Change is inevitable. The formula that drove a company to success in the past is not necessarily the same formula that will drive its growth in the future. Holding on to the secret sauce that got you here is a sure recipe for disaster.

Film based cameras drove Kodak to the peak of its success. Holding on to that same formula was what drove them to near extinction. Founded in 1888 by George Eastman and Henry Strong, it amassed a huge market following. When digital cameras started entering its market, Kodak dismissed it as a mere fad. They felt they were too big to fail. From 2003 to 2011, Kodak had to shed 47,000 jobs. They closed 13 manufacturing plants and 130 processing labs. It had not made profit since 2004 and were eating through its cash reserves.

In January 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection. It was never the same again. Holding on to the formula that drove their success caused their downfall.

The same thing almost happened to the giant IBM. Leasing Mainframe computers drove its massive success worldwide. Big Blue was thought of too big to fail as well. Computers started to shrink in size and grow in processing power. The economies of scale started dropping the price of mini-computers and servers that became accessible to companies. There was a massive exodus of customers that almost bankrupted the computer giant. As IBM’s CEO & Chairman from 1993 to 2002, Lou Gerstners management and leadership style helped save the company. It was under his leadership that IBM moved away from its original cash cow of leasing computer boxes and into Technology Services. The leader that saved the company was the first IBM CEO hired outside the company. That was a big leap from its old culture of raising future leaders from the ranks.

Some companies back here in the Philippines are pretty much in a similar boat. Companies that grew to significant success are often the hardest ones to change. They often have difficulty letting go of the formula that got them to where they are right now. Even the way a start-up is grown into a significant player in the market can have challenges. In the early days start-up’s can make rapid decisions because it is usually centered on one or two people – the founders. Decisions are quick, customer service is intimate with a few clients in the beginning. Activities are personally overseen and micro-managed by the founders.

Years pass by and the company grows into a significant size. The group of 4-5 employees grew into an army of 5,000 to 8,000. Decisions slow down. Micromanaging starts to affect customer service. Delivery dates start to slip. Uncollected accounts receivables starts to balloon. Cash flow starts getting affected.

The same formula that helped grow a start-up is the same formula that’s causing their downfall. Management model must change. Professional managers need to be brought in. Processes needs documentations, job descriptions need to be designed, goals must be cascaded, performance dashboards need to be created and reviewed.

Companies needs to transform every so often to survive and even thrive in the marketplace.

In changing times like these, companies often need to bring outsiders to help assess and map out a plan. Companies such ours come in and help transform organizations. From succession development to organizational development, companies can often benefit from outsiders that can tell you exactly as it is. No agenda, no frills, just plain truth. An honest view with recommendations on how to transform can make a big difference.

What got your company to where you are in your industry? Will it bring you the same level of success in the next 5, 10, 15 years?

Customer service, customer obsession, customer experience are buzz words that are prevalent now-a-days. It is very important, even critical, for companies to be customer centric. No customers means no revenues. Simply, the goal is to attract customers, keep them coming back and get them to refer us to their friends.

However, we sometimes fail in our delivery of service. What do we do then? How do we recover irate customers? Customers that we failed to service correctly. We have two options; we recover them or we don’t.

We were at Pizza Hut Robinsons Galleria three days ago. Our experience with that branch was terrible. A spoon drops in front of a server as she finishes taking our order. She simply ignores it, does not bother picking the spoon from the floor and walks away. We needed to remind them about the mushroom soups we ordered. The soup (appetizer) was not served at the start of the meal but in the middle. The chicken we ordered was served after we finished our large size pizzas – two of them in fact. As expected, we could not eat the chicken we ordered anymore.

As we were leaving we passed by the restaurant manager who’s back was turned to us. He did not bother thanking us for coming. The restaurant manager was busy scrolling through his Facebook account.

Yesterday, we went to a newly opened restaurant – DC Superheroes Café. It was the first day of their soft opening. As expected, we faced a lot of issues. However, the difference in service recovery between the Café and Pizza Hut was glaring. Pizza Hut did not bother recovering their unhappy customers.

