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Why Projects Fail and How to Turn Them Around · Business Roundtable

0:15
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast. I am your host,
0:19
Speaker 1: David Carr, founder of Steward of Your Business. We are
0:22
Speaker 1: excited to have you all here because you know, I'm
0:24
Speaker 1: all about healthy businesses, being aligned, making sure everybody's working
0:27
Speaker 1: well together. And my guest this week is super excited.
0:32
Speaker 1: He has spent over forty years being that person that
0:35
Speaker 1: comes in and really helps when things have gone sideways.
0:38
Speaker 1: He's actually one of Jack Welch's for those of you
0:41
Speaker 1: that know Jack Welch, one of his turnaround guys with
0:43
Speaker 1: GE and he's walked into and help companies that have
0:46
Speaker 1: lost hundreds of millions of dollars. I'll let worgan to
0:50
Speaker 1: unpack this and that they couldn't understand what was going
0:53
Speaker 1: on and why did it breakdown and really been that
0:55
Speaker 1: person that could turn companies around. Coming in and I'm
0:59
Speaker 1: super excited to have Richard Brew here. He's the founder
1:02
Speaker 1: of True North PMP Consulting and he has been really
1:06
Speaker 1: helping me share some insights about what he's worked out
1:09
Speaker 1: and how he's help companies and their communication breakdown and
1:12
Speaker 1: really seeing where companies have missed the mark, but help
1:15
Speaker 1: them get back on track. And so today I'm really
1:18
Speaker 1: excited to dig into this with you. Richard. Welcome to
1:21
Speaker 1: the podcast, David, thanks for having me.
1:23
Speaker 2: Happy to be.
1:24
Speaker 1: Here, Yes, it's super exciting. You know, you have spent
1:28
Speaker 1: four decades now being a person that people call in
1:31
Speaker 1: when things have gone wrong, Richard, and they're like, and
1:34
Speaker 1: so talk to me a little bit about your a
1:36
Speaker 1: little bit about your journey, your career for our listeners
1:39
Speaker 1: that maybe for those younger folks, maybe they don't know
1:41
Speaker 1: Jack Welsh, but talk a little bit about your journey
1:44
Speaker 1: and share with them how you became this you've focused
1:47
Speaker 1: in this turnaround career.
1:50
Speaker 2: Well, I started, like most young folks in Fortune five
1:54
Speaker 2: hundred one's cowning Black and Decker and most of my
1:57
Speaker 2: career at General Electric Plastics and then Plastics Vision. And
2:02
Speaker 2: of course I rode up through the ranks from individual
2:04
Speaker 2: contributor to leadership roles. But I eventually was put into
2:08
Speaker 2: roles where they needed something created something that was broken,
2:11
Speaker 2: like a new product development and introduction. I was brought
2:15
Speaker 2: in to create an ament of process that would streamline it,
2:19
Speaker 2: reduced cost per project, speed up cycle time the market,
2:24
Speaker 2: and speed up cycle time and revenue. I also did
2:27
Speaker 2: the same thing for the automotive group of Ges Silicons
2:30
Speaker 2: when they were in their downfall, was able to turn
2:33
Speaker 2: them back around and bring them back up into the Epswing,
2:35
Speaker 2: which are now part of another company, but they were
2:38
Speaker 2: sold as a very successful business unit. So I had
2:42
Speaker 2: a great fortune in my early career to work for
2:46
Speaker 2: companies like General Electric that literally taught you what you
2:50
Speaker 2: needed to know to be very successful. What you did.
2:53
Speaker 2: I think most people know Jack Welsh, he was most
2:57
Speaker 2: revered back in the seventies, eighties, and nineties, even in
3:00
Speaker 2: the two thousands as being one of America's business icons.
3:05
Speaker 2: I did have the pleasure of working for him and
3:08
Speaker 2: with him on certain things for the company. And you know,
3:12
Speaker 2: one of the things that I guess you could say,
3:16
Speaker 2: indeared me to him, as he used to say, you know, Richard,
3:18
Speaker 2: the day makes the week, the week mates the month,
3:22
Speaker 2: month makes the quarter, the quarter makes the year. Just
3:25
Speaker 2: make sure you got your eyes on the ball all
3:27
Speaker 2: the time so you don't lose any of that time.
3:29
Speaker 2: And I think that was one of the greatest things
3:31
Speaker 2: that he ever said to me, and obviously other people
3:33
Speaker 2: as well. But that's where I got my start. Left
3:36
Speaker 2: Corporate America in twenty seventeen because I decided I want
3:39
Speaker 2: to work for small to medium sized, mid market sized
3:42
Speaker 2: companies that were struggling struggling with operations, streamlining operations so
3:50
Speaker 2: that there's reduced costs, reduce waste, reduce risk in projects,
3:55
Speaker 2: you know, reduce cycle time to get at the revenue.
3:58
Speaker 2: So that's where I spend most of my time right now.
4:01
Speaker 2: And you know, it's been a very interesting journey because
4:03
Speaker 2: I get to touch many different companies in many different.
4:06
Speaker 1: Industries absolutely well. And that's why we have the Business
4:08
Speaker 1: Printable podcast quite honestly, Richard, and why I wanted to
4:11
Speaker 1: have you here. We particularly look at those companies in
4:13
Speaker 1: that small to mid sized businesses SMBs. And one thing
4:17
Speaker 1: that stood out to me as we were talking before
4:18
Speaker 1: we started recording this podcast, I thought was just fascinating
4:21
Speaker 1: to me is that you said you often see with
4:24
Speaker 1: small the mid sized businesses they're still kind of relearning
4:27
Speaker 1: business one oh one that like for example, g GE
4:30
Speaker 1: figured out years ago. Why is it that some of
4:32
Speaker 1: the simplest things leaders are consistently over complicating or missing
4:36
Speaker 1: What are you seeing there, Richard.
4:38
Speaker 2: I've seen a lot of businesses that are say, privately
4:40
Speaker 2: owned or family owned. You know, they've had a way
4:43
Speaker 2: of doing things. It's their whole life, whether it was
4:45
Speaker 2: handed down to the generations or it just worked for them,
4:49
Speaker 2: and then eventually it doesn't work the way they would
4:52
Speaker 2: like it to work or expect to work. So well,
4:55
Speaker 2: we've always done it this way syndrome, yep. The The
4:59
Speaker 2: other thing I I see is a misalignment in companies.
5:03
Speaker 2: In other words, you know, you're the CEO and you
5:06
Speaker 2: have a vision, you want something to happen. You have
5:09
Speaker 2: a staff that you've delegated that too, and whether it's
5:13
Speaker 2: due to poor communication, poor governance, what hits your desk
5:18
Speaker 2: eventually is exactly the way you wanted it, and then
5:21
Speaker 2: you get a little frustrated. A lot of misalignment between
5:25
Speaker 2: what what the leadership wants versus what the workers do.
5:29
Speaker 2: And it's not that the workers are bad, it's just
5:32
Speaker 2: that there's not a total alignment of expectations and deliverables.
