Friday Reflections

"I Sent You to Manila to Solve My Problems, Not Report More..."

POINT TO PONDER

“Just because you reported nine problems and the guy before you seven does not mean you are making progress.”

                                         -Jim Boyd, One of the bosses from my early-days in industry.

 

STORYLINE “ I sent you to Manila to solve problems not come back and report more” -Mr. Dowd

The year was 1980. The large defense contractor I was working for had offered me an expat assignment in Manila. I was invited to attend a presentation by the team that had just returned from Manila after visiting our subcontractor facility.

 

    Listening to the presentation by the leader of the team, it seemed that there were many big problems at the subcontractor site, and there was no end on the horizon. To a newcomer like me, the situation looked very grave.

 

    As the leader was about to end, Mr. Dowd intervened and said, “Let me conclude it for you. I sent you guys to Manila to solve my problems, not come back and report more. I already knew that I had problems before you went, so that's why I asked for you.”

 

    One person from the team said, “But Mr. Dowd, the problems are very complex and difficult.”

 

    To that Mr. Dowd replied ”Yes I know. That is why I asked you to take the project. If they were easy then I would have found someone else and not bothered with you.”

 

REFLECTION 

The story above and many more practical lessons that I learnt after that day from Mr. Dowd, Jim Boyd, and my superiors early on have been so valuable in my life and career. How true that companies hire us because they have problems (aka Challenges) in the first place? The expectations are that we spend time wisely in getting effective and timely solutions. 

 

When Preparation Meets Opportunity.

 

POINT TO PONDER

“A winning effort begins with preparation.”

                                            - Joe Gibbs

STORYLINE by Jim Mulready

Rock guitarist Ronnie Montrose grew up admiring musicians like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Hendrix. Born in San Francisco and reared in Denver, he returned to San Francisco in 1968 to be around the “San Francisco Sound” that was becoming popular at the time. Music was his passion; he practiced in the evening and supported himself doing repair and carpentry jobs during the day. He was the kind of young man most people would think of as “just another starving musician.”

    In 1970, while doing an office remodel, he met promoter Bill Graham who introduced him to his partner and music producer, David Rubinson. Graham and Rubinson ran a small record label at the time (Fillmore Records) and after watching Montrose play with his band, Sawbuck, they signed them to a recording contract. Rubinson was so impressed with Montrose's talent and ambition that he got him some session work with the Pointer Sisters and keyboardist Herbie Hancock. Then came his big break.

    In 1971, Van Morrison was assembling a band for a new album, eventually released as Tupelo Honey. Rubinson secured Montrose an audition and he got the job. After two albums Morrison moved onto another band and Ronny got a job touring with Boz Scaggs for 3 months.

    Now established, Montrose went on to a 40+ year musical career. In addition to forming his own band several times, he played with such bright lights as Sammy Hagar, Edgar Winters, the Neville Brothers, the Beau Brummels, and many others. He continues doing session work for many other performers and recorded countless movie soundtracks.

    He continues touring until his untimely death from prostrate cancer last week, passing at the age of 64 years.

REFLECTION

At some point you will meet someone who will absolutely change the direction of your life. You won't see it coming and you probably won't even realize it while it's happening. Only in hindsight will it become obvious who that person meant. When Ronnie Montrose took that carpentry job remodeling an office, he had no idea who Bill Graham and David Rubinson were, but they saw his talent and gave him a chance.

    Ronnie took care of the preparation by being the best musician he could; Graham and Rubinson provided opportunity. Preparation + Opportunity = Success. What have you done today to prepare yourself? 

 

Am I in Good Hands?

POINT TO PONDER

 

“If your systems are “world class”, why am I still hurting?”

                       

                                    - One customer

 

 

STORY LINE by Anand Shah

 

In early 90s, on my 5^th day at a new company, my boss invited me to join a quarterly review meeting that was to take place with a major computer manufacturer based in Texas. Our sales department had gotten wind of a customer's unhappiness with the performance (a.k.a Quality) of our products. The sales department had alerted our headquarters in the Silicon Valley that it was not going to be a pleasant meeting...

 

    We were loaded and our side consisted of a full entourage; President, various Vice Presidents with their staff members, and some working level people (like me) were in attendance. Twenty minutes into the meeting it was clear that our Sales Forecast was right. The customer was very unhappy with our performance and their internal department had recommended to give us one quarter to shape up or we would be disqualified.

 

    After patiently listening to the customer's complaints (we had to - there was no choice), our Vice President of Engineering got up to present his response. He explained the details of how problems occurs due to the forming, trimming and singulation tools. The next foil was an organization chart. Our VP introduced,  "this person is my chief technologist, holds 28 patents," and the foil following, "the person in the next box had a Ph.D. in XYZ with specialization..." As he was introducing the impressive technical qualifications of the person in the third box, one of the customer's personnel intervened , "Can they solve my problem?”

 

    There was a stunned silence in the room. Was this an innocent question or a deliberately sarcastic one? If it was sarcastic, it was rude to do that to him in front of so many of our executives and subordinates. But thinking deeper, it sounded very basic.

 

REFLECTION

 The lesson that I learnt that day was very profound and has carried with me throughout my career. In final analysis, what the customer was looking for was, "Am I in good hands?” Do these people give me enough confidence that they can solve my current problems?

    This lesson has been also very helpful to me in designing the organization structure and recruiting people with relevant qualifications for the purpose for which an organization exists. Organization composition must not be about elegance but about people with the mindset of solving “Real” problems of customer and investors.