costs Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

30
Aug 21
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Technology Tools, Still Room For Improvement?

Tags : costs innovation leadership technology tools

Do you like technology tools? For example, do you like your navigation system in your car, or the app on your phone? What about streaming content? Netflix for example, YouTube, or Peacock?

Are tech things working for you? Have they made life better?

There are many more things you can add to the list, but this is a good start.

Yesterday, I had to drive about 80 miles away from my home. I’ve been to this location twice before in the past 10 years. The last time was 4 years ago. The location is somewhat remote, several winding and twisting back country roads in the last 10 miles or so. I know the way, until the last few miles.

Why can’t I put my destination in my navigation system, and when I need help, just ask. For example, “What exit off route 283?”

Granted my car is a few years old, and newer navigation systems (or apps) may have better features, but are they at that level yet?

What about Netflix?

I like Netflix on some level, but why does it show me little kids movies in the top 10? I don’t see myself ever watching them. Ever.

Why can’t the filter features be better or easier? In my search, I haven’t seen a filter to remove movies that are dubbed over from another language. It may be there, but I have haven’t noticed it.

Why can’t Netflix be smarter? It should know by now that every time I play a movie that is dubbed over, I only watch the first 5 minutes.

Flying (air travel) was much better in the 1990s than it is today. More flights, better service, fewer delays, less crowded planes. Why isn’t it better in 2021? There are a lot of reasons, but some of it comes down to cost.

Technology Tools

This is not intended to be a rant session. It is intended to illustrate that while we’ve come a long way, there is still room for improvement. Why haven’t there been more improvements?

It may be simple, improvements in technology cost. The price is something that not everyone is willing to pay.

Seen through a different lens it is about profit. The other side of cost for the consumer is profit for the business.

How much pain will the consumer accept before rejecting the offer?

I like my navigation system, I like Netflix, air travel is really taxing me lately and I definitely can’t say that I like it much right now.

There is a chance for improvement, yet it is a scale with a slippery slope.

In society, business, or personal habits, things often don’t change if the people do not see a compelling enough reason to do so.

Some things will stay the same.

For now.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

18
Aug 21
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Changed Meetings, How They Affect Outcomes

Tags : changes costs delays meetings success

Do you want to get on a call with someone? Do you just ring their phone or do you schedule a time? What happens with workplace meetings? Have you been the victim of changed meetings?

Time is valuable to everyone. Is your time more valuable when compared with someone else?

If you started your day planning to work on the report due this week for your boss, but someone has now shifted the priorities, how do you adapt?

When you placed the meeting on your calendar for 10:00 AM and at 9:55 AM the person planning the meeting signals a delay until 10:30 AM, was your time wasted? Is there an opportunity cost?

Hours Spent

The cost to produce a single episode of your favorite television show may be in the several million-dollar range.

Actors and actresses, film crews, equipment, location fees, and time. It all costs.

Your favorite stars will spend hours of effort for you to be able to watch 20, 30, or 40 minutes of the final product.

Olympic level athletes may have special talents and abilities.

You might watch them for a few seconds, or less than a couple of minutes on television. Do you recognize and appreciate the culmination of years of effort it took to get to those few precious moments?

The hours of commitment, that perhaps millions of people will view all at the same time, for just minutes.

Why are top athletes and movie stars paid huge salaries? If it were by the hour what would that look like?

Changed Meetings

In your workplace everyone has a schedule. Perhaps a select few are to be on-call for immediate action when the boss shouts, for everyone else, their time may already be spoken for.

If you schedule a one-hour meeting with a team of five for next Wednesday at 9:00 AM, they’ve probably adjusted or given up something else in order to be there. A last-minute delay or cancellation costs.

The value of time is irreplaceable.

It is more than about being rude, more than about the disruption, it is the cost associated with delays or missed opportunities.

Everyone is has a mission. Disruption’s cost. Missed opportunities often don’t get a do-over.

Time wasted adds up, even if it only looks like a few minutes.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

05
Jul 21
-

Time Value, Are You Getting The Benefit?

