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Preoccupations: Too Many Office Meetings, and How to Fight Back

February 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment

I run a management consulting firm, and one of our clients found herself in that situation. As a senior leader in a large organization, she found that her days were filled with back-to-back meetings and conference calls. Because her direct reports were unlikely to find her at her desk for very long, they started following her into the restroom, file folders in hand, to get answers to their many questions. (Actually, of course, only the women could do that. The men waited for her outside the door.)

Like my client, a majority of executives spend a significant percentage of their workdays in meetings. And the higher their rank, the worse the situation. Top executives bear the brunt of the burden, but our meeting-intensive culture affects employees at all levels. Just look around your office. Where is everybody?

The meeting culture that is dominating corporate America is unsustainable and unproductive. How many meetings did you attend last week that didn’t even have an agenda? How many resulted in a new idea? And at how many meetings did you think, “Why am I even here?”

Time is a commodity. And time spent in a meeting should generate a return on investment. But how often do we think about our time that way, and set expectations for meetings to produce real returns? In my experience working with Fortune 500 companies, the answer is rarely. This is just one result of a meeting-intensive culture.

It’s time for a meeting revolution. Instead of automatically accepting that next meeting request, pause and consider your return on investment. Will this meeting help you in achieving your goals? How does the purpose of the meeting — and I’m crossing my fingers that there is a stated purpose — align with the company’s strategic priorities? Is attending this meeting the best use of your time right now? If not, revolt — by declining the meeting request.

By declining, you will rock the boat. But don’t stop rocking it. If there is no way to avoid attending a meeting, and it is scheduled to last an hour, challenge its length. Does the group really need a whole hour for project status updates?

Our Web site developer, for example, schedules our project-update calls for 25 minutes. We complete all of our work in that time, then have five extra minutes to address any unscheduled concerns or to develop new ideas.

THERE are other ways to shorten meetings, or to eliminate the need for them. Can the topic be covered in a different format, like e-mail or instant messaging? Consider investing in technology that enables colleagues to share documents on their computer desktops without actually holding a meeting.

For in-person meetings, consider requiring everyone to stand up. This is very effective, because leg fatigue soon sets in and everyone has an incentive to keep the meeting short.

By shortening a meeting, you automatically narrow its focus. At my company, we call this crunching the container — making it smaller. As a result, you eliminate some of the meeting “fluff,” including all the unnecessary chatter that veers off topic.

As you narrow a meeting’s focus, it becomes much easier to concentrate on what you want as an outcome. On all of our meeting agendas, after listing the topic, we include bullet points detailing the desired results of the session. At any point, any participant can refer to those bullet points and see if we are still on track. Will this conversation lead us toward one of those outcomes? If not, we can correct our course immediately.

By telling participants in advance about the big picture, you keep the meeting on track toward its stated goals — and keep employees focused on the topic at hand. Including the desired outcomes helps everyone prepare for the meeting in ways that work best for them.

A meeting revolution will create a new corporate culture. First, of course, there will be fewer meetings. And, second, the meetings that remain will be shorter and more focused and will produce a clear return on investment.

As for that senior executive who couldn’t take a break in peace, she ended up leading a meeting revolution in her organization. I am happy to report that she is now entourage-free when she visits the restroom.

Carson Tate is the founder of Working Simply, a management consulting firm based in Charlotte, N.C.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/jobs/too-many-office-meetings-and-how-to-fight-back.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Global Business Tagged With: , ,

DealBook: Before Romney’s Big Speech, a Focus on Bain

August 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment

As Mitt Romney prepares to take the stage at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night to make his case for the presidency, his record at Bain Capital continues to be a focus — some might say the focus — of both his supporters and detractors.

Just hours before Mr. Romney’s speech, his campaign started a Web site on Thursday — business.mittromney.com — devoted almost entirely on his years at the investment firm Bain Capital. “Governor Romney’s work at Bain Capital was about fixing companies that were broken and giving new companies a shot at success,” reads the Web site’s home page.