5:36
Speaker 2: Just know what I call definition of done that everyone
5:39
Speaker 2: agrees to upfront, so that your office is my leader,
5:43
Speaker 2: my CEO, I can say, hey, you know, David, this
5:47
Speaker 2: is what's your definition of done. I can prove it
5:49
Speaker 2: to you. Here's the facts, here's the evidence. Have we
5:52
Speaker 2: met all your expectations? So those are the two main
5:54
Speaker 2: things that I see.
5:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's a great observation, Richard. And again why
5:59
Speaker 1: I wanted to have you on the So somebody that
6:00
Speaker 1: comes in and it looks at this higher level and
6:03
Speaker 1: kind of unpacks it because the work that I do
6:05
Speaker 1: with individuals, I agree with you, it just echoes down.
6:07
Speaker 1: If there's that misalignment, there's misunderstandings, there's you know, there's
6:13
Speaker 1: there can be silos, there can be you know, people
6:16
Speaker 1: pull in their corners, and like you said, and then
6:19
Speaker 1: the business owner leaders like why aren't they responding? Why
6:22
Speaker 1: aren't they getting this? Because you need somebody from the outside,
6:25
Speaker 1: and this is where you're This is why I love
6:26
Speaker 1: having guests on the podcast, because you spent forty years,
6:29
Speaker 1: You've worked with GAE, You've worked with these other firms.
6:31
Speaker 1: The having the ability to have somebody like you Jack
6:35
Speaker 1: or they've worked with Jack Whilch and others along your
6:39
Speaker 1: whole career. You're taking all this knowledge and believe me,
6:42
Speaker 1: I think A is great, but it doesn't doesn't supplant
6:44
Speaker 1: the person and the unique experiences that you and Richard
6:47
Speaker 1: have brought. And so if you guys are listening to
6:49
Speaker 1: Richard talk, by the way, we're connected on LinkedIn and
6:51
Speaker 1: we're gonna put them on our show. Owes how you
6:53
Speaker 1: can connect with them. Lean in here. I'm encouraging you
6:56
Speaker 1: business owner leaders, lean in because Richard's got a wealth
6:59
Speaker 1: of experience here and like you said, don't you don't
7:02
Speaker 1: have to make those same mistakes. So that kind of
7:05
Speaker 1: gets me into honestly, Richard, you have so much experience
7:08
Speaker 1: working in these large, complicated projects, lots of parts, lots
7:13
Speaker 1: of things to get all right. And again you gave
7:16
Speaker 1: me some startling stats actually as you as we were
7:18
Speaker 1: talking before we recorded this of why you know what
7:22
Speaker 1: number one? What's what? Just in your perspective, like all
7:26
Speaker 1: the projects, somebody says an initiative, I don't want to
7:28
Speaker 1: get a project done, you know, much like a business.
7:31
Speaker 1: Starting a business is kind of a project. But like
7:33
Speaker 1: you know, you you explained to me, like the majority
7:36
Speaker 1: of projects are going to fail. Can you break that
7:39
Speaker 1: down for me? Why why are these probably number one
7:41
Speaker 1: that just break down those statistics and what's contributing to that.
7:45
Speaker 2: Well, the statistics we talked about fifty percent of all
7:48
Speaker 2: projects have some strain, whether that's the scope creep, their
7:53
Speaker 2: over budget, they're behind schedule. Fifty percent of all projects
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Speaker 2: will experience some stress cents just fail Outright, you could
8:02
Speaker 2: have great planning and poor execution, or poor plane and
8:04
Speaker 2: great execution. But those two they if they don't mesh,
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Speaker 2: ninety percent failed and only thirty one percent of projects
8:11
Speaker 2: came in on budget on time with those deliverables. And
8:14
Speaker 2: what's interesting about those statistics, and they're put out by
8:17
Speaker 2: PMI dot org, they really haven't changed that much over
8:20
Speaker 2: the last several years. And it makes you want to
8:23
Speaker 2: scratch your head and go, so why, I mean, if
8:26
Speaker 2: we know this, why And I think when you dig
8:31
Speaker 2: deep into the why, it all starts with you know,
8:35
Speaker 2: what are you trying to accomplish? Called the project scope? Right,
8:39
Speaker 2: there's you can say, well, I want to build this
8:42
Speaker 2: car that can do X, Y and Z. Okay, what's
8:45
Speaker 2: it not supposed to do? Just tell me what it
8:48
Speaker 2: has to do. I don't want to understand why it
8:51
Speaker 2: has to do it, under what conditions it has to
8:54
Speaker 2: get done? And are there any other circumstances or expectation
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Speaker 2: that this unit car would ever have cheap that that
9:02
Speaker 2: you have to nail your scope down very very very
9:05
Speaker 2: very tight because you want to understand what's not in
9:08
Speaker 2: scope to prevent scope creep. And a lot of companies
9:10
Speaker 2: they'll do a scope statement and they'll say, well, this
9:14
Speaker 2: is what we're going Okay, but can you tell me
9:16
Speaker 2: the why behind all that, because if I'm the person
9:18
Speaker 2: on the floor going to do this for you, or
9:20
Speaker 2: I'm the vendor going to I need to understand why.
9:22
Speaker 2: It's not just do it's why am I doing this?
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Speaker 2: Real value my creating, because ultimately that's what I'm trying
9:28
Speaker 2: to do for you is create is create value? When
9:31
Speaker 2: I tell my clients is if you can boil it
9:34
Speaker 2: down to get to that point of the why behind
9:36
Speaker 2: what you want to do, and you can put it
9:39
Speaker 2: on a piece of paper say this is definitely inspect,
9:43
Speaker 2: this is definitely at aspect and you sign that document.
9:46
Speaker 2: Now you have a living document that should guide you
9:48
Speaker 2: through the whole project so that you're staying focused on
9:52
Speaker 2: what the ultimate deliverables would be. And the other thing, David,
9:56
Speaker 2: that I see some companies will put together a business case.
9:59
Speaker 2: That's that's great. That should be the first thing you
10:01
Speaker 2: should put together. Whether you do an agile, project management,
10:04
Speaker 2: hybrid and traditional, but they start the project off the
10:08
Speaker 2: business case. Business case to me is a very high
10:11
Speaker 2: level look at what you want to do. The next
10:14
Speaker 2: thing would be your project tart. Now you're digging deeper
10:16
Speaker 2: into the money, you're digging deeper into the why, you're
10:19
Speaker 2: digging deeper into resources. You've got to do that homework
10:22
Speaker 2: up front, because if you don't do it up front,
10:25
Speaker 2: you know, it's like putting your finger to the air
10:27
Speaker 2: and going, well, where's the wind today? I mean, I
10:29
Speaker 2: know I got to go north, but I might have
10:31
Speaker 2: to go a little bit east or west to get
10:33
Speaker 2: to You don't want that. You want to be able
10:35
Speaker 2: to have everything locked tight so you know where you're.