Tags : costs learning ROI time value

Time value might be a measurement you’re familiar with even if you don’t recognize it at first. It seems most people believe that good things take time, but how is that value measured?

When you first learned how to tie your shoes it may have taken some time, and some additional practice. Now you can tie your shoe in one or two seconds.

You might paint a picture with some water colors. It might have taken you an hour or more. The picture can be scanned or duplicated with a copier in less than one minute. It’s not an original, but it still has great value.

The same is true for nearly anything you do. At first, things take more time. After you get some practice it all seems easier and faster. The quality doesn’t have to be sacrificed and the time for delivery improves.

What is the real value of time?

Time Value

In the workplace, teams often seek solutions for problems. The easy problems, or the ones that have occurred before are more easily solved. The time to fix is minimal. That means more value for your investment of time.

Complex problems are a little different. They are often complex because there is a bigger learning curve. There is some time required to discover the root cause, strategize on ways to approach it, and ultimately some trial and error until the solution is fully realized.

It is a constant battle against the undiscovered or the unresolved. The value of your time and the associated performance improves when you put in the effort.

Cheap and easy takes less time. The value of cheap and easy is less.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

23
Mar 21
-

Right Thing Costs, They Too, Add Up

Tags : costs discipline integrity long-term costs short-term gain

Doing the right thing costs. It also has value. There is a tricky intersection between doing the right thing and doing something that satisfies the circumstances right now.

If you decide to eat an ice cream cone, you may be making a trade-off between the pleasure and good taste of the sugary snack and the calories ingested beyond what you’ll use. Those excess calories go somewhere and there is a cost associated with it.

It is true for most things. More isn’t always better and sometimes neither is having immediate gratification. What delights at the moment may have a price to be paid later.

In part, this is why discipline matters. Having the discipline and integrity to sacrifice some simple pleasures that ultimately become a painful cost later.

It is true in life, in business, and it is true for your career.

Right Thing Costs

When an employee is empowered enough to make a decision that affects the customer, the decision has a price.

It may be easy to give an angry customer a replacement order of french fries when the original order was unsatisfactory. It is not so easy to change the color of a house roof when the customer’s idea of brown was several shades different from the nearly black shingles that were installed.

The french fries are low cost and the complications of dissatisfaction are only typically felt for the short-term. The house roof, of course, has a much longer shelf life and a much higher cost. The complications are much greater.

What is the right thing to do?

Everything has a cost. Some costs are short-term and satisfy the immediate, other costs feel harder to absorb but in the long run, make up for the feeling of loss.

Future Vision

The difference is often established in the vision.

Is the business owner trying to make a quick dollar and sell off, or is the business owner in it to earn a decent living and build a long-term business that will last for generations?

Employees aren’t really much different. Does the employee visualize working there for many years, or is it a stepping stone to get in, grab what you can, and get out?

What is your vision of the right thing? What is the timeline for that right thing?

Both matter and both will determine exactly what happens next.

Doing the right thing isn’t always about the price paid right now. Often, it has a close relationship with the price you’ll pay later.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

07
Dec 19
-

Scaling Costs or Staying The Same?

Tags : career costs habits inaction scaling up

Have you considered scaling costs? Scaling can be scary. It is true for business and true for your career.

Are you trying to scale up? What will it take for you to make a difference in the next six to twelve months?

Scale up or else you’ll scale down.

Both Business and Career

For the small business or large enterprise there are costs associated with scaling. There are expectations, forecasts, and marketing expenses. There are operating costs, infrastructure costs, and capital investments.

For the career navigator scaling costs are similar. You have expectations based on where you are at, where you want to be, and consideration for how you will get there.

One of the costs associated with scaling often not considered is the cost of not scaling.

The small business or large enterprise is built around movement. Ideally forward movement. Within the operation there are both successes and failures, but the flow of motion should be forward.

It is the same for individual careers. C-suite to front-line employees, forward motion is the objective for many.

Scaling Costs

For all scaling endeavors the cost of inaction is often the highest cost of all. This includes the costs associated with all resources, and especially your most precious resource, time.

