National Clothesline

n excellent article on “leadership” appeared in the June 2, 2004, issue of the Wall Street Journal. It was written by Peter Drucker, the most distinguished management guru of modern times. Mr. Drucker, at age 93, remains active as both a professor and writer.

He said that in his 65 years as a management consultant he has worked with some of the most effective CEOs in America. He also says that none of these CEO’s fit the stereotype of

charismatic leaders. Some of them were easy going; some controlling; some were extroverts — others reclusive; some generous while others were parsimonious.

According to Mr. Drucker, “What made them all effective is that they followed the same eight practices.”

What follows are his eight practices and my adaptation to our industry.

1. Ask “What needs to be done?”

To properly answer this question you must have a clear vision of where you want your company to be in 12 months and in five years. This question is critical.

Do you want to be the highest piece volume cleaner in your market or the cleaner with the best quality work and service? More importantly, is it possible to be both?

It is your responsibility to determine what it is you want your company to be and to answer the question, “What needs to be done to get there?”

2. Ask “What is right for the enterprise?”

This is not “What is right for the owner, the employee or the customers?”. It is “What is best for the company?”

Many owners have a hard time separating themselves from the company. As long as you continue to see the company and yourself as one, it is impossible to remove your emotions from the decision-making process.

Paying claims is a perfect example of when owners let their emotions short circuit the good business sense of their brain. No one likes to admit they made a mistake — even when they did screw up.

People absolutely hate taking the blame or paying a claim when they know it wasn’t their fault. Next, added to this insult is the pain of paying for it. The bottom line is that it is good for the company’s image to pay the claim, and what is good for the company is good for the employees, the customers and the owner.

If your claims (including customer credits for future cleaning) exceed 1 percent of total sales go back to Practice #1, What needs to be done… to get claims below 1 percent of total sales?”

3. “Develop an action plan.”

I have been told by some owners that they don’t “plan ahead because things never work out the way I planned them.” Planning is like a fitness center or gym for the brain. The more you exercise your brain the better it will perform.

Planning, by its very nature, forces you to consider alternatives when things do not go as planned. As Mr. Drucker puts it, “The Action Plan is a statement of intentions rather than a commitment.… Without an Action Plan, the executive becomes prisoner of events.”

4. “Take responsibility for decisions.”

Peter Drucker puts it this way, “This is particularly true when hiring or promoting people. If the decision has not had the desired results, executives do not conclude that the person has not performed. Instead, they conclude that they themselves made a mistake.”

The most important thing to keep in mind about employees is that poor employees contaminate the good ones. People with bad attitudes and poor attendance drag everyone else down. The longer you wait to cut loose the under-performers, the harder it becomes.

5. “Take responsibility for communicating.”

This is the most neglected “practice” for most owners because we assume (and that is not good) that our employees will know what to do and when to do it. Owners think employees should “just know it.” Maybe they should through intuition? Or osmosis? Because it is for sure that no one ever told them what is expected of them!

Communicating with your employees is an ongoing challenge. Don’t let the fact that you have to repeat yourself every day get you down. It is just part of your job.

6. “Focus on opportunities, not problems.”

Minor problems exist every day. People call in sick, equipment breaks down, and we run out of supplies.

Every day you have an opportunity to wow your customers with excellent service, but those opportunities are missed when we spend the day tangled up in our underwear because someone didn’t show up for work.

Get over it! It goes with the territory!

Furthermore, if the employee in question is a chronic offender, he needs to go to work for your competitor. Fire him!

7. “Make meetings productive.”

For most drycleaners, making a meeting productive is not the issue. For most, the bigger issue is “When and how often should I have a meeting?” Also, how long should the meeting last, who should be there and what should we include?

The most effective owners will schedule one meeting every week with their managers and team leaders. The meetings will last no longer than an hour and there will be a specific agenda.

A sample agenda:

• Last week’s attendance by department.

• Last week’s incoming pieces.

• Last week’s labor hours by department.

• Last week’s pieces processed per hour by department.

• Last week’s labor costs as a percentage of sales by department.

• The Claims Report.

• The Re-Do Report.

• Employee concerns.

• Areas that need improvement.

The most important thing about meetings is that they not be allowed to become “bull sessions” or “gripe sessions.” Once you start holding weekly meetings, don’t skip a week.

1. Think, and say ‘we’.

Mr. Drucker states it best when he writes, “Effective executives (owners) know that they have ultimate responsibility, which can be neither shared nor delegated. But they have authority only because they have the trust of the organization. This means that they think of the needs and the opportunities of the organization before they think of their own needs and opportunities. This one may sound simple. It isn’t, but needs to be strictly observed.”

It is much easier to separate yourself from the company when you work for a large corporation. It is more difficult to separate your emotions from the business when you are the owner. You spend most of the day in the trenches with your employees; dealing with customers, negotiating with vendors, paying bills and on and on.

Dealing with all these issues is what makes owning your own business one of the toughest jobs in the world. On the other hand, when it all comes together the way it should – being the owner is the most rewarding job you could ever have.

In the game of business the more you know the better you can play the game.

Alan Robson is a private consultant dealing with the specialized needs of the drycleaning industry. Contact him by telephone at (941) 408-8819 or send e-mail to him at: alan@bizbuilderonline.com or visit the Biz Builder web site: www.bizbuilderonline.com.