The site features nine one- to two-minute videos, each highlighting a successful Bain deal. Two videos focus on the office-supplies retailer Staples, one of Mr. Romney’s most successful investments during his tenure at Bain. Both show Mr. Romney roaming the aisles at a Staples store wearing that a blue dress shirt with a contrasting white collar, a de rigueur uniform of 1980s Wall Street.

The Staples videos are featured under the “building businesses” category. Two other categories — “fixing businesses” and “growing business” — highlight other money-making Bain deals, including a revival of the gadget chain Brookstone and a venture investment in the mountain bike maker GT Bicycles. There is also a clip chronicling Mr. Romney’s rescue of Bain Company, the management consulting firm where he started his career. Mr. Romney came back to the firm and led a turnaround. (Bain Company spun off the private equity arm, Bain Capital, in 1984.)

But outside of Bain’s New York headquarters on Thursday, no one was focused on the private equity firm’s successes. Instead, all of the attention was on Bane, an imposing 10-foot-tall monster who lurched around the sun-kissed Manhattan sidewalks lambasting Bain’s business practices. Bane is the villain who faced off against Batman in this summer’s blockbuster movie “The Dark Knight Rises.” It will be “a long dark night you’ll be facing if Romney gets elected,” said Bane, according to a Bloomberg News report.

The protest was organized by United NY, a coalition of labor unions and community organizations that has staged a number of demonstrations against Bain. Accompanying Bane was a woman from the Bronx who was recently laid off from her job at Burlington Coat Factory, a Bain-owned company.

United NY protested outside of Bain Capital,  using the character of Bane, the villain who faced off against Batman in The Dark Knight Rises.United NYUnited NY protested outside of Bain Capital,  using the character of Bane, the villain who faced off against Batman in “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Cara Noel, a United NY spokeswoman, said that it staged the protest because “we wanted to send a clear message that a Romney economy would not work for the middle class and for low-wage earners.”

Media outlets also continue to center on Mr. Romney’s Bain years. Matt Taibbi, a writer who has made headlines for his screeds against Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street players, has now taken aim at Bain. In a new Rolling Stone article, Mr. Taibbi calls Mr. Romney “the hard-charging, chameleonic champion of a disgraced-yet-defiant Wall Street.”

Article source: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/on-eve-of-romneys-big-speech-a-focus-on-bain/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: , ,

Career Couch: Annual Reviews, and How to Prepare for Them

December 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

A. Start by making a list of your responsibilities at work and writing your own performance review in each of those areas, says Shawn Kent Hayashi, the founder of the Professional Development Group and the author of “Conversations for Creating Star Performers.” “Thinking through how you’ve done,” she says, “will prevent you from overreacting to feedback because you know what to expect.”

Annual reviews give you the chance to discuss and formulate goals for the next year. Before the meeting, write down the goals you envision for yourself. These can be very specific, like reaching a certain sales target or mastering particular software, or something more general, like increasing professional development activities, says Stephen R. Balzac, president of 7 Steps Ahead, a management consulting firm in Stow, Mass., and a professor of organizational psychology at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.

As you think about your work over the last year, try to anticipate anything negative that may come up in the review. Prepare for it by looking over old notes and e-mails to remember specific situations and your actions and behavior at the time, Mr. Balzac says. Good preparation will reduce anxiety.

Q. At the review, you get some very positive feedback. Can you use it as a springboard to ask for something you want?

A. Build on those positive feelings by saying you want to go further in 2012. “Talk about your strengths, how you want to use those to help the organization and where you see growth opportunities for yourself at the company,” says Kimberley Bohr, senior vice president for client development at Fierce, a leadership development firm in Seattle. If you have something specific in mind, like a role on a particular project, this is the time to bring it up, she says.