Organizations are driven by culture, culture means people, and people means careers.

Both businesses and people are driven by habit. If the habit becomes an indecisive stall, you’ll face the highest cost of all.

Scale up because coasting only happens when you are going downhill.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

20
Aug 19
-

The Failure of Customer Service Systems

Tags : costs customer loyalty retention systems

There are people who believe everything requires a system. Operations, a system, production, a system, and customer service, a system. Do customer service systems fail? You bet.

Executive Decisions

When senior leadership decides:

In a variable services model, all customers must pay a specific price.

We’ll charge our best customers a little more to continue with the service they once received as a standard offering. New or smaller customers still get the old deal.

The organization will bear no burden for merchandise they don’t manufacture. “All we can do is send it back.”

These examples and many more represent the foundation of systems failure.

The organization wants loyalty, retention, and happy customers telling others to join in.

The failures often start with a system.

Customer Service Systems

The system that fixes price for the customer who spends ten dollars, and the customer who spends ten thousand. Fail.

Then there is the system that says our best customers need more attention, our core philosophy operates on a first come, first serve basis, to get your old level of service you need to pay more. Fail.

Of course, there is always the blame game. “We aren’t the manufacturer. You are a victim the same as us.” All we can do is send in a request or send it back and wait. Fail.

High Cost of Systems

Systems can be important. Systems help us navigate and structure what are sometimes complicated situations. When serving your customers, systems can work, or they can be the beginning of the end.

What is the cost of replacing a customer? Does it cost more to get a new customer or to keep an existing customer? Are the front-facing teams appropriately empowered to work beyond the system?

Often a system built to protect the organization is a system built to fail with the customer.

There is an alternative. Identify your best customers. Use a net promoter score, historical data, or let front-line teams make recommendations.

There is a chance the system you’re building will not protect them, it will alienate them.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

25
Jul 19
-

Pessimistic Design Leads To Higher Workplace Costs

Tags : costs design engineering pessimistic workplace

Are you focused on process or product? Do you classify your work as a project? In the workplace pessimistic design often creates higher costs of doing business.

Recently, I received an email with a somewhat interesting tag line.

“Projects cost you money. Process makes you money.”

It was a spam sort of thing, trying to entice me to hire some outsourced assistance with lead generation.

The Concept of Systems

When you think about systems what is your first thought?

People often quickly associate systems with efficiency, perhaps quality, or a foolproof method of effectively accomplishing work.

Do systems cost money or save money?

Initially, it seems that setting up the system costs a little. It takes time, energy, and other resources to get things setup. After that, we often make the assumption that the system will improve quality or efficiency.

What happens if we are pessimistic in our approach to system design?

Pessimistic Design

Imagine for a moment that we assess the likelihood of failure as much more common than the likelihood of success. Imagine that we suspect a far greater chance of cracks, breaks, or derail opportunities than what is truly likely?

Do you backup the data in your cell phone? What about your personal computing device? Is one backup sufficient? Should you have a backup to the backup? What have you designed for redundancy?

Does your car have a spare tire? Do you know how to use it? Should you carry an additional spare? Will your battery work to start the car, do you carry an additional battery?

Going too far with system design can cost more money than what the design was initially intended to do.

The costs associated with a poor design or over-engineering will surely outweigh the cost benefits of the process.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

17
Jul 19
-

We Can’t Afford Training Time

Tags : costs decisions education time training

Does your company provide or encourage continuous learning? Is training time viewed as an investment or only an expense?

There are many small businesses with organizational leaders who scoff at the idea of training. One of the best excuses that leaders say, create, or allow, is that there is not enough time for training.

Certainly, the dollars spent for training can be a stumbling block, yet organization leaders may blame it on time.

Stuck, Stalled, or Stopped

Small businesses (and leaders) grow to the size or capability of management and then get stuck. They often get stuck because the theories and concepts they’ve grown accustom to only work up to a certain size.

The small business with fewer than ten people has a different dynamic from the business that employs one hundred and ten thousand. Leadership principles in these organizations are similar, yet strategic and tactical deployment may be different.