DC Superheroes Café clearly showed great effort apologizing for their short-comings and making up for it. The owners themselves walked over to apologize and asked for our suggestions. The servers kept their smiles as they tried their best to cope up with the process inefficiencies. By the end of our meal, the owner of the Café had become chummy with our ten-year-old son. As we left we are more forgiving of the issues we faced with DC Superheroes Café. We will be dropping by again the next time we are in SM MegaMall.

Customer Service Recovery at its best and worst. Service Recovery makes for a huge difference in customer experience.

Do you have a Service Recovery policy or process in place?

If there is one thing that a first-time manager or leader needs to comprehend deep in their heart is that we are only as good as our people. Jack Welch, one of the best management gurus, rightfully said that 80% of a great manager’s job is people.

A great manager spends most of his/her time interviewing and screening candidates, mentoring high potential employees, providing performance feedback, developing people, motivating the team, understanding their needs, providing them the necessary information to perform their jobs.

It is quite unfortunate that today’s managers and leaders do not spend enough time on people. Their lack of attention and focus on developing their people creates a vicious circle. Since they do not spend time developing their people, they end up doing their direct reports job. When they do their direct reports job, their direct reports do not develop. When their direct reports stagnate, they cannot perform as expected. Since they cannot perform as expected, their boss (you) end up doing their jobs and back to square one again.

We often think that doing the job of our employee is faster than taking the time developing our direct reports to do the tasks. We think that if we delegate the work, they will probably do a bad job and we will end-up re-doing the work. Our false logic dictates that if this is the case then we might as well save time and do the job myself.

Great managers think long term. Great leaders think about sustainable solutions and not just band aids. When we spend time and a lot of effort developing our direct reports, we are investing in a better future for us and the company. Eventually, our direct reports will do such a great job that we can set them on auto-pilot. This will allow us the time to do what we should be doing, leading and developing our people.

You and your company cannot go wrong when you focus on your people agenda 0 selecting, developing and promoting the right people.

Another way of looking at the old saying ‘Practice what you preach’ is ‘Practice what you learn.’ Far too often, we sit down in a classroom type training learning something new. However, we seldom put the new-found knowledge into practice. This is such a waste of time, money, resource and opportunity to improve.

After returning to the Philippines five years ago, one glaring practice I noticed about training companies is that they have this ‘training hit & run’ approach. These training companies provide classroom trainings but fail to consider the sustainability of the lesson in real life. Such training companies do this either in a public workshop or in a more contained corporate training setting. Knowledge retention with such approach is very low. People usually go back to business as usual and gradually forget what they learned.

AGMC, the company we set-up, has a different approach. After we conduct our ‘classroom training’ the learning process does not end there. Participants have an assignment to use what they learn in their day-to-day work. Three or four weeks after the classroom training, we reconvene and the participants share their experience using their new competencies.

Participants report on the work situation where the skill was used. They are also required to analyze the situation and report on their insights. It is only now, after the discussions, that they receive their certifications.

This is not a new approach to sustainable learning. It has been used abroad for some time now. Locally, when you take up a Lean Six Sigma program, the participant is required to have an actual work project proving the use of the lessons learned. They identify a challenging problem at work and use the tools and lessons they learned to fix the problem. The participant then proceeds and analyzes the financial benefits of the project and present/defend it to a panel. Only when they prove that they effectively used their newly acquired competency will they get their Lean Six Sigma Certification.

To all training companies back here. Let us design our programs as sustainable competency development programs and not as a one-shot deal. When a customer calls us again for a development program, it should be for a new competency. Getting a call to come back and re-train people for a competency that did not stick simply means we failed.

Let me take a few minutes to share lessons from an interesting interview with the founder of Amazon.com. A few minutes into the discussion at the Internet Association Gala 2017, Jeff Bezos, shares the secrets of Amazon’s success. The beauty behind the success of most great companies is that the reasons are so simple. The secrets are so obvious, you can hardly consider them secrets. Amazons secret sauce is the same.

Jeff outlined a few very simple principles behind Amazon’s success. These principles earned him the title of the richest man in America for the first-time.

1) Amazons culture does not simply focus on customer experience. They turn this statement into a passion with a focus on ‘Customer Obsession.’ There are different models that different companies use instead like; competitor obsession, product obsession, industry obsession and so on.

2) Even if customers are happy, they still want something better. It is Amazon’s job to constantly invent new things that provide an even better customer experience.

