Engaging the work force
Cyr found that communicating with employees was a critical factor in making the adjustments to the new reality because everyone
had to work together to change the company.
At the beginning of each year, Cyr and his team put together the
company’s goals for the year in very simple terms. As the company headed into 2006, for instance, the goals were to drive the top
line, fix the bottom line and generate cash.
“Those sound simple and obvious, but it was the simple and obvious that made it powerful with our employees. And as a result of
that, the employees knew what they needed to work on,” Cyr says.
Regular meetings keep the employees abreast of the progress
against the goals.
“We have monthly town-hall meetings with our employees,
where we gather them all around, report the results of the business
for the last month, key strategic initiatives and then field questions,” Cyr says. “It gives the employees a real good sense of reality; how are things working, what’s not working. It gives them a
chance to learn about what their peers are doing, and when you
give a consistent message from the beginning of the year to the end
of the year and you measure yourself against it, people can do
amazing things.”
In a monthly letter to employees, Cyr reiterates Sunny Delight’s
results for the month and highlights specific accomplishments
against the goals that have been outlined.
Cyr also finds that spontaneously celebrating successes along
the way keeps the enthusiasm level high and provides instant
rewards and gratification for individuals and the team.
“We have a variety of ways, but we have a bell that we call the victory bell, and it’s mounted in our offices here and anybody can
decide to ring the bell,” Cyr says. “When they have a significant
win, they ring the bell. No matter where you are in the offices, you
stop what you’re doing. If you’re on the phone, you put the telephone down and tell somebody you’ll be back in a minute and you
walk out, and the person who rang the bell, usually in three to four
sentences or less, explains to everybody what the big win was, and
we all clap for them. So it’s an opportunity for people to celebrate
what they think is important and for all of us to recognize and
acknowledge it.”
All the strategic moves have paid off for the company. Its earnings for 2006 were double what they were in 2005 for the $400 million company.
Cyr says the CEO’s most important function in a situation
where fundamental change in the way the company does business, or in any crisis situation for that matter, is to set the tone for
the organization.
“Setting the tone in this case was accepting the reality, setting the
targets, and then communicating to people that we’re all in this
together and that we’re going to find the solutions to do it,” Cyr
says. “If you do that, I think people will give you their best, give you
their best ideas, give you their best effort and, at the end of the day,
as you celebrate the successes as they come along, people feel like
they’ve all been in the same boat and rowing in the same direction.”
HOW TO REACH: Sunny Delight Beverages Co., www.sunnyd.com
