Efficient CEO

What Does It Take To Change The World?

"Don't discount the power of butterfly wings (even paper ones)!"

If the business world can be summed up as "chaos theory" then I am striving to implement the "butterfly effect". Let's address a reality: the business world runs on paper.

For all of our powerful computers, sleek phones, fast internet connections and virtual meetings, not only have we not eliminated the appetite for paper, we've actually increased it. Yes, we need paper, but the world will change... one butterfly, er, page at a time.

There's a reason we still use paper – it's cheap, easy and what we all know. More importantly people don’t change their behavior until they are forced to or until they see a personal benefit. Many people don't even believe it's possible to eliminate the paper used in their businesses. That's where I entered this equation.

When I was flying more than 100,000 miles per year for Arthur Andersen I knew that the costs of paper were directly reflected in the dragging weight of my computer bag. Try walking hundreds of miles through airport terminals and you'll quickly realize that one of the best ways to reduce back pain is to eliminate carrying paper. I developed the habit of using my computer for everything. Any paper I was given was left out of my bag (preferably in a recycle bin).

The metaphor of the butterfly effect is that tiny changes effected by one butterfly could eventually alter the path of a tornado. What started as the simple premise of reducing the weight of my bag led me down the path to enterprise forms automation. Sure, initially my ideas only saved a few sheets of paper, but today my solutions are saving tens of millions of pages of paper per year. Now that’s a lot of butterfly wings.

Tens of millions of pages saved is a great start. Ready for some proof? I recently heard from one of our customers who (unbelievably!) prints a train-load of paper each year and even though the number of forms submitted to them has doubled, their printing volume has remained the same by using automated forms.

Don't discount the power of butterfly wings (even paper ones)! 100% elimination of paper may never happen but there can be change.

Does Twitter Make You More Efficient?

"Twitter is a time-sucking, endless pool of dripping messages..."

In order for a tool to make you more efficient it needs to replace or enhance a function you were already doing in a different manner. While I haven’t found any personal functions for Twitter to enhance, there is a huge function that Twitter does make more efficient: global information sharing. As evidenced by how information began to stream out of Haiti shortly after the earthquake struck, Twitter is definitely one of the most efficient forms of communication that spans the globe.

To answer the question, then, does Twitter make you more efficient, the answer is definitely NO. Twitter is a time-sucking, endless pool of dripping messages that cause you to click and read, click and read, and then tweet out your own clicks to read. But without that constant stream of posts the world may still be looking solely to journalists to tell us what’s going on after the fact. Twitter may be enabling the most honest, immediate and pure form of information sharing available (assuming you can manage to balance the information against the quality of the sources).

While I’m not intending to judge whether Twitter is good or bad, it’s simply not an efficient use of a single person’s time. In spite of the extra work it takes to use Twitter, I continue to use it because I find that it connects me to new people, uncovers interesting things (mostly other people’s businesses and obscure articles) and allows me to build single-serving relationships (to steal a line from Fight Club) with people all over the world. What I hope Twitter can do is help me connect with people who I specifically want to meet, uncover information I uniquely care about and build a smorgasbord of relationships that repeat and last.

What is Twitter doing for you?

Follow @EfficientCEO or me personally @WalkerRichard

The Importance Of Technology In Your Success

"...and if you’re not keeping up with your technology you may find your employees going elsewhere."

I just finished reading an article about LPL on Financial-Planning.com titled “LPL: ‘We've Arrived’” and was struck by just how important technology has been to aid in their recruitment of advisors and to grow their business. Obviously running a company today requires technology but choosing the right mix of technology can either just facilitate your operations or make you operationally excellent. In LPL’s case, they appear to be operationally excellent (and no, they aren't my customer so I can't say I helped in their success - yet).

Read The Article

The article concludes by profiling the decision Doug Lockwood, a principal with Harbor Lights Financial Group in Manasquan, N.J., made partly based on the stagnation of technology at his current firm. Imagine changing companies simply because the technology their previous firm had wasn’t keeping pace with their needs! Except, that’s exactly what customers do and if you’re not keeping up with your technology you may find your employees going elsewhere. In fact, I recently met a CTO who said he wouldn’t even consider working for another company if they weren’t using VMware for their IT needs.

The article, written by Paul Menchaca (November 1, 2009) is a great view into the world of a best-practices company and I recommend you check it out when you have a few minutes, even if you’re not in the financial industry. Perhaps you’ll see what I mean about the importance of technology to your success.

