Fresh Perspectives

A True Evangelist

I’m a big follower of Guy Kawasaki.  Guy was an “evangelist” for Macintosh early on, and is now a venture capitalist, author and speaker.  He has a contagious passion for marketing. 

I was recently watching a local PBS show called Northeast Business Journal, a program that highlights local entrepreneurs and is hosted by Bill Kelly, station President.  Bill’s guest was Jim Corbett, principal of a Minooka Subaru, a large local Subaru dealer.  Like Guy, he has a passion for marketing and is an evangelist for the Subaru brand.  Jim loves to sell cars, a passion he learned from his father, Jake Corbett.  Jake started as a used car dealer in 1954 and took on the Subaru dealership in 1970.  In 1969, I purchased my first vehicle from Minooka Motors, and my brother-in-law purchased a brand new Subaru FF1 (pictured) in 1971.  Jake Corbett was a true evangelist for Subaru, and was one of the most convincing salespeople I have ever met.

In a 2006 blog article, Guy outlined the “art of evangelism”.  Let me take a few of Guy’s points and equate them to Jake:

• Create a Cause – In 1970, the $1,900 Subaru brand was very new to this area.  This was a time when the quintessential small car was the Volkswagen.  The oil crisis was ramping up.  Jake took advantage of this time and leveraged the advantages of better gas mileage in a very dependable small package, and he truly was a creator of the cause he was also promoting.
• Love the Cause – Jake was passionate about the cause and the car.  The Subaru automobile became his life’s work, and he truly believed in it.
• Look for Agnostics, Ignore Atheists – Jake Corbett knew when to cut his losses and move on.  He could quickly spot a person who would never share his passion, and he quickly moved to people he knew could share his passion.
• Let People Test-Drive the Cause – Everyone who stepped onto the lot had to take a test-drive.  These cars were all standard shift, and whether you had ever driven a stick-shift, Jake insisted on taking you out to drive the car.  These things were truly fun to drive, and in experienced hands, could be shifted without using the clutch.
• Never Tell a Lie – Jake was so passionate about the car that one could have viewed him as pushy.  Yet, Jake was sincere and truly believed in the product.  He had no reason to lie, and never did.  You could count him among the few numbers of honest car salesmen. 

Minooka is a section of Scranton, PA that was originally settled by people of predominately Irish decent, and is considered its own town by some residents.  By 1973, many people in Minooka were driving Subaru cars all thanks to Jake Corbett.  His neighbors and friends purchased the cars, and now, Minooka Motors is one of the largest Subaru dealers in the nation.  The foundation of passion for the brand lives on with this family-owned business.

In these difficult times, it is great to find a business like this.  They are true evangelists of their product. 

The Price of Admission

I had a chance discussion yesterday which prompted me to reflect on the issue of professional standards.  From the bankers who were involved in less than ethical situations to sports figures taking steroids, it seems the media is full of stories about people not living up to basic standards of professionalism.  Here are some examples:

• The cleaning person who doesn’t correctly sanitize a public restroom puts the people using that restroom at risk.
• The contractor who does shoddy work and covers their mistakes. Anyone who watches the TV show “Holmes on Homes” can relate.
• The accounting firm who ignores professional standards by involving themselves in illegal schemes of their client.  When it happens large-scale, the overseers (AICPA) have to enact rules that adversely affect the good accounting firms.
• Professional firms taking part in political pay to play schemes.  This seems to be the standard in Washington.
• The insurance agent who sells a customer sub-standard auto insurance just to get business.

In all of these cases, the individuals likely know where the line is drawn, yet they frequently cross that line. 

There are many cases to the contrary as well, although they generally don’t get media coverage.  Many of the people I know seem to fall into this category.  I very much value these trust relationships:

• The insurance broker I deal with both personally and professionally has been in the business most of his life.  I trust him inherently and completely.  He earned that over time.
• The used car dealer I deal with exclusively has been in business over 30 years and he doesn’t advertise.  He does not compromise anything and has earned my trust.  The few dollars more I may pay for a vehicle is well worth it.
• The contractor who works on my house never cuts corners; he goes above and beyond.
• The accounting firm I deal with professionally is a true independent auditor and upholds a high standard.  They’ve done so for almost 25 years even before it was statutory.

