On the other hand, nobody cares about the success of an entrepreneur except the entrepreneur him/herself! Other egotists put everyone else down. It can be a pain to listen to this. But, on the other hand, they might make useful and legitimate statements about faults in others that you overlooked. So, don’t fear the egomaniac. Just try to understand their psychology and learn how to deal with them.

The backstabber
Unfortunately, the backstabbling type don’t usually wear a sign on themselves announcing to the world who they are. Backstabbers are a problem. Some of them only threaten you but don’t actually do anything. Others tell horrible things about you to your clients. Some try to steal a position from someone else who works from you. There are many things a backstabber will try to do including telling you things that will raise your blood pressure on a regular basis. In my personal opinion, backstabbers are not ideal people to work with. Try finding someone who just does their work without all the drama!

The secretive type
Some people are not bad workers, but don’t get back to you, don’t follow through and keep you in the dark. The problem is that if they didn’t actually do critical work on time, you will not know about it. The secretive type needs to know how important their work is in the bigger picture and that following through and communicating are required. Penalize them with small penalties and offer bonuses if you can adapt their behavior. Otherwise, I would not put a secretive person in any position where their bad habits can damage your business’ performance.

The follower
From a boss’ point of view, the follower looks like the perfect employee. However, they have some very deceptive flaws that you might be completely unaware of. Particularly if you are an Indian boss who hates being questioned! The follower just goes along with what you say, doesn’t question you, doesn’t rock the boat, and doesn’t come up with much that is innovative either. The problem with these types is that if they see a huge problem, they might not warn you or try to find problems to solve the problem. If there is a way to get the company far ahead, they will be more interested in just keeping the show moving along than trying to innovate to capitalize on a new opportunity. I have a good friend who is the following type. He maintains order, but nothing around him ever improves in his business or personal life. Sometimes you need an employee who lets you know when something happens that is noteworthy that could be an opportunity or crisis. On a brighter note, the other types of employees on my list will probably not inform you of serious issues either — except for the backstabber since they want to scare you!

Summary
In real life it is often not possible to find perfect employees. So, if you decide to work with problem types, find a way to calculate how expensive their flaws are in terms of lost productivity. Without that analytic you could go out of business! Never pay a problem worker more than they are worth. But, on a brighter note, if you find a good employee, perhaps consider paying them handsomely as they are a rare commodity in any of the companies that I have associated with!

Prioritizing: What should you be doing less of?

January 26, 2015 by 123outsource
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Men, we need a plan! What do we need to do more of?
Forget about doing more. Let’s do less!
Less? Yes less!

Too many things!
In business, you can’t really focus on what is important if you are doing too much or too many things. I have read hundreds of blog articles on this topic, and I have found this to be true in my life. So, I created a pecking order of all the tasks I do, how valuable I estimate them to be on an hourly basis and which ones are time sensitive. Whichever is either not time sensitive, or not that critical goes at the bottom of the list or gets outsourced. But, how do you create such a priority list.

Every day, a busy manager might do twenty different types of things.
There are emails, interviews, meetings, sales calls, order processing, accounting, other paperwork or more. You basically need to make a list of absolutely everything you do. Additionally, there might be certain tasks that can be broken down into smaller sub-categories.

Let’s say you do a lot of interviews.
You might be able to have an assistant do a pre-interview, right down the dialogue, and forward it to you. That way you will know exactly what happened, maybe even see a video of it, but scan it at your leisure. That way you can conserve your time for those that make it to the second interview. You could also reduce the time of first interviews from forty minutes down to ten. Ask a few quick questions and then on to the next interviewee, and make the lucky ones come back for round two. It sounds a bit like speed dating. But, honestly, most people are not good fits for your company and there is no point in talking to them for more than a few minutes. For me, I can size a person up in less than two minutes which is why I crafted what I call, “The 2 minute rule.”

How about emails?
No two emails are alike. Can you break down your emails into several categories? Some might be general inquiries, others might be thought providing, while others might be unusual. Perhaps you should just not answer the less important emails in your box. And perhaps an assistant should do the routine ones leaving you to do the tough stuff. You’ll never have a well managed schedule unless you have slightly more time than you have tasks.