Was Cash For Clunkers Efficient?

"That means over 1,200 trees were used in order to run a program that only lasted a few days."

By most accounts, the Cash For Clunkers government program was a big success. The government funded the exchange of over 690,000 vehicles and the claimed impact is a 58% increase in fuel efficiency for those drivers. Plus the program claims it will create or save 42,000 jobs for the second half of the year as a result. Not bad for $2.88 billion dollars. But was it efficient?

Here are four articles I recently read on the discussion of gaining efficiency:

Time.com - http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914602,00.html

EnvironmentalLeader.com - http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/09/02/cash-for-clunkers-upgrades-fuel-efficiency-58/

TCPalm.com - http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/aug/17/devils-in-the-details-cash-for-clunkers-problems/

Fox News - http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/08/05/lurita-doan-cash/  

This last article is a Fox News opinion that discusses the estimated administrative costs, which few people are talking about. It is estimated that the government spent $12 million on handling just four of the forms used in the program. The CARS program required a 13-page application to be filled out and processed for each vehicle plus additional documents. It took over 1,000 people just to process the paperwork and the government was forced to extend the deadline to complete the job (not to mention the number of people whose forms were rejected due to errors or omissions and had to start over again).

In my quest to eliminate paper, automate processes and speed up transactions (not to mention save trees!), programs like this one highlight the need for enterprise forms automation. If all the forms used in this program were printed out (not including rejected forms that were discarded), then at least 10 million pages would have been used (not counting duplicate pages printed on receiving fax lines). That means over 1,200 trees were used in order to run a program that only lasted a few days.

An enterprise forms automation solution could have:

1. Saved all 1,200+ trees (or at least half considering some documents would have been printed for consumers to keep)
2. Eliminated 95% of the forms processing errors in real-time
3. Reduced program administrative costs by 75% or more
4. Automated dealer reimbursements
5. Captured all data and performed all signatures online

What do you think? Was the program worth it?

An Example Of Efficiency

"...no time is wasted beating around the bush, playing charades around price or leaving the customer feeling like prey who haplessly wandered onto a car lot."

Typically, I write about concepts and use examples to highlight them, but in this case I want to write about a specific example of a process most find to be anything but efficient: buying a car. True, buying a car is not a typical task one performs in a corporate environment, but most people who work in corporations eventually go buy a car. And if you’re an efficient CEO like me, you want the process to be quick, painless and rewarding.

Yesterday I met Larry Shapiro at Bob Smith BMW. I have to admit that I am partial to BMW for their vehicles and their best practices. (Have you ever taken part in the “Ultimate Test Drive” event? Don’t miss these!) But that doesn’t guarantee every sales person at a BMW dealership is going to be the person you want to buy your car from. Larry was anything but your typical sales guy and a role that I would hope more sales people in general can emulate.

First, Larry did not introduce himself as a ‘client advisor’ or ‘consultant’ or other shallow disguise – he made no apologies for being a good sales person and spoke fondly of his 16 years selling BMWs. Second, he spent time to listen and understand, including driving a few cars, exploring the features we cared about and directing us to a vehicle that met our specific desires and needs. Third, Larry negotiates like I do – he offered his best price first. Wouldn’t life be easier if we just knew the best price right up front?

How exactly is this process efficient? Maybe you’re not in Southern California and/or not in the market for a BMW, but you can learn from Larry’s example of servicing client needs with efficiency. By listening to customer needs and then providing the best fitting solution and lowest price first, no time is wasted beating around the bush, playing charades around price or leaving the customer feeling like prey who haplessly wandered onto a car lot. Moreover, there were no pretenses or uncomfortable tension about each step. Larry made the process effortless.

Are you working this concisely with your customers? Larry is and I applaud him. Thanks for the inspiration Larry ( larry.shapiro@bobsmithbmw.com).

How NOT To Do It All Yourself

"Focus on what you do best and outsource the rest"

A while back I wrote an article about responsibility and what it means. My definition of responsibility is to make sure things get done but not necessarily that you do it all yourself. Since it is literally impossible to grow a business while doing every function yourself you must consider the different ways to do the work: automate tasks, hire employees and/or outsource functions. It’s this last task that interests me the most.

Consider this: even if you were a dentist, would you drill on your own teeth? No, you would give that job to someone other than yourself to perform the task. Outsourcing is the same concept – give work to someone who is skilled, trained and capable of doing at least as good of a job as you can do, if not better and for less money.

