GIE 2005: Make Your Company World-Class

High-energy Executive Educator John Spence is known for “making the very complex awesomely simple.” At the 2005 Professional Landcare Network Green Industry Conference, held in conjunction with the Green Industry Expo, he was true to his word. Simplifying his usually eight-hour executive class “Excellence By Design: Leadership,” into a dynamic 90-minute presentation, Spence energized – and frustrated – conference attendees with a look at what it takes to become a world-class business.

“My goal is to help you run your life and business better immediately,” Spence told conference attendees. “We’re going to talk about fundamental strategies of world-class companies and how to lead them – and I take this very seriously. Admittedly, I’m not an expert and I don’t know your industry as well as I should, but I’m going to give you the best information I can and put the dots as close together as possible. After that, it’s up to you to connect them.”

Setting up the dots started with a self-assessment during which Spence said attendees needed to be “brutally honest” with themselves. In this Organizational Effectiveness Audit, attendees rated themselves in numerous different areas on a scale of 1 to 10. Spence says scores of 9 or 10 mean the company is already world-class; a 7 or 8 is good, though there’s room for some improvement; 5 or 6 is the “caution” area and an indication that more progress needs to be made; items scoring 3 or 4 are in the “danger” zone and need immediate attention and management; and a score of 1 or 2 means those areas of the business are in emergency situations and should be priorities for company management.

Throughout the 90-minute session, attendees scored themselves on three different self-assessments and Spence noted that he could feel some frustration building. “If you’re really being honest with you’re answers, you’re probably seeing a lot of low scores in your self-assessments and that’s no fun,” he says. “I know you’re thinking, ‘John, you’ve ticked me off. I’m seeing a lot of 3s, 4s and 5s and I came here to be happy and motivated about my business and you’ve ticked me off. But take these assessments back to your office, give them to all your managers and then compare scores. You’re going to see a lot of interesting things – either items where people have vastly different scores, which gives you a chance to discuss what you’re doing right and what needs to be improved, or a lot of similar scores for the same items and if they’re low, that tells you where your priorities should be.”

To help attendees think about specific ways to improve different aspects of their businesses, Spence highlighted four top-in-their-field companies that, he says, have world-class systems in place. Here’s a look at those companies and why they’re so successful:

MICROSOFT

• Total World Domination. “This is Microsoft’s vision statement,” Spence says, “and with $63 billion in cash-on-hand and a $33 billion dividend in 2004, they’re living it.”
• The Top 5 Percent. Focusing on talent, Spence says Microsoft hires only the top 5 percent of people in their fields, from the janitorial staff on up, noting that company founder Bill Gates once said of his own success, “I just figured I’d hire people who were smarter than me and everything would work out all right.” 
• Bet the Company. Spence says Microsoft continually pushes itself to innovate by taking risks and betting on its talent to pull the company through. 
• Require Failure. “Believe it or not, if you work at Microsoft and you go a year without failing, they put you on probation,” Spence says. “Their philosophy is that if you don’t fail, it means you’re not taking risks and if you’re not taking risks, it won’t allow the company to continue dominating the world.” Granted, Microsoft wont’ let any of its employees take a risk that would dramatically hurt the company, but taking chances keeps the company innovative.
• Managers Are Qualified. Spence says Microsoft ensures that all managers are able to do their own employees’ jobs so everyone has a true understanding of the business they’re in.
• Perform, Perform, Perform. “Because the company focuses on talent, they don’t care if you have a pierced nose and blue hair,” Spence says. “They embrace diversity, as long as everyone on staff is talented.”
• Shrimps vs. Weenies. Microsoft doesn’t spend a lot of money on a fleet of corporate jets or ultra-modern office space, Spence says. Rather than try and impress everyone else in the marketplace, all employees below the CEO level fly coach, forgo personalized stationary and model their own offices after the customer service department.
• Stop the Insanity. Every successful company needs a break and must run as efficiently as possible. At the end of each year, Microsoft, Spence says, takes all time cards, e-mails, reports and other documents that didn’t add value to company and hold a giant bonfire to eliminate it all. “Think of it this way,” Spence says, “The next time you and your top managers are in a business meeting, think about the thousands of dollars of salary that are tied up in that conference room. If you’re not getting thousands of dollars of benefit from that meeting to apply to your business, don’t do it.”

CHARLIE TROTTER’S. This Chicago, Ill. restaurant, rated best in the world by more cuisine connoisseurs more often than any other restaurant, has revenue of $250,000 to $400,000 a week. That’s not a typo. Chefs at Charlie Trotter’s have $1 million salaries and an experienced server can make $80,000 annually plus benefits. The restaurant is booked 7 to 9 months in advance and has a 3-year waiting list for chefs looking for a chance to work at the esteemed establishment. If you’re called up to work in the kitchen, there’s a 90-percent chance you won’t last 10 days, purely because of the grueling level of excellence – a level Spence says you didn’t know could be accomplished.

• Hire Only the Best. Like Microsoft, Spence says Charlie Trotter’s hires only the best candidates in their field. “I know business owners will say, ‘But I can’t afford to hire only the best,’” he says. “Just remember that the best people don’t necessarily work for money. You do have to compensate them fairly, but if they get to work with neat people in a place where they share the same values as the company and they have fun and challenging projects, they’ll do great work.”
• Teamwork & Communication. Spence notes that everyone at Charlie Trotter’s is responsible for the success of the restaurant and that honest and open communication is essential. “If a server happens to notice that the broccoli is the wrong shade of green, he or she is responsible for saying to the chef, ‘This broccoli is the wrong color, we have to replace,’” he says. “The chef has no room to gripe or tell that person off because he knows, too, that the restaurant has a certain standard of what color broccoli should be and if he hasn’t met that standard, it needs to be fixed.”
• Highest Standards. “This is one of the ways the restaurant has dominated,” Spence says. “For instance, the place settings are set to the millimeter and everyone who works at Charlie Trotter’s carries around a ruler and knows the standard of excellence of a place setting. That means if the new dishwasher sees something wrong, he fixes it. If Charlie Trotter himself sees it, he fixes it. There’s no argument because it’s not something arbitrary that’s being discussed – they’re facts of the restaurant’s standards.”
• Innovation. In order to keep customers on their toes, Charlie Trotter’s is known for never having the same menu twice, Spence says. A test kitchen in the restaurant is always a step ahead, preparing the next day’s plates, new desserts and everything else. All of these steps are focused on one mission: 
• Truly Delight Customers.

Spence also went on to talk about standards of excellence at IBM and Toyota. At the end of his presentation, he asked attendees to think about all the steps these companies had taken toward becoming world class and see what can be taken away, even on a smaller scale, to help bring green industry businesses a step closer to that standard of excellence.

“What can you steal from Microsoft or Charlie Trotter’s to make your organization better,” Spence asked. “Can you work on hiring only the best? Can you make an effort to outline specific standards of excellence for the services you offer – what the work should look like, for instance? How can you start innovating in order to separate yourself from your competitors and keep delighting your customers?”

The slides from Spence’s presentation are available on his Web site, www.johnspence.com. Additionally, PDF versions of Spence’s Organizational Effectiveness Audits are available on the Lawn & Landscape Web site by clicking the links in the sidebar at right.

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