In all my induction training for new executives, I always pose this question, “Who believes in the saying, Work smart not work hard….?”

There’ll always be a few eager beavers who are quick to raise their hands while a few will eye me cautiously, sensing a catch somewhere, but not quite sure what it is.

I’ll tell them that it is a myth that one can get ahead by simply relying on the smarts without any hard work. There is always the prerequisite initial hard work, after which the law of diminishing returns kicks in. It is at that point that one should then work SMARTER and not merely HARDER.

I’ll explain that anyone who lives by the credo “Work smart, not work hard” is actually passing the buck; he/she is implying that if there is a sucker to do the task, why do it yourself? I’ll be personally offended if anyone in my Team mouths that phrase without thinking of its implication. However, I do expect my Team members all to be adept at thinking out-of-the-box and finding creative and innovative ways to be more effective and efficient, after putting in the prerequisite initial hard work, of course. We all need to be smarter and not merely labour on harder.

There’s this prestigious charge card company that has an on-going sales promo with a shopping complex whereby you could redeem some gifts when your total purchases charged to the card reach or exceed a certain amount. Well, I am always a sucker for sales promo (otherwise how do you think I have all these stories?) and I promptly set out to ensure that all my purchases at that shopping complex would be charged to that card, together with my wife, the supplementary card holder.

So imagine my chagrin, when I am told by the Card Staff that we cannot combine our purchases as the card numbers are different. Hey, why not, after all the supplementary charges all appear on my single monthly statement and I pay all the bills.

I cannot help but think that the Marketeer’s intention is to encourage more purchases on the charge card and in that case, it would not matter whether the purchase are on the main card or the supplementary card. It is just a case of someone not paying attention to the DETAILS when designing the sales promo.

Don’t laugh….it could happen to YOUR sales promo, if no-one thinks through the details of the execution.

Care to share a similar experience? Tell us about it!

As a Manager, at some point in your career, you will be asked to force-rank your staff during annual appraisals.

No, you are told, you cannot have all ranked as “Very Good”…. you must force-rank them to have the whole company fall into some sort of bell-curve.

What’s wrong with that picture? Well, let’s answer that by first stating what’s right… yes, generally in a large enough population, people tend to fall into a bell-curve distribution. So what’s wrong with forced-ranking, where a Manager is told that he has to decide who among his team should be rated “Excellent”, “Very Good”, “Good”, “Unsatisfactory”? Simple answer: first, you must fulfill the condition, “…in a large enough population”. Too often, the instruction, “Get them into a bell-curve” is given without considering that pre-condition.

In a small group of people, you may get anomalies whereby “too many” are rated in one or the other extemeties. Or where all are rated “too average”. OK, in that case, why shouldn’t you then force-rank them? You have to decide who among them is the “better” or the “worser” one. Yes, no problem…let’s force-rank them. Until you realise you have done your Team members a great disservice. Your company, or department or unit is one of many within the Parent organisation. When you forced-rank your limited size unit, your “Good” men are now clustered together with all the other “Good” men from other units. Hey, but that’s not right you say. You know for a fact that your “Good” man is much better than the other unit’s “Good” man. If compared together, your “Good” man (who may have been rated “Very Good” before the forced-ranking within your unit) should be “Very Good” compared to the other unit’s “Good”. But sadly, they are now rated the same and presumably get the same salary adjustment. That’s not fair, right?

So what’s wrong? The answer, I repeat, lies in a “….large enough population”. The Parent organisation ought to have all its employess placed in one common pool before force-ranking. You may have a super Team of 10 people who are now forced-rank to be placed in similar ranks as some other mediocre people.

Sad, but it happens too frequently.

Recall that in “What Promo? What a Shame! (1)” I told you that I can vouch for the fact that sales promo contests are indeed real, or at least those that I have personally taken part in and won. Well, here’s the next story where I won a prize; 3rd prize to be exact.

I received a SMS informing me that I had won the 3rd prize in a contest. I duly phoned back and received the instructions on the day and time to collect my prize from the Store. You bet I was elated and looked forward to the appointment for the collection of the prize.

Come the day and there I was at the Store entrance to meet the staff who was supposed to give me the prize. I half-expected some sort of simple reception and maybe a photograph to be taken for the Store’s promotional use. With such a crowd at the Store, I thought that Management would take the opportunity to hand me the prize in full view of the shopping crowd so that people will know that the contest was real (don’t we all have doubts?). Instead, a staff approached me and after introduicng himself, he asked me to follow him to the Store’s office to collect the prize. Hmm…that was a bit disappointing, but never mind, let’s go get the prize!