These days it seems like outsourcing is bad word. Thanks to the news media, some people take it to mean lost jobs, poor service quality, delays and even budget overruns. Sure... those things can happen but so can rogue employees who steal from your business, waste time and sabotage your success. The reality is that outsourcing works or it wouldn’t be so popular and effective. And you don’t have to send the jobs overseas, there are plenty of outsource companies that keep jobs on our soil (at least that’s my goal when choosing a service provider).

How do you start outsourcing? It is pretty simple.

1. Pick a function in your company that you need help with, where you want to increase capacity or to improve quality. For example, add capacity to your customer service team by outsourcing some of the functions.
2. Next, do some research on the web to identify companies that can provide the service.
3. Then interview those companies and their customers for quality, price and performance.
4. Finally, start the transition to the outsource provider according to their transition plan and training.

Outsourcing works the best when you have done your own preparation to provide the outsourcer with training materials, management oversight (via daily conversations, reporting and status monitoring, etc) and empowerment to perform the function. Keep in mind that an outsourcer is very much like an employee and the relationship should be treated as such. That means you must change your processes to direct work to the outsourcer (e.g. have customer service phone calls and/or emails sent to the outsource customer service team). It also means you must include the outsourced function in your leadership and management in front of your entire team so that everyone supports the initiative.

The bottom line is what I would tell my clients when I was a financial planner: Focus on what you do best and outsource the rest. Choose a professional who can do it better, faster and cheaper than you can and watch both your company and your profits grow together.

How Fast Can You Go?

"My days FLY by and suddenly the week is over like it never started."

As a follow up to my last article, I’m wondering how fast a person can go in their business and in their daily activities. Since implementing some of the suggestions in the “Four-Hour-Workweek” book, I find that I’m working far more efficiently, effectively and intensely. My days FLY by and suddenly the week is over like it never started. What strikes me is the intensity of my work now because I’m focused on getting it done faster.

Focus creates intensity, like sunlight through a magnifying glass creating heat, I’m moving through my workload faster. So now how fast can I go? Pretty fast, actually. Out of sheer necessity to be effective and efficient I’m:

a) Letting (rather insisting) other people do the work I used to do
b) Talking more and writing less (leading vs. doing)
c) Not sacrificing good enough for the sake of perfection

I’m thinking that as I continue to do more in this manner that I will continue to improve even further. My phone calls are becoming shorter and more productive. My emails are briefer and less often. My meetings are "to the point" and driven. And while this change is all about my personal actions and habits, the results are that my entire company is becoming more effective too. So the true answer to how fast can I go is only limited by how fast my team will go in following my example.

Why Am I Out Of Time?

"Actually, my entire company is getting more done because I work fewer hours."

Busy. It's a word I find myself using quite often and have been using for a long time. I'm ready to change that word to: Productive. For the past four years I have been working about 60 hours per week and never have enough time for work, for life, for anything. About three weeks ago I decided to reduce the number of hours I work in a week to 35 or less. So far, I'm averaging about 40 hours per week and getting far more done. Which isn't bad but my real goal is to not have to work at all unless I want to.

Here's what I've done. First, I stopped checking email. Crazy, right? Really, it's not. If you're the CEO who lives with a Blackberry and/or constant email, then you're really not being the CEO… you're being a worker in your company instead of a leader. Right now I check my email at noon and 4 PM (soon to be just once a day). That act alone has completely changed my way of getting things accomplished – now I don't even check email before I go to bed at night (talk about getting a good night's sleep!). Second, I have transitioned all my direct management duties to other executives. This has allowed me to focus on only what I need to focus on – keeping information flowing, enabling others to do their best work and growing my business. Third, I am phasing out long, drawn-out conversations about nothing. While some conversations are fun and part of being social, I really don't need to know all the details – just the actions and results.

Here's what I’m going to do. My goal by summer of 2010 is to be completely transparent in my company. My role is to lead, set the vision and enable everyone to do their best work. The result, I expect, will be that I can work remotely for extended periods of time and be less involved in the daily minutiae. I'm not entirely sure of 'how' to arrive at this stage but I'm sure by doing less and expecting more, I will get there.

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of running out of time with 60 hours per week and now forcing myself to run out of time at 40 hours per week is that I'm getting far more done in the 40 hours than I was in the 60+ hours. Actually, my entire company is getting more done because I work fewer hours. Interesting, huh? What if the results of your organization (whether you're the CEO, a manager or a project leader) were inversely proportional to how much you work? The truth is they are. This is where working smarter, not harder becomes reality.

