E-mail communications problems: The bane of a business network’s existence

I recently had an issue with a member of one of my networks that went something like this…

Another member had stopped answering their rate requests and on top of that would not even answer their e-mails any longer. They wanted to know if I would somehow step in and check it out.

So I asked the following questions:

1) Have you called or Skyped this other member yet?

2) Have you faxed this other member yet?

And guess what…? No, they had not.

Maybe this is because of my age but I remember when if you had problems with agents, suppliers, clients, etc., you would pick up the phone and call them. Sometimes you would even hop on a plane if the issue was big enough or grave enough. But it seems that nowadays business people around the world have what I call “e-mailitis”. Meaning they rely so heavily on e-mail that they do not even consider other forms of communication.

As it turned out both parties in this scenario wound up disillusioned with one another. The complainant’s reply to me was that I shouldn’t tell them such a thing as pick up the phone since a member of the same network should be so courteous and answer the e-mails. Of course they have a point – but they also lost the business. Not entirely because the other party didn’t answer the e-mail but I would say almost equally because this company complaining decided that e-mail is the only way to get things done.

We live in a world that those of us who grew up before 1985 would have had a hard time imagining. We have directly lines, mobile phones, voice mail, faxes, VOIP and so many other ways to connect with others these days. Not is it only strange that I would have such a complaint (non-follow up of e-mails) without the complainant first calling the agent on the other side but it seems this kind of complaint is on the rise!

So folks…

If you have a business partner (agent, vendor, client, etc.) who has not followed up quickly enough for you by e-mail response then call them! Or Skype them! Or fax them! If you don’t do this and you put all of your eggs in one basket, relying solely on e-mail, then don’t blame the other party if you don’t get the business.

Are you interested in the whole business of blogging?

I just bought ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. I have been running several blogs, both for business as well as for personal reasons, for quite some time so I’m not an infant when it comes to blogging but I’ve always found Darren Rowse to be well thought out in his approach. I have be following him on Twitter for some time as well. Chris Garrett is newer to me, but that’s good in that there are more insights to discover.

I am only about halfway through the book right now but I am finding it incredibly helpful in looking at the blogs I am already running in new ways. I have a small note pad and am taking it all in. Like I said, I am not new to blogging but at the same time I am also nowhere close to being an expect either. This book is helping me to focus on areas of my blogging that I had not in the past. More on that in a later post.

Blogging, to me, is one of the best ways to network your business internationally. It can go hand-in-hand with pressing the flesh, social media and even traditional marketing and advertising. If you aren’t blogging then look into it!

Promotion Points: Build the Process – Win the Game!

Gary Dale Cearley, author of Promotion Points

Have you ever wondered why some companies consistently do well during rough times as others flounder?

I have to admit there is no single answer. However I have looked over quite a few winners recently to see what they did have in common. It was driven home to me after I watched the American footall’s NCAA championship game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Texas Longhorns. Nick Saban, the coach of Alabama, was asked by one of the sports journalists after the game how he has become the first coach in history to win a national championship with two different teams. (Nick Saban won his first national championship coaching another team, Louisiana State, a few years ago). His answer wasn’t sexy. In fact, it was very cut and dry. “Set up your processes and keep to the game plan.”

What is the wisdom in that? It makes success seem too simple, doesn’t it?

Actually, no. Sticking to the game plan is often the hardest thing to do. For instance, are you a multi-tasker? Do you easily get diverted to phone calls and, my Achilles heal, e-mails? Do you have trouble focusing on a single project for a chunk of time? Well, this is something you have to do in order to win. Or even in order to have a better life for yourself.

Early last year I read the book The 4-Hour Workweek by author Tim Ferris. Since then I have been quite interested in following up with this author whenever I had the opportunity to hear him speak or see him interviewed. The one thing that he constantly drums into you is that in order to be efficient you have to be able to cut back, cut down or cut out just about everything. In order to do this you have to set up processes to streamline your business.

There is a very key point that brings together both Nick Saban and Tim Ferris. You see, systems are only set up for their outcomes. If you get the wrong outcomes all the time then there is something wrong with your system.

