| Some thoughts on our Mid-Year Business Review held yesterday:
- Structured somewhat like a New England "Town Meeting"
- Straightforward and frank video by Don Zereski...
. Key message: Stop fighting with each other and get out there
and focus on the customers & fight the competition!
. US Area lost $138M in Q2; can't happen again. Problem isn't
primarily competition or economy, its us.
. We all need to work together to be successful; Don't get
obsessed with metrics and who gets credit. Don will personally
fix any inequities in July.
. Level 1, 2 3 Managers measured 50% on their metrics and 50%
on US performance
. $250 per field employee bonus if US Area makes budget
- VP-level individual (Tom Colatosti in our case) in attendance to
summarize Don's messages and to take written (anonymous) and verbal
questions from audience. No restrictions on questions.
. No changes are planned for car plans this year
Very good communication vehicle in my opinion. There was a two page survey to
fill out asking whether the meeting had value. If we held these meetings
regularly and got more VP's communicating in notes conferences like this, I
think this company would be a whole lot better off!
regards,
Jim
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| During the meeting, Z announced a program whereby if the US makes its
revenue target for FY92, every Field employee would receive $250.
What is the target? Where are we today?
I think that Sales and Support have enough attention called (excuse me
while I remove my boss's foot from my backside...) to revenue related
metrics that I doubt the $250 will produce any sort of quantum behavior
change in the sales force. Don't get me wrong, I will graciously
accept the money if offered. But considering how stimulating other
job motivators are (e.g. respect of my peers, pride in my work, the
desire for promotion, need for recognition, large and regular salary
increases, SP2 if you're a sales rep) to me, the $250 gets lost in the
noise.
On the other hand, many of the clerical, administrative and service
folks seemed genuinely excited by the program. I think they can really
make a difference if they can give priority to those daily activities
which help generate revenue. To effect this, they need some sort of
regular reminder about the program and what our progress is to date.
A real in-your-face campaign.
What I would suggest is a set of posters to be placed conspicuously
throughout each facility. They should indicate the revenue target and
be updated on a regular basis (bi-weekly or monthly) with the progress
to date. If there is some reason why revenue can't be used (SEC quiet
period regulations or such), then cook up some other metric or metrics
directly related to revenue generation and use those.
I'm afraid people are already forgetting about the program. We need to
build momentum by calling attention to it (and continuing to call
attention to it). If we expect the $250 to have any affect, people
must be able to relate the reward to their activities.
Am I making any sense here??
Al
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I N T E R O F F I C E M E M O R A N D U M
Date: 16-Mar-1992 09:09am EST
From: KENT ST VRAIN
ST VRAIN.KENT AT A1 at SONATA at OGO
Dept: U.S. COMMUNICATIONS
Tel No: 276-9795
TO: See Below
Subject: Attached, Re: $250 Bonus Communications
Right on target!!!
1) See today's (3/16) issue of Digital Today for the story and
thermometer.
2) The poster, via the location managers, will be in place shortly.
We have decided not to make them updatable, since Finance can only give
us the "number" once a month. This would give us only a couple of
"updates" and would not accomplish the objective of urgency.
We will be doing Digital Today stories and electronic bulletins to the
field until the end of the year. We will give the updated number as it
is available.
Regards,
Kent
Distribution:
TO: Sue Murphy @MKO
CC: Linda Hoffman @MKO
CC: Nikki Hartnett @OGO
CC: Bob Hughes @MKO
CC: Steve Mahoney @MRO
CC: Jon Caputo @MRO
CC: NORA MCGUINNESS @OGO
I N T E R O F F I C E M E M O R A N D U M
Date: 10-Mar-1992 12:14pm EST
From: Susan H Murphy @MKO
MURPHY.SUE AT A1 at HAMSTR at MKO
Dept: U.S. Sales
Tel No: 264-0723
TO: See Below
Subject: Let's Rally
The attached note from the US Sales and Service Vaxnotes Conference
has a lot of merit. People sometimes need a rallying point to get
spirit and team play rolling. I heard someone say that when HP was
in the midst of a downturn, the employees rallied round and a spirit
of let's get this turned around, developed. We should find a way to
help develop that kind of spirit in Digital, verses the what can I
do questioning that goes on.
Perhaps we can use Digital Today to put in something like you'd
see on your hometown common in the form of a thermometer. Perhaps
accompanying the thermometer could be a box with credit given to those
that have contributed with what they did. This would not only give
recognition, but help those who would like to contribute but don't
know how some ideas. I am sure creative types can think of one better.
Linda, you used to do the SCOREBOARD, how about one for every Digital
lobby. Now that we will have location managers, they should be
responsible for keeping the posters up-to-date. Nikki, perhaps the SMR
coordinators in the field can do something along the same lines.
We have very talented PR people at DEC, let's use them for our
own internal need to understand where we are at as a country, verses
goal and what "YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR COUNTRY"
Nora and Kent, can you please respond with whether or not
we can start with Digital Today, and Linda and or Nikki on how
to start up the SCOREBOARD type of displays for field offices.
Thanks, hope we can get something going.
====
Distribution:
Nora Mcguinness @ogo
Kent St. Vrain @ogo
Linda Hoffmann @mko
Nikki Hartnett @ogo
Bob Hughes @MKO ( HUGHES.BOB AT A1 at HAMSTR at MKO )
Steve Mahoney @MKO ( MAHONEY.STEVE AT A1 at HAMSTR at MKO )
Jon Caputo @mro
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