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It’s a long way from Fairfield, Connecticut, the home of General Electric, to Henderson, Nevada, the home of Zappos. The gap is even wider between their respective products and services.
GE is a multinational American technology and services conglomerate. Zappos sells shoes, handbags, and other items online – to the tune of more than $1 billion this year.
Both made the news last week. And it all has to do with their “Bottom 10.”
General Electric is a household name; chances are, you have something in your home with it’s name emboldened on it. The only original company still listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, more recently, GE is the company that Jack rebuilt, and one of the most admired in the business world today. Jack Welch determined in the 1980s that GE would be number 1 or 2 in particular industry or leave it completely. He also started the practice of firing the bottom-performing 10% of his managers every year.
Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that GE was sending its century-old appliances business to the auction block. Say it ain’t so! The American company that “brings good things to life” may be bringin’ ‘em from Korea or Sweden or somewhere else. From a sentimental perspective, it hurts. But from a management perspective, it was an overdue decision.
Back to Zappos. Bill Taylor, from Mavericks at Work, reported last week on his personal visit to Zappos.
This company is fanatical about great service—not just satisfying customers, but amazing them. The company promises free, four-day delivery. That’s pretty good. But most of the time it delivers next-day service, a surprise that leaves a lasting impression on customers: “You said four days, but I got them the next morning.” Zappos has also mastered the art of telephone service—a black hole for most Internet retailers. Zappos publishes its 1-800 number on every singe page of the site—and its smart and entertaining call-center employees are free to do whatever it takes to make you happy. There are no scripts, no time limits on calls, no robotic behavior, and plenty of legendary stories about Zappos and its customers.
(You can catch a little of that spirit in this 30-second spot.)
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/uxBWfqDAQkg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
But Taylor pointed out an outrageous practice that Zappos uses to attract and train those legendary customer service people. Once hired, the company provides a four-week training period that educates new employees in Zappos culture, strategy, and obsession with customers. New hires are paid their full salary during this time.
About a week into this, Zappos makes “The Offer”:
Quit today, and we’ll pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked. PLUS, we’ll offer you a $1,000 bonus.
You read that right. Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit. Why? Bill Taylor again:
Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for. It’s hard to describe the level of energy in the Zappos culture—which means, by definition, it’s not for everybody. Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick—and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later. (About ten percent of new call-center employees take the money and run.)
Like GE, Zappos has found its Bottom 10. Unlike GE, they have learned to identify them coming in the door.
Okay, interesting and clever, if you’re into business or management watching. Otherwise, what does that have to do with you? Simply this: By getting rid of the least productive things in your life/work/business, you make room for more valuable, meaningful things.
Personal Productivity
Start with your own life productivity. What would happen if you eliminated the 10% of your activities that produced the least amount of results (allowing you to define “results”)? How about losing the Bottom 10 in the food you eat? Or the Bottom 10 of your time drag? Or the Bottom 10 of those possessions you have to rent storage space for?
Sound easy? Think again. GE is unloading something that has made it a household name in America. The sentimental/popular pull is enormous. But it’s a courageous step that will allow the company to focus more of its energy on what makes it successful today and in the future.
Work/Business
What about your work/business life? A good friend of mine is a commercial real estate broker/manager. He put this practice to work at the start of last year by cutting ties with the Bottom 10 percent of his clients. Clients! These were the people who took the most of his time, but produced the least tangible reward. He wrote them a nice letter, thanking them for their business, but suggesting their needs would be better served by someone else. Within a couple of months, his list of new clients had doubled the number he had released.
Spiritual Growth
Does this have any spiritual application? Boy, does it. At the height of his popularity, Jesus Christ had the opportunity to become a political operative, build a megachurch, or cash it in on something that would make Him amazingly wealthy. Instead, he turns to his followers and says, “no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father” (John 6:65). The result? He lost a bucket load of followers.
Spiritual growth comes through separation from old patterns. Those old patterns aren’t always things we assume to be sinful. Sometimes, they’re what the writer of Hebrews calls weights or encumbrances. It may not be a sin to watch that TV show, but is it a weight? It may not be evil to blow money on loads of “stuff,” but does all that stuff get in the way of your spiritual progress?
An old saying in Recovery is, “We claim progress, not perfection.” What better way to make progress than to shed the junk – even sentimental junk – that’s standing in your way?
(GE image by kocojim)
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post…It would be interesting to know what percentage of time, energy, effort, trouble, thought etc. we spend on the bottom 10% of our relationships, clients, hobbies, habits, acquaintances, etc. I have a feeling that the bottom 10% takes up 30 to 40% of our daily energy. I need to reapply this principle to my business and personal life once again.
This must be a message for me. I went to a business seminar for work a few months ago and the keynote speaker spoke about this same thing. Now I read it here. OK! OK! I will start looking for those bottom 10% things in life.
Seriously, I did not think that I had issues with this but just in the time that it has taken me to type this, which is too long with my typing skills lacking as they do, I have thought of 2 things that I can do without.
And Scott, you are correct, the person that spoke to us said that, based on research he quoted but I can not remember, we spend from 30% to 75% of our time and effort on the these low producing items.
kenSwitzer
Scott and Ken,
Thanks for your insights. To you and all - what are some of the things you’re discovering are in your Bottom 10? What are some weights that drag YOU down or hold you back?
Andy, I have found work to be the biggest drag on my life with my family…..oh wait, was that out loud? 8^)
Seriously, I find that when I get home from work all I want to do is sit in front of the tv. I would even do without supper and just veg out in front of the tv if I could swing it with my wife and daughter.
I realized this was happening all too much the other night when I got home and went to sit in my favorite chair for a little of Karen and Abner relaxation time and my 2 1/2 year old looked at me and said “Daddy don’t sit in your chair, play with me”. Now, I am not one for showing emotions so I would never admit this in public..oh wait, never mind, I ALMOST cried at the thought of a 2 1/2 year old realizing that I would rather sit in front of the tv than play with her.
Now I would love to say that I have very hard physical job but I do not. I work in an office and sit behind a computer for 8 to 10 hours a day. It IS mentally difficult but not physically. So since then I have decided to make an honest effort to not watch tv while she is awake (without her, she loves Mickey Mouse and Veggie Tales). We limit her tv time to about 30 minutes a day and I can do that without blinking. TIME FOR A CHANGE.
My other bottom 10 is working out. I am in “a” shape….round is a shape, right?
I am working on giving up procrastination. Starting with procrastinating about working out. I should be going 3 or 4 times a week after Katelyn goes to bed at 8:00ish. (I skipped tonight to write this post, oops)
If I could do these two things, I think that I could make life in my house a little better for me and my family.
kenSwitzer
Ken - Great thoughts. But I would suggest you think proactively about how to replace what TV is offering - a set amount of down time after what is probably some pretty intense work. There are ways to make that happen that don’t require exhorbitant amounts of time.
That said, the time you get with your daughter is a priceless investment. And when you’re walking her down an aisle one day, I seriously doubt you’ll be saying, “Dang it! I just wish I’d watched more TV!”