10:37
Speaker 1: Going right and have somebody come and here's the thing
10:41
Speaker 1: I think, maybe Richard, where you were where you may
10:44
Speaker 1: come in as somebody that doesn't know what they don't know? Well,
10:46
Speaker 1: this is what I found. I love to do your
10:48
Speaker 1: thoughts on this because sometimes what I found in companies
10:50
Speaker 1: is you've got somebody that has a lot of the
10:52
Speaker 1: knowledge and they're kind of get promoted up and they
10:54
Speaker 1: get worked away and then they got kind of disconnected
10:56
Speaker 1: and then they have like these junior project managers, other
10:58
Speaker 1: folks that don't know what you just explained, and so
11:01
Speaker 1: they're kind of winging it to a certain there's some ideas,
11:05
Speaker 1: but they don't and before you know it, like you said,
11:07
Speaker 1: you thought talk a little bit about what you thought
11:10
Speaker 1: it was connected, but it wasn't. There's like these there's
11:12
Speaker 1: these missteps in between. Can you talk a little bit
11:14
Speaker 1: about that?
11:15
Speaker 2: Sure? And we talked about the lack of mentorship that
11:18
Speaker 2: I feel going on in corporate America today. If you're
11:21
Speaker 2: a senior program or project manager or even my CEO
11:25
Speaker 2: or my engineering manager, and you're going to assign me
11:27
Speaker 2: to do something, and I know you're busy because you've
11:30
Speaker 2: got more responsibilities than I have, but I need you.
11:34
Speaker 2: I need your guidance, I need your support. I need
11:36
Speaker 2: to understand what exactly it is that we've talked a
11:39
Speaker 2: little bit about scope, and there are other things that
11:41
Speaker 2: backed that thing up, like assumptions and constraints and budget
11:44
Speaker 2: and resources. But you know, I, I it's really unfair
11:49
Speaker 2: to me to to ask someone to do something, especially
11:54
Speaker 2: you know, if you're a newer engineer, new to the
11:56
Speaker 2: company or just new to the industry, to say we'll
11:58
Speaker 2: go do this. I don't have the type of history
12:02
Speaker 2: that you have in your mind. I don't have the
12:05
Speaker 2: company history, the product history, the industry history. And that's
12:09
Speaker 2: where that type of mentorship is important, because if you're
12:11
Speaker 2: going to ask me to do something, you ought to
12:14
Speaker 2: be my coach through the whole process, just like I
12:16
Speaker 2: ought to be. You know, your ever available student to
12:23
Speaker 2: grass as much as I can for you to make
12:25
Speaker 2: sure I meet the expectations. And that's where I advise
12:29
Speaker 2: clients is you really should talk about having some of
12:32
Speaker 2: your older employees. You have to you have to how
12:36
Speaker 2: you say that, But you know the gray hairs, I
12:38
Speaker 2: call us gray hairs, right, You really need to think
12:42
Speaker 2: about your legacy. You really need to think about your
12:45
Speaker 2: tribal knowledge because the tribe changes and you want to
12:49
Speaker 2: tribe elders to train the new people in the tribe
12:53
Speaker 2: so that as they become elders, they can continue to
12:55
Speaker 2: turn around and do the same thing. And there's not
12:58
Speaker 2: enough of that going on today. When and I was
13:00
Speaker 2: coming up through a ge I had a mentor assigned
13:05
Speaker 2: to me the first day of every new job that
13:07
Speaker 2: I had who stayed with me through the whole duration
13:10
Speaker 2: of that assignment that was available to help me twenty.
13:13
Speaker 1: Four to seven, right, and to have You're absolutely right, Richard.
13:18
Speaker 1: It's a different mentality, and I think speak Yeah, I
13:21
Speaker 1: like this tribal knowledge because I think this is one
13:23
Speaker 1: that we kind of forget about, is we don't really
13:28
Speaker 1: realize how valuable that person is. I think you gave
13:29
Speaker 1: me a story about what happened is when they're gone,
13:32
Speaker 1: and that's like, can you talk a little bit about that.
13:35
Speaker 1: I think there was a story where you had somebody
13:38
Speaker 1: gone and they had to come back right there there.
13:39
Speaker 1: I don't remember when you were not, but yeah, we're
13:42
Speaker 1: talking about that. Yeah.
13:44
Speaker 2: I did a turnaround of a company called Headwind Corporation
13:47
Speaker 2: out of Baltimore. They were a medical plastics packaging manufacturer
13:51
Speaker 2: and they had a manufacturing manager. He was a great guy,
13:54
Speaker 2: I mean, great personality, great with people. But when the
13:58
Speaker 2: plant manager, who and three different plants on the site,
14:02
Speaker 2: decided to retire, this young man was put into his
14:05
Speaker 2: shoes to fill, which was a pretty big job because
14:08
Speaker 2: they asked him to fill the shoes with a struggling
14:11
Speaker 2: company with no help or no mentorship or nothing. So,
14:15
Speaker 2: you know, I sat down with this person and I said,
14:19
Speaker 2: you're a great guy, you got a lot of value,
14:22
Speaker 2: but I really think that you're better served on the
14:25
Speaker 2: commercial side of this business because customers love you, and
14:28
Speaker 2: you're very good at helping them through issues, and you're
14:31
Speaker 2: very good at explaining the products and how they're made
14:33
Speaker 2: and how they have to meet certain regulations. And I
14:36
Speaker 2: brought back the old plant manager. I asked him to
14:39
Speaker 2: come back for two years while I was turning the
14:41
Speaker 2: company and things straightened out. What was that I found
14:46
Speaker 2: the tribal elder that knew how to run those plans,
14:50
Speaker 2: and then under that tribal elder, I had people assigned
14:54
Speaker 2: to him where he could teach his knowledge to them,
14:56
Speaker 2: knowing full well that within two years he was going
14:59
Speaker 2: away again to go back to retirement. In the meantime,
15:02
Speaker 2: the other gentleman who's there flourished on the commercial side.
15:05
Speaker 2: So it was a win win for everybody.
15:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's so so important. I don't, like you said,
15:10
Speaker 1: I don't think they think about that. And this is
15:15
Speaker 1: you know, I let your thoughts. One of the things
15:16
Speaker 1: I argue, if you will, is that when you have
15:20
Speaker 1: people in that team together, like you said, mentoring and
15:23
Speaker 1: working well together, it's a competitive advantage in your marketplace.
15:26
Speaker 1: It's something that if you can keep that and then
15:29
Speaker 1: keep that intact, right.
15:31
Speaker 2: Right, it's absolutely it's a great advantage.
15:34
Speaker 1: Right. Because so here's something I want to put out
15:37
Speaker 1: and if you're a listener here, because I was just
15:39
Speaker 1: talking to another gentleman about this earlier today. We were
15:42
Speaker 1: talking about he says, go to market strategies and helping
15:45
Speaker 1: companies go out out of the US. One of the
15:48
Speaker 1: things we were talking about is companies hesitancy sometimes to
15:53
Speaker 1: invest in bringing somebody like you or myself in that
15:55
Speaker 1: will keep that team intact, will that will solidify, like
15:59
Speaker 1: what we're saying, that team not losing that person. But
16:02
Speaker 1: speak a little bit to again probably where this is
16:05
Speaker 1: probably where again where projects fail at least I where
16:07
Speaker 1: I've seen where you have a project manager on a project,
16:10
Speaker 1: they leave, they go somewhere else, and like you said,
16:13
Speaker 1: I got to back fail. This person that is knew everything,
16:15
Speaker 1: they were connected with everybody, and then it goes to
16:18
Speaker 1: budget overruns. And so can you speak to to the
16:21
Speaker 1: business owner or the leader that's hesitating like it's I'm
16:24
Speaker 1: gonna cause it's gonna cost me money to bring in
16:26
Speaker 1: Richard or David, but talk to them about the cost
16:29
Speaker 1: that the other costs and other risks that they're exposing
16:32
Speaker 1: themselves to.
