I too am in introvert…perhaps that is why we can have such good arguments when it is just the two of us?

If the goal is to:

Exceed expectations? –> what are the expectations

Impress you? –> what impresses you and why is that important? Just as important, what doesn’t impress you?

Thrill our customers? –> what thrills them?

Become invaluable to fellow TM’s? –> easy enough to understand in theory, but what do other TM’s value?

Push yourself? –> good advice in general, but in what way should new hires push themselves at The Collier Companies?

Any decision making authority at lower levels is stripped, and ultimately, creativity and drive is eroded until non existent. While I believe every organization needs some sort of C2 process to stave off chaos (some more formal than others), it is those organizations that implement a decentralized form of C2 that are most successful.

In a decentralized C2 environment, authority, responsibility, and accountability are spread out among the different layers of the organization allowing everyone to be a part owner in its successes and failures. And I agree, accountability in its truest sense is critical. In order for people to be accountable though, they must bare the responsibility of actions, outcomes, and decisions. But in order to hold that responsibility, they must have the authority delegated to them to make the appropriate decisions and take the necessary actions to bring about a desired outcome. Until then, true accountability cannot exist.

Authority –> Respsonsibility –> Accountability

I have a fairly strong negative reaction to the word “ban”, especially when associated with any type of government action. The above sentiment (re: quote from this blog article), while probably well intentioned, is exactly the line of thinking that leads to Zero Tolerance type actions.

What is the definition of scary? Gory? Violent? What does “depict” REALLY mean? These are all incredibly subjective measures that could be used in deciding what is an appropriate costume and what is not. And no, the reasonable person test won’t work here.

Without getting into a long discussion on history, society (as a whole, in general) has actually become less violent, savage, and brutal with the passage of each century. Surely, our educators can find something more important to do than judging the level of scariness of Halloween costumes such as *gasp* educating our children. Just an idea.

To be honest, there’s a lot of difference between candor and bluntness. Bluntness means to be straight and to the point (i.e. direct) and candor means to be unreserved, honest, and sincere. To be blunt does not mean to be rude or disrespectful and candor is not meant to be diplomatic or gentle. It’s meant to be honest. When you cloud honesty with trying not to make others feel offended, the only effect is to stifle communication.

Additionally, when our leaders put a condition on being open and honest with ideas, perceptions, etc, folks will be less likely to risk saying anything at all. Why should they if they think the way they say something will be judged right or wrong rather than focusing on the substance of their words instead?

“The government has determined….” Those are scary words.

Frankly, I don’t need the government to determine anything for me or the society I am a part of. I’m a free thinking, intelligent individual and hold no notion that anyone can determine for any other individual or group of individuals what does (or should) make them happy.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and higher-order goals are great, but other than security and private property rights, are inappropriate to be debated on a national level.

How did we do this? We share our overheads among multiple manufactures. For example, we would ship a skid of products to most retailers most days. It would cost us nothing incremental to add a few more toners or iPods to the skid. Where if Apple was selling direct, they would have to incur the shipping charge. We made our profit by charging less than what the manufacturers would pay but a bit more than our cost. And the shared cost extended beyond shipping to everything from accounting (it cost us nothing incremental to add a few more lines to our invoices and nothing more for the retailers. If they were buying direct, they would have to cut hundreds of checks etc.) to sales (It cost very little to talk about an HP product after talking about a Microsoft product. Only one sales call can cover many products.

So be careful – often adding middlemen reduces – not increases the cost.

I would classify customer service as an indirect purchase. We expect a certain level of customer service associated with other services directly purchased (i.e. car service, hotel stays, airline flights, pest control, etc). But should we realistically expect the same level of customer service when we stay in a Best Western compared to staying in an upscale hotel in NYC?

Customer service (in my opinion) is not just about the here and now; it’s about retaining customers over the long term. It’s a worthy goal to have the best customer service in one’s industry. But I think that has more to do with attracting and retaining the best employees than any other variable. The best go that extra mile to make the customer happy which breeds loyalty.