Phone calls?
I am in the process of breaking my phone calls into groups. The calls to important clients will be one group, the call list of customers who didn’t answer my introductory call will be yet another group. I’ll out source the third group which is intro calls to low-level clients. This way I can save 15 hours a month in my schedule and write more blogs about saving time!

Make your list
Make a list of all of the tasks you do. Then, break them down into subtasks. Experienced managers are very saavy about itemization of tasks and breaking things down. Sometimes you might need six different people to do a task that can be broken down, and you might get the optimal person for each stage in the process. How you do it is up to you, but without breaking things down, you will never figure out what needs to be done. Then, figure out what is least important and either outsource it, or do it at the end of the month if you are sitting around with nothing to do. But, do the less important stuff last — if at all. That way you can focus on priorities.

Priorities
I learned from an analysis that my newsletter and my Facebook account are my priorities. So, I started putting a lot more emphasis on both, and the results have been amazing. My Facebook clicks are up twenty fold, my SEO optimization has broken all time records, and my newsletter is growing steadily as well giving us countless clicks and increased business. I have figured out my priorities. I will continue to improve my skills at prioritizing. I wish you the best of luck too. Oh, and put reading my blog at the top of your priorities list. You will learn to think in new and exciting ways if you read my work!

Dual nationality management in outsourcing

January 24, 2015 by 123outsource
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Most smaller companies reside in one country, and their consciousness is rooted in that culture. However large companies are typically multinational by nature and network around the globe for talent and resources making them more sophisticated and competitive. I ran across a call center that was managed and owned by Japanese people, with the workers and middle level management being Filipino. I like this blend of cultures as the Japanese are very solid and reliable while the Filipinos are known for their warmth and hospitality. I think they make a perfect marriage of attributes.

Is your staff exclusively from your country?
Most outsourcing companies are either in India, The Philippines, or Eastern Europe with a few in various parts of Africa and Central America. Most companies tend to have staff exclusively from their home country while a few have an American or European higher level manager or sales rep. As outsourcers, you need to realize that you are catering to the needs of overseas clients who have very different sensibilities than you do. Indians tend to not be in tune at all with Americans. The communication skills and timeliness of Indians never seems to measure up to American standards. I believe it makes sense for all outsourcing companies to have some overseas people to work with them.

Hiring foreigners might help
If you are based in Bangalore, but cater to the United States, it might make sense to hire an American to work with you. It might make sense for that American to interface with clients in America. They might feel more comfortable with him assuming he is solid on technical knowledge and is helpful. Even if they don’t like talking to him, they will appreciate that he is on payroll — “one of us is on board over there!” Getting his opinions on how things are run may or may not help. If you get a lower level American, he might have very American opinions, but they might not be very business-like. The other alternative is to have an American CEO visit your company for a few days and make a list of pointers. There are probably dozens of things you are doing wrong. When I talk to Indian companies on the phone, during the first three seconds they start off by making social mistakes. Yes, there is a lot that you are doing wrong. The question is, how willing are you to learn what you are doing wrong and fix it?

Communication is always lacking overseas
Sometimes you get good workers in foreign countries. However, their communication skills are always below our American standards. The Eastern Europeans are only a little below par as far as my standards for communication go. The South Africans communicate much better than Americans as they speak the Queen’s English with tremendous style (love the accent.) The Filipinos speak clearly, but are not always good at communicating factual information. While the Indians typically have good higher level managers with the others speaking garbled English. Working on the language skills of your workers is not a bad idea. You could hire a school to give you a few hours a week of lessons for “communicationally” challenged workers. In addition to bringing up the interaction skills of all of your workers, it might not be a bad idea to hire a native speaker of English to make talking to Americans and British people smooth and pleasant. Just make sure you get someone who is socially graceful with solid technical knowledge and who is responsible in all aspects.

