The Policies, Practices, and Measurement Systems utilized by Nordstrom seem very unique. It is not the basic 40 hour work week for sales personnel at Nordstrom. They have the breakdown of sales per hour, which essentially is how efficient each worker is being. This is a good way to see how productive sales people are, but the total hours recorded, and the total hours actually worked is sometimes skewed for the sake of making good numbers. Using this system of SPH, I believe that the sales clerks have a to walk a fine line in regards to getting this SPH number as high as possible. On one hand, the clerks want to work full time and get the most pay, but If they work too many hours, they might not get the extra incentives for a high SPH. If the sales clerks work a little bit at a time, their low hourly wage plus incentives might not make up for the full time paycheck. If I were in this situation, I would keep the hours extremely low at first to get the highest SPH, then after some getting a reputation up, I would distinctively choose certain hours during the week to work which would slowly get me more hours, and keep the SPH high as well. Then, as soon as I see a drop in my SPH, I would go back to lowering my hours again. The practice of this SPH would have to be constantly changing each week.
The additional elements of the management team also contributed to Nordstrom's success. Having the company policy where promoting only comes from within gave the employees a better outlook when thinking about their future with Nordstrom. This helped motivate employees to work harder, and to keep looking ahead. Also, the structure of Nordstrom's bussiness was a good design for profit. The top management had less control over operations, but each individual operation was relatively free to make their own decisions. A complement to the environment that Norstrom had, was the way they set up the customer service all star awards. When setting this up, they produced a competitive environment making the employees strive for this goal of being and all star.
I guess the SPH didn't turn out to be the best method overall. The way SHP was set up actually did implicitly encourage employees to work off the clock. This was realized by the local unions, and Nordstrom was attacked. But lesson learned is to pay your employees for the hours that they work. And if that doesn't work, you can always just hire someone and put them on a salary. This way, you can work them like crazy and get around all of these "by hour" statistics. I personally am on salary and work far beyond 40 hours a week, but that's just how the cookie crumbles.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Specialty Medical Chemicals
Carl Burke, The new CEO that is out to save the company, needs a consultant. "He was hired to rekindle growth, not to shake-up the whole organization." By what means does a new CEO not shake up organizations? Isn't that their job? Anyways, they apparently needed a consultant to help this new fantastic CEO with his job. Hiring a consultant in any situation should always be very well thought out. Someone who gets paid to tell you whats wrong with your company, can sometimes be solved in-house. If I were Carl, I would have a least given an effort to restructure the system myself, then if that didn't work, maybe a consultant would be effective.
Hiring a psychologist to do the assessment, in order to better structure the company as a whole, and identify weaknesses in the team. I personally believe that a more type of "system" bettering approach would have been more effective. Since the business is structured as as system, all the psychologist can do is look at human behavior. The environment should be the main focus in this situation. It seems to me that most of the results that Laura came up with for the people she was interviewing was behavioral. Random comments about people's clothing as how its "flashy", or the three question marks after comments??? How does that help the company grow?
One good thing that I believe Laura caught that is important is communication. The fact that certain parts of the company were not sharing information with others is a big problem. For a business to run better, knowledge should spread like wild fire. Everyone should be copied on emails, given all available information, and have a ego-free workplace. Some sections of businesses hold their knowledge/information to just their section for the sake of putting them higher on the knowledge scale than other sections. This I believe should be completely eliminated, but it takes a lot of effort.
All in all, lesson learned that the system needs to be altered to better the companies structure. Bringing a psychologist in to do personality tests kinda really doesn't help the situation.
Hiring a psychologist to do the assessment, in order to better structure the company as a whole, and identify weaknesses in the team. I personally believe that a more type of "system" bettering approach would have been more effective. Since the business is structured as as system, all the psychologist can do is look at human behavior. The environment should be the main focus in this situation. It seems to me that most of the results that Laura came up with for the people she was interviewing was behavioral. Random comments about people's clothing as how its "flashy", or the three question marks after comments??? How does that help the company grow?
One good thing that I believe Laura caught that is important is communication. The fact that certain parts of the company were not sharing information with others is a big problem. For a business to run better, knowledge should spread like wild fire. Everyone should be copied on emails, given all available information, and have a ego-free workplace. Some sections of businesses hold their knowledge/information to just their section for the sake of putting them higher on the knowledge scale than other sections. This I believe should be completely eliminated, but it takes a lot of effort.
