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03/7 2011

Aileron – A Clinic for Entrepreneurs

Aileron, a $30 million training center located outside of Dayton, OH is squarely aimed at helping small
business owners lead and manage their companies, with an emphasis on driving growth, innovation, and
jobs.

Founded as the brainchild of Clayton Mathile (founder of Iams Pet Food Company, who sold that
company in 1999 for over $2 billion), Aileron was initially established in 1996. Since that time, over
1,500 businesses have taken its seminars. Keeping with his goal of contributing to the business success
of these clients, founder Mathile has funded Aileron to cover 95% of the program costs for each
participant.

Aileron’s “clients” are small business owners who are too wrapped-up in the day to day aspects of
running their business to focus on internal controls, management practices, and long-term strategy
issues. Fewer than half of Aileron’s clients have any formal business training.

Aileron’s curricula would be described as nontraditional, and features both outside lecturers and actual
business owners, followed by intensive sessions with Aileron consultants. Participants use these
consultant sessions to help with issues such as implementing performance-based pay systems, better
defining internal job roles, implementing performance management systems, and finding a better work/
life balance as business owners.

Aileron is seen as providing an alternative to the more academic-based approaches to training
entrepreneurs that is found in many university-based programs. Eventually, Aileron wants to offer their
programs nationally by branching-out to social networking and the Web.

For more information, visit www.aileron.org

Posted in Maintain Your Success, Train Your Leaders
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03/2 2011

Why Diversity Can Backfire in Corporate Boards

A recent research study by Drs. Jean-Francois Manzone, Paul Strebel, and Jean-Louis Barboux proposes that when it comes to diversity and corporate boards, it is possible to end-up with too much of a good thing.

In a Wall Street Journal article summarizing their work, the authors concede that the many benefits of diversity – having people from different background and perspectives collaborating on problems, bringing unique knowledge to bear to a problem, and creating unique solutions does hold broad appeal.

However, the authors propose that most corporate boards never see such desired benefits.  Some of this is attributed to simple human nature – while diversity is prized, people can feel baffled or threatened by persons with different views and backgrounds. As such, some of the board members with the most unique perspectives find themselves isolated or marginalized, and ultimately frustrated.

The researchers suggest the following steps for minimizing conflict in among Board members:

  • Choose new members carefully (think about their personality, in addition to their perspective)
  • Assist newcomers (make sure they are introduced properly, and take steps to ensure that the have the opportunity to make a positive first impression)
  • Don’t give in to get along (make sure disagreements and conflict are dealt with in a positive manner)
  • Encourage initial dissenters (make it easy for newcomers to express initial concerns, even when vague)
  • Members should share the role of being a “Devil’s Advocate” (share this responsibility with different members of the Board)
  • Review the role of the Chairman or leader (diversity needs to be managed by this person)
Of course, most of the above advice is also applicable to any corporate group setting, not just corporate boards – for example, any work group could benefit from paying attention to the above, particularly when they are assimilating new group members.
Posted in Grow Your Business, Maintain Your Success, New Articles
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02/28 2011

Management Secrets – From the Grateful Dead?

Is it possible to learn important management secrets from a musical group?  Surprisingly, the answer is yes, according to a recent article by Joshua Green.

In the March 2010 edition of The Atlantic, Green’s article “Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead” points out several areas in which the band was ahead of its time, business-wise:
By setting up special perks for their dedicated band of fans known as “Deadheads”, the group fostered great loyalty, and created a “superior customer experience” – Green notes that it was not until the 80’s that many US companies adopted such a customer-first mindset.
In addition, the Grateful Dead was one of the first bands to incorporate, and shrewdly retained, the rights to their songs and merchandising.  While the band took legal action against copyright violators of its corporate image, they also allowed fans to tape their shows.  Although this negated a revenue stream, it ultimately raised the demand for their music.  Many marketers will tell you, one of the great ways to increase demand for a product is to give it away.
While Jerry Garcia was frequently seen as the leader of the band, he was uncomfortable with this characterization, as each band member contributed equally to the final musical product.  As such, the Dead were masters at implementing a participatory and collaborative style of management.
So, the next time you come across one of their tunes on the radio, keep in mind the lessons that you can learn from the Grateful Dead – in addition to simply enjoying their music!
Posted in Grow Your Business, Maintain Your Success, New Articles
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02/28 2011

Customer Service — USAA Style

Banking and insurance giant USAA has set quite a record for itself – for the past 4 years, the firm has been in the #1 or #2 spot in Business Week’s/J.D. Powers “Customer Service Champions” survey. Awhopping 87% of respondents say that they would buy from USAA again (far high from the average score of 36%). In addition, USAA’s retention rate is a near-perfect 98.7%.

Started as a company focused on meeting the special demands of deployed services personnel, USAA now has expanded their product offerings to compete in virtually every segment of the financial servicesworld. Customers laud praise on the level of service provided by USAA, including the ease of filing insurance claims and conducting financial transactions.

What is USAA’s secret? A recent Business Week article outlined the following distinguishing factors:

  • Training – Call Center Representatives receive up to 6 months of training before actuallyanswering customer calls – the goal is to ensure that the representatives understand the lives of military customers.
  • Benefits – Believing that better benefits will result in representatives who provide better service USAA employees receive generous health care, bonuses that can exceed 16% of salary, and even relocation assistance.
  • Systems – USAA has invested in high-tech software that allows their representatives to see the same on-line screens that customers are seeing on their PCs at home.
  • Technology — USAA recognizes that popularity of mobile services for their customer base – banking customers can even deposit checks by taking pictures using their smartphones.
Posted in Maintain Your Success, Train Your Leaders
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02/10 2011

Are Your Employees Happy At Work — Should You Be Concerned?

Recent research shows that even in today’s troubled economy, job satisfaction numbers are lower than at any time during the past 22 years.

Survey research conducted by The Conference Board in 2009 showed that just 45% of US respondents indicated that they were satisfied with their work — down from 61.1% in 1987. Satisfaction scores are down 4% even from 2008, when 49% of respondents reported satisfaction at work.

Researchers indicate that workers have grown steadily unhappy for a number of different reasons:

  • Fewer workers consider their jobs to be interesting
  • Incomes have not kept up with inflation
  • The soaring cost of insurance has eaten into take-home pay

In addition, fewer than half of the respondents feel secure in their jobs, and only about 50% like their co-workers or their boss.

Employees under 25 years of age reported the highest levels of job dissatisfaction in the survey – a whopping 64% indicate that they are not happy at work.

Why is this important? Researchers state that such low levels of satisfaction may result in lower levels of engagement and involvement at work, which will ultimately impact levels of innovation and productivity.

For an individual organization, levels of dissatisfaction are important because they can impact employee retention rates. Replacing employees can be costly, particularly for jobs that require extensive training periods.

In addition, we know that in most instances, employees do not quit an organization – instead, they quit their immediate supervisor. In other words, the relationship that an employee has with his/her immediate supervisor is the biggest predictor of turnover in an organization.

Therefore, the above statistics regarding satisfaction with supervisors is particularly troubling, and points the need to provide ongoing training and development for supervisors, particularly in the areas of communications, interpersonal style, delegation skills, and teambuilding skills.