|
|
It’s Time to Get
Creative about the Downturn
By Jack
Speer, President, The Delta Associates
BizWatchOnline Co-publisher,
Jack Speer "Convenes a Meeting" of Carly Fiorina, Bill
Gates, Steve Jobs, and Lou Gerstner
It’s
time to get creative about this downturn. You begin to realize
that this downturn is not just about the cycles of the economy. It’s
what companies are actually doing and how their leadership is
working. |
 |
|
Jack Speer,
self-styled business philosopher, sits at the Philosopher's
Rock at Barton Springs, Austin, Texas with Barton Springs
Swimming Pool philosophers Roy Bedicheck, J. Frank Dobie,
and Walter Prescott Web. Speer insists they would have agreed with him and nobody can prove
him wrong.
|
|
|
Bill Gates, chairman and
chief software architect of Microsoft Corp.
|
| Take Our Poll
|
|
It’s about
innovation, service, and quality. We don’t like to hear it but
there’s the ugly little fact that a lot of us got more than a
little bit sloppy in the roaring 1990s in how we produced products
and served customers.
So have you ever thought you’d like to sit
down with the CEOs of major companies and give them a piece of
your mind? I have often thought that a group of us could sit down
with some of America’s CEOs and tell them what’s really going
on out here.
The Guerilla Approach to Curing the Economy—Taking
the Message to the Levers of Power
That’s why I created a "boardroom"
in this BizWatchOnline exclusive article, and I’m
"bringing" the people of power together who can do
something about the situation.
If we don’t do something, this could go on
forever. The Great Depression lasted
|
| for twelve years
(1929-1941) and from the vantage point of today there was no
reason for it to. It left an imprint of fear on those who
experienced it and on their children who didn’t experience it,
but gave them the permanent heebee-jeebees just from hearing about
it. This isn’t "the bridge to the 21st Century" that
we were all thinking about.
This Is My Boardroom of CEOs—Who Would Be in
Yours?
I’ve "invited" four CEOs to this
boardroom conference, and although many of you might have chosen
others, I’ve invited them because they represent huge segments
of the economy and can pick up the phone to talk with Alan
Greenspan, the President of the Federal Reserve Board.
I chose Carleton (Carly) S. Fiorina,
president and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Company; Lou
Gerstner, International Business Machines Corporation;
Steve Jobs, Chairman of Apple, William (Bill) H. Gates,
chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation.
|
| Carleton (Carly)
S. Fiorina, president and CEO of Hewlett- Packard Company |
|
| Lou Gerstner,
International Business Machine Corporation |
|
So let’s put them in
the boardroom and begin some preliminary observations:
Speer: I want to thank
you all for coming today.
We admire you very much for your talent and determination. We
know you’re smart and can turn this situation around.
But we’re concerned about what you’re hearing and who you’re
listening to. It seems from some of the decisions of companies
today that CEOs haven’t talked to a customer in a long time. We
know it’s tough for you. You’re getting beaten up by the
analysts all the time about your revenues not measuring up to
expectations.
|
| Bill
Gates: I’m concerned that
you’ve kidnapped us! I hope you know that kidnapping is a
federal offense. Besides, it’s a major downer to bring us
together like this because we don’t even like each other, and to
make matters worse, these people just aren’t my equals.
Speer: Would you just calm down, Bill? This is just an
imaginary meeting. Besides, I won’t keep you very long.
I just want to tell you, Bill, what your part is in this
economic mess we’re in. Your first versions of Windows were like
bringing fire to the caveman.
|
|
Since
about Windows III your upgrades have been getting worse. If you
had listened to the consumer, they would have told you. You’ve
hidden your best features, eliminated valuable resources, and
generally downgraded your product. The biggest innovation of late
has been that awful Wizard that appears out of nowhere to irritate
you just when you’re trying to figure out something that was
easy to do in previous versions. I hear you’re killing the
Wizard—that’s a good first step.
Carly Fiorina: I really
don’t have time for this. I’m on my way to a meeting to talk
about a really large acquisition.
|
| Steve Jobs,
Chairman and CEO of
Apple |
|
| Speer: I’m
impressed, Carly, but I can give you some information that will
make you more money than an acquisition. Cure your quality
problem. It’s huge. HP printers used to have incredible quality
and were indestructible—24 hour print jobs without jamming. In
one small office we’ve returned two new printers in less than
six months when they broke—and a broken scanner, to boot.
Give your help line people a call and ask them if the quality
issue isn’t true. We told the woman on the line that the
printers are a piece of crap and she quickly agreed. How
embarrassing for you! How much money are you losing on throw-away
printers?!
Steve Jobs: I’m not really impressed by this meeting. I’ve
got a company to run.
Speer: Thanks for the input, Steve. Next time I’ll let
you put together your own imaginary meeting.
I really admire how you’ve kept Apple afloat with the lack of
innovation. Graphics people around the world believed in your
product and would pay more. Now they’re bailing out world-wide—and
you bring them what?!! New colors! And titanium cases! Sure, they’re
selling, but how long can you run on that type of innovation?
Lou Gerstner: Well, from my perspective, everything you’re
saying is true. When I came to IBM, we had a lot of people who
couldn’t do their jobs and we didn’t have the products to
compete in the market place. Our whole future was in danger. I’m
proud that we spent the last years of the nineties rebuilding our
company, and people are dumping the competition and coming back to
us every day.
Speer: I invited you to this virtual meeting, Lou, because
I thought you would get it. You’ve turned IBM around by going
back to fundamentals and developing a product that meets market
needs of today. I hope others will adopt the creative approach
that you’ve used to get IBM back where it is today.
So that’s what I would tell my meeting of CEOs. Talk to your
customers. You can’t manage stock prices until you manage
quality and service. You can’t get past quality and service and
a good product. The downturn is about economic forces on a global
scale, but it’s more about innovation, quality, service, and a
winning strategy.
Who would you invite to your CEO meeting? What would you tell
them?
|
BizWatchOnline
Poll |
What
Does BizWatchOnline Stand For? |
|
view results
|
BizWatchOnline
is dedicated to the no-nonsense proposition that anything or anyone that doesn’t add
value in an organization does not deserve to be funded. And anything that does add
value is worth fighting for. BizWatchOnline is an invaluable resource to help executives,
managers, and professionals in HR, OD, Training, Communications, and Sales sort out what
adds value today. Who
reads BizWatchOnline? |
|
|