All in all, lesson learned that the system needs to be altered to better the companies structure. Bringing a psychologist in to do personality tests kinda really doesn't help the situation.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Chapter 5 - Extra Readings
Screaming Managers - Screaming Managers = The worst thing in the world! Nothing has ever made me more unmotivated and unwilling to work than screaming managers. The fact that they are pissed off definitely rubs off onto the people they are yelling at. Anger, I believe spreads like wildfire. The important part of my job is to keep cool when things are hot. Anger is one of the main emotions that must be controlled in the workplace. It creates negative energy throughout the area that these "yelling events" take place. Even people who are not involved in the argument feel the tension and heat. This article should be read by all "hothead managers". They might not even realize it, but actual calm techniques and directions create good results when compared to yelling.
Get Healthy or Else - It's quite scary to think even though we are healthy, we actually could be days away from a serious health risk. Even a tri-athlete who cycles 36 miles to and from work every day, was at risk of dying because of a bad diet. I have heard the rumor that 80% of the way we look is what we consume, and only 20% comes from exercising, working out, etc. I never really believed this before, until I read this article. I see in the future all companies regulating policies on cigarette smoking and obesity. Since obesity is the number one killer, shouldn't everyone including health plans have a focus on helping this epidemic? I believe it is just as important as any other reason to go to the doctor. Therefore, I believe that a "health plan" for any given employee should include curing obesity, nicotine reduction plans, and all other issues that people may have that affect their true health.
Jessica's Story - This story sounds like one in a million. This high tech process is so involved with scans, diagnostics, tests, etc. it is completely ridiculous to fail under the reason of choosing the wrong blood type. The best of the best, fall to the simplest task probably even an intern can accomplish. Even someone who has no medical experience would probably think "Oh, I one thing that I DO know is that the person we are operating on has to have the same blood type as the organs that we are putting inside of her." Completely ridiculous!
As far as the operation goes, they are replacing a heart, and a lung. This has to be an extremely complicated procedure. With all the steps that are taken, and the procedures to follow, something had to be flawed. And it was double checking work. In this critical of a situation there should be a least three people checking each others work constantly, and even finally inspected by a higher up before proceeding with work. The people working in this environment probably got too "into" what they were doing, and figured that everything always goes smoothly in their daily routine. But, someone always has to step in and keep people on their toes, otherwise corners will be cut, and overlooked.
Get Healthy or Else - It's quite scary to think even though we are healthy, we actually could be days away from a serious health risk. Even a tri-athlete who cycles 36 miles to and from work every day, was at risk of dying because of a bad diet. I have heard the rumor that 80% of the way we look is what we consume, and only 20% comes from exercising, working out, etc. I never really believed this before, until I read this article. I see in the future all companies regulating policies on cigarette smoking and obesity. Since obesity is the number one killer, shouldn't everyone including health plans have a focus on helping this epidemic? I believe it is just as important as any other reason to go to the doctor. Therefore, I believe that a "health plan" for any given employee should include curing obesity, nicotine reduction plans, and all other issues that people may have that affect their true health.
Jessica's Story - This story sounds like one in a million. This high tech process is so involved with scans, diagnostics, tests, etc. it is completely ridiculous to fail under the reason of choosing the wrong blood type. The best of the best, fall to the simplest task probably even an intern can accomplish. Even someone who has no medical experience would probably think "Oh, I one thing that I DO know is that the person we are operating on has to have the same blood type as the organs that we are putting inside of her." Completely ridiculous!
As far as the operation goes, they are replacing a heart, and a lung. This has to be an extremely complicated procedure. With all the steps that are taken, and the procedures to follow, something had to be flawed. And it was double checking work. In this critical of a situation there should be a least three people checking each others work constantly, and even finally inspected by a higher up before proceeding with work. The people working in this environment probably got too "into" what they were doing, and figured that everything always goes smoothly in their daily routine. But, someone always has to step in and keep people on their toes, otherwise corners will be cut, and overlooked.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Southwest Airlines
It is quite amazing what southwest airlines has done over the years. Having a rough start with companies tireless efforts to shut them out and hold them down, southwest airlines has overcome all competition and boundaries to make the most profitable airline ever. The company itself has a strong CEO with a good combination of dedicated people, which all are satisfied and happy. Many different efforts have been put forth for the ultimate success of southwest airlines. one key factor was that southwest never gave up. through hard times and good times, they remained calm and always made the right move. Also, every aspect of southwest airlines was just a little bit different from other competition, this I believe made them unique and innovative. As of today, southwest's competition is now following in SW's footsteps to create a similar approach to airline service.
