P-Squared News

On July 8 we held the 3rd and last of the Survive & Thrive breakfasts in Modesto CA.  We are very grateful to those who donated their time, expertise, and venues to make the events a great success.  Applegate Johnston Construction and The Alliance donated meeting space.  Marcia Herrmann Design donated the marketing materials, and Moveable Feast Custom Catering fed the groups well.  All of these efforts assisted Next Step and P2 in accomplishing their duel goals.  Our first objective was to aid local business leaders in their efforts to strengthen their businesses during these difficult economic times.  Our second goal was to demonstrate the many ways that our two resource consulting companies can facilitate that strengthening of both people and process.

The first meeting keyed on the five things leaders could do now to prepare to thrive in the economic recovery.   The second meeting was led by Peter Herrmann and Robert Draizen of Next Step Advising who walked the leaders through a diagnostic designed to keep them vigilant about the vital health factors of business. The presentation was titled “What we can learn from successful businesses that fail”.

The final breakfast meeting centered on growing leaders and teams.  The presentation was titled “Growing the leader your company needs”.  Resources and daily disciplines were outlined that (if practiced) remove obstacle to leader and team development and create more opportunity to work on the business while working in the business.

Click here to download the powerpoint presentation from the final breakfast meeting.

P2’s own David Levy recently paid a visit to Washington D.C. Here is his story in his own words:

This April I was part of a group from the FBA and AICC that went to Capitol Hill to talk about issues facing manufacturing in the US.  I had the opportunity to meet with Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressman Joe Wilson for about 30 minutes each.  I also met with the staff of Senator Jim DeMint, Congressmen James Clyburn, and John Spratt.  Despite all the hot air coming out of Washington and partisan politics, whether Republican or Democrat, I saw a genuine interest from these Congressmen about issues facing American industry.  They listened, asked good questions, and were frank about what they could support.  It’s not as bad as I thought; in fact encouraging!

Right now, a major concern of manufacturers is a legislative bill known as the Employee Free Choice Act or “Card Check Bill.”   This bill makes it much easier for union organizers to form a union but more difficult for employees to leave a union.  The bill allows quick certification of labor unions, yet requires a more thorough process for decertification.  It also brings the NLRB into the picture up front to negotiate a contract.  Not good.  Our purpose is to gain support in Washington to defeat this proposed legislation.

While this bill deals with ease of forming a labor union and restrictive bargaining, it really is about flexibility of the workforce.  While there is no rule that says unionized plants do not have the worker flexibility to implement Lean manufacturing techniques, it generally is the case.  Lean Manufacturing eliminates waste in the manufacturing process and requires a flexible and empowered workforce.  The result is a lower cost to manufacture, critical in today’s economic environment.  We do not need more structured job classifications, restrictive work rules, and wasteful collective bargaining.  Just ask Detroit if you need a more convincing argument.

To read more about Dave’s visit to DC, download the latest Board Converting News article here.

(Note: File is large, may take a minute or two to download.)

Although I’ve screened and selected top performing leaders for 20+ years it was only recently that P2 started offering the service publicly.  Our approach was to take the guesswork out of performance prediction by studying top performing leaders and identifying there common abilities and traits.  So as we find a wide range of people with diverse personalities and styles we are able to spot those that can lead healthy and profitable change.

Download and read the article here.

I’m interested in your experiences and methods of finding and keeping good leaders. Please comment below.

I wrote this article (download and read it here) as I started to see how pervasive the wait and see mentality had become.  There are massive changes in the marketplace occurring and the point of the piece is that small business will either do what they do best (risk and adapt) in these times or they will act like big bidness (wait and see).  I am encouraging all of our customers to do what we are doing in our own company; use the time caused by the slow down to build the strength of your process and your team.  Then when the smoke clears you can come out ready.  Someone said there are three kinds of people: some people make things happen, other people see things happening, most people say “what happened?”.  Hey wait, somebody else said “there are 3 kinds of people: those who can do math, and those who cannot”.

I am interested in your yeahs and yeahbuts about this article.  If you owned the company what would you do? If you do own the company what are you doing to thrive after you survive the current troubles? Please comment below.