But, what about management?
Yes, having workers from different countries can be a plus in today’s world. But, it is also helpful to have higher level managers from a different country. If you are in India which is an unorganized country, no matter who you hire as a top manager will have the consciousness of chaos as that is what they grew up with. Indians are very tolerant of messes, negligence and other bad behavior while the Koreans will chop your head of on the first offense. Having a Korean manager who knows how to deal with Indians might be the magic that cleans up your company. You will need a Korean who can stand the insanity of India without losing his head. However, if you can find one who is tolerant of India, they might do miracles of maintaining high standards for your company. Koreans and Japanese do not tolerate people who are late, disrespectful or negligent. They will not allow any of the nonsense that is going on now at your company. Swiss, British and Germans are also methodical people. Americans are more moderate. We are not extreme about responsibility — we are somewhere halfway between India and Japan in this respect. If you do pick a foreigner to be a higher level manager at your company, regardless of which culture you pick, and which individual you pick, the new culture will have a profound impact on how things are done which could improve your company’s performance in a huge way.

Even if you don’t hire a foreigner to manage your company, you would do wonders by having one consult you on how things should be done. If you are from a country rampant with negligence, a British person could set you straight very quickly as a consultant. On a converse note, Japan is a country where people are too uptight. One company hired hippies from America to teach them how to relax which is the point of this article. That foreign influence can go a long way. Which direction it goes is unpredictable, but you will get mileage!

The least efficient sized companies have 2-99 people

January 22, 2015 by 123outsource
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Being an entrepreneur is not easy. There is a lot you need to know, a lot of adaptation, and a lot to learn. However, life is easy when you know that you can depend on #1 to “help you out.” The problem is when other people get into the picture. If you hire one other person, you can’t afford an HR department to replace them when they quit or slack off. You are dependent on that one person. In real life, that other person will not be as dedicated as you are to your baby (your business) even if they are an official partner. If that other person disappears, you will be left doing two people’s work yourself while you have yet a third job which is looking for a replacement. It is feast or famine! When you do everything yourself, you can be very efficient and reliable. But, when you have two, three or more people helping you (or letting you down) things are not as steady.

Large companies can have a hiring department. The people hiring can take analytics and weed people out very efficiently. Management can see how the track record of the new employees turns out to be. There can be twenty out o a hundred workers who are new and there just to be evaluated. If they do a good job, they’ll get promoted to a higher level, otherwise they’ll get canned. Companies with a hundred employees are in control. Companies with five employees are at the mercy of the employees.

One alternative is to have many part-timers. That way if someone quits, you only lose half an employee. Also, if you hire extra help, instead of paying for an entire extra person, you only need half a person which will only cost you 1 arm and 1 leg! Additionally, many employees at smaller businesses need to be able to multi-task since there isn’t that much of any particular type of task to do. Hiring part-timers allows you to have more individuals helping you who are highly specialized in what they are doing.

A good employee strategy model is critical. Rather than having all of your staff being at a particular level, it is important to have people who are very seasoned, and some people who are working their way up the ropes so to speak. That way if your seasoned folks quit, you will have someone to replace them with. Keep in mind that it isn’t always so easy to hire experienced people, so if you manufacture them yourself by giving them training and experience, you might get to keep them.

The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter exactly how many employees your operation has. It is how efficiently you hire, fire, train and manage them. It is often easier in an economy of scale, but a smart small company with experience and a philosophical mind or set of minds will figure out how to be efficient at leadership as well. So, good luck!

5 things you can do to run your tiny business like a huge corporation

January 19, 2015 by 123outsource
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Why is your business small? And why are huge corporations huge? There are many reasons. Huge corporations usually are in businesses where there is a huge market which gives room to be huge. By definition, they have the most efficient ways of getting work done otherwise they wouldn’t be able to compete with the other corporations which also thrive on efficiency and potent marketing. Your business is small. It might be a niche business or a specialty service. There is no shame in having a small business and no shame if you don’t grow — just as long as you don’t shrink. But, in real life, you either grow or you shrink — so grow, and then give up your worst customers if you get tired. So, what can you do like a big corporation?

(1) Analyze
Big companies analyze their routines. They have set routines for all processes and have refined exactly how these processes are taught, done, and measured. To create a routine, you first need to make a list of all of the various ways you could do a various process. Try them all out, and then compare the results. You might find one is more time consuming but gives really good results, while another is time consuming but just wastes your time. As a general rule in business, time is of the essence and it pays to focus on what is critical and put less attention on what is less critical.