3) Don’t focus on the short term, have a long-term view. Have a five-year view. Don’t just look at having a good next Quarter. He mentioned that quarter results are already baked. Quarter results are based on management decisions years ago. Focusing on the future changes the way you plan and focus your energy.

4) Experimentation and failing is supported in Amazon. Innovation goes together with customer obsession.

5) Identify 2-3 big ideas and force great execution. For Amazon, it’s low prices, fast delivery, and vast selection. Ten years from today no customer in his right mind would go to Amazon and request a slower delivery. No customer will request for higher prices and less selection. These are obvious things. Big ideas are often so obvious that we don’t see them.

6) Most overnight success takes about ten years. Hard work and perseverance is needed to create an ‘overnight’ success.

Companies cannot claim that their Invention is disruptive. New products and services are not and cannot be disruptive. Only customer acceptance is disruptive. Why are customers going to like it? Why would customers buy your product or service?

Lots of people dispense advise and tips. However, when the tip comes from someone valued at $109 Billion running a 22-year-old company valued at $702.5 Billion then one thing is for certain. The tip may be worth thinking about from the perspective of our own companies.

Social media is a great tool to connect and remain connected with your friends and love ones. It is also a great source of current events. Social media, specifically Facebook or FB, has become part of our daily lives. We use it to keep tabs on what our friends and relatives are up to. We post events, thoughts and photos to share with our network. One fascinating benefit of using Facebook is being able to find and reach out to long lost classmates, colleagues and childhood friends. Friends that would be impossible to find if not for Facebook.

We check our Facebook account before we go to bed. For some of us, the first thing we pick-up after we wake-up is our smartphone to check the latest updates on FB. We have a nice dinner with friends and half the people around the table are hunched over swiping their FB account.

Like any other tool, FB can be good and bad for us. Bad, if used more than it should be. Too much use of FB can stifle social skills. When I was younger, my brothers and I used to run out of the house to get together with other kids in the neighborhood. This helped develop a few things; our social skills and ability to read body language, our communication skills, our body through physical activities with other kids. Today, the digital world has lessened the need for kids to physically interact with one another. I have encountered people in their 20’s that are socially awkward. They do not know how to carry themselves or interact with others.

Kids have less physical activities than before. Instead of being out of the house playing physical sports, they are stuck in front of iPads or big screen TV’s playing video games. The only muscle they develop are their fingers.

FB is also used as a sounding board for negative people that live to rant and complain. It is also used to make some people’s lives look more glamourous and exciting than it is. A huge percentage of photos are selfies. Some users are even obsessed over how many likes their selfies draw.

Facebook is neither good or bad. It’s simply a medium for expression and sharing. Like any tool, it is how we use it that makes it either good or bad.

You want to share a memorable moment? Go ahead and share the moment with your friends and love ones. I do this all the time. Just be conscious if your use of FB has become an addiction or obsession.

How can you tell if you are addicted? If Facebook is the first thing you regularly check when you wake up in the morning then there is a problem. If you get upset when your selfie does not get huge ‘likes’ then definitely something is wrong. If you constantly rant on Facebook about everything that irks you then you might need to abstain from logging in for a while.

Facebook is very useful if used properly. Use it properly.

We have no other talent pool to take from. We have no other pool to select successors for key positions in your company. In the next few years, we will only have the Millennial pool to pick and develop talent from.

When it comes to Generation Y or Millennials, we have three choices:
1. We Villainize them. We choose to brand them as the corporate enemy refusing or incapable of doing things our way.
2. We Tolerate them. We choose to treat them as a necessary evil.
3. We Engage them. We adjust and develop them to be future leaders and managers.

Frankly, if we were to make sure that our company survives and even thrives after the Baby Boomers and Gen-X have left, then we only have option #3.

It is not easy and that is exactly why we developed a management development program called ‘Understanding and Managing Millennials”. The program, designed for supervisors and managers, is a combination of a one day classroom lecture with a 30 day on the job assignment and mentoring.

If your company has such Millennial challenges, then please have your assistant reach out to us. We will be more than happy to drop by and discuss the matter with you.

We also encourage you to read the article below.