16:34
Speaker 2: Well, the risk is you will you will bleed more time,
16:37
Speaker 2: more money, and more resources. The risk is you may
16:40
Speaker 2: not achieve scope or you might have to de scope
16:43
Speaker 2: in order to finish the project. Now you have a
16:45
Speaker 2: client that's not totally happy with the results because he
16:49
Speaker 2: or she's had to sacrifice something to help you finish
16:51
Speaker 2: their project. So that's that those are risks. Yeah, you know,
16:57
Speaker 2: when you look at what we do for a living, David,
17:00
Speaker 2: the cost to the company compared to what we do
17:03
Speaker 2: is minuscule compared to the financial and the human rewards
17:09
Speaker 2: that they can reap by bringing someone like us in.
17:12
Speaker 2: And you know, most most guys in we're not that expensive.
17:16
Speaker 2: We're reasonable, right, But when I have a custod well,
17:20
Speaker 2: you know you're probably expensive. My first question is, well,
17:23
Speaker 2: how much is this problem costing you right now? I mean,
17:27
Speaker 2: just in general, I don't need to know, you know,
17:29
Speaker 2: roughly what is it per per week, per month, per quarter? Okay?
17:33
Speaker 2: And I say you know what I'm nowhere's near that?
17:36
Speaker 2: And then within three months or less, I can get
17:39
Speaker 2: you well out of that problem. And I'm just going
17:42
Speaker 2: to be a favorable memory to you. So first look
17:46
Speaker 2: at what it's costing you before you can say I
17:47
Speaker 2: can't afford or I don't know if I should do this.
17:50
Speaker 2: Because when you hesitate, you're still bleeding. You're still bleeding
17:53
Speaker 2: money resources and human resources. And you talked about project
17:58
Speaker 2: manage leaving. Yeah, a lot them do sometimes because they
18:01
Speaker 2: get burned out. Now you've got to bring someone else
18:04
Speaker 2: in there who may or may not know the product
18:06
Speaker 2: or the industry or your company, and you're definitely going
18:09
Speaker 2: to lose time, money, and you're going to definitely have
18:12
Speaker 2: to deal with scope issues because this person is like,
18:15
Speaker 2: I'm new, I'm trying to figure this out. Please give
18:17
Speaker 2: me some leeway here, right. Oh and if he's not
18:19
Speaker 2: being here, she's not being mentored, which we talked about,
18:23
Speaker 2: that's even more stressful on the person you're bringing it.
18:26
Speaker 2: It's not fair to them and it's not fair to you.
18:28
Speaker 1: Right in your experience, Richard, when you're bringing let's just
18:30
Speaker 1: use a project manager, even though let's just say they're
18:33
Speaker 1: very capable, they know what they do, they know their
18:36
Speaker 1: their thing, but they're coming into a new company the
18:38
Speaker 1: news space. What's been your experience is so I want
18:41
Speaker 1: to hear company owners that think about this to get
18:44
Speaker 1: that person to be fully operational, Like I mean, what's
18:48
Speaker 1: your usual time frame that you see, Richard to take
18:50
Speaker 1: that person like I've hired them, I brought them on
18:52
Speaker 1: day one and then get them to being really fully
18:55
Speaker 1: maximized and utilized.
18:57
Speaker 2: The speed with which I believe in an visual will
19:01
Speaker 2: come up to where you want them has a lot
19:03
Speaker 2: to do with pre start date preparation. So you know,
19:07
Speaker 2: my advice to business owners is, Okay, you're going to
19:10
Speaker 2: hire this new person. Between the time you hire them
19:13
Speaker 2: and the time they start, you ought to be in
19:16
Speaker 2: conversation with them, assuming they accept your offer, about what's
19:19
Speaker 2: the project, what's the status of the project, who are
19:22
Speaker 2: the stakeholders, what are the issues, concerns and needs, and
19:26
Speaker 2: what are the priorities that he or she must deal
19:28
Speaker 2: with starting from day one. If you can at least
19:31
Speaker 2: help that individual get that type of information in their
19:34
Speaker 2: head before the day they start, you already have them
19:38
Speaker 2: a couple miles down the road versus them starting that
19:40
Speaker 2: day and starting to ask those questions. So it all
19:43
Speaker 2: depends on how well you the hiring person wants to
19:46
Speaker 2: prepare that new person before they come through your door
19:49
Speaker 2: on day one?
19:50
Speaker 1: So important and somebody like you coming in Richard two
19:53
Speaker 1: and looking at like, okay, how many folks do we
19:56
Speaker 1: need to have? Wew big? Does the team need to be?
19:59
Speaker 1: To your point? What do you where you're trying to go?
20:01
Speaker 1: And I would love to ask you know, one of
20:03
Speaker 1: the questions you said is like you brought up was okay,
20:06
Speaker 1: like where do you want to go? How many companies,
20:09
Speaker 1: especially in the small maybe on the smaller side, do
20:11
Speaker 1: you encounter that aren't one hundred percent crystal clear on
20:14
Speaker 1: their key performance metrics what they're trying to achieve? Are they?
20:18
Speaker 1: Are they confident on all of them? I mean when
20:20
Speaker 1: you actually ask their Richard, what what would you say?
20:23
Speaker 1: The percentage of companies are like crystal clearly you pull
20:25
Speaker 1: it up, it's like okay, bulletproof. I mean I don't
20:28
Speaker 1: but what do you say? Could they actually speak to
20:30
Speaker 1: all of them? Could they speak to their cash flow,
20:32
Speaker 1: their ar They are all of these elements, right, what's
20:35
Speaker 1: your experience there?
20:37
Speaker 2: Fifty percent? There's always confidence I mean and God, God
20:42
Speaker 2: bless them, there's always confidence but again it comes down
20:45
Speaker 2: to the why. So you you're bringing me in and
20:48
Speaker 2: you're asking me to help you accomplish something in a
20:50
Speaker 2: given timeframe. Right, So, yeah, you and I are going
20:54
Speaker 2: to ask the questions why. We're going to do the
20:57
Speaker 2: five whys till we get down on the course five whys?
20:59
Speaker 2: Does it take me that you and I use to
21:01
Speaker 2: get to the root cause of things? And once we
21:03
Speaker 2: get to the wise, now we're in the how. Okay, well,
21:05
Speaker 2: how how have you done this? What's it? You know?
21:08
Speaker 2: You're going to dig and dig and dig and dig
21:10
Speaker 2: until you can find the root cause or core of
21:13
Speaker 2: what exactly it is you have to do and what
21:15
Speaker 2: that pain point is. The companies they have an idea.
