Learning After Doing

Ambition

I often wonder if I am alone in my ambition, but came across this in Wikipedia today that I think is good reading for all managers of young, talented, ambitious future leaders. I think many of us feel this way, feel the need to have accomplishments as we compare to those who have gone before us.

Caesar was elected quaestor by the Assembly of the People in 69 BC, at the age of 30, as stipulated in the Roman cursus honorum. This office brought with it membership in the senate. He drew the lots and was assigned with a quaestorship in Hispania Ulterior, a Roman province roughly situated in modern Portugal and southern Spain. As an administrative and financial officer, the trip was largely uneventful, but while in Hispania he had the now famous encounter with a statue of Alexander the Great. Perhaps because of his weakened emotional state coupled with a growing and now obvious personal ambition, he had a definitive and prophetic reaction to the site of the statue. At the temple of Hercules in Gades, it was said that he either broke down and cried or at the very least was deeply saddened in reaction to it. When asked why he would react so, he responded: "Do you think I have not just cause to weep, when I consider that Alexander at my age had conquered so many nations, and I have all this time done nothing that is memorable."

Mutual Respect

Crucial Conversations is one of those books that I think will have a major impact on my ability to communicate with others successfully. As an engineer, this is one of my weakest points.

In discussing how to have a crucial conversation, the author suggests it is critical to share with the other party not only a mutual purpose but mutual respect. Often, I am guilty of thinking that the other party is incompetent, incapable, or just wrong in the subject area of our discussion. Read briefly:

"Lord, help me forgive those who sin differently than I." When we recognize that we all have weakness, it's easier to find a way to respect others. When we do this, we feel a kinship, a sense of mutuality between ourselves and even the thorniest of people.

Clarity Among Confusion

Standing on 1 nail is painful. Standing on 5000 nails is possible because the pressure (pain) of the 1 nail is lost; the pressure is distributed across all nails making the pressure (pain) of the 1 negligible.

My 1 story is lost among the 5000 stories because the message is lost; the impact of all stories dulls the impact of my story.

It is critical for my story to have impact or the story loses much of its reason for being. (Think how many worthy individual charities or lost in the sea of charities asking for our financial assistance.)

Create a setting for maximum individual impact. The best way is to talk face to face with the target audience and tell them your story personally. Think of it being a grassroots campaign for your message even if you are the only voice.

Having someone walk away from their computer, turn off their television, forward their phone directly to voice-mail and dialog with me guarantees that my story will be heard. The only thing competing for impact is me. My story has the greatest chance for impact because it is alone like the single nail piercing the flesh of my foot.

Know Your Story

After 2 days and 3 different food manufacturers on our business trip, one experience rose to the top. Yesterday morning, we were sitting in a small conference room with 2 meat procurement guys when one asked, "So, what's going on at Tip Top?" In the past, I fumbled for an answer, reached deep into my mind to try to come up with something that sounded half-way decent.

Not this time. I was prepared. I've been reading, thinking, and realizing that Our Story is what will sell us in the end. Our story is compelling; 58 years in business, 3 generations, recruiting an all-star team, transforming from a little slaughter company to a major supplier of protein based ingredients for food manufacturers, innovating to improve their bottom line.

On Sunday night, I stayed up until 2:30 in the morning working on a presentation in the style learned from Lawrence Lessig that was exemplified in a presentation that you should watch. Check out my presentation brand_tip_top_poultry.

WiFi and Air Conditioning

The consultant made an interesting analogy yesterday at the Milwaukee airport. I made the comment that soon it will be commonplace for wireless Internet access (WiFi) to be available free. He remarked, "It will be expected, like air conditioning."

Unfortunately, the announcement on the PA system in the Milwaukee airport announcing airport WiFi coverage perturbed me. Upon firing up my laptop, I discovered that it was "pay to play", with a 24-hour access period costing $9.95. Needless to say, I passed on that opportunity. ($240/month? Shame on Milwaukee airport officials.)

Everyone's In Sales

Here is what I firmly believe. We have had some great sales numbers recently. So, I sent out an e-mail thanking folks because I believe sales is more than just the sales guys. Read to understand:

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HUGE applause to EVERYONE  - OPs, Logistics, R&D, QA - for these HUGE numbers.