Nick Saban’s system produced him two national championships and Tim Ferris’s system produced for him a four-hour work week. Whether you know it or not you are living a process on a daily basis. The outcome of your life right now is the sum of what you do every day. Are you successful? Healthy? It is because of how you manage your system. The key to managing is being able to look at your system to make the changes that rights the vessel and sails it to where you want to go.

One of the best stories I know of about righting the vessel was about the late Katharine Graham, former owner of the Washington Post. Katharine Graham inherited the Washington Post from her husband after he died a tragic death. She had zero business experience. None. But at the same time she didn’t want to sell the newspaper as it was a family heirloom. She also didn’t want to leave the management to strangers. What did she do? She asked questions. Katharine started her newspaper management career by holding meetings with each department and asking everyone from top to bottom two basic questions: 1) What is wrong with how we are doing things now? And what do you think we should do to fix these problems? Most often the recommended tweaks were not drastic changes – only modifications of the system. During Graham’s more than two decade stint as president of the Washington Post the newspaper went from being a mid-level regional paper being highly profitable and becoming, with the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, one of the three most respected newspapers in the country.

Systems are simply the implementations of plans. When you hear that someone says “that system was designed to fail” what they really mean to say is “the processes that system uses will give you an unintended outcome.” So as a manager if things are going wrong one of the hardest things to do is to stop, have an objective look, and tweak your processes. If you plan to be an entrepreneur or if your company is launching a new product you might want to spend most of your thinking time on properly designing the process.

Of course, processes aren’t 100% of success because the world around you changes. If the system was enough by itself then Nick Saban’s teams would win the championship every year. There would be no other competition. But when things go wrong and you have spent the time to build a proper system with well defined processes you will at least have a much easier time knowing what to fix. And when it goes right you will be unstoppable!

A trip to Singapore in January

I’m taking a trip to Singapore between January 24th and January 29th.

2nd Breakbulk Asia Transportation Conference & Exhibition
26th – 27th January, 2010
Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre
Singapore, Singapore

This is for the Global Project Logistics Network (GPLN). We were there at the inaugural event last year. It was a huge success and I expect this year to be even better!

Wishing you all a good new year!

I don’t know about the rest of you but the year 2010 will be the best one yet for me.   I know it because I plan to make it that way!

This year look for a flurry of activity. Look for systems and not micromanagement. Look for enjoyment in life.

All of this comes from knowing what you want and preparing. It also means to know when to focus and when to multitask. These are things that I am having to constantly work on myself and I am sure that I am not the only one out there. I guess this means that I will have to meditate a bit more as well as getting more sleep and exercise. But it will be worth it, paying immediate dividends.

Anyway, without rambling too much more I wish everyone who reads this will have an excellent 2010 and an excellent rest of your lives while you are at it!

Promotion Points: If you want Brownie Points then Don’t do it for the Brownie Points!

Gary Dale Cearley is the author of Promotion Points

Personally I have never been one to run away from volunteering. When I was young my church often helped with the less fortunate in the community. When I was in the navy I took part in the Big Brother program. After the navy I was involved in Amnesty International and helped out with activities at a retirement home. When I lived in Vietnam over the years I helped raise money for a home for severely retarded children and for two blind schools. And I am all for corporate volunteerism.

But how would my company getting involved with a cause or charity be a good use of our time and resources?

Part of your company’s image to the outside world is viewed by the same way others view you personally. What kind of citizen are you? What kind of citizen is your company? Surely it is enough to provide a good product or service at an acceptable price? Of course it is. Can you have a good image in the community and not get involved with any charity work? Of course you can. Do you need to get involved in the community in order to show the world you are an organization run by decent people. No, you don’t.

So why roll up your sleeves at all?

Let me give you a few reasons.