If you work for a very small company where the owners make decisions about pay raises, your review could be an appropriate time to ask for one, as long as you are a high performer, Ms. Hayashi says. Bigger companies, however, have a formal budget process and your boss will probably have to get approval from higher-ups to give you an increase. That can take a few months, she says, so bring up the issue to your boss at least two months before your review.

“There should never be surprises during your performance review, because it’s a summary of all the conversations you’ve had prior to it,” Ms. Hayashi says. “And that includes one about compensation.”

Q. What if the feedback is unexpectedly negative?

A. Even though your manager should have given you some advance warning of the criticism, take a deep breath before you speak, and don’t be defensive. “You never want your performance review to be confrontational, so start by thanking your manager for the valuable feedback,” says Ms. Hayashi, whose firm is based in Center Valley, Pa.

It’s important to be clear about the specific behavior your manager is criticizing, so ask for examples to help you better understand the problem. If your boss says you are too aggressive in meetings, for example, ask for instances of that behavior.

“Then ask your manager what she would recommend to help you improve in that area,” Ms. Hayashi says. “Would she be willing to guide your development to turn that around over the next 30 to 90 days? Suggest checking in each week about it.”

Q. Performance reviews offer a chance for you to plan your career development — and you don’t want to squander that. What should you talk about?

A. Broadly, the discussion should center on your future at the company and your professional aspirations. Show that you are optimistic and excited about both, says Patrick Sweeney, president of the management consulting firm Caliper in Princeton, N.J., and co-author of “Succeed on Your Own Terms.”

“Be as specific as you can about what you want moving forward, such as: ‘In three years I’d love to be leading projects. How can I move in that direction this year?’ ” he says.

It’s also important to take some control of your manager’s perception of you.

“So many companies have gone through cutbacks in personnel that those left are doing more than their own jobs,” Mr. Sweeney says. “Your boss knows more is getting done, but here is your chance to let him know exactly what you have been doing and why you can handle other opportunities within the company.”

E-mail: ccouch@nytimes.com.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=13aee45e753bb7cb01c1c36b9e3685fb

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: , ,

Conversations: AHAlife Brings Sense of Discovery to Online Shopping

August 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

But have we lost the thrill of discovery? Faced with a deluge of content, do we need a trusted adviser to steer us toward products that are special or unique, that we would otherwise never know to search for? Shauna Mei, an entrepreneur with an impressive list of investors and contributors, thinks so. Last September, she introduced AHAlife, a Web site that offers niche products suggested by a variety of “trendsetters and tastemakers.”

Ms. Mei, who had worked previously in leveraged finance at Goldman Sachs, raised $3 million in three months from a list of angel investors that included the chairmen of a global bank and a management consulting firm, as well as the chief executive of one large luxury retail operation and the chairman of another. Ms. Mei counts Diane von Furstenberg, Wendi Murdoch, Tina Brown, Tim Gunn and Lauren Bush among her tastemakers.

Ms. Mei, 28, recently talked about why online retail should be more like real-life shopping, how she met her investors and why AHAlife, which is based in New York and has 10 employees, is projecting annualized revenue this year of more than $4 million. A condensed version of the conversation follows.

Q. What inspired you to start AHAlife?

A. I had this aha! moment. Both online and in stores, companies market to men. Only the fashion industry targets women, but we make most purchasing decisions.

Q. Is that true? Target and supermarkets don’t market to women?

A. When products are more generic, like cars, companies tend to market more to men. Apple is the only technology company that knows how to market to women. When other industries target women, they market to a woman my mom’s age who’s in the kitchen wearing an apron. She’s frumpy and her hair is in a Scrunchie. Who aspires to look like that? The fashion industry, however, does a great job of making women believe they’ll feel fantastic if they buy a $3,000 handbag. I want to feature all sorts of products, using that same idea.

Q. That sounds like the format of many women’s magazines.

A. In print I’m sure it’s covered, but I haven’t read print for three years and neither have my friends. None of these magazines do a good job engaging the online viewer. There’s a ton of content online, but it’s not curated. We can’t separate the good from the bad.

