Recruit, Inspire & Retain

Small Organization/Large Organization? A More Inspirational Alternative to a Policy Manual

You’re growing, you’re doing well, and then you get the urge to write things down. You want to create rules, regulations, procedures. You decide you need a ...policy manual.

It's a natural enough instinct. You know why your business has succeeded, so you want all staff to do things just the way you do. You want them to look and feel the same, and to deliver the same value to the customer. You know that Fed Ex doesn't allow managers to paint their trucks green—or to decide that some packages don't absolutely, positively have to get there overnight.

But when you write everything down in a manual, people read it. Worse, they base their decisions on it. The manual tells them how they're supposed to run the business. It spells out all the things they can't do. Before long, all those fast-moving, get-things-done staff you hired are turning into cover-your-butt, manual-reading people (or they're out looking for a job at a real entrepreneurial organization).

Take a tip from PSS, who has a different approach to written communication—and it doesn't involve a policy manual.

When they do write things down, they steer clear of the policy-manual format. Their "Top　20"—a list of the company's core values—is written on a wallet-size card. When lawyers told them they needed written nondiscrimination policies, they made up a poster with cartoon figures explaining those policies, and put one in every office.

And then there's the Blue Ribbon, which is how they make sure they’re all reading off the same page.

They certainly want uniformity from one office to another. PSS’s reputation rests on delivering world-class service to its customers, and they have developed systems and methods to ensure that customers get that service. They have a business model, and they don’t really want staff experimenting with business models of their own.

But instead of a manual spelling out how an office has to operate—trucks must be washed no less than once a week; grade 3 employees are entitled to 12 vacation days a year—they created a 100-point checklist known as the Blue Ribbon book. Every office gets a copy. Then the offices take part in a contest they call the Blue Ribbon Tour.

Here’s how it works. Twice a year, one of PSS’s leaders will show up at an office’s door. Unannounced. It might be 7:30 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon, or anytime in between. "Blue Ribbon time!" they’ll say as they walk in.

At some organizations, this kind of inspection would be a horrendous experience. At PSS, when people hear there’s a Blue Ribbon on, they start whooping and hollering. They run around making sure the wastebaskets are empty and there’s toilet paper in the bathroom.

Nobody is in trouble if the office does poorly. You won’t get fired, disciplined, or even reprimanded for a bad Blue Ribbon score. What you will win or lose is bragging rights—and money.

Every person in a winning office pockets a nice chunk of change. Each employee in the office scoring highest on the Blue Ribbon gets $3,000. The 2^nd place office gets $2,000 per person, the 3^rd place office gets $1,500, and so on, all the way down to the 10^th place office, where employees get $500 apiece.

The losing offices—which is to say all the rest—have to pay for the other offices’ prizes. They might have to pony up a couple thousand dollars from their operating profits. It isn’t enough to do any serious damage to their bottom lines; it’s just enough to make the leaders wince.

So this isn’t some military-style inspection greeted by fear and trembling. It’s a game. The offices are competitors. The people in our offices take pride in keeping their facility ready for a Blue Ribbon Tour at all times. They take enormous pride in winning—and, of course, in mentioning the fact that they won to their friends in other offices.

Sure, an organization that’s growing fast has to have consistency and uniformity. But you don’t need a bunch of written rules, regulations, and procedures. You’re better off figuring out fun, face-to-face ways of achieving the kind of consistency you need. The Blue Ribbon contest is a perfect example, and if you think it would work in your organization, well, you’re welcome to swipe the idea.

The world is shrinking and your employees have to successfully deal full circle with foreigners every day inside your local headquarters and in foreign countries since many corporations have often more than 50% of their total revenues generated abroad and many non-profit organizations work globally.

Your executives often have to travel at short notice to represent your organization and make decisions of lasting impact that often translate in key investments, purchases or alliances. Too often they go unprepared and much is lost: time, money and relationships like in this case...

A U.S. African-American cosmetics company loses money in London with a poor margin because their packaging was below standards according to department stores buyers who feel they are doing a favor to the brand even if it generates sizable income for the stores.

The key is that the U.S. brand owners and executives engaged negotiations on the basis of what matters to them which is "not to be at the back of the bus" a sentence that means a lot in the U.S. but that virtually means nothing for British buyers who did not change the margin for years and kept threatening the brand.

When they changed their tune and hired a French Caribbean Sales Director, they were able to demonstrate that several mainstream brand were generating less than them year on year, they started to be heard and took on the challenge to make a big promotion normally proposed to mainstream brand in a leading store. They had a target of 70,000 British Pounds to achieve in two weeks, an impossible figure after data analysis. The brand simply did not have enough customers in that store even at its highest pick time to generate such a result. The newly hired sales director had no choice but to push skin care and a fragrance that could be sold to any woman. Many white women bought skin care. The promotion happened in August which is when Arabic women hit London in droves, the fragrance for sale was the name of a city, restaurants, coffee shops, a hospital and a first name in Saudi Arabia. They bought so much fragrances that the sales team was able to reach the target and consequently succeeded in improving margins in all stores in the UK. The brand eventually changed its appearance with better packaging.

Since this exciting episode, many mainstream brands have continuously invested in African-American women consumers from M.A.C. to Bobbi Brown, to Chanel to Lancôme as it is a sizable profit sector.

Geography, Demography, Resources, History, Society, Language, Beliefs, Personality, System, Intelligence and Exchange all played a part in transforming a bad business situation into a much better one with a double digit margin change.

Geography. The UK is a much smaller country than the US and an island. If politically the British Government is often allied to that of the US, business wise, Brits do not like to get orders from mainland Europe nor the US.

Demography. The market is African-American British women, the owners are African-American and the buyers are white women who do not know nor socialize with African-American British women. Other consumer groups are targeted to succeed.

Resources. The human resources of the brand owners are limited versus mammoth human resources for the buyers.

History. Negotiations are packed with American civil rights history that do not resonate in British ears. The French Caribbean Sales Director had a different approach to negotiations that understood the company and the buyers.

Society. A name rooted in a Saudi Arabian tradition ensured the sales target.

Language. The name of the fragrance was more than a name, it was a symbol to the Saudi Arabian women who purchased the products of the range proud to unexpectedly find a product with that name in London.

Beliefs. The sales director transformed a disbelief attitude of the sales team into a hour count of the results with a Positive Mental Attitude mantra that helped the staff discover new levels of skills.

Personality. The creativity and flexible personality of the Sales Director broke the rigidity that both parties were locked in.

Systems. Margins are the central part of a department Store economic structure and are not easily negotiable unless you have several brands in the space like Estée Lauder Companies. The only way to win particularly with a packaging flaw is to chock the buyer with sales figures.

Intelligence. Information and memory analysis of the brand led to the fragrance focus what the company never concentrated on.

Exchange. The exchange was maximized. The staff collaborated. The brand developed a better partnership with the store. Trade was good and the brand broke new ground towards a new clientele. The mainstream brands sales staff in the store gained new respect for the ethnic brand and staff.