11 Tips for Managing Millennials BY SUSAN M. HEATHFIELD

The millennials joining your workforce now are employees born between 1980 and 2000, or 1981 and 1999, depending on the source. Unlike the Gen-Xers and the Baby Boomers, the Millennials have developed work characteristics and tendencies from doting parents, structured lives, and contact with diverse people.

Millennials are used to working in teams and want to make friends with people at work. Millennial employees work well with diverse coworkers.

They grew up in an environment in which diverse children were the norm.

Millennials have a can-do attitude about tasks at work and look for feedback about how they are doing frequently—even daily and certainly weekly. Millennials want a variety of tasks and expect that they will accomplish every one of them. Positive and confident, millennials are ready to take on the world.

They seek leadership, and even structure, from their older and managerial coworkers, but expect that you will draw out and respect their ideas. Millennials seek a challenge and do not want to experience boredom. Used to balancing many activities such as teams, friends, and philanthropic activities, millennials want flexibility in scheduling and a life away from work.

Millennials need to see where their career is going and they want to know exactly what they need to do to get there. Millennials await their next challenge—and there better be a next challenge.

Millennials are the most connected generation in history and they will network right out of their current workplace if these diverse needs are not met. Computer experts, millennials are connected all over the world by email, instant messages, text messages, and the internet. Job searching, business contacts, and friends are just a couple of key taps away.

Know this because it really matters to millennials.

11 Tips for Millennial Management

1. Provide structure. Reports have monthly due dates. Jobs have fairly regular hours. Certain activities are scheduled every day. Meetings have agendas and minutes. Goals are clearly stated and progress is assessed. Define assignments and success factors. Millennials don’t need to be boxed in but they do need banks on their pond.

2. Provide leadership and guidance. Millennials want to look up to you, learn from you, and receive daily feedback from you. They want in on the whole picture and to know the scoop. Plan to spend a lot of time teaching and coaching and be aware of this commitment to millennials when you hire them. They deserve and want your very best investment of time in their success.

3. Encourage the millennial’s self-assuredness, “can-do” attitude, and positive personal self-image. Millennials are ready to take on the world. Their parents told them they can do it—and they can. Encourage—don’t squash them or contain them. They’re always looking to provide input and ideas. Encourage them to voice their thoughts and opinions.

4. Take advantage of the millennial’s comfort level with teams. Encourage them to join teams and provide a work environment that stresses teamwork. They are used to working in groups and teams. In contrast to the lone ranger attitude of earlier generations, millennials actually believe a team can accomplish more and better—they’ve experienced team success. Not just related to age, watch who joins the volleyball match at the company picnic. Millennials gather in groups and play on teams; you can also mentor, coach, and train your millennials as a team.

5. Listen to the millennial employee. Your millennial employees are used to loving parents who have scheduled their lives around the activities and events of their children. These young adults have ideas and opinions and don’t take kindly to having their thoughts ignored. After all, they had the best listening, the most child-centric audience in history.

6. Millennial employees are up for a challenge and change. Boring is bad. They seek ever-changing tasks within their work. What’s happening next is their mantra. Don’t bore them, ignore them, or trivialize their contribution.

7. Millennial employees are multi-taskers on a scale you’ve never seen before. Multiple tasks don’t phase them. Talk on the phone while doing email and answering multiple instant messages—yes! This is a way of life. In fact, without many different tasks and goals to pursue within the week, the millennials will likely experience boredom.

8. Take advantage of your millennial employee’s computer, cell phone, and electronic literacy. Are you a Boomer or even an early Gen-Xer? The electronic capabilities of these employees are amazing. You have a salesman in China? How’s the trip going? Old timers call and leave a message in his hotel room. Or, you can have your millennial text message him in his meeting for an immediate response. The world is wide, if not yet deep, for your millennial employees.

9. Capitalize on the millennial’s affinity for networking. Not just comfortable with teams and group activities, your millennial employee likes to network around the world electronically. Keep this in mind because they are able to post their resume electronically as well on web job boards viewed by millions of employers. They intermingle on sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn and rate your company at Glassdoor.com. Sought after employees, they are loyal, but they keep their options open—always.