(2) Routines
As I mentioned in point 1, it is good to be regimented. You have to have discipline, daily, weekly and monthly habits to get ahead in business. Routines may evolve over time, and that is fine. But, you need to have all aspects of your business boiled down to a routine.

(3) The creative process
The creative process is the one aspect of your business that specifically should not be routine. Yes, you can have processes for creativity. You can have meetings, phone calls, trips to special places (like the beach in my case) where you think better. However, to be creative, it is best to shake up your daily routine and try something different, meet different people, and see how different businesses handle particular tasks. I was very inspired in Japan when I ordered an ice cream at Narita. It took them 20 seconds to process my order and have an ice cream in my hands. Americans would have taken two minutes for the same task. The Japanese are always a source of inspiration for me. Perhaps my processes can become lightening fast like the school girl ninjas I saw at the soft-serve bar in Japan.

(4) Hiring and firing
Large companies don’t just hire someone who seems good. They have multiple interviews, they test learning curves, they test abilities, and they try people out before giving employees critical tasks. Small businesses by definition have sloppy hiring practices — me included. We entrepreneurs lack the resources and skills to compare a new hire to thousands of others. Big companies also promote from within rather than hiring a new person to do a critical task. You cannot trust a stranger as well as a seasoned employee. Sure, the new hire might have better skills, but are they loyal and do you know their personality quirks? Big companies are refined about knowing personality types and getting rid of the ones that don’t fit their company image. Small companies are a disaster in this respect to the point that hiring disasters seems to be their company culture — what a disaster!

(5) Contracts & Legal issues
Big companies are very particular about legal issues. They will invest huge sums of money in Attorneys to make sure they stay out of trouble. Small companies are more concerned with getting work done and growing and less concerned with what can go wrong. An injury or a law suit could ruin you. Also, employee disputes can become a huge problem. Sometimes it is easier if you have contracts to govern employee behavior, injuries, maternity leave, etc. It is better if you have it all thought out ahead of time.

(6) Wait a second, the title says “5 things” you can do, not 6…
Yes, but here are some things you should probably not do as a small company to mimic big companies. The private jet looks fun, and might be a source of inspiration, but don’t get one now. Wait until you are ready and can afford it. In the mean time, have a photo of a private jet in your office and tell everyone it’s yours… in the future. The expensive offices may be too much. Sometimes it is more important to have an office that fits your personality and where your employees feel their best. Big offices downtown might be good to capture that energy of productivity. If that is what you need then pay the sky-high rent — it might be worth it. But, get what is right for you instead of blindly copying the big guys. Being too stiff and wearing suits all the time might be good for the big guys. It might be better for you to do yoga, meditate, and talk long walks by the beach wearing a tank top. It is hard to say what is right for you. Startups have a lot to learn about proper business procedure. But, some of the stuff the big guys do might not be so practical for the rest of us. Find out for yourself.

Hiring people who help your customers “open up” can work wonders

January 16, 2015 by 123outsource
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If you talk to your clients about business, that is good. But, to really have a good relationship with them you need to really interact with them and figure out what they really want. You can sell much more to them if you really understand them. But, you might not be the best person to chat with them. It might make sense to hire someone with a really good personality who is sharp to feel them out. If you hire Janice and Janice talk to your clients one by one for a few minutes, or maybe up to twenty minutes, she might get more of their feelings to surface than you because of her personality, or how she talks to them. Her gender might be a factor as people interact differently with men than they do with women.

Having a source of information about your clients might be useless unless you can also figure out what to do with the information. If Clint wants you to get back to him more often and you don’t do it — the information is useless. If Mary wants monthly progress reports, you wasted your time hiring Janice unless you act on that tip.

Smart businesses know they need to customize their offerings to their clients. Each client should be treated differently. Some hotels keep databases on what their clients like. When I call Choice, they know I want a single king, non-smoking room and no newspaper. They know I like the second floor, and they know I do not like room service. They know I am single and have no pets other than the spirit of my departed cat who comes to visit me in spirit form during my dreams. The bottom line is, how smart is your business, and how well do you know your customers? Find phone staff that can help them open up, and you might know a lot more about them.

