Measure everything
The fifth core value at Famous is continuous improvement. Blaushild says complacency can kill a business without making a sound. To combat the status quo, you need to ensure your employees always have new goals on the horizon, just out of reach.
“Whatever level we’re at, we’re always striving to get better,” he says. “We don’t expect perfection because we don’t believe perfection is something you can a
ch
ieve. But we do strive for perfection, and even if we do fall short sometimes, as we are striving for that, we are reaching our goals and achieving various levels of success.”
The first step to creating a performance-based culture is empowering your employees.
Without the empowerment to make decisions or go after new business, your employees can feel reined in — like their potential is limited. You need to give them the freedom to work independently. Even though much of Famous’ business strategy is centralized, Blaushild distributes empowerment to the company’s branches — where the associates are closest to their customers.
“In order to do well in our company, our people need to feel empowered, that they have the ability to take care of customers,”he says. “We want our people to perform, and that’s why they have control over their destiny, over their goals and objectives.”
The next step in creating a performance-based culture is establishing a performance-based mindset. Blaushild developed a three-level mindset at Famous. So, in everything they do, his employees have a minimum objective, a business plan and a stretch goal.
Then, Blaushild applies the three levels in areas of the businesslike sales, gross profits, inventory accuracy, service levels and productivity.
The next step is encouraging everyone to strive for the higher performance level. Positive feedback and rewards for hitting targets reinforce the system, and as the company performs better,management must continually raise the bar.
“We’re constantly raising our sights a little bit higher on a regular basis and trying to help work with all our people to develop individuals in their respective areas to get to the next level,” he says.
For a performance-based culture to work successfully, you must have processes in place to ensure that each employee’s performance is graded accurately. Anything quantifiable must be measured.
For example, three years ago, Blaushild instituted a program inFamous’ distribution center that measures everything from productivity to damage rates.
“We are measuring more of what we do now than we ever have,in terms of performance,” he says. “Because everything is in our system, every transaction we do, we’re able to measure things on a daily and weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis.”
Blaushild even has metrics in place that measure the lines per hour of labor that each employee is shipping. Now, with that amount of information at his fingertips, Blaushild knows exactly how Famous is doing, and he has a much better idea about how high the bar should be raised for the next goal.
Blaushild says creating a winning culture starts with a vision,but it ends with the people you bring into the company. If you want to be successful, you need to spend time communicating with them, and don’t leave anything out. Open-book and open-door policies are necessary to show your employees that they are truly linked with the organization.
“To create that culture, it takes years, if not decades, to get it right,”he says. “The real lesson is that you never really get it right. You’re always striving to make it better.”
Back in the 1930s and 1940s, his company’s tagline was “Famous for our service.” Blaushild wants to make sure no one forgets that commitment to excellence.
“Whatever level we’re at, I think we have a terrific culture,and the people in our company understand that because they feel it, they live it, they breathe it,” he says. “As good as it is,we want to get a lot better.”
HOW TO REACH: Famous Enterprises Inc., (330) 762-9621 or www.famous-supply.com