The best way to promote professional standards is to demand it as a minimum price of admission.  I’ve found that doing so uncovers people who also perform the work well beyond expectation.  In my view, although there are situations where compromise is necessary, we shouldn't compromise professional standards.  If we hold professional standards as foundational, maybe the abundance of rules and regulations we have could prove to be unnecessary.

Purpose-Built Accessible Vehicle

This year, the MV-1 universally accessible vehicle is being introduced.  It is intended for the fleet market and is specifically built for the rigors of a fleet duty-cycle.  The base vehicle begins at about $40,000 which includes a 6:1 incline manual ramp and Q-Straint© brand tie downs for all types of wheelchairs.

Although this is purpose-built for fleets, individuals will be able to buy them as well.  Due to DOT regulations, they must include a driver’s seat, and most people with disabilities couldn’t drive the vehicle unmodified.  Nevertheless, this is a gigantic advance in the area of public transportation.  Right now, most public transportation companies can’t afford to incorporate very many accessible vehicles into their fleet.  Hopefully, this will change and vehicles like the MV1 will become part of the public transportation landscape.

I drive a lowered-floor Chrysler Town and Country which was converted by Braun©.  The additional adaptive equipment was installed by Keller Wheelchair Lifts.   This was a van I purchased from a dealer, and the lowered-floor was done afterward.  That is a major process and involves removing the floor from the front of the rear seat to the firewall, then re-structuring the vehicle.  It’s expensive to do this, so a purpose-built accessible vehicle is much more cost effective.  See my prior post about driving with a disability.

A Student of Human Moves

Dan Pink’s book Drive is outstanding! 

Dan’s ideas about intrinsic motivation aren’t new.  People have talked and written about these ideas for years.  Years ago, Dale Carnegie wrote about these ideas in How to Win Friends and Influence People.  More recently, Matt May nicely illustrated the workings of intrinsic motivation and autonomy in In Pursuit of Elegance.  These ideas are not new, yet, they are largely unapplied in the world of business, education and government.  Dan Pink tells us why.  He provides many examples and scientific studies in support of the benefits of intrinsic motivation.  Then he shows us why people are reluctant to rely on it!  He clearly shows us why the “carrot and stick” mentality we are accustomed to, and which is so engrained in our thinking, needs revision.

This book gets to the core of human nature.  It makes me think about the line in Color of Money where Fast Eddie Felson tells his protégé that he needs to learn to be a “student of human moves”.  This book underscores the significance of understanding human moves.

Many times, people look for the breakthrough idea in a book.  Drive is not a book with a breakthrough idea, rather it is a fervent call for actionable change.  The real breakthrough is in Dan’s vision of how best to apply this knowledge.  And like his prior book A Whole New Mind, it fleshes out how we might best survive and thrive in a new world. 

Dan Pink is a modern “student of human moves”.  He might just be the “professor of human moves” as well.  His book is compelling!

Windows 7

Microsoft got it right this time!  I did a Windows 7 upgrade from Vista.  It's obvious that Microsoft concentrated on making everything work, not just adding features. 

Windows 7 boots much faster and works more consistently than any prior version, even XP.  Finally, they got "lean" and tightened up the code making the features it does have work well.  To me, that is much more important than simply adding features.

A Wonderful Message

I’m convinced that this so-called “recession” isn’t your typical cyclical recession like we’ve experienced before.  As John Hope Bryant said in his manifesto, this economic climate isn’t cyclical; it is a “The World on Reset”.  We are in the midst of enormous change not just in our economics, but in our world as a whole.  The business climate is changing, and the businesses who continue to be greedy are likely to fail.  Mr. Bryant also tells us that the attitude of “what’s in it for me” must change to “what’s in it for US”.  I couldn’t agree more; greed has reared its ugly head, and we are paying the inevitable consequences.

Over the past few months, I’ve found hope!  I found it in the service vendor who is performing a massive rebuild to my van to convert it to disabled-accessible.  His comment to me was “be patient, you are not getting your van back until I’m satisfied that it’s right for you.”  He’s delivering on his promise that when I take delivery, the van will be exactly as I need it to be.  He has done work for me before, and I trust him completely.  We do business on a handshake.