You might also like:
Facebook knows you better than your mama. But, how much do you know about your clients?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/10/03/facebook-knows-you-better-than-your-mama-but-how-well-do-you-know-your-customers/

Is Amazon too tough on their workers?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/06/10/is-amazon-too-tough-on-their-workers/

The length of your break time determines your success

January 8, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Many of us are busy all the time and just don’t take breaks. Or some of us take breaks, but not at the right intervals. Studies have been done to research how often and for how long the most successful people take breaks.

Ultradian Rhythms?
The US Army research institute discovered that the human body has ultradian rhythms that last 90 minutes. Ultradian rhythems are present while we are awake as well as when we are sleeping.

Take a break regularly!
Research has shown that adult humans think better when they take a break every 50-90 minutes. But, how long should the break be? One article I read said 17 minutes. But, what should you do on this break?

About me…
Personally, I take breaks all the time and work round the clock. I start around noon and work late into the night. Many overachievers have found that it is easier to get work that requires deep thinking done while others are sleeping. There are less distractions, less noise, less interruptions, and the atmosphere has less mental static as well if you can embrace that theory. I’ll typically watch television, take a walk, get a massage, or have dinner during my breaks. But, am I breaking wrong? Research is telling me I need 17 minute breaks. What could I possibly do for 17 minutes? That is too long to nap and if I dose off too short to sleep?

Google?
I saw a movie about Google‘s educational campus, and they had little sleep pods. Aparently Google got it early on that napping and game time are an important part of keeping an innovative mind sharp. They had pool tables in their office, lots of community space, and weird games that they played outside. I thought it was really cool to see all of the innovations and weird words they came up with.

Your Employees?
I hope that bosses read my blog because it is written from the perspective of an entrepreneur or a boss of a very small company. But, as a boss, you need to make sure your workers are getting enough break time. You need to enforce scheduling of breaks and have cool stuff to do that your staff will appreciate. Why not have a samosa break? If you are in India you are probably already doing this! But, be disciplined about when you have it. Then, have a wild-card break where it is unpredictable what you are going to do. You can have a nap break, a lunch break, a take a walk around the block break, and meet new people break. The important thing is not what you do, but making sure the break is exactly 17 minutes. Or, perhaps that is not important. Experiment and you tell me!

The most successful people
The high achievers do not burn out. They don’t because they find ways of creating balance in their life and keeping their passion strong. If you are to survive a grueling schedule and tough tasks, you need to stay healthy, eat right, exercise, take breaks, and balance your life. Try different approaches, but make this a priority, because not breaking enough can ruin your career and your company.

Simple Thoughts + Efforts = One Happy Organization

January 6, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged | Leave a comment

Organizations seek to maximize their profits and increase the productivity of their employees and employees seek to achieve satisfaction at work. Most of the time the challenge remains the same, how synchronized an organization and their employees are to each other’s success?

We are different individuals and with that difference we have different outlook, skill level, needs and expectations. In my quest to set employee engagement ideas, I decided to sit down one day and just talk. Started with general issues and came across to their engagement in the organization. Their expectations are different and given an effort can be taken care but the question is will that affect the productivity? If No, I don’t see a challenge saying YES to them and if it does affect the productivity then what is a way to work it around other than saying NO to them. We started prioritizing the expectations and improvising where we can fit them in our policies within a perameter. We do keep a buffer element in our policies so we can change a bit and make it more employee centric (within the parameter).

One important thought: Policies are made for people and NOT vice versa.
When we hire a candidate we put them on three day buffer from day 1. Come to office, sit, work and see if you can fit in our culture. Yes, before they leave for the day; we talk one on one with them to understand if they are going to fit in our culture or not.

Our exit interviews, we have renamed as “Last Casual Time” and here DO NOT discuss about theoretical questions which we find in almost every exit interviews. We keep it completely casual and try to understand the reason/reasons for their exit.

We do conduct anonymous surveys within our organization to understand how well are we doing as a team and we focus on every outcome of the survey and not just the majority. Surveys are conducted based on the analysis of exit interviews.
Few learning I have gathered with time:

1. Value your employees, they earn and you earn way more

2. Know them better, know their stories. It bonds really great

3. Emphasize on positive aspects of your employees and provide practical feedback

4. And above all, set your middle management strong and keep the hierarchy short

How different cultures handle time

August 18, 2014 by 123outsource
Categories: Management, Of Interest | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

This entry is a little hard for me to write because my personal experience differs completely with what the textbooks say about cultures.

