One early morning, I sat down to enjoy breakfast at the Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce meeting. At the same table, there was a young man that I didn’t pay much attention to other than he was very outgoing and loud.
As everyone around the table was talking, the young man asked me about the logo on my shirt; it said ‘Corter Consulting’. He said, “What do you consult on?” I thought that he was just going to be a bother to me during breakfast so I said, “When you are ready to fire half of your staff…Don’t do it; bring me in.” He said, “So you will fire them for me?!” I said, “No, I will come in and salvage as many employees as possible…because it’s cheaper to salvage them than to fire them. He said, “We need to talk after this breakfast, I need your help!”
Stay Curious, Not Judgemental. – Ted Lasso
Little did I know that the young man was the plant manager at Camfil APC. They were struggling with several issues that turned out to be tied to communication.
After assessing all the staff, we met at the Eleven Point River Retreat in Pocahontas, Arkansas. We got to know each other, played some team building games and had a group debrief of their DISC assessments. It really open some people’s eyes.
We then had a structured strategy session to let them discover the top 3 issues confronting them. It turned out to be: product issues, delivery issues, and sales growth issues. I asked them a strategic question to get them focused.
“Do you know why your company exists?“
They made air filtration systems, but why… Their corporate vision was “Clean Air – A Human Right?”, but what did that mean to the staff and to the employees back at the plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Did they even know the corporate vision?
After spending much of the first day on what it meant for the staff and employees to buy in to that vision, they decided they needed to start by sharing the vision of “Clean Air – a Human Right?” with all the employees and ask what that meant to each individual.
Their people did not just weld, glue, sand, paint, ship, etc., they were making it possible for people all over the Americas to breathe clean air.
The next question was to get them focused on their products.
Do you know why you make the products you make?
The second day consisted of an exercise where they pretended to make a marketing video for various products. Having them do this made them to find the intrinsic value in what they were building rather than just its technical purpose. It also put a spotlight on products that sold well vs those that just took up warehouse space.
Big Results and Growth
Over the next several hours they decided to put more focus on the 20% of the products that brought in 80% of the sales. (80/20 Rule, or Pareto Principle) By getting the staff focused and aligned on strategic priorities, the company grew from $7 million to over $50 million in annual sales over the next couple of years.
The big questions every leader should ask:
Do you know why your company exists?
Do you have a plan to communicate the vision and values with all team members?
Do you know why you make the products you make and how it adds value to the consumer?
How can you get all teams engaged in the vision and product discovery process?
Interested in Strategic Growth?