21:22
Speaker 2: This is my opinion. This is Richard Bruce's opinion. I'm
21:24
Speaker 2: not speaking for a lot of this is mine. They
21:26
Speaker 2: have an idea of what they want to do, but
21:29
Speaker 2: they haven't thought it full enough through to the point
21:33
Speaker 2: where they're beyond what I call the core of the
21:36
Speaker 2: five whys and the core of the five hounds. Okay,
21:39
Speaker 2: I want to do this. This is not working. I
21:41
Speaker 2: don't know why. Look you can tell me that, but
21:45
Speaker 2: you've got to dig. You can't expect me or David
21:48
Speaker 2: to come in and just figure out the why for
21:51
Speaker 2: you without more information. You know, we're here to help.
21:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, where you.
21:56
Speaker 2: Know, I tell people I'm sort of like a medic
21:59
Speaker 2: in the field with soldiers, right. I can only I
22:02
Speaker 2: can only patch up the soldiers so much and get
22:05
Speaker 2: it going again based on what I know, And if
22:07
Speaker 2: I don't know enough about that wound, that's I may
22:10
Speaker 2: I may fail that soldier. So very very very important.
22:14
Speaker 2: That confidence is great, but man, dig well beyond that
22:17
Speaker 2: to know what you're asking for when you bring David
22:19
Speaker 2: or Richard or anyone like us in.
22:21
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And well that gets more to my point Richard,
22:24
Speaker 1: of like what are these symptoms, if you will, that
22:28
Speaker 1: a business owner should be paying attention. We talked about
22:33
Speaker 1: the project breakdown, the cost overruns, but I want I
22:36
Speaker 1: want you because I want to slow it down a
22:38
Speaker 1: little bit of if I'm the business owner or I'm
22:40
Speaker 1: the leader, you know, what's the pulses that I can
22:44
Speaker 1: be looking at if, like you said in your experience, Richard,
22:48
Speaker 1: that are maybe they're not it's not bad, maybe it's
22:50
Speaker 1: that terrible yet, but they should be starting to look
22:53
Speaker 1: for these signs that we can get ahead of this
22:56
Speaker 1: before it gets to we don't go to a full
22:58
Speaker 1: turn around. But what would you see wed at least,
23:00
Speaker 1: say Richard, that are consistently starting to show up for
23:04
Speaker 1: companies that you end up coming in and helping.
23:07
Speaker 2: What I see are disconnects between project scope and deliverables.
23:13
Speaker 2: What causes that? Again, it's the misalignment between what you
23:17
Speaker 2: expected as the CEO and what you expected of the
23:21
Speaker 2: people responsible for the deliverable. Okay, if you've got to
23:25
Speaker 2: stay connected. So I'm a big proponent of daily stand
23:28
Speaker 2: up meetings. You don't have to be their CEO, but
23:30
Speaker 2: the team should be doing daily stand ups for fifteen
23:33
Speaker 2: minutes just to keep everybody up to date. There should
23:36
Speaker 2: be some type of weekly update, especially on critic crisis
23:39
Speaker 2: projects to management. So when I was turning around, you
23:43
Speaker 2: know ahead when we had we had meetings every week
23:46
Speaker 2: with the board. We kept the board up to date
23:49
Speaker 2: to what's going on. But it was making sure we
23:51
Speaker 2: had that alignment. That's the first thing I see. There's
23:54
Speaker 2: a misalignment here. Why you know it? Sometimes it's the
23:58
Speaker 2: project sponsor or the person and that wants something to
24:01
Speaker 2: come just disconnecting oh, Rich has got it. I know Rich,
24:05
Speaker 2: he's done well, he's got it. He'll come if he
24:07
Speaker 2: needs me. I don't like that attitude. We need to
24:10
Speaker 2: be connected at the hip, especially more critical of the project.
24:13
Speaker 2: The second thing is the eye on the finances. A
24:17
Speaker 2: lot of companies, especially small than in sized businesses, are
24:21
Speaker 2: not like where you or I might have grown up.
24:23
Speaker 2: We had cost centers at ge and know he's corny
24:26
Speaker 2: in black and Decker. Every project, every task went to
24:29
Speaker 2: a cost center and we had a look at actual
24:32
Speaker 2: versus budgeted costs. And that's what I was responsible for.
24:35
Speaker 2: And my fellow colleagues who are as well small to
24:38
Speaker 2: medium sized companies don't think that, well it's just a
24:41
Speaker 2: small project. Yeah, but it's cost it's a half a
24:43
Speaker 2: million dollar project. Why don't you have cost centers for
24:47
Speaker 2: these different things so you're tracking your costs because if
24:49
Speaker 2: you've only budgeted at half a million, you want to
24:51
Speaker 2: make sure you don't spend more than half a million.
24:53
Speaker 1: Right.
24:53
Speaker 2: That's the second one. The third one is schedule, and
24:57
Speaker 2: that's where I'm a big proponent of these daily stand
25:00
Speaker 2: up in the weekly meetings. I don't want to see surprises.
25:03
Speaker 2: I don't want to surprise.
25:04
Speaker 1: You, as my leader, Cees.
25:06
Speaker 2: If there's something that's going to impact the project, I
25:10
Speaker 2: want to be able to get to the table quickly
25:11
Speaker 2: to mitigate it or eliminate it as quickly as possible.
25:14
Speaker 2: And if I can, best I can do is mitigate it.
25:16
Speaker 2: Mitigate it to the satisfaction of you, as my leader
25:19
Speaker 2: and the customer. The other thing I don't see going
25:23
Speaker 2: on in the depth it should his risk management. Now
25:27
Speaker 2: give me an example. My dad had, you know, fifteen
25:30
Speaker 2: hundred injection molding machines, and he was a big He
25:33
Speaker 2: would buy tools all over the United States. And he
25:35
Speaker 2: used to come home and complain about the price of tooling.
25:38
Speaker 2: The price of tooling is going up. And I'd say, well, Dad,
25:40
Speaker 2: why is the price of tooling going up? Tool steal
25:42
Speaker 2: p three tools that it's all going up. The prices
25:44
Speaker 2: are going up. Well Dad, how many tools were you
25:46
Speaker 2: going to build this quarter? You have to build thirty tools? Well, Dad,
25:50
Speaker 2: if you knew the price of steel was going up,
25:52
Speaker 2: why didn't you pre buy the steel so that the
25:55
Speaker 2: price increase didn't affect you. Usually that's when I got
25:58
Speaker 2: the parental look was okay, smarty, pan, just eat your
26:00
Speaker 2: dinner and you don't tell me how to run my company.
26:03
Speaker 2: But you know there's risk management. But within risk management,
26:07
Speaker 2: there's what is that risk? What will trigger that risk?
26:11
Speaker 2: Because that's what you're really looking for. If that trigger
26:14
Speaker 2: gets pulled, what is the what is the most likely
26:17
Speaker 2: viable response that eliminate or mitigate it? And who will
26:21
Speaker 2: own it? And the big companies like you and I
26:24
Speaker 2: came from, they do that every day every day. I
26:27
Speaker 2: mean for Jim Chrysler, they do it every day in
26:29
Speaker 2: order to car company. Right. Yeah, But small to mid
26:33
Speaker 2: sight they don't take it that deep. And I tell
26:35
Speaker 2: them that's where things come off the rails. You could
26:39
Speaker 2: have prevented that risk. You could have seen that risk,
26:41
Speaker 2: but it was the trigger I was telling you should
26:43
Speaker 2: be looking for. You you didn't see the trigger. That's
26:47
Speaker 2: what you have to be looking for.