I found hope in the insurance broker and close friend who devoted his valuable time, talent and knowledge to deliver an insurance program that precisely fits my life and budget.  He went above and beyond expectations and delivered more than I could ever anticipate.

These people realize the importance of integrity in doing business.  They know from experience that through unexcelled service, they build relationships.  And those relationships make the all the difference.   They realize that success isn’t about the bottom line.   They do things right and the bottom line takes care of itself.  Business and capitalism does not have to be all about greed.

John Hope Bryant’s manifesto makes sense!  His book looks like something I will enjoy as well.

The Golden Rule

I recently watched a TED talk by Karen Armstrong.  She advocates that the “Golden Rule”, not convoluted dogma, should be the basis for all religion.  Imagine if all of us did our best to follow that Golden Rule; “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”! 

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Driving with a Disability II

In my prior post, I gave you a summary overview about driving with a disability.  Today, I'd like to expand on that.

Again, primary driving controls are gas, brake and steering while secondary controls include everything else.  The systems I will be using come from 2 companies; Drive Master and EMC.  As you might imagine, there are not many companies around that manufacture products like this.  It is a specialty, and I'm sure the liability exposure, hence the cost of insurance, is considerable.  That applies to the dealer network as well.  Installing these systems requires specialized expertise, and generally the dealers offer driver training and evaluations as well as installation.  The company I'm working with locally has been doing this for well over 20 years, and they are indeed experts.  

I'll be using mechanical horizontal steering which connects to the steering column.  It can be adjusted on all planes.  Drive Master also retrofits steering boxes and rack and pinions for reduced and zero effort steering.  Among other innovative products, they offer backup steering systems as well.

I'll also be using the gas/brake system from EMC.  Their entire EMC system is called AEVIT (Advanced Electronic Vehicle Interface Technology).  They also offer secondary interface controls and "drive by wire" steering.  Their website is extremely informative.  This page gives a very nice overview of the AEVIT  driving system. 

Another very innovative company in this arena is MPD, Mobility Products and Design.  The hand control in my current van is an MPD product.  It is amazingly reliable, even after 11 years of use. 

Learning to drive with these devices is a little challenging and will require over 10 hours of training.  Mr. Keller has an older trainer van and is in the process of outfitting a new one.  You can imagine the expenses involved in such a specialty, hence the reason for the high cost at the consumer level. This is indeed a very specialized business, and the companies and dealers involved are indeed quite innovative.

I'm enjoyed doing this research.  I hope you enjoy it as well. 

GM - A Lesson Learned?

General Motors is now officially "Government Motors", no longer listed on NYSE.  The reasons are obvious...GM remained an old company whose management style remained in a 1950's mindset.  In the 1980's, W. Edward Deming predicted what is happening now to GM and other companies in the same situation.  And Bob Sutton clearly reflected this mindset in a blog post.

When will we learn?  The learning is happening in the auto industry at Ford Motor Company.  They operate lean in much the same way as Toyota, and they have trimmed down their vehicle offerings.  Ford is now setting the pace for American business.  They are learning to compete globally; GM never learned that! 

Having spent 30 years in public education I can tell you, however, that American public education will learn more slowly.  Education, and more specifically career/technical education, needs to be reflective of the direction industry is taking.  That happens slowly because public education is an extension of the government bureaucracy that created it.  Education remains in the "top down" management mindset where the customer (student) isn't always the priority.  But in this time of unprecedented change, I see a glimmer of hope for public education....the mindset is beginning to change.  Because for public education to survive, it must change!  I hope to be part of that.

In Pursuit of Elegance

Matt May's book, In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing, is being released tomorrow.  I read an advanced copy a few weeks ago, and could not put the book down!  Matt traveled the world to find cases where something was made to be elegant through subtractive means.  He strategically uses stories to drive home his ideas. 

This book is incredibly easy to read, even though it tackles some deep subject matter.  Check out his blog by the same name.  Mark Graban of Leanblog.org has posted a video podcast with Matt.  This work is entirely different than any business related book I've ever read.  It is a book about elegance written elegantly.