Who is fast & who is slow?
When Americans go to France, they complain that the French are so slow. When Indians deal with the French, they complain that French are so rigid about deadlines. So, which is which? The answer is that sensitivity to time and deadlines is cultural, and it is relevant. Additionally, individuals in particular cultures handle time restraints very differently from others in that same culture which adds another layer of complexity.

Mapping different cultures
While perusing Harvard Business Review’s blog, I came across an article about mapping different cultures. Instead of having a geographical map showing where particular countries are, you have a cultural map showing where cultures are relative to other cultures in particular respects. This was very interesting to me.

Factors in culture mapping
The factors that were considered in management culture included sensitivity to deadlines, how specific you were in communication, how directly you voiced negative feedback, how hierachical society is, how people avoid confrontation, and other factors as well. This particular article is focusing more on how various cultures handle time sensitivity.

If I drew my own map for time sensitivity it would look like this:
Korea; Japan; Germany; Switzerland; Scandinavia; US; Canada; China; France; Italy; Russia; Arabia; Latin America; Southeast Asia; India; Pakistan; Subsaharan Africa.

Koreans just can’t wait.
Koreans in my experience are the most impatient people who exist. There have been studies on Koreans that show particular traits of impatience. It is common for Koreans to hover next to the microwave when making instant noodles counting every second in the count down as if they are watching the space shuttle awaiting for take off. I remember having massage from a Korean grandmother. After the massage was over, she always wanted to barge in with a few dixie cups of water before I had my clothes on. I asked if she could wait 20 seconds, but I was asking too much. In other cultures, they might keep me waiting seven minutes for my water until I got the water myself. And if they microwaved soup in a slower culture, and get into a conversation, and it might be cold by the time it reaches you.

The culture map that I referenced did not have any data on Arabs, or Thais as it only examined six interesting and diverse cultures in so many ways. I wish it had more like two dozen cultures to be more thorough.

My problem with Indians
After looking at all of the differences between cultures, I begin to realize what my problem with Indians is — they have a strict hierarchy. I don’t mind following authority providing they are doing what they are doing what they are supposed to. But, what if they are being hypocrites, causing dysfunction and chaos? I can’t keep my mouth shut under those situations, yet Indians require that I do — hence a huge clash. On a brighter note, I am very relationship oriented like Indians, and value holistic thinking like the Japanese. Overall, I am not really clashing with other cultures any more than I clash with my own.

My experience with faster cultures
America is not one of the faster countries on the list, but overall is faster than average. I find that when I assign work to Americans, there is never any rush to get the work done. It is like living in a very expensive third world country where abandoned construction projects leave a pile of bricks for four months by the side of the road — except that I am in e-business and have the cyber equivalent of what I just described. In my business experience, Americans are not fast to get work done. In fact, I have found that Indians in the IT industry are a little faster than the average Americans in IT. I have also found that Indians like to map projects out point by point and typically won’t get started unless every minute detail is spelled out. Although oral communication with Indians is generally bad, and workmanship is not as tidy as in the US, they tend to get more work done more quickly and with less drama.

Intra-cultural diversity: what does that mean?
Additionally, Arabs have a reputation of never being on time. Sure, they are shrewd in business and impatient, but try getting them to show up for your business meeting at 3pm — they’ll show up at 5 or 6pm if you’re lucky. But, I also know Arabs who are always on time and get tons of work done very quickly. Cultural maps don’t take into consider intra-cultural diversity: the diversity among members of the same culture. Many cultures have huge gaps in the attitudes and behaviors of their members. There is some truth to the idea of the politically correct that “you can’t generalize.” Although, I will say that with Japanese, I’m not sure if there are any slow ones. I think that the samurai killed off all the slow ones a few generations ago leaving a condition that I call: survival of the fastest!

You might also like:

A tool that maps cultural differences
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/04/a-tool-that-maps-out-cultural-differences/