At the beginning of southwest airlines' arise, they went through a lot of tough challenges. One of their competitors, continental airlines, created some of the main struggles that southwest airlines had to undergo. Continental kept southwest airlines out of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, and kept southwest in a legal battle that almost shut them out right off the bat. On top of the issues with continental airlines, the wright amendment was aimed at stopping southwest by encouraging traffic through the new Dallas-Fort Worth airport.
One marketing strategy that southwest airlines had was the implementation of the "Make Love, Not War" theme. Southwest has been using a heart emblem on all of their aircraft, and using it as a typical symbol for advertising and corporate communications. This strategy I think means that southwest has a good relationship with people, the way they satisfy their customers and employees as a impact on some level of care for one another. The caring and building of good relationships I think has definitely been a key factor in the success of southwest airlines.
Another one of southwest's strategies was to use the same type of airplane in all areas of travel. This allows southwest to be somewhat "mass produced" and typical of all of their airplanes. The training for just one type of airplane is easier, and the employees can have a better understanding of the airplane that they use since it is typical. The pilots can also have a better understanding of the airplane itself, in turn making every flight safer. The aircraft that was chosen was also fuel-efficient and had a fast turnaround time. This made the cost for each flight cheaper, and the waiting time less.
A good approach to southwest's mission to get more customers, was the idea of competing with ground transportation. The idea of making the fly actually cheaper than the drive is actually a great approach in getting more customers. Its seems that southwest was the first to have people switch over to flying and actually making it cheaper, and more convenient. Besides waiting in line to get on the plane, there is no traffic in the sky, no stoplights, and the passengers can focus on something other than the actual drive.
Having a competitive advantage was one of southwest's strengths for success. Keeping the costs down significantly, I believe helped southwest get where they are today. A good breakdown showing this was the "cents per mile." In comparison to southwest's competition, their costs were about 20-30 percent lower. This cents per mile is a good breakdown for the analysis. Since it involves the cost of meals, gas, employees, etc. the "cents per mile" is a good thing to try and keep low and is a good measurement for comparison with other companies.
Leadership anywhere is an important for the creation of success. Southwest's leadership kills have contributed to a lot of their accomplishments. Southwest's CEO Herb Kelleher had a great drive for leadership. Without this drive, I believe that southwest would not be the company it is today. In order to be a leader, I think that making good relationships is key. This way everyone who works for you is happy, and in turn makes the customers happy, and eventually leads to success and growth.
The people department is a good way of changing the aspect of human resources. They actually changed the way human resources is from all other companies. I think that their people department should be a fundamental change in the way we organize human resources. The way they have their mission statement as the backbone of the people department is very important.
Recruiting is a very important aspect in making a successful company. The best part of a business is people, and in order to have a good business, recruiting is an essential part of growth. The idea of having a laid back crew is a good idea as well. This way there are no ego battles, and people can come to work relaxed and have fun. The big portion of creating a good work force is the actual training that employees go through. Southwest has actually set up a "University for People" program that teaches the newly hired employees the way southwest does business.
All in all, I believe that the most successful portion of southwest's company is the spirit that they portray to their customers and employees. The southwest spirit has many aspects including: customer service, hard work, equality, cost consciousness, dedication, fun, and family. This way everyone is happy working for southwest, working with southwest, and in turn constantly growing.
At the beginning of southwest airlines' arise, they went through a lot of tough challenges. One of their competitors, continental airlines, created some of the main struggles that southwest airlines had to undergo. Continental kept southwest airlines out of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, and kept southwest in a legal battle that almost shut them out right off the bat. On top of the issues with continental airlines, the wright amendment was aimed at stopping southwest by encouraging traffic through the new Dallas-Fort Worth airport.