26:49
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, Oh Man Richard, you're hitting on a lot
26:51
Speaker 1: of points. And so funny you say that I've had
26:54
Speaker 1: the fortunate ability to work in a lot of different ways.
26:57
Speaker 1: And like you said, I worked for a very large
26:59
Speaker 1: engineering firm twenty five thousand employees. We had all these
27:02
Speaker 1: things tracking and budgeting, and I worked for the smallest
27:06
Speaker 1: company I worked for, Richard. And one of the things
27:08
Speaker 1: I told her at the time, I said, she hadn't
27:10
Speaker 1: even done a million in revenue in the company. I said, you,
27:13
Speaker 1: I want to strongly recommend you get an enterprise. We
27:15
Speaker 1: started planning software because this is professional services, right, to
27:18
Speaker 1: get numbers, like you said, to get eyes on the
27:20
Speaker 1: numbers the project because quick books isn't going to cut it,
27:24
Speaker 1: you know, and and pursuitingly for project based businesses, right
27:28
Speaker 1: and and she said I love this because she was
27:31
Speaker 1: a woman, so she's like, I feel like I'm a
27:33
Speaker 1: schoolgirl putting on high heels. I don't think I quite
27:36
Speaker 1: need them yet, but I know to your point, Richard,
27:38
Speaker 1: I know where I'm going, and that's not in my brain.
27:41
Speaker 1: And we went from a million them first year to
27:42
Speaker 1: two million in the next year. And it was because
27:45
Speaker 1: we had this infrastructure in place. It wasn't perfect, but
27:48
Speaker 1: definitely was better. It allowed us to scale. Like you're saying,
27:52
Speaker 1: small small businesses, to your point, think through this and
27:54
Speaker 1: hire somebody like you and help them come in and
27:56
Speaker 1: look at this. They're going to be heads and tails
27:59
Speaker 1: of these other competitors. And that gets me into I want.
28:03
Speaker 1: I want folks that are maybe if they're listening and
28:05
Speaker 1: the link into this, Richard, talk to me about what
28:09
Speaker 1: it's like if they're saying, Okay, I'm seeing these signs
28:13
Speaker 1: and when they would work. And then if I say
28:15
Speaker 1: I need help, you know, Richard, what would that look
28:17
Speaker 1: like whether they're working with you or somebody else is
28:19
Speaker 1: coming from the outside. What should it look like if
28:22
Speaker 1: they're having you come in, for example, Richard and saying
28:25
Speaker 1: you know, because it's a little bit of risky to
28:26
Speaker 1: say I'm opening things up and things aren't working, It's
28:29
Speaker 1: the way I want to talk about what you've seen
28:32
Speaker 1: as a positive experience with your clients where you've been
28:34
Speaker 1: able to come in, they've opened the door, they've let
28:36
Speaker 1: their guard down and said, you know what, we need help,
28:38
Speaker 1: we need help, it's not working. Kind of walk me
28:40
Speaker 1: through what what that journey should has looked like that
28:43
Speaker 1: where it's positive and you actually got the turnaround. Richard.
28:47
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean the first thing as any business leaders
28:50
Speaker 2: to recognize you have an issue or a problem mm hmm,
28:53
Speaker 2: and that you believe in your heart and your soul
28:57
Speaker 2: and your gut that you've expended all your internal resources
29:00
Speaker 2: to try to fix it, but it's not working. First
29:03
Speaker 2: thing is recognizing and to your point, a lot of
29:06
Speaker 2: people they're hesitant to let someone like you and I
29:09
Speaker 2: come in because it's you're open. They're opening up their
29:11
Speaker 2: kimonos saying, this is my ugly spots. What can we
29:14
Speaker 2: do with them? But you know that takes a little
29:18
Speaker 2: bit of bravery on their part, but it's a positive
29:20
Speaker 2: step forward. So when you when they do let you in,
29:25
Speaker 2: and they do let you in, you know you and
29:28
Speaker 2: I have to be very careful about how we enter
29:31
Speaker 2: their house, how we behave in their house, and the
29:35
Speaker 2: questions we ask in and of their house. But a
29:38
Speaker 2: positive experience like the one that I had at Headwind
29:41
Speaker 2: were the one that I had where I worked for
29:44
Speaker 2: the American's largest producer of vinal siding in the windows
29:47
Speaker 2: with their having PMO and project issues is once they
29:51
Speaker 2: acknowledged it, the beauty of it was is there was
29:56
Speaker 2: an open minded to consider alternatives. Now, they might have
30:01
Speaker 2: been debated because well, we've always done it this way. Okay,
30:04
Speaker 2: we can do it that way, but can you modify
30:06
Speaker 2: that way just a little bit, because I think you're
30:09
Speaker 2: going to get where you want to go right, you know,
30:12
Speaker 2: you know, it's not like coming in and trying to
30:14
Speaker 2: tear everything apart. What's working well here? That's our first
30:17
Speaker 2: conversation once we know if you have the problem, and
30:20
Speaker 2: we can figure out we're getting close to because let's
30:23
Speaker 2: not throw the baby out with the bath water. So really,
30:25
Speaker 2: what's working well here? Let's bolster that. Okay, the bottleneck
30:30
Speaker 2: is caused by this, so this is not this process
30:33
Speaker 2: is not working well. How can we re engineer this
30:36
Speaker 2: process so that it will eliminate the bottleneck and get
30:41
Speaker 2: you the workflow that you're looking for, so that you know,
30:45
Speaker 2: those are the engagements that are the most rewarding when
30:49
Speaker 2: there's recognition of an issue, when there's openness to consider
30:53
Speaker 2: other issues. But you and I have to be as
30:56
Speaker 2: student enough to know there's good things here. There's three
31:00
Speaker 2: cannot throw out the baby with the backboard. We want
31:02
Speaker 2: to we want to turn the baby into a teenager
31:04
Speaker 2: or an adult. How do we do that? Well, we
31:07
Speaker 2: got to figure out what's going to stop that to
31:09
Speaker 2: happen and fix it. So you know, so whether it
31:12
Speaker 2: was with that producer of vinyl signing the windows or
31:15
Speaker 2: with headwind when I hit to go in and turn
31:17
Speaker 2: around the automotive group of g G Silicones, which is
31:21
Speaker 2: part of Plastics. It all starts with that. It all
31:24
Speaker 2: starts with recognition and openness. And that's tough. That's tough
31:28
Speaker 2: for some morning and insized business owners. But to me,
31:32
Speaker 2: I tell them that's bravery. You're doing a very brave
31:35
Speaker 2: thing here.
31:35
Speaker 1: Absolutely at your point, you know, I mean there's a
31:40
Speaker 1: point sometimes where things are working well. And to your point,
31:44
Speaker 1: like your dad said, it is like it's kind of funny.
