Great Companies in Business and a Final Project Update

After watching the videos on Costco, Panera Bread and The Container Store, my initial reaction was "Did they read 'Skyhooks for Leadership?'" All of the concepts, ideas and ideals that were mentioned in that book were personified with those three companies. The leaders of each of those companies- Jim Sinegal of Costco, Ron Shaich of Panera and Kip Tindell of The Container Store- each had a central idea they believed in so much that they decided to put it into effect. The main focus with Sinegal and Tindell was that they placed special emphasis on taking care of their employees, while with Shaich, the focus was on helping the community. The most impressive fact of their success is that once they placed their ideas into effect, they did not relent or back away from it. While the Costco and Container Store videos may have glossed over the criticism each of the leaders received, Ron Shaich was very forthcoming about the ups and downs he experienced when opening his community, non-profit store in St. Louis.

Another thing that stood out to me with regard to Jim Sinegal's "modus operandi" at Costco was his "management by wandering around." He took the time out to visit a lot of his stores, and he received royal-like treatment in each store he went into. I feel he received that treatment because of the way he treats his employees more than the fact that the "head honcho" has shown up and we had better be on our best behavior. He took care of his employees by paying them very well while at the same time keeping prices low, which kept the customers happy. His stores do not sell a great amount of unique, individual items, but what they do sell is of great quality and is of an affordable price. Since his employees are taken care of very well, this has a trickle-down effect to the consumer, who is also treated well by the employee.

The same can be said of Kip Tindell's Container Stores. While this store serves more of a niche audience, what they do is very effective. Similar to Costco, Tindell takes care of his employees very well by paying them more than most other retail stores. He also gives them inordinate amounts of training time to have them learn about the products they sell, as well as the culture there. He even mentions during one of the interviews that his main focus is on his employees, not the consumer. Tindell said that if the employees are taken care of very well, this will have a trickle-down effect to the consumer, who will also be treated well by the people who work there.

With Ron Shaich's Panera company, the focus is considerably different. He was so influenced by the amount of hunger in the United States that he decided to fight that battle with his company. He even states how much of a risk it was for him to do this, but he still knew he was doing the right thing. What made his plan even more effective was how his workers/volunteers bought into what he was doing. Some of the people who worked at their store were also in the same situation of not having enough to eat, which motivated them to help others who were down on their luck. His concept of "Take what you need and leave your fair share" serves as one of the great examples of philantrophy in the United States, and the store has been a success.

All three of these men are effective leaders primarily because they are able to have employees buy into their goals. Since they are well compensated money-wise and are treated well by management, they have considerably more productivity than most companies. Along with this, consumers who go to these particular places can expect to be treated better themselves.

Project Update: Well, the final day of the quarter has arrived, and what can I say about my quest for writers? Even though I was not able to find an "Online Content Manager," I was able to find plenty of people who were interested in contributing to the website. Many of them submitted material, and one (Keith BieryGolick) I have designated as one of our "go-to" people for music and film reviews, something which I am very proud of. As the old saying goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day," and I knew heading into this that conceiving a full-fledged writing operation in 10 weeks time would be improbable. However, I wanted the seeds to be planted so we could move forward, and with the help of all the directors and the journalism students who were interested in writing for us, the website is getting considerably better.

More of us are paying attention to the fact that our website is a destination, not simply a portal for listening to music. What we have posted on the site serves as a reflection of who were are at the station, and I feel that it will only get better during the next school year. I hope that Bearcast will include potential writers and journalism students in their aggressive recruitment of incoming freshmen next year. This can only make the station better because who knows? If there are enough journalism majors at the station in the future, perhaps Bearcast can move in a direction of featuring more "hard news" as a part of their programming.

Chapter 10: Strengthen Others

This chapter, written by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner discusses what happens when leaders delegate their subordinates with power. The power leaders give to people under them not only makes their subordinates work harder, but it gives the leader more power as well. The example they mentioned in the book that I really liked was when a chemical company made their dock workers managers, which decreased the error rate in their shipping orders. People who otherwise felt that their position was unimportant suddenly felt empowered when their job title changed, which led to better productivity.

However, a leader cannot make themselves more powerful by just delegating important decisions to their subordinates. They also need to provide their subordinates with the tools they need to succeed. This can come in a variety of ways, ranging from physical tools, to connecting them with certain people you know who will help them get their job completed more efficiently.

A good leader also has to recognize people for the work they have do. While they cannot go too far with recogition, a little bit can go a long way. Kouzes and Posner mention how companies will have employee's pictures on the wall recognizing them for some outstanding work they have done. These pictures are placed in a place where everybody can see them, inflating their sense of self-worth and their worth to the company.

