Locking yourself and your
executive team in a cabin
for several days until you agree on a common vision for
your company may not be
how most CEOs develop their
strategic plans, but it worked
for Steve Peplin.
Twelve years ago, Peplin, the
co-founder and CEO of Talan
Products Inc., took the leaders
of the 75-employee metal
stamper into the wilderness to
hammer out a mission and
vision. Occasionally tempers
flared, and someone had to go
fly-fishing for an hour to clear
his head. But Peplin says the
results were worth it: Talan
has enjoyed steady growth,
and in 2007, it posted revenue
of $25 million.
“I used to think of it as so
much fluff, but it’s really
important to get everybody on
the same page,” he says.
Smart Business spoke
with Peplin about why you
should incorporate visuals
into your communications
and how to cut the fat from
your operations.
Q. How do you develop a
vision?
One of the most important
aspects was to have the partners — not just the employees
— the partners had to be of a
common mindset. By formalizing it and writing it down, you
just go back to it. It’s right there.
Some people make very
broad ones, like, ‘We’re here to
make money.’ Then that’s it —
anything that makes money is
fair game. Nobody can say
you’re not focused enough.
You can say, ‘Hey, it says right
here in our plan that our goal
is to make money.’
I’ve seen vision statements
like that. Ours is much more
specific. It’s specific enough
without being too specific.
Q. How do you get everyone
to buy in to your vision?
The key thing is communications. Communication is
everything, whether you’re
building relationships with
your significant other or your
kids or if you’re training a dog
or a horse — communication
is everything.
How do we get them on
board? By partnering
with them. Everybody
goes to the vision statement so you’re all singing
off the same sheet. You
all have the same goal for
the same success.
By partnering, we share
all of our numbers with
them. We share the whole
P&L; we show them
exactly what we’re making, the gross profit for
every week, every month.
It’s like having 75 people with their eye on the
ball. It’s not just the coach
knowing the score of the
ballgame and not the
players. Now, everybody
knows. When there is a
problem, everybody sees it;
everybody works together.
Another thing we do is a little
rewarding during the year. We
don’t just wait until the end of
the year and give them a bonus
check. All along, they see where
the problems are, and they see
where the successes are.
