Lessons for Adversity
5. The answers are on the front lines: Explore storefronts and shop-floors.
Sitting behind your desk reviewing financial statements or having endless meetings with senior executives in board rooms will only give you some of the facts. To make solid and complete decisions, you need to gather facts at the front lines. Wherever a product is “made,” whether on the screen of a software engineer or the shop floor of a factory, listen closely to the “bakers and brick-layers” of your products. They will notice issues before they pose serious harm. Also, get closer to your customers. Salespeople are extremely important, but equally important are your customer service people. Listen to issues, complaints, and returns on products. Sort through the extremes but manage the issues before they become detrimental problems. The real money in a company is always made or lost at the point of production and the point-of-sale.
Task: Get out from behind your desk. Go talk with people whom you’ve never spoken with. Ask them honest and candid questions: What do they like about the product? Where do they see room for improvement? What do they hear from suppliers? From customers? Where do they see waste? Are there good ideas that haven’t made it past their managers?