Secrets of my success: What a Difference a Day Makes! (part III)
Posted: Wednesday, November 17, 2010
by Bruce Horst
WryteStuff
Working as a line-level employee in a Fortune 500 company has its perks. Keep busy, don't steal anything and clock-in within 7 minutes of your scheduled time, and everything is fine. I enjoyed my bosses, they each had something I could learn from.
In the Fall of 1998 Best Buy rolled out their new Y2K compliant software for their service centers. The software was plagued with troubles from the beginning, and to help it perform better they removed all employee-specific reporting. Because they couldn't track employee productivity, they took all the technicians who worked on commission and converted them to hourly pay.
Can you imagine technicians being paid hourly, but having no way of being held accountable for actually completing repairs? Productivity immediately dropped in all the service centers nation-wide. Tech Managers were told to constantly walk around and watch over the technicians' shoulders to make sure they stayed busy. What a fiasco.
Within a few months I took a vacation day and spent the time coming up with a solution. I wrote a tiny little program which would let the technicians easily log their repairs. This made the productivity numbers easy to track, and it also allowed the technicians to compete against each other and between departments. I even had the productivity numbers totaled and displayed on a large TV at the entrance to the repair shop. Imagine that, real-time reporting!
When I introduced this, it was an immediate hit. Tracking individual productivity numbers resulted in the productivity of our service center going through the roof. I calculated that the increase in productivity saved the company over $10,000 per week in labor costs.
This got the attention of the corporate office in Minneapolis. After a few months of this, the Vice-President of Service decided to come to Houston to see what was going on. It was quite an event. He flew down on a corporate jet with an entourage of 14 people. Upon arrival, they all walked to the back corner of the building, surrounding my little work bench for a demonstration of my software.
Two things I remember very clearly about that meeting: the VP saying "Impressive" and after the rest of the crowd walked away, one person staying behind who said to me, "You'll probably either be commended, or you'll be fired." Years later I learned that both of these options were real possibilities that day. I guess this proves the saying that no good deed goes unpunished. It seems I was doing someone else's job at corporate, better than they were. It turned out I was neither commended nor fired, but pretty much just left alone.
In the middle of 2000, for one reason or another, most of the management changed at the service center. A district manager came to me and said I was the obvious choice for the new Tech Manager, and so I accepted even though I had never managed more than 2 employees before.
Managing these 60 technicians came naturally to me. Most of them considered me a friend and had respect for me, and I had respect for them. My little piece of software also made a big difference. Instead of constantly breathing down everyones necks to keep them productive, I'd simply meet with each one, once a month, to discuss their numbers. The rest of the time I could concentrate my efforts working on their support systems, making their jobs easier and more fun. The lessons I learned here were: #1 watch numbers not people, and #2 the right software can make a job much more fun and many times more productive. These are my goals on SearchWarp, though I have a lot more to do in these areas.
I learned a lot in the position of Tech Manager. I learned what it meant to be a learning company. I learned that you can't improve on that which you don't measure. I learned how to give people the space they need to make themselves look foolish. I learned how to "walk people out the door" properly. Some of what I learned, I'm not so proud of.
Every six months, Best Buy would send their top managers to a resort to show their appreciation for a job well done, and I made it every single time. They started a training program where the top manager in every position would go to other regions to train the new managers, and they chose me to be the national Tech Manager trainer. Unbelievable!
My confidence grew, mostly overcoming the kick to the stomach I had in running my previous business into the ground. The General Manager of the service center designated me as his "ready replacement" to groom me for his position. I had truly become the second in command, much like Joseph in Egypt.
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More commentsGood article Bruce, thanks for sharing.Thanks for the comment, Dave.
Wow, this is just great. I wanted to know more about you, and this account of some tiny fraction of your life has been moving. Thank you so much for sharing this.Thanks Tex. Writing this has really been cathartic for me. And I feel like I'm falling in love with writing again.
This installment so proves how you weren't at all a failure, Bruce, you were just in the wrong place, and all you needed was the backup and support to be able to flourish and for your brilliance to shine in so many different ways. I love how you managed your team, giving them space to do well, and requiring them to be accountable, without heavy discipline and policing. Of course they liked you! I know I'm some years late in this, but congratulations for all these incredible achievements.Thanks for the congratulations, Jenn. Yep, in the wrong place. I love the days when I'm in the right place. SearchWarp lets me exercise many, if not most, of my talents and I feel very fortunate because of this. It's probably more than most people get in life, and I've got a lot more life to go.Yes, but you've created it. You're definitely a rising star.
As I told you before- you were born to be a leader- and you are on your way now- to the top!Thanks Ella. I'm working on it!
Your article is most interesting and tells us a great deal about you. First, you definitely know your way around technology. Second, you are quite the problem solver. Third, I would rate you a hardworking realist. It is amazing that the management acknowledged the prowess you showed with your program (not so "little" in my estimation!) by making a special trip to meet up with you to check out your valuable results. However, this personal visit soon made it apparent that someone was playing "cya" since you far exceeded what should have been solved by a corporate level type. So you probably threatened that individual. Had you been fired, it might have made that person's position more questionable; instead, corporate decided to let everything slide and blow over, never giving you the deserved credit at that time. "All good things happen to those who wait" and you were recognized immediately when the slackers changed to new management. You were recognized and appropriately rewarded. An in true Bruce Horst fashion, you did not prove them wrong. Success, recognition, job well done, respect of coworkers and subordinates were yours. Congratulations!Thanks OGM. This has really been an incredible journey for me. I'm thankful for my 'big box' corporate experience, but I really enjoy the smaller one-on-one relationships that I get to experience now. It's funny how the Internet allows you to connect with virtually anyone in the World, but at the same time it enables you to have closer relationships with a few. Thanks for being a part of it!Wholeheartedly agreed! There are a great many connections and a few fine relationships. I have much respect for all you do.
Bruce,
I do enjoy your article, first because is very inspiring, I am going thru hard time right now and, economy is not helping very much, but article like this inspire me to keep going and keep writing about what I feel is good for me and for who ever read my articles.
Thanks again,
Jose C.
Totally amazing story, Bruce. Did you ever wonder what you could have sold that tiny little tech adjustment for? I am happy that they appreciated you, appreciation is good for anyone's soul.
Bruce of the many colored coat, you have native techo- aptitude that baffles me; writing programs?!There are no accidents and your success is perfect proof........
Ok, I'm going for autobiography titles here, how 'bout "From Bottom Up"? Nahh, sounds too much like voyeurism. Ok, ok, let's try, "From Deep In the Hole, How I Rose Past My Goal"? Nahh, not even going to say what that sounds like. Ok, maybe it would just be best if I let you write the story, :-) after all it is an AUTObiography is it not? Great story.
There is much to learn from your personal journey, Bruce."I learned that you can't improve on that which you don't measure." That's a great lesson I need to remember; measuring performance is one of my greatest challenges, but it has to be done."The General Manager of the service center designated me as his 'ready replacement' to groom me for his position. I had truly become the second in command, much like Joseph in Egypt." I like the application of this classic biblical account to your life in today's world. ~mogama~
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