31:46
Speaker 1: I like that example of like hey, Costler going up, Well,
31:49
Speaker 1: you could have planned differently, So what you were doing
31:51
Speaker 1: at one point maybe have was working and things shifted,
31:55
Speaker 1: you know, and so then what are you going to
31:57
Speaker 1: do to fix it right? And it's like we try
32:00
Speaker 1: some things and we need help. And that's why Richard,
32:02
Speaker 1: I have you on the podcast is saying, well, bring
32:04
Speaker 1: somebody outside to look at it. And in my experience, Richard,
32:08
Speaker 1: I love to talk about this. Sometimes we get so
32:10
Speaker 1: tied to certain things or a way of doing things,
32:13
Speaker 1: an outcome and it's like it doesn't it's not working,
32:15
Speaker 1: and then we but to your point, there are still
32:16
Speaker 1: some good things. So it's like we don't want to
32:18
Speaker 1: just you know, it's what's what's the saying. I'm like
32:21
Speaker 1: thinking about reweeding a garden. I want to pull out
32:24
Speaker 1: the weeds. I don't want to pull out everything with
32:25
Speaker 1: the garden of flowers and everything. I want to I
32:27
Speaker 1: want to keep some of the things that are good right,
32:30
Speaker 1: and there are sometimes people are holding on to the
32:32
Speaker 1: remnants that were good, but there's actually it starts to
32:35
Speaker 1: become more bad than good, you know, and talk a
32:38
Speaker 1: little I just talk a little bout that process, Richard,
32:41
Speaker 1: when you're coming in and kind of separating the wheat
32:44
Speaker 1: from the chat, so to speak.
32:46
Speaker 2: You know, well, I have I have a multi step process.
32:48
Speaker 2: The first time when I come in or if you
32:50
Speaker 2: were to call me in your client. We first we
32:54
Speaker 2: put together a scope of work based on what the
32:58
Speaker 2: client wants to accomplish. We get to be on the
33:01
Speaker 2: scope of work, the wise and the whereforce behind it,
33:04
Speaker 2: the assumptions and constraints behind it, the budging behind it,
33:08
Speaker 2: the resources behind it. And we get that all committed
33:11
Speaker 2: down on a piece of paper and we agree to
33:12
Speaker 2: that and we sign it. This is what we're going
33:14
Speaker 2: to do, this is what we're not going to do,
33:17
Speaker 2: and then what I like to do is speak with
33:20
Speaker 2: the leadership as holds at the worker level, saying, Okay,
33:23
Speaker 2: this is what we're trying to accomplish. What is your
33:27
Speaker 2: understanding of this? Okay, do you understand what we're trying
33:30
Speaker 2: to do here and then figure out others their discorder disconnects,
33:35
Speaker 2: but you know, figure out at the working them. But
33:38
Speaker 2: what's their opinion because, as you know, David, sometimes leadership
33:43
Speaker 2: has one idea of what's going on, but the folks
33:47
Speaker 2: actually doing the work have a different idea for miscommunication
33:52
Speaker 2: or because they think they're doing the right thing and
33:53
Speaker 2: they're not getting any feedback from leadership. I want to
33:56
Speaker 2: make sure everybody's aligned here.
33:58
Speaker 1: Yes.
33:58
Speaker 2: Then the next is okay, now we all agree we're
34:02
Speaker 2: on the same page. What at both levels leadership and
34:06
Speaker 2: work level, what do you think the root cause of
34:09
Speaker 2: this problem is? What do you think is really causing this?
34:12
Speaker 2: And tell me exactly why you think that? Is? What
34:15
Speaker 2: am I looking for. I'm looking for connections, I'm looking
34:19
Speaker 2: for disconnects because again, if I'm on the floor and
34:23
Speaker 2: I say, the reason why these projects are failing is
34:26
Speaker 2: because we don't have the materials here on time. Just
34:30
Speaker 2: in time and we're lacking material which is costing us time. Now,
34:34
Speaker 2: you in supply chain or leadership might say, oh, that's
34:38
Speaker 2: not true. I mean I have an order with my
34:39
Speaker 2: vendor and it should be coming in. But if we're
34:42
Speaker 2: but if there's a disconnect there and I can see
34:44
Speaker 2: this physical disconnect, that can say to both parties, uh huh,
34:48
Speaker 2: we are not connected on here, here and here. Can
34:51
Speaker 2: we all at least come to the point where we
34:52
Speaker 2: see the see where the disconnect is and try to
34:54
Speaker 2: bring it together. Great. The next phase is now let's
34:57
Speaker 2: talk about quotes corrective actions. Let's figure out what they
35:01
Speaker 2: are and prioritize them and level of impact and risk
35:05
Speaker 2: because I want to get the highest value impact quickly
35:09
Speaker 2: as possible to have a positive result, and I want
35:12
Speaker 2: to minimize the maximum amount of risk upfront and not
35:17
Speaker 2: worry about risk at the bottom end of Once we
35:21
Speaker 2: can figure out the implement of rout cost corrective actions,
35:25
Speaker 2: we implement and then we monitor and we control that.
35:28
Speaker 2: What do you mean by that, Rich? That means every day,
35:31
Speaker 2: whatever new process or procedure we put in place, we're
35:34
Speaker 2: going to track to make sure that is in effect
35:37
Speaker 2: dealing with the issue that we agree, we have to
35:39
Speaker 2: solve right and if not, but if there's secondary risk,
35:43
Speaker 2: then we need to jump on it because we implemented
35:45
Speaker 2: something that we thought was going to be the reason
35:48
Speaker 2: for success. Yes, once we get through monitoring, controlling, then
35:55
Speaker 2: I go to the valid I see we fix the problem. Okay.
35:58
Speaker 2: Up front, when we did the scoping, we had a
36:00
Speaker 2: definition of success. You had delivered this by this state.
36:04
Speaker 2: To do that, I come as a team, he said, together,
36:07
Speaker 2: did we infect accomplished that? Yes? We did. Okay, let's
36:12
Speaker 2: put the facts and figures on a piece of paper.
36:14
Speaker 2: Let's now go back up to leadership and say we
36:16
Speaker 2: have fixed it. Here is physical and financial evidence that
36:20
Speaker 2: we have done exactly what you've asked us to do.
36:24
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, absolutely, And you know to your point Richard,
36:28
Speaker 1: what I do is through your business is helping develop
36:30
Speaker 1: those leaders, helping develop those folks beyond their technical skills.
36:33
Speaker 1: Here's what I found. If they don't have well you
36:35
Speaker 1: just described all the processes, how we're going to win,
36:39
Speaker 1: how we're going to do all these things, is darn
36:42
Speaker 1: near impossible to become what I consider a true leader.
36:46
Speaker 1: Because the leader is stepping into the unknown. They're stepping
36:48
Speaker 1: into these things. They are these challenges, these gaps, and
36:50
Speaker 1: if there's not like you just described it, all of
36:52
Speaker 1: these steps that we're saying, here's how we're doing it,
36:54
Speaker 1: here's the operating prouture, this is how we're going to
36:56
Speaker 1: do it. It's very difficult, if near impossible, and so
37:00
Speaker 1: somebody has to know how can I win? How do
37:02
Speaker 1: I get there? Richard, And I know that you're an
37:04
Speaker 1: advocate that you can help them get that established. Look
37:07
Speaker 1: at that see where there is those gaps where they're missing,
37:10
Speaker 1: is so so valuable. And I'm hoping as you as
37:12
Speaker 1: our listeners are taking this all in, they know, hey,
37:15
Speaker 1: connect with Richard. We're like I said on LinkedIn, I'll
37:19
Speaker 1: put it in our show notes that you can have
37:20
Speaker 1: him come in look at some things, see where you
37:22
Speaker 1: guys might be breaking down to help eliminate this at
37:25
Speaker 1: this friction and this challenge and really empower people to
37:28
Speaker 1: feel good about what they're doing. And nobody wants to lose,
37:30
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to come up short on the budget and
37:33
Speaker 1: right have to do a change order or have to
37:35
Speaker 1: you know, it's just lose the contract in a bad case,
37:38
Speaker 1: in a real bad case, and even be sued potentially
37:40
Speaker 1: depending on how bad it gets the sideways, you know.
