August 2010 | Bigg Success

Monthly Archives: August 2010

The Key to Thrilling Your Customers

Written on August 19, 2010 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Business

key The prosecuting attorney – Captain Jack Ross – jumped up to begin his cross examination. He opened his brief case and grabbed three books. He tossed them on the table in front of him.

___

Hear George & Mary-Lynn discuss business systems & culture on The Bigg Success Show! Click the player to listen [3:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

___

He approached the witness, a young Marine who served with the defendants. The defendants were on trial for the murder of another Marine, Private First Class William Santiago.

Their defense? They just followed orders for a code red, an extreme form of discipline.

Ross asked the witness to find the description of code red in any of his books. The witness said it wasn’t in writing anywhere.

Satisfied, Ross proclaimed, “No further questions.”

The defense lawyer – Lieutenant Junior Grade Daniel Kaffee – rose and walked over to the table where Ross had just sat down. He grabbed one of the books and asked the witness to show him where the men’s mess hall was.

The witness replied that it wasn’t in writing either.

“How do you know where it is then,” Kaffee asked.

The witness answered, “I guess I just followed the crowd at chow time, sir.”

You may recognize this story from A Few Good Men. It illustrates that every organization has both systems and culture.

Systems
As your business grows, it reaches the point where you – the owner – can’t directly control it all anymore.

It’s too BIGG.
Too much going on.
Too many touchpoints.
Too many transactions.
Too many people.

The written code
You have to implement systems. Entrepreneurs resist systems. It’s not in our nature.

But systems help us make sure we continue to deliver for our customers even though we don’t deal with them directly. Systems also help employees know what’s expected of them so they can do their jobs to the best of their ability.

Systems are the written code. They aren’t designed to limit your people. They’re designed to define the minimum acceptable level of performance for them.

Culture
You may have put systems in place. But every organization also has an unwritten code – your culture. It’s even more important than your systems.

Like the young Marine on the witness stand, people follow the crowd. Your culture is defined by what the crowd is doing.

You can’t sit in the executive suite and build a culture. You can sanction systems. You can’t sanction culture. Culture is cultivated. It develops with or without you. Ignore it at your own peril.

If you want to have a say about your culture, you’ll have to make an investment of your time in your people. Share your vision and values.

Then live them because your company’s culture develops day-by-day. It is sustained or destroyed with every decision made and every action taken by:

1. you the entrepreneur
2. your fellow executives
3. other leaders in your organization – including those without the title

Your systems help you satisfy customers. Your culture helps you thrill them. That’s BIGG success!

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00620-081920.mp3

(Image in today's post by stock xchng)

0 Comments

Banking on Popcorn for BIGG Success

Written on August 17, 2010 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Success Stories

popcorn cart The banker had never seen an economy like this one. He had prospered for years. Happy times were here again! Life couldn’t be better …

… then it happened.

___

Hear George & Mary-Lynn talk about popcorn on The Bigg Success Show! Click the player to listen [3:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

___

The boom turned to bust.

The Roaring Twenties led into the Great Depression.

He had never seen an economy like this one.
The market crash created a wave of fear.
The customers of his bank rushed in.
He didn’t have the reserves to satisfy them.
His bank failed.

He failed.
He had lost everything.
His life was in complete shambles.
He had to find some way out of the hole he was in now.

The first necessary ingredient for BIGG success
There are five elements of BIGG success – money, time, growth, work and play. The banker didn’t have any money. He did have plenty of time on his hands.

And he had something even more important:

Hope

Hope that tomorrow would be better than today.
Hope that he could work out of the hole he was in.
Hope that he could get back some of what he had lost.

Hope is just an unpopped kernel
Hope isn’t good enough. It’s like an unpopped kernel of popcorn – necessary to the process but not usable. Pop it and it can be used for food. In some cultures, it’s also been used for adornment.

But just laying there – all by itself – it doesn’t do anybody any good. You have to blend it with the oil of belief. Then you have to put it over the heat of action. And give it some time.

Before long, a kernel will pop. Then another one. Then a bunch together. They will keep popping for a while.

Eventually, you have to remove the corn from the heat. Some kernels will remain unpopped – not every hope pops. Most hope does with belief, action and time.

An idea pops for the banker
During the heights of the Great Depression, the banker noticed something interesting:

People couldn’t afford many of the luxuries they had grown accustomed to during the Roaring Twenties …

… but everyone could afford popcorn!

There was another trend that the banker hoped to capitalize on:

Movies

In spite of predictions that no one would spend money on movies during bad times, it was a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment for the whole family.

They were also chic now because you could actually hear the actors talk!

A shop that pops
The banker bought a popcorn machine and set up shop in a small store close to a movie theater. Theaters didn’t sell popcorn back then.

But people wanted it. In fact, they would often sneak out of the theater to buy it.

The banker’s popcorn business thrived!

Within just a couple of years, he was able to buy back the farms he had lost. He was a BIGG success!

“Of course life is bizarre. The more bizarre it gets, the more interesting it is. The only way to approach it is to make yourself some popcorn and enjoy the show.” ~ Author unknown

Thanks to Popcorn.org for the story about the banker.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00619-081710.mp3

(Image in today's post by lumix2004)