First, when your company becomes involved in your community, especially in a charitable endeavor that is close to local interests, people will view your company from a whole different perspective. More people will be drawn closer to you and see your company as a “friend” to the community. If your whole company is involved this goes a long, long way in your own internal team building. Your employees rightly feel part of something bigger, of something worthwhile. An example of this is that I always marvel at how the ladies in my office here in Bangkok happily give to Buddhist charities almost every time one of our staff has a community project or cause she is helping out with. Even when the cause is not from anyone in our office but from another company in our building they also happily jump on the “do good” bandwagon. I have seen how the camaraderie is in the air in my office when it comes to giving.

But a word of caution:

Though you can easily see the benefits to your company that putting your best charitable foot forward, don’t ever do this for the publicity you expect it to garner for your company!

To be clear I don’t believe that you will necessarily face an explosion of bad press if you are pushing company charitable work in order to gain publicity. What you do risk is your position in the underlying public opinion. People can generally see when others are not sincere. If you approach lending a communal hand this way then you should expect the community to see right through it and discount the efforts. This could be quite counter productive for your company’s image. The message you send should always be about the cause and not about your company. If you place the cause secondary I assure you that people will see your company as heartless. No one will really respect your efforts. Of course you will get some points for the good that is done with your time and money but you will lose points on the social trust side of your image. Rather than being seen as people who “do well by doing good” you would risk as being seen as a company that would stop at nothing to be noticed – as a “user”, so to speak. Someone who takes advantage of the less fortunate.

How do you avoid this?

There’s no better way of helping out for the right reasons than by letting your staff chose the cause or charity that your company supports. This way they will have ownership of the cause and your people will naturally show that they are helping out because they are compassionate human beings and not because it is company policy. Secondly, if you do promote your company logo or brand when you are helping I would counsel that you make certain not to usurp the spotlight from cause you are supporting. Let your company be a bit in the background. Be humble with your charity. And thirdly, most importantly, as a manager roll up your sleeves and get involved yourself on a personal level. You can shouw your leadership by being a good follower here. And remember to give with a cheerful heart.

This all reminds me of the last words we had from the Beatles:

“The love you make is equal to the love you take…”

Gary Dale Cearley is the managing director of Advanced International Networks Ltd and is also a columnist and writer. Promotion Points is a monthly column in the magazine Management Systems Asia, where Gary Dale is a regular contributor.  You can follow Gary Dale on Twitter by clicking here.

Fake Network Members: An Unprincipled Practice

This may come as a surprise to some but many of various network members know – not everyone who approaches them for business as a member really is a member. To someone who administers freight networks I am constantly disheartened by this. Many of these companies are simply imposters and others

Sometimes this could be a simple miscommunication between the companies’ management and staff, on the other hand we have had many instances of companies being misleading by outright claiming to be a member when they are not or they will make misleading statements such as “I know you through the network” or “we have your name through the network directory”. I have even seen where people say “I have your name through the network staff / Gary Dale” which very often isn’t true. (Have you ever heard these statements through companies you have never heard of?). Though these people don’t explicitly say they are network members they are still quite misleading in their introduction. And if they are doing it intentionally, which the vast majority of them are, it is unethical.

Oddly, I have found in the past that a number of these very companies who practice these deceptions are companies who have approached us about membership in a particular network but for whatever reason did not want to pay the fees the same as other members. They would either try to negotiate with us and get turned back or they would stand on “principle” and say that they don’t pay subscription dues to belong to networks. Some are also companies who applied for membership in the past and didn’t qualify to get in.

My position is fairly firm on this: Any company that approaches you and leads you to believe, either directly or indirectly, that they are a network member when they are not sends a very loud signal that they are great risks for fraudulent or unethical behavior. You are at risk for payment and you are at risk that they are unqualified to handle the cargo. Do you really want that?

How will you know? Well, first of all, for companies who have been a member of our group for some time we there is a good chance that members would have been introduced directly to you as we announce all new members. But just remember, whether you have been a part of this group for a long time or a short time, if anyone ever says they are a member of network and you don’t personally know that they are, before doing business you might want to look at our online member directories to compare whether this is true or not. If still in doubt then ask me. We would be happy to help you in this regard.

What I can say to anyone who is considering doing such a thing is don’t. This is unethical and unprofessional and it will ultimately backfire on you.

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