The staff mumbeld a soft apologetic comment that we had to walk through the basement carpark to get to the Office. Oh never mind, let’s go! We walked quite a distance all across the basement carpark to the opposite end and then walked up four flights of stairs to the office! No-one else was there. No photographer. No happy greeting nor congratulations from any other staff or management. Sign here in a register to indicate that you have collected your prize (I saw that the first two prize winners had also signed in the register) and here you are…a carton with a number of items inside to make up the 3rd prize. And of course, I had to carry the carton down the four flights of stairs to put the prize in my car.

So here are the Management questions:

1. Why bother having a Sales Promo if you don’t capitalise on it to excite all the other shoppers to show them that the contest is real and here’s a real-life winner to prove it?

2. Why turn a happy occassion for a lucky winner into a dull, uneventful and inconvenient exercise?

3. Hey…where is the Marketeer or Store Manager?

The Management Learning Experience…..don’t let your Sales Promo end without any mileage and oomph!

Ever experienced a similar situation? Tell us about it!

I like to tell the Chinese parable of “Killing One’s Enemy With His Own Sword”

(or something like that…..I’m so handicapped by not knowing Mandarin!):

In ancient China, there were two powerful kingdoms equally matched. Each desired to
conquer the other. One of the Kings sent a spy into the other kingdom to gather
intelligence. The spy reported that the other King has 5 key men (Generals and
Ministers). Destroy the 5 key men and the kingdom is yours, advised the spy. So this King
set out to destroy the credibility of the 5 men by planting fake messages and information
for the other King to “accidentally” get his hands on. The second King thought that his 5
men were out to betray him and  summarily executed them. Needless to say, when the
decisive battle was fought, the second kingdom fell. So the first King succeeded in
destroying the second King using the latter’s own sword!

That’s the danger of paying attention to rumour-mongering and anonymous poison letters.
Powerful parable for Management and for life!

Update: 25-Oct-2012

“Whistle-blowing” is different in that a whistle blower is prepared to be identified and to testify after blowing the lid off a wrong-doing.

Whistle-blowing is good; rumour-mongering and anonymous poison letters are not!

Have you ever wondered whether all those promotional contests with fabulous prizes are real? Well, the good news is that Yes, they are real. Or at least those that I have participated and won. But the stories I want to tell are not about the prizes I won, but rather they are Management tales for marketing folks to take note and learn.

The first story may be something that you have also experienced. Here you are at the checkout counter of a large Hypermarket paying for your items and the total bill comes to $29.80.The cashier without so much as a greeting or a thank you, just silently take your money and give you the change and gets on with serving the next customer. What’s wrong with this picture? OK, she’s a miser with greetings, so what? Well, you collect your items and exit the checkout counter….and that’s when you notice a poster promoting an in-store sales campaign. Buy $30.00 worth of goods and you will get a small freebie token as well as be eligible to take part in a simple contest with a $10,0000 prize. Your heart drops…you have just paid $29.80 and you are not qualified for the freebie nor for the contest. You confront the cashier and ask her why didn’t she tell you about the promo…she could have easily persuaded you to pick up an additional item (sweets, batteries, etc) so that your total bill could exceed $30.00. The cashier looks at you unapologetically and cannot understand what the fuss is all about.

So the questions to the Hypermarket Management are:

1. Why are the front-line staff not trained to help make the sales promo a better success instead of making customers feel short-changed and annoyed? After all, most customers will gladly top-up their purchases to make the minimum amount required for the freebie and contest.

2. Why isn’t the sales promo clearly displayed within the Store rather than merely outside the Store? As a Management learning experience, the above story could well be enacted in any otther sales setting and not just in a Hypermarket. So don’t laugh, it could happen in your sales organisation too! Has this happened to you before? As a Customer or as a Marketeer? Tell us about it.

More stories to follow…

The terms “Good Manager” and “Bad Manager” are oxymorons.

A Manager manages; if he/she cannot manage, how is he/she then a Manager?

There is only either a Manager or an Idiot.

A Manager recognizes improved performances (cheers the Team) and areas for improvements (coaches the Team).
An Idiot only focusses on weaknesses and belabors them to completely demoralize the Team,