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Conversations for Action...the power training with the secret keys to effective communication Newsletter for Success Golf and
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20 percent companies the Three Rules A few weeks ago I was on a Thursday night Southwest Airline flight returning from a trip to Houston. As I sat in one of the areas with six seats, facing each other, I remembered another great trip. It was a Friday and like this trip I was coming back to Dallas, with a check from a client. The folks sitting in theses lounge areas where all ready to get home, tired, but in a good mood. We would get home on time and a crowded flight was having fun. Just after take off, on that long ago flight, the crew announced a game of "biggest hole in the sock." The winner would get a prize that could be shared by the row. We did not win, but we all had a good laugh. There are about 36 seats facing each other on the plane with 150 to 180 seats. That means about 20% of the flight was like my group on the trip from Houston, folks having fun and telling friends about the "hole in the the sock" contest. You can't pay for this type of word of mouth advertising - it is part of the reason why Southwest with 20% of the planes in the airline industry earns 80% of the profit. Rule 1 80/20 rules apply to every aspect of life The reason Southwest can train their staff to have fun is they do a great job of their first job loading a plane quickly and getting it off on time. The first rule of business is to get your job done. The problem for some people is they do not get the JOB done. For example, Southwest is not a cheap ticket airline. What it does takes too long to say in a single sentence. It is a concept airline not a kind of airline. What does Concept vs. kind mean? What people that separate themselves from other companies do is find something that drives people crazy and they fix it. These business people fix the anomaly of life and in so doing change the way people live. For example, a Post it Note is not a kind of tape nor is it a 3x5 card. The concept is about sticking notes to things. A post it note proves you don't have to be flashy or sexy to get to be number one. What you have to do is be effective and make sure your customers enjoy the experience of doing business with you. The rules of being a 20 percent company are not like the Ten Commandments or a traffic sign. Each of the three rules covers the concept or a set of benchmarks to compare you company. Southwest started with two planes flying back and forth between Dallas and Houston. For the first 15 years, WalMart did not open a single store in a town that had more than 25,000 residents. Both companies are plodders getting a job done and keeping their customers happy. Where else do the rules apply? In 2003 I completed a program as a Master Gardener via Texas A&M university. In my studies I have found many ways that you can produce more vegetables or flowers with less land and less water, if you follow the concepts of building the soil and properly maintaining the garden. People that are in a hurry grow too fast, burn out too soon and they never become masters. Having a two or three year soil plan for a garden is important. A winery needs years for the vines to grow. Life is a metaphor on many topics - golf, selling, gardening or cooking; the masters of any of these skills use the same rules, what is lost for most people is how common are the rules. If you learn them you surpass the lazy people in life. In golf a number of studies show that the short game and course management can improve a golf score often by at least 20%. The wedge and a putter produce for a good golfer the same 20% advantage as that of WalMart or Southwest Airlines over their competitors. It is a concept that requires you to think from a bigger point of view. Competition makes us worthy. Go to a grocery store and if you look carefully you will find that 80% of the products in the store have been created or reformulated in the past ten years, but 20% of the products still produce 80% of the profit. These rules have not changed in 25 years. next page here are testimonials sent to me from some 20% companies (PDF format) All coaching or training programs are done either on the phone, online or in person. You chose what works for you. Some people start with a Best Year Ever training and coaching. |
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