"...keeping you great"
HEADLINES:
Profits Quadrupled for Fortune 500 -- the latest list was released today with Wal-Mart ($408 billion) back on top, followed by Exxon Mobile, Chevron, GE, and Bank of America. And the big news -- corporate net profits jumped from an average of 1% in 2008 to 4% in 2009, near the historical average of 4.7%. Take five minutes and read this excellent Fortune article summary of the sector-by-sector results -- and some excellent "how to" examples of success like Mattel's.
Many Firsts for the F500 List -- 1) Shed 821,000 jobs (3.2% of payroll), the biggest loss in the list's 56 year history; 2) Sales fell 8.7%, the biggest fall since 1983; 3) Profits jumped 335%, from $90 billion to $391 billion, the second largest jump in history; and 4) GM fell from the top 10, the first time in the list's history (and Ford made the top 10 -- no bailout required!).
Biggest Winners On the List....(and saddest news from my viewpoint) were the pharmaceutical companies according to the article. And the latest health care reform further subsidizes the industry with tens of billions of additional dollars -- which is why the industry spent $100 million in lobbying and advertising to support the reform this time around. My family was able to help my 75 year old mother get off the bag of drugs her doctors had loaded her up with (twice!) and for which they likely received kick-backs, while many US citizens are drowning and suffering a decreased quality of life from all the legal meds doctors are prescribing (OK, that's off my chest).
Lean and Best -- getting "lean" early is how the Fortune 500 drove increased profits from decreased revenues. And getting LEAN (the formal process) doesn't mean simply piling more work onto fewer employees. Nurse Next Door, the poster-child for a growth service company implementing formal LEAN practices (doubled call center productivity, dramatically reduced time to sign-up new franchisees, took the pressure off their payroll staff, etc), was just named one of the 75 Best Employers in Canada, being named alongside companies such as Google Canada and the Four Seasons Hotels. Congrats to Ken Sim, John Hart, and their team. For those wanting to learn how to achieve similar results -- more with less and maintain happy employees -- contact Guy Parsons at LeanVS -- he can help.
Top 20 Most Innovative -- besides also being named British Columbia's #1 company to work at in 2009, Nurse Next Door, along with Gazelles 200 participating firms Coastal Contacts and BuildDirect, we're recognized as the Canadian province's 20 most innovative companies. Noted co-founder Ken Sim "the one correction I would make to the article (about the Innovative 20) is we have NOT adopted "Six Sigma". We have adopted and championed "Lean". We are actually recognized as a "lean" leader in the health care and services industries." Lean matters -- and is so much easier to implement than Six Sigma!
Coaches Matter (Roddick and Mickelson) -- I think sports analogies in business are way overused, however, a Reuters article in Gulf News last week (Middle East's leading English newspaper) caught my attention. It noted that Andy Roddick's new coach, Larry Stefanki, "who guided Chilean Marcelo Rios and Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov to world number one ranking, has been working with Roddick over the past year" thinks Roddick could emulate Andre Agassi who won five of his eight Grand Slam titles after age 29. Roddick has won two of his last three tennis tournaments and has Stefanki to credit. In turn, Mickelson's Masters win this past weekend put a smile on my face, noting that his coach Butch Harmon is Tiger's old coach. Coaches matter!!
Meeting Room Naming Update -- many options flooded in since my request last Thursday:
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PrintingForLess.com-- name theirs after Montana's famous local mountains: Absaroka, Electric Peak, Grand Teton, and Moonlight
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Skoda Minotti-- name theirs after universities and colleges from which their team are alumni i.e. The Ohio State University conference room, University of Notre Dame conference room, etc.
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HPTI-- Innovation Room.
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WisdomTransfer-- Mission Control (nice double meaning)
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Genesis World Mission-- OpRoom (for Opportunity Room and double play on Operations Room)
My Personal Favorite Name -- and this note from Kirk Zehnder, President/CEO of Earnest "Being a Cleveland company we named our five meeting rooms after famous business people in Cleveland. The War room got the best name of them all, "Rockefeller" and yes the homage to (your) book was extra credit." BTW Kirk's letter to his customers posted on the homepage of the website shows he's listening to them -- take a moment to read.
Father's Legacy: A War Room Story -- and finally, this moving story from Matt Schwartz, President of Schwartz Employee Benefits "As for the 'war room' when my father passed away unexpected three years ago, we opted to honor him by converting his office into our "internal meeting space," using his desk as the conference table. He had joked for many years that he dreamed about a distinguished photo on the wall, with a pin light shining up, with the title "Founder." As it turns out, a few months before his death we had professional photos taken so he really does now beam down, presiding over our exec and other sessions. It's an ongoing reminder of our core value 'Building on a Legacy.'"
Not Knowing -- This Tuesday's note from Doug Greenlaw, Lockheed Martin, sums up why leaders must be learning years ahead of when the knowledge might be needed "Wanted to give you some feedback. I recently reorganized my department around the concepts that I learned from you at the Dell event years ago. I wanted you to know that I'm still getting tremendous value from the things you've taught me, and in particular from specific things we learned in your summits! Years later I am applying the things you exposed us to." To Doug's point, it drives me crazy when an executive tells me, since they are working on a specific initiative "that we don't have time right now to learn new ideas." It's not knowing what you don't know that is the biggest threat to your business. Out learning the competition matters! See you in Vegas next week!