BOOK REVIEW: Mavericks at Workby William Taylor and Polly Labarre; HarperCollins; €10.
'I DIDNT read this book - I devoured it." That's what Tom Peters had to say about Mavericks at Work. I can say I've read it three times in the past month - that's how good it is.
With the Celtic Tiger taking a rest, it's time for every business owner to reassess the company strategy. Mavericks at Workis a new tool for you to use in restructuring your business for the 21st century.
It is not the Michael O'Leary way of enticing customers with low prices and sky-high charges. This book shows how successful companies can still make big profits by delighting their customers.
It's about creating the future of business and shows how essential it is for us to change our approach, by thinking bigger and aiming higher. And gives us many examples of how to do just that.
ING Direct is the banking arm of the insurance giant whose trademark is highly visible on the Renault car in Formula One races.
Its approach has startled the financial institutions of the United States because it's a "no branch" bank. ING uses the timeless virtues of thrift and security to bring speed, simplicity and low overheads into a new business model of internet banking.
Starting just eight years ago, ING has attracted six million customers and $60 billion in deposits. ING guarantees higher interest rates to depositors and lower charges to borrowers because their "no bricks, less overhead" policy gives them that headroom.
Southwest Airlines is the epitome of low-cost excellence. In 2005, it carried more passengers than any other airline in the US, and is the icon of the airline industry. It has delivered low-cost travel.
It created the "point to point" route system that removes costs and delays from the "hub and spokes" process of its competitors. It gives a no-frills service but it gives service in a customer-friendly way. Southwest staff are rewarded for their value system. It is the pilots, the cabin crew, the check-in staff who all engage in making the flight fun, comfortable and hassle free. It gives low-cost service with a smile and is the most consistent profit-maker in the airline industry. If you had invested $10,000 in 1972, it would be worth $10 million in 2002. Now that's a pension plan.
Another low-cost competitor in the United States - Jet Blue - keeps Southwest on its toes. One innovation from Jet Blue that you will love is that all phones are answered by a real person. No mindless robot. They have stay-at-home mothers and internet-based telephones to handle 10 million calls a year.
The big message radiating from this book is that it's all about people, and your staff is your greatest asset. If you really want to grow in the economy of anxiety we are in today, you need innovative thinkers on board.
The big winners in business have serious recruiting teams scouring the world for great people. IBM (the Extreme Blue) maintain that innovative people unleash a virus on the rest of the company called "Vitality".
They ask "how can we get great people to work here for us?" It's not just about salaries and bonuses; it's about what you stand for, the way you interact with your customers, the passion of the team. It needs happy, satisfied people to nurture happy, satisfied customers to grow the business - so make sure that when you hire staff you get the best.
Even when you do hire the best, be like IBM and Starbucks. Train and develop them to be even better. IBM insists all staff get four hours of training every week.
So if you're thinking of scrapping the training budget, remember that training is the Miracle-gro for your people.
We need to have people who can make things happen.
They are not signing up for a job, they are committing to a cause and they need to have the "warrior spirit".
The world-famous Cirque du Soleil started as a group of acrobatic street buskers who wanted to "perform to a higher standard". Today in Las Vegas alone, it puts on four shows a night, attended by 10,000 people, and earns revenues of $1 billion a year.
With an echo of Tim Collins's book Good to Great, IBM says good people are not good enough anymore. The gap between what a great person can do and what an average, good person can do gets bigger every year. "Five great programmers can outperform a thousand ordinary programmers". Wow.
Read that again and see why you need to find and hire great people and why you need to be in the "great" category yourself. Remember that great people hire great people, while good people only hire people who aren't so great.
Mavericks at Workwill force you to take a fresh look at your business strategy, with examples such as IBM's hiring policies, Cirque du Soleil's warrior people, Starbucks's training methods and Microsoft's "Think Week". And the story of how Steve Jobs bought Pixar for $10 million in 1998 and sold it for almost $8 billion in 2006. Jobs says the added value was the power of great people.
Read about how Proctor and Gamble intends "unleashing a tidal wave of intrapreneurial programmes" by harnessing the talents of hundreds of thousands of trained lab researchers in Russia, China and India.
Last of all is my favourite story, of the DPR Construction Company. Everyone in Ireland knows how traumatic it is to get a building job done properly or finished on time.
DPR has the answer. It decided it wanted to be the best in the world. It doesn't do the usual pitfalls of cost overruns, delays, endless snag lists, poor finishes and inevitable lawsuits. It now does for its industry "what Toyota did for the auto industry" and that's quality and customer satisfaction to the "nth degree". DPR has annual revenues of $1.5 billion and it never, ever tenders for a job.
If you want the best, and DRP likes you and your project, then, and only then, will it accept your job. It will give you the bill at the end, and you will be satisfied, because it has passionate, committed warrior people, who want everyone to say they work for a great company.
Bill Cullen is chairman of the Glencullen Group.