Project update: I am in the process of securing some advertising space with The News Record. While I hope we can get an advertisement in the final issue of the paper (June 2), I am very hopeful that we can have something placed online for the summer. This advertisement will not only encourage students to write for Bearcast's website, but it will also encourage them to join the organization to get acquainted with radio and how it works. This would be to try to recruit writers, but since this would reach a wide audience, I feel it would be important to try to recruit DJs as well.

Power is the great motivator and a project update

While reading this chapter, the thing that jumped out at me the most is that power is not necessarily about instilling fear in people. It is more about having motivation in what you are doing, and that motivation isn't necessarily all personal. You cannot abandon procedures too much, and you cannot be too personally motivated. This chapter discusses how "institutional" managers tend to be more successful, mostly because the people under that manager feel as if they have more responsibility. Also, the extra delegation of responsibility gives subordinates more "power" themselves and they feel as if they are just as important.

Project update: This week, I was able to speak to an Intro to Journalism class about our need for writers, and I have already heard back from one of the students in the class. I have also heard back from two people in a class I spoke to last week (News Writing and Reporting) and I have already assigned both of them stories. One person who has been doing movie reviews for us lately, and I am planning on having him be our "go-to" writer for movie reviews. I am currently waiting on a response from him.

A project update and thoughts on general body meetings

More progress is being made on the quest to search for writers for the website. I spoke to a News Writing and Reporting class yesterday about our need, and I heard back from one of the students who is interested in becoming a sports writer. I will try to have him on his way soon enough.

My hope for next week is that I can get in contact with someone from the News Record regarding advertising. This will have our message reach more eyes across campus, and hopefully more people who are interested will join our organization.

With the recruitment of more people comes an even bigger responsibility of making sure the meetings are efficiently run and are beneficial to everyone in attendance. There are times when it seems that some people get ignored during the course of a general body meeting, and they will not have any input on any topic of discussion. Perhaps one way meetings can be improved is by having everyone in attendance describe what they played on their show the previous week, or what their show was about. This will not only give people more knowledge about who is in our organization, but it will keep people informed about what is going on with each show. This could possibly influence people to make their shows better if they hear of someone else luring in a big guest the previous week, or if their show was the highest-rated one of the week.

Even if more writers were to join, they could possibly learn about each show that is on the air, and review some of their favorite ones, if they have any. They could be turned on to new music they enjoy, which could possibly lead to more exposure of local music talent. Overall, I feel people who attend the meetings should be more active, rather than having them sit there and listen to the directors talk the entire time.

Chapter 4: Productivity Through People, and a project update

Chapter 4 in "Skyhooks for Leadership" discusses how to get the most out of people, and their main focal point of the entire chapter was that you have to trust your co-workers in order to get the most out of them. You have to treat them as equals, and they have to know you trust them. However, at the same time, you have to choose the right people to place into those positions to where you can trust them. I really liked how many examples the writers gave in this chapter of success stories using this model, and they all had me think about how I can get the most out of people under me in Bearcast.

Perhaps my favorite example they gave in the chapter was their very first one, RMI. Their story of success was a simple one. "Big Jim" Niles, the new CEO of the company, made a point to effectively use the "management by wondering around" technique, and he created a comfortable environment by listening to his workers. He would also keep things loose by joking around with them, and the chapter even mentions how he would address each person by their first name, something which goes a long way in connecting with people.

Another thing I found interesting in this chapter is that the writers mention how there is almost more accountability with workers in a comfortable environment. If everyone is being treated like adults, they know what they are responsible for and what they need to get done. You are trusting them with more responsibility, which should give them more incentive to work harder.

Project Update: I have already published an article about the NFL Draft from former Bearcast member Jason Garrison, and I am awaiting an article from News Record writer Hunter Tickel regarding the NBA Playoffs. I also have remained in touch with professors from Intro to Journalism classes as well as News Writing and Reporting classes, and I plan on speaking with either one of those classes about writing for our website next week. I will also give each person in the class my card so they know who to contact in case they are interested. I will also contact someone from the News Record over the next few days to discuss placing an advertisement in their paper requesting for writers. Since I know many of the people over there well, I feel that this should not be a problem.

Frustration

Unfortunately, week one of my project has not gone so well. I am not receiving the amount of help I would have liked for this project so far. That is not anybody's fault; people are very busy (much like myself). I asked several people whether or not they would like to contribute articles to the website, rather than ask them about becoming a director. I felt that asking people I know if they wanted to be an Online Content Manager would be too much to bargain for at this point, and honestly, I would rather have content generated on the website on a consistent basis. If I spent too much time looking for an Online Content Manager instead of writers, content would make its way onto the website at a more glacial rate than it already is.

