One early morning I sat down to enjoy breakfast at a 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 kinda 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 than to fire them. He said, “We need to talk after this breakfast, I need your help!”
To My Surprise…
Little did I know that the young man I was talking to was the plant manager of a local manufacturing plant.
They were struggling with several issues that latter turned out to be tied to communication issues.
After assessing all the staff, we met at the Eleven Point River Retreat in Pocahontas, Arkansas, over a two-day period. We got to know each other, played some Team Building games, and then shared their communication style assessments with each other. It really open some people’s eyes.
We then had a structured Brain Storming 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 on why they existed as a business.
They made air filter systems but why… Their corporate ‘Tag Line’ 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.
After spending much of the first day on what it meant for the staff and employees to ‘buy into’ their ‘Tag Line’, they decided to share the vision of Clean Air is a Human Right with all the employees until it permeated throughout the plant.
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 what were their products and why they made those particular products.
The second day consisted of an exercise where they pretended to make a marketing video of why they made the various products.
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.
By getting the Staff Focused and Aligned on the ‘Critical Few’ strategic things they went from $7 million to over $50 million in annual sales.
Do you know why your company exists?
Do you and your staff have a plan to Share the Vision with all your associates?
Do you know why you make the products you make?
Do you know how to get all Teams involved in discovering How they can bring about exceptional company growth while enjoying the process?
Do you have some of the same issues?
Interested in Strategic Growth?
We’ve helped hundreds of companies across the country and can help you discover The What and The Why and The How of Being more Strategic in Growing Your Business.
Simply click on the link at the top of the page to set up a call with one of our trusting project managers and Let’s Get Started.