January 2006
Energy Issue:
Revamping Customer Service
Virginia Satir, a revered and influential family therapist was once asked by The Michigan State Department of Social Services to provide a proposal on how to revamp and restructure the Department of Social Services to serve clients better.
Sixty days later, she provided the department with a 150-page report, which they said was the most amazing piece of work they had ever seen. "This is brilliant!" they gushed. "How did you come up with all these ideas?"
She replied, "Oh, I just went out to all the social workers in your system and I asked them what it would take for the system to work better."
(from The Success Principles: by Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer)
I wonder how the social workers felt. I also wonder why organizations conduct studies about improving customer service, yet never ask the customer!
Employee Engagement:
A source of energy and renewal
Economist Richard Florida says the real source of value in a company is increasingly the creative energy of its workforce. Yet 71per cent of Americans who go to work every day aren't engaged in their role, according to a Gallup study. Canadian employees are so disenchanted that 46 per cent said they would consider jumping ship if a comparable job were available, according to a Watson Wyatt (Canada) study last year. Employee disengagement is a major impediment to productivity and profitability.
Employees are engaged when they have challenging work, their ideas matter, they have respect and recognition from their peers, and they participate in decision-making.
Florida says, “Make sure that your creative people have time to apply themselves creatively and are not putting out silly and counterproductive fires all day… Creative people want the freedom to work on their own terms and on their own time…That doesn't mean there's no accountability, but the accountability doesn't come from sitting at a desk counting time. Instead, the accountability is: "Do you deliver? Do you meet your performance measurements? Do you produce quality work in a timely way? Do you contribute?" (Source: <http://gmj.gallup.com/>)
Whole Foods Market:
Shared values and a clear mission
attract energy, passion and commitment
Whole Foods Market ranks #15 this year in Fortune Magazine’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Walter Robb, co-president and COO says, “One of our core values is Team Member happiness and excellence, and we believe our innovative and egalitarian work environment is a major factor in our success as a company. Our 39,000 Team Members ... have a voice and they share in the rewards and success of the company." <http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/prn/texas/3575566.html>
Gary Hamel, author of Competing for the Future describes Whole Foods Market’s innovative management system in the Harvard Business Revue (Feb 2006):
It's tough for rivals to replicate advantages based on a web of individual innovations spanning many management processes and practices. That's one reason why no competitor has matched the performance of Whole Foods Market, which has grown during the past 25 years to 161 stores and has grown during the past 25 years to 161 stores and $3.8 billion in annual sales. While other grocery chains have been slashing costs to fend off Wal-Mart, Whole Foods has been rapidly evolving an extraordinary retail model–one that already delivers the highest profits per square foot in the industry.
What may not be obvious to health-conscious consumers and growth-loving investors is that the company’s management model is just as distinctive as its high-margin business model. John Mackey, the company’s founder and CEO, says his goal was to "create an organization based on love instead of fear" and describes Whole Foods as a "community working together to create value for other people."
At Whole Foods, the basic organizational unit isn’t the store but small teams that manage departments such as fresh produce, prepared foods, and seafood. Managers consult teams on all store-level decisions and grant them a degree of autonomy that is nearly unprecedented in retailing. Each team decides what to stock and can veto new hires.
Bonuses are paid to teams, not to individuals, and team members have access to comprehensive financial data, including the details of every coworker’s compensation. Believing that 100:1 salary differentials are incompatible with the ethos of a community, the company has set a salary cap that limits any executive’s compensation to 14 times the company average. Just as startling is the fact that 94% of the company’s stock options have been granted to nonexecutives. What differentiates Whole Foods is not a single management process but a distinctive management system.
Renewable Energy
Whole Foods Market announced Jan 10/06 it had conducted the largest wind energy credit purchase in the history of the United States. It is the only Fortune 500 Company purchasing wind energy credits to offset 100% of its electricity use – for all of its stores, facilities, bake houses, distribution centers, regional offices and national headquarters in the United States and Canada.
Michael Besancon, Southern Pacific regional president and Green Mission task force leader says, "Offsetting 100% of our electricity use with renewable, clean energy strengthens our commitment to be a leader in environmental stewardship by helping to clean the air and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels… and is integral to our core values." Source <http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company/pr_01-10-06.html>
Clean Energy: The New Merger
“Renewable power gets ever more hip with corporate America.”
Walgreens and FedEx Kinko's have joined Whole Foods as corporate boosters of renewable power. The drugstore chain will install solar-power systems at 96 stores and two distribution centers in California, along with 16 stores in New Jersey. Relatively, it's a drop in the bucket -- Walgreens runs over 5,000 stores. But the systems are expected to replace dirty-energy use equivalent to over 22 million gallons of gas. Meanwhile, FedEx Kinko's announced that it is increasing the company's green-power purchases to about 40 million kilowatt-hours -- enough to prevent more than 26,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
<http://www.grist.org/news/daily/2006/01/13/5/index.html>
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