However, there is some good news to report. There are four people who I have contacted who are willing to contribute content whenever they have free time. Hunter Tickel from The News Record is willing to contribute on occasion, and former Bearcaster Jason Garrison will be contributing a NFL Draft article very soon as well. Fellow Bearcast Director Steve Bohné will be submitting an article on the first month of the MLB season, and he will possibly submit another article on the NHL playoffs and our "Beat the Streak" group for our show "Breakfast and Baseball."

Gregory Pina was one of the journalism majors who did respond to my original inquiry regarding the search for writers, and he already has two articles published on the website. Buth were relevant and timely articles, as he wrote about the Banks project and what it will do for the city, and he wrote about the upcoming T-Pain concert here at UC. He appears to be willing to contribute more content in the future, so I believe there will be plenty of content flowing onto the site for the next few weeks.

Perhaps instead of searching for an Online Content Manager, I should focus my search on just gathering a pool of writers who won't necessarily be a part of a "staff," but rather a group of people any director can contact at any time to potentially write something. This may end up being the focus for my project.

More on Mark Ramsey

I finished reading Mark Ramsey's book (compilation?) "Radio on the Verge," and I must say that I was impressed. Although I initially believed that this would be some pompous manifesto on all the things that were wrong with radio without offering any solutions, many of the interviews he conducted were thoughtful, and presented many ideas that radio is sorely lacking.

I understood many of the things that were presented in the last third of the book; however, there were some things that still confused me a bit. One of those things was positioning. There was a bizarre comic where Mark tried to illustrate what it was, but I still did not understand his point. Also, some of Bill Breen's comments in "Being Authentic in a Paris Hilton World" struck me as being a bit confusing. He mentions about radio needing to be more authentic, but how would someone be fake on air? Who they really are will come across on air, either consciously or sub-consciously. I can see his point where he mentions that radio promos are very cliché with many stations, and all that takes is a little more imagination and some elbow grease. Regarding the on-air talent themselves, however? All you need to do is listen to a talk radio station to hear unique, authentic talent.

I did enjoy Mark's interviw with Ricky Gervais, however. I believed it almost tied in with some of Seth Godin's comments in his final interview. What was interesting in the Gervais interview was when Ricky stated that virtually none of his show was planned. I believe that somewhat ties in with what Godin was trying to say overall in the fact that you either have the talent to succeed or you don't, and if you do, you almost have to be in the right place at the right time, around the right people. He calls it "the dip," and he believes that you have to dilligently seek it out.

The particular portion of the reading I enjoyed the most was Mark's conclusion, though. I really liked what he mentioned about the recruitment of talent, especially in the younger bracket. There are too many "old" people in radio, and younger people want to hear people like them who are delivering what they want. How often do you see a recording artist in the Top 40 nowadays who is over 40? Very rarely. The on-air talent should reflect the music: young, vibrant and dynamic.

I also agreed with him that radio isn't just "radio" anymore. The people in charge of each radio station should take into account how people are getting their information and where they are getting it from today, and how to integrate what they have on air with that.

Finally, unique content is something that will never go out of style, and that is another thing I liked in his conclusion. People will always be attracted to something new, fresh, exciting and fun.

Project update: Things are going very slowly right now, almost glacially. I sent an e-mail to the entire journalism department advertising the fact that we need writers, and I only heard back from one person. Needless to say, I am quite disappointed.

Since I am in the air of uncertainty right now, my timeline for the next few weeks will look like this:

Next week: I plan on contacting individual people I know regarding the Online Content Manager position next year. I feel like I will get a more direct response by targeting specific people for the position instead of throwing it out there to see if anyone will bite.

First week of May: I will determine how much money would be available for flyers to post around campus advertising the fact that we need writers. I have no guarantees as to whether or not I will have an Online Content Manager by this point, but it will be icing on the cake if I do.

Second week of May: I will meet with people from The News Record regarding placing an advertisement in their paper asking for writers. I know plenty of people over there, so the intimidation/shyness factor will be non-existant.

Third week of May: I plan on speaking with the people from the new on-campus magazine called "Verge" as to whether or not we can advertise in their magazine, and whether or not they would like to be part-time contributors to our website. If there's one thing journalism majors love to do, it is to write (especially when they have time)!

Fourth week of May: It is already a traveled road, but I will ask the people I know in Bearcast if they would like to contribute anything. I plan on asking anybody else I know in E-Media the same thing.

Really, that's all I have for the moment regarding a timeline. Either I will have a legitimate staff by the end of this quarter, or I will have a deep pool of "utility players" to select from. Even though the latter option isn't really desired, it'll spread out the workload to keep the site going without overloading anyone.