Compare the past 4 weeks of sales to the same period in 2004:

RETAIL: up # lbs per week
COOKED FOWL: up # lbs per week
ROLL: up # lbs per week
FAT: up # lbs per week
BROTH: up # lbs per week
MDM: up # lbs per week

Please recall what Kyle said at the annual meeting-"We're all in sales". As the writer Tom Peters says,

"We’re all in sales! That’s one of my recurrent themes.
Or, to make it more personal:
IF YOU CARE, YOU’RE IN SALES.
That is, if your project Matters to you,
if you have a Burning Urge to get it done..."

None of these would have been possible without you and your teams' help!

Recent Photo of the Tip Top Sales Team Giving the Universal Thumbs Up

Lessons from Down Under

Kim Aukland from Gawlei, Austalia

We met Kim this week. She's from Australia, works for Orlando Wyndham, the owner of the Jacob's Creek brand of wines, and is here on "holiday". She manages 20 staff members in the cellar door (wine-tasting visitor's center) who market and sell their brand on location. I sat down after dinner and asked her a couple of questions.

What's the best business advice she ever received? "Treat every day as a new day." Her manager at McDonald's when she was 15 told her this. "If you hold on to the past, you'll never move on to the future."

FYI: The best part about working there is "drinking wine." She suggests the 1996 vintage as the best. She also suggests the 1999 limited release Shiraz-Cabernet. But, her favorite wine overall is the 1998 Jacaranda Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon. Also, one thing you probably never new, Orlando Wyndham controls 2500 hectares of vineyards in Australia (many different brands) but they are owned by the second biggest wine and spirits company in the world, Pernod Ricard. She also is a share holder in Fasta Pasta.

Embrace the Truth

Quotes found on my white board:

• Turbulence from the second floor of a chicken plant.
• Is your office in a tower? I bet you wish it were on top of a slaughter plant.
• Innovation comes when the marbles in your brain (rattling from the whole bird chiller below) align to form a beautiful pattern.
• What's a great day? Completing a deal for 1300 tons of rendered chicken fat.
• Tyson who?
• You sell financing for IPO's? I sell rooster saddles.

NPV of MBA

B-school or not? The subject of endless debate, many make the plunge into B-school but is it worth it?

My dad, with 2 masters degrees, feels very strongly that I should invest my precious time and go to Georgia State. The consultant, with nothing but an undergrad, feels very strongly that I can learn more and get more value out of working and learning on-the-job.

I had no clue (I respect both men), so I started doing some research, asking, talking to friends. I have three foundational thoughts: business school is expensive, if I ever leave the chicken industry it will probably help to have an MBA, but if I stay it doesn't matter at all if I do or don't have that line on my resume.

What is amazing is the shear cost of an MBA. The Net Present Value (NPV) of not going to B-school is $612,004 while the NPV of going to B-school is $558,025. That's a pretty strong case alone (almost $54,000) for not going. Here are the numbers for you to verify.

Tonight, I came across a novel idea: the Personal MBA. The idea is that I determine my future. If I will continue to work, and work hard, but also add some key readings, I can learn the same things that I would in a business school and save a ton of money.

So, I've decided that's my route-the P-MBA. After all, I plan on being in the industry for a while. Therefore, the tag line to the Personal MBA writing applies very well to me. Does it you?

If you care more about increasing your effectiveness at work than a diploma and a few lines on your resume, the Personal MBA is for you.

Every Possible Choice

Choices are great and the blog world we live in allows me to get a podcast or blog posting tailored to exactly my one time impulsive desire. Unfortunately, it's not like that outside of the digital world. Storing bytes on servers is relatively inexpensive, but I disagree with Seth Godin today who said "The cost of offering 40 kinds of cereal is close to zero. The cost to offering 100 kinds of tea is about the same."

1. Offering 40 cereals and 100 teas is novel, but it is inventory. Face it.
2. In the physical world, inventory takes space. 40 types of cereal bought in 12-pack cases is 480 cereal cartons.
3. Consider next that inventory costs money. Money not invested. Money not pocketed.
4. Supply chains have difficulty and incur additional costs when inventories are complex. Just think about the cook having to count each of 100 teas to make sure he won't run short before the next delivery truck arrives.
5. Why only 40 cereals? Why only 100 teas? On Wikipedia, I counted at least 170 cereal brands. Where do you stop?

From a purely marketing perspective, Seth is right on. However, the key to successful marketing is to balance reality and the cost of implementing the image you are portraying. As Mr. Parcher says to Mr. Nash in 'A Beautiful Mind', "Conviction is a luxury of those on the sidelines."