One marketing strategy that southwest airlines had was the implementation of the "Make Love, Not War" theme. Southwest has been using a heart emblem on all of their aircraft, and using it as a typical symbol for advertising and corporate communications. This strategy I think means that southwest has a good relationship with people, the way they satisfy their customers and employees as a impact on some level of care for one another. The caring and building of good relationships I think has definitely been a key factor in the success of southwest airlines.
Another one of southwest's strategies was to use the same type of airplane in all areas of travel. This allows southwest to be somewhat "mass produced" and typical of all of their airplanes. The training for just one type of airplane is easier, and the employees can have a better understanding of the airplane that they use since it is typical. The pilots can also have a better understanding of the airplane itself, in turn making every flight safer. The aircraft that was chosen was also fuel-efficient and had a fast turnaround time. This made the cost for each flight cheaper, and the waiting time less.
A good approach to southwest's mission to get more customers, was the idea of competing with ground transportation. The idea of making the fly actually cheaper than the drive is actually a great approach in getting more customers. Its seems that southwest was the first to have people switch over to flying and actually making it cheaper, and more convenient. Besides waiting in line to get on the plane, there is no traffic in the sky, no stoplights, and the passengers can focus on something other than the actual drive.
Having a competitive advantage was one of southwest's strengths for success. Keeping the costs down significantly, I believe helped southwest get where they are today. A good breakdown showing this was the "cents per mile." In comparison to southwest's competition, their costs were about 20-30 percent lower. This cents per mile is a good breakdown for the analysis. Since it involves the cost of meals, gas, employees, etc. the "cents per mile" is a good thing to try and keep low and is a good measurement for comparison with other companies.
Leadership anywhere is an important for the creation of success. Southwest's leadership kills have contributed to a lot of their accomplishments. Southwest's CEO Herb Kelleher had a great drive for leadership. Without this drive, I believe that southwest would not be the company it is today. In order to be a leader, I think that making good relationships is key. This way everyone who works for you is happy, and in turn makes the customers happy, and eventually leads to success and growth.
The people department is a good way of changing the aspect of human resources. They actually changed the way human resources is from all other companies. I think that their people department should be a fundamental change in the way we organize human resources. The way they have their mission statement as the backbone of the people department is very important.
Recruiting is a very important aspect in making a successful company. The best part of a business is people, and in order to have a good business, recruiting is an essential part of growth. The idea of having a laid back crew is a good idea as well. This way there are no ego battles, and people can come to work relaxed and have fun. The big portion of creating a good work force is the actual training that employees go through. Southwest has actually set up a "University for People" program that teaches the newly hired employees the way southwest does business.
All in all, I believe that the most successful portion of southwest's company is the spirit that they portray to their customers and employees. The southwest spirit has many aspects including: customer service, hard work, equality, cost consciousness, dedication, fun, and family. This way everyone is happy working for southwest, working with southwest, and in turn constantly growing.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Chapter 4 - Extra Readings
UA Pilot - Capt. Denny Flanaganis a great example of a superior employee. He goes and personally interacts with the passengers, which I think is a great idea. Every time I have been on a flight, the captain always says a few words at the beginning of the flight about the weather, and never really interacts with anyone. It seems that Captain Flanaganis has made a big impact on many people by just reaching out for a friendly "hello." This reminds me of the first type of personality from the MBTI test. I would definitely say that Captain Flanaganis is an extrovert. He gets energy, and inspiration by speaking and interacting with people. This is a very rare case I would say for pilots, since it seems as though many of them are more introverted. Captain Flanaganis is a good ideal character that every business should have at least one of.
Rules of Engagement - I believe that being happy in the work place is one of the most important factors involving productivity, and having that happy person reflect their own feelings on their customers. This way, as shown in studies, the employees are more productive, and in turn generate more money for the company as a whole. I think that the worst place someone could possibly be is in a job that they do not like. If people could actually breath at work, it seems that they would be more productive in the long run. Some people just don't function if they work 60+ hours a week. As for myself, I actually like to work in bursts of energy. I can run through a ridiculous amount of work in a sort period of time if I have the need/want to do so. I believe that certain people can actually work more in a short period, be more efficient, and happier if they can essentially "breath" at work.
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