37:44
Speaker 1: So I think that is so powerful the way you
37:45
Speaker 1: broke that down, Richard, And I.
37:47
Speaker 2: Think what you and I and other folks like is
37:50
Speaker 2: do you know people? What do you? What do you sell?
37:54
Speaker 2: I don't sell anything, Okay, I create, I create value.
37:58
Speaker 2: I provide sustainability, yes, provide. I provide you the path forward. Right,
38:04
Speaker 2: I'm not selling you anything. I'm I'm basically helping you
38:07
Speaker 2: achieve your goals and objectives. And that's that's one of
38:12
Speaker 2: this I think things, Well, you're a consultant. No no, no, no, no,
38:16
Speaker 2: that just I might have that in my title. But
38:19
Speaker 2: what what am I oath we trying to do for you? Sustainability, accountability, ownership, growth,
38:25
Speaker 2: competitive differentiation of profitability. That's that's what you and I
38:30
Speaker 2: do for a living.
38:30
Speaker 1: There, absolutely, Richard, and and and and coming at this
38:33
Speaker 1: together in that you know, at the end of the day,
38:36
Speaker 1: if the business owners this is I like to say,
38:38
Speaker 1: I had kept business owners leaders take vacations. If they
38:41
Speaker 1: have that, both you and I are developing their people
38:44
Speaker 1: and developing their processes and their systems, and they're just
38:47
Speaker 1: like you said, their schedule all of those things, We
38:49
Speaker 1: get all those things in alignment. Everybody knows how to
38:51
Speaker 1: play well, work well together, then we all are healthier,
38:55
Speaker 1: we'll all be better off. And then at the end
38:57
Speaker 1: of the day.
38:58
Speaker 2: Right want to tell my clients, I want to leave
39:01
Speaker 2: it to the point where you'll never have to see
39:02
Speaker 2: me again. Maybe send me a Christmas card where we
39:05
Speaker 2: see each other in the restaurant and I can buy
39:07
Speaker 2: you a drink and say, hey, how you been.
39:09
Speaker 1: There, you go? There, you go. Well, I know we're
39:11
Speaker 1: going to the end of the podcast. This has been
39:12
Speaker 1: fantastic having you Richard on here, and I hope folks
39:15
Speaker 1: will lean in and listen and check themselves on there.
39:18
Speaker 1: But if I'm that business owner or leader, and I
39:21
Speaker 1: kind of talked about this earlier, but what would you
39:24
Speaker 1: encourage them to look at evaluate, you know, consider Richard,
39:29
Speaker 1: so that they can be more mindful and not accidental
39:33
Speaker 1: in the way they're running their business and not making
39:35
Speaker 1: those same mistakes. You know, what would you encourage them
39:38
Speaker 1: to do after all the things we've covered and talked
39:41
Speaker 1: about today, I would.
39:43
Speaker 2: Encourage any business owner that is not happy with how
39:47
Speaker 2: their products are being developed and commercialized, are not happy
39:51
Speaker 2: with the way their operations are operating, or they're missing
39:55
Speaker 2: some strategic targets to first to first sit down, First
40:01
Speaker 2: sit down and figure out one, what is it that
40:06
Speaker 2: you really want to accomplish. I mean, make sure you
40:09
Speaker 2: really understand that, because if you are vague in starting,
40:13
Speaker 2: whether it's a project or operations overhaul, you're going to
40:16
Speaker 2: be vague through the whole process. Make sure you're absolutely clear.
40:19
Speaker 2: That's number one. Number two, what is your opinion as
40:26
Speaker 2: to why things are not going the way you expect?
40:29
Speaker 2: And don't just take your opinion. Go to the working
40:33
Speaker 2: level and just say I have questions. I just need
40:37
Speaker 2: these questions answered so I can clarify my mind if
40:39
Speaker 2: I'm doing the right thing for not only you, but
40:42
Speaker 2: the business as are whole. Get input from the people
40:45
Speaker 2: that are responsible for the deliverables, and then marry that
40:49
Speaker 2: up against what you ultimately want, because again, I think
40:53
Speaker 2: most people are going to find there some disconnects there.
40:56
Speaker 2: The third thing I would do is I would ask
40:58
Speaker 2: myself as a leader, I have the right resources on
41:01
Speaker 2: staff right now to do what I want to do,
41:05
Speaker 2: and if I do, I all deployed in the right positions,
41:09
Speaker 2: Because as I said, at Hedwind had a great, great
41:12
Speaker 2: guy with customer value, just struggle with the manufacturing environment.
41:17
Speaker 2: But but you know, do we really have the right
41:19
Speaker 2: people in the right places right? But the answer come
41:22
Speaker 2: back is we have most of them, but we don't
41:25
Speaker 2: have all of them. Then the next thing I would
41:28
Speaker 2: ask myself, am I willing? Am I willing to let
41:32
Speaker 2: someone else like David or rich or whomever come in
41:35
Speaker 2: and just give me an objective look from the outside
41:40
Speaker 2: of what they see versus what I see when I'm
41:42
Speaker 2: being told, And is what they're telling me of value
41:46
Speaker 2: enough that they should be engaged to help me to
41:48
Speaker 2: get through my journey.
41:50
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, or our.
41:52
Speaker 2: Journey, because it's a company, right, it's not just it's
41:55
Speaker 2: a whole family of people that work for you.
41:57
Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely, especially when you're talking to small of them
41:59
Speaker 1: as I this is well, those are three great action items.
42:02
Speaker 1: We're gonna have it all in our show notes. So
42:04
Speaker 1: if you guys, you know, like we're taking those stats
42:06
Speaker 1: of Furious, it's going to be there for you. I
42:08
Speaker 1: hope you will come back and visit us again. Richard.
42:11
Speaker 1: It's been a great having you, having you on the
42:13
Speaker 1: podcast with us today, it's.
42:15
Speaker 2: Been great being here, David, I, thank you very much.
42:17
Speaker 1: You're welcome. Of course you all like you guys like
42:20
Speaker 1: sur thriving, following along, leading comments, and we want to
42:23
Speaker 1: make sure we'll get those to Richard as well. And
42:26
Speaker 1: of course please share this too with others in your
42:28
Speaker 1: network that you find helpful useful. We would love to
42:31
Speaker 1: see the Business Roundtable podcast continue to grow and expand.
42:35
Speaker 1: Until next time, be well taken care of yourself. Thanks
42:37
Speaker 1: all for listening