Can you work smarter? For inspiration, take a look at the book, "The Four Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferris

Can A Water Bottle Make You Efficient?

"This is no ordinary water bottle – this is the evolution of the water bottle."

With my focus on software technology, I sometimes forget that the world around us is full of other types of technology that we take for granted. From Post-It Notes to cell phones to TV remote controls to zip-loc plastic bags. I would hate to do without any of the advances that I’ve become so accustomed to, or dare I say dependent upon.

I’d like to introduce the latest technical advance that I CANNOT live without: it’s my new stainless steel filtered water bottle, the Ech2o from Ecousable.

This is no ordinary water bottle – this is the evolution of the water bottle. Certainly we’ve all heard about the number of plastic bottles that are going into landfills each year (approximately 26 billion in the USA) and how plastic bottles leach chemicals into the water, etc, etc. Of course being eco-conscious matters but until we, as individuals, find a personal reason to change, we won’t. So I’ll offer the reasons why I changed my entire practice of bottled water consumption AND why my new filtered water bottle makes me more efficient.

1. Never run out of clean, safe drinking water.
2. Conveniently refills from virtually any water source.
3. Stainless steel bottle travels very well, even through airport security.
4. Emergency water for any reason.

When I got my bottle I thought I might use it only for travel or 'from time-to-time'. What I’ve found is this bottle is always by my side. I no longer carry a case of plastic water bottles in my car. Now, when I’m running my errands, going to offsite meetings or traveling around town if I get thirsty and run out of water I can stop anywhere and fill up my bottle with any water – tap water from a bathroom or kitchen, drinking fountains, and the funny-tasting water from a soda fountain (you know, the water that tastes slightly like orange soda or raspberry tea?). No matter what water I’ve put into this bottle it has always tasted the same: CLEAN. And since the filter is world-class and removes 99.99% of pollutants, I know I can also drink from streams, lakes, swimming pools and everything except salt water – which is great in case of emergency.

The Ech2o filtered water bottle definitely makes me more efficient too. I no longer have to stop to buy water or run back inside my house when I forget to grab water to go, etc. I also no longer have to stock up on plastic bottles of water or refill them with filtered water from other sources.

The simplest of items, a water bottle, has now become infused in my daily life and I never want to be without one. I love my bottle and know you will too. Just go to www.GetTheBottle.com to place your order today.

How To Be Efficient AND Eco-Friendly

"A happier team is a more effective, and therefore more efficient, team."

These days everyone is conscious of being eco-friendly. Which begs the question: is eco-friendly the most efficient way to go? If you’re doing the right things then the answer should be yes. Here’s a list of the things we’ve done that are both efficient and eco-friendly for our company.

Tinted Windows
That’s right! We tinted our office windows with a highly reflective film. Doing this has lowered our heating and cooling bills, effectively paying for itself over a few years. But ROI wasn’t the first thing on our minds – it was having warmer winters, cooler summers and strange people making faces at themselves as they walk by our windows.

Telecommuting
Only one-third of our workforce commutes to an office, and most of them travel less than 5 miles each way. Telecommuting not only saves on carbon emissions, it gives people more time and reduces stress. Obviously telecommuting doesn’t work for everyone but those who do it wouldn’t trade it for anything. A happier team is a more effective, and therefore more efficient, team.

Paperless Office
One of the top uses of paper is corporate printing. In our office we only have one printer and it is rarely used (it takes us over a year to go through a ream of paper). Not printing is a core philosophy in our company (especially with telecommuting) which saves us on all printing-related costs.

Paperless Brochures
One might argue that not having printed brochures means we’re missing opportunities to promote our products. However, our customers want our help achieving a paperless office too (we are in the enterprise forms automation business after all) so we lead by example. Eliminating paper brochures has saved us and the environment tremendous printing, delivery and storage costs.

Digital Signatures
Do you sign your documents digitally? We do and it is awesome. Not only do we not print our contracts, but we also avoid shipping costs and delays. Our contracts can be signed, emailed and executed within minutes for next to no cost. Ask me about our digital signature partners for more info.

There are so many other ways to be eco-friendly (wait until you read my future article on my favorite new eco-friendly 'can't live without it' tool). I’m not a big fan of replacing things that work well simply to be green but if you’re looking for ways to improve your bottom line consider your eco-conscious line at the same time.

So tell me… What works for your company? I’d like to hear from you.