10. Provide a life-work balanced workplace. Your millennials are used to cramming their lives with multiple activities. They may play on sports teams, walk for multiple causes, spend time as fans at company sports leagues, and spend lots of time with family and friends. They work hard, but they are not into the sixty hour work weeks defined by the Baby Boomers. Home, family, spending time with the children and families, are priorities. Don’t lose sight of this. Balance and multiple activities are important to these millennial employees. Ignore this at your peril.

11. Provide a fun, employee-centered workplace. Millennials want to enjoy their work. They want to enjoy their workplace. They want to make friends in their workplace. Worry if your millennial employees aren’t laughing, going out with workplace friends for lunch, and helping plan the next company event or committee. Help your long-term employees make room for the millennials.
By internet research counts, 75,000,000 millennials are joining the workforce—in 2015 they became the majority of your workers. These are desirable employees. Make your millennial employees happy in a fun, yet structured setting, and you are building the foundation for the superior workforce you desire. You are developing the workforce of your future.

As always, when characterizing a particular group of employees based on age, or any other special characteristic, some employees will fit this description; some employees will fit a part of this description; some employees will not fit this description at all.

Yet, if you heed these tips, you will steer your organization forward, more times than not, with a positive approach to managing your millennial employees.

https://www.thebalance.com/tips-for-managing-millennials-1918678

I guess, here in the Philippines, employees really find it difficult to separate their personal feelings from work. You hear stories about managers personally reacting to their staff. Once you are out of favor from your manager, you suddenly find yourself at the sideline of the career track watching colleagues pass by you.

It also works both ways. When you dislike your manager, you will find yourself internally disagreeing with everything he wants done. Of course, to his face, you agree to his instructions only to find your motivation drop as you try and execute his wishes.

We Filipinos, are quick to mix our personal and work life. When I was still working back here in Far East Bank and Trust, I thought that this way of work was simply the norm. I did not know at the time that there is a better approach to working. I did not know what I did not know.

That was my mind set until I was fortunate enough to work for the largest commercial Bank in the Middle East, The National Commercial Bank. I was also fortunate enough to report to western expats; British, American and even Swiss Managers. It was at that time I realized you can separate both work and personal feelings. I realized that separating the two produces a better working environment.

I remember reporting to a career executive from Barclays Bank, Mr. Dave Jones. It was under his management that I learned a lot about true professional management.

There was an instance, I could never forget, when one of my managers came to me for help. Abdullah’s mother was in the hospital due to a terrible illness. Due of her extensive hospital and medical needs, Abdullahs HMO coverage had been fully used up.

Abdullah came to my office seeking for a personal loan on top of his existing personal loan. The Bank had a policy against ‘top-up’ loans. To ensure that personal loans are properly paid up and employees don’t get buried under a ton of personal loans, a policy was released disallowing top-up loans.

However, should a Department head (me) and a Division head (Dave) approve the top-up loan, HR will process it.

Arabs like Filipinos, are very close to parents. I could relate to what Abdullah was going through. I decided to sign the request. Of course, Dave needed to countersign as well to make it official.

I walked into Dave’s office so confident that he would also sign off on the request. After all, Dave also has a mother I assumed. I sat down on the chair beside his office meeting table. Dave stood up and walked over. I handed him the request and explained the situation. After reading it in silence for a few minutes, he placed the request down on the meeting table. He took off his reading glasses and looked at me. One word came out of his mouth ‘no’.

I was surprised and asked ‘Sorry Dave, no? We cannot grant Adbdullahs top-up request?’ Dave said that what Abdullah was going through is very unfortunate. However, he cannot grant the request. He explained further that breaking policy is the biggest cause of demotivation in a company. People will talk and say, ‘how come his requested got approved and mine was not’. Employees will think there is favoritism. That is always counterproductive.

Dave said that just because we should not break policy (work) it does not mean we cannot help. He pulls out SR2,000 or P22,000 and puts inside a brown envelop (personal). Dave instructs me to pass the envelope around and raise money for Abdullahs mother.

We really need to be observant on separating personal feelings from work. Dave mentioned several times, throughout the years I was reporting to him, that he may not like someone personally but it does not mean he will not work with him.

You don’t have to bring your colleague out for coffee or drinks after work but if you need to work with him/her then you work with him/her. Period.

Separate personal and work life. Your day will be much better for it.