Q. How is this different from, say, Martha Stewart?

A. She’s quintessentially American and more home-oriented. Her audience is housewives. We’re completely global; almost half our products are foreign. We want early adopters, people willing to pay full price for the coolest new thing.

Q. Don’t other retail sites do that?

A. Internet shopping was designed by men and reflects the way men like to shop. It’s all about practicality and efficiency.

Q. What about Zappos? Is returning 10 pairs of shoes and keeping two efficient?

A. No, but I’m talking about the way e-commerce sites are set up. Men go shopping when they need a pair of boxers. They find it in a department store, they buy it, and they leave. For women, shopping is about discovery. Girls go shopping as a pastime, not because we’re looking for anything in particular. We buy things because our stylish friend recommends them. Take something like a hand-blown glass paperweight from Italy. You don’t search for that on the Internet, but when you find it you’re inspired by its beauty or craftsmanship. We’re trying to recreate that aha! moment, as if you’d stumbled upon something in a street fair or out-of-the-way place.

Q. Can you give us other examples?

A. One of our best-selling items is a high-end, high-design vibrator. Maybe women wouldn’t normally search for that on the Internet, but we show you things that make your life better without you asking for it — which is exactly how off-line shopping works.

Q. How do you find these things?

A. Sometimes we find them because one of our curators recommends a product directly to me, like Daniel Boulud did with preserved roses. The other way is that our staff tries to identify a pain or problem, and then find a way to solve it. Right now, I’m looking for a nicely designed surge protector because I’m constantly looking at the ugly ones in my apartment.

Q. Do you pay your curators?

A. No.

Q. How do you know how much of a product to buy?

A. We don’t buy products; we hold them on consignment. We try to anticipate how much we’ll sell, which is part art, part science. Our e-mail to subscribers goes out at 11 a.m., and we can tell by the number of purchases within the first hour how much of a product we’re going to sell. If something is selling like hotcakes, we call the vendor and order more.

Q. How much of a markup do you take?

A. We’re like any standard store, and we get paid like a wholesaler does. The markup is about two times on fashion, beauty and jewelry, but on food and technology it’s a lot lower.

Q. Has your concept evolved since the company’s start?

A. Every day we give people an opportunity to talk about something new. We don’t feature that much fashion, but we’re getting fashionista subscribers to talk about other things like food, art, design, travel and philanthropy. As a result, I realized AHAlife is not an e-commerce company. It’s a media company. As the C.E.O., I’m now thinking about whether I should feature a product because it will sell well or because it will start the most conversations.

Q. How did you find your angel investors?

A. I left Goldman because I felt like taking a leap, but I always understood the power of the Goldman network. I made a huge effort to stay in touch with Goldman people. They became my initial investors.

Q. How did you pitch them?

A. I didn’t really pitch the first few people who invested. I went asking for advice and they said, “If you do this, I want to invest.” I had such positive feedback that I felt confident I was sitting on something big.

Q. What has been your biggest problem?

A. The dirty little secret of flash-sale sites is that brands now make cheaper products directly for the sites. You’re not actually getting inventory Saks couldn’t sell, and it’s not 80 percent off. They’re selling items that are cheaply made and cheaply priced, things Saks would never consider carrying. But these sites convince people they’re getting a deal, which attracts customers. So we have a harder time with customer acquisition. It’s harder for people to discover us.

Q. On April Fool’s Day, AHAlife offered two tickets to the British royal wedding and a package that included a hotel room, a Rolls Royce with driver and other high-end accoutrements for about $25,000. Was this a joke?

A. We did it as a test to see if we could sell unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Instead of offering a direct sale, we put a wait-list button and in no time we had 15 people on the wait list. People were frantically calling the office and offering to pay a higher price. We ended up telling them it was a joke and giving them a free gift. It convinced us there was demand.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=59a45b7310f9346a498a46d577cb93fa

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: , ,