Examining costs for training in any business should not be based only on dollars spent or time made available for training. There are many other intangible costs that should be considered.

The list is long but here are a few:

Rework
Drama
Customer Experiences
Technology
Employee turnover

Some organizations that get stalled, stuck, or stopped, never recover. They stay there and slowly decline.

Training Time

I remember a rather successful CEO saying to me, “If we suggested people go to training right now, they would say they don’t have time and they wouldn’t be able to focus on the training because they would be too worried about the operation.”

On the surface it is hard to argue with that statement, yet, underneath the surface you have to question the culture (leadership) that drives that mindset.

Of course, there are times when every operation (especially small ones) need every hand on deck. The challenge may be determining when these times are real and when they become an excuse.

The real story here is that untrained employees are always more expensive than trained employees.

Trained employees will make decisions, they will make better decisions, quality will improve, commitment, engagement, and loyalty will all be better.

Training time may be the smallest price to pay.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

11
Jul 19
-

Professional Reminder, Hire a Pro

Tags : amateur costs expert professional

Are you a DIY kind of person? Are you versatile with your skills? Do you need a professional reminder of the costs associated with hiring a pro?

The consideration to hire a pro often is followed by the fear of the price tag. Do individuals or businesses really consider the costs of amateur versus pro?

Saving Money?

Can you change the oil in your car, do a little landscaping, or paint and wallpaper your home? Would you consider yourself handy?

Do you have the skills but cannot afford the time, so you hire it out?

What about in your workplace, do you hire for high level expertise or do you hire a dependable human who can put the widget in the box?

Small business CEO’s can be an interesting observation. Sometimes they can’t get out of their own way. They hire less skilled and experienced employees in a mindset of keeping costs low and keeping themselves positioned as the most knowledgeable expert.

Malcolm Gladwell, examined in his book, Outliers, a standard that 10,000 hours of work in specific area or skill makes you an expert.

Think about the…

Automobile Mechanic
Accountant
Carpenter
Computer Network Engineer
Creative Advertiser
Landscaper
Lawyer
Medical Doctor
Photographer
Welder

You may be a little bit savvy at one or more of these skill areas but it doesn’t mean you are an expert. Unless, perhaps, you’ve had great education and massive experience doing this work.

Professional Reminder

Sometimes good enough is good enough, yet when it comes to your business or your career are you just going to get by or will you excel?

What are amateur mistakes costing you?

None of this is new. We’ve heard it all before.

Red Adair seems to get credit for this savvy statement: “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur.”

Are you an expert or pro? Is good enough okay? Are you sure?

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

30
May 19
-

Workplace Winning Costs, But How Much?

Tags : costs leadership win workplace winning

A little friendly competition isn’t bad. It certainly can motivate and inspire. The spirit of competition is strong, it can create a lot of action. Workplace winning can cost a lot too. Have you assessed the price tag?

Friendly Competition

Set the goals. Feel the stretch. Size up the competition. Plan to win.

There are a few ways your workplace can become competitive.

The top salesperson.

Employee of the month.

The quest for recognition and illustrated appreciation.

Debates in meetings.

Pay by merit, not seniority or credentials.

Does your workplace support one or more of these motivational drivers? Internal competition is often friendly, yet it can also derail.

Mediocrity

Some people will defer instead of compete. They will take a lose-win approach. Their mindset is, “I’m not going to win so I’ll make an excuse and lose.”

She has all the good accounts.

Bob is a workplace version of the teacher’s pet.

No one ever really observes my work; they don’t understand my contribution.

I’m not a quick thinker. I refuse to debate issues.

Jack has been here longer he should have a higher pay rate.

These are most likely opinionated excuses, not facts. When we set ourselves up to lose there is not any reason to do more or be more. Couple that with limited accountability by a supervisor and at best you have mediocrity.

Workplace Winning

The workplace winning continuum is broad. Mediocrity may mean complacency. On the other end of the scale inappropriate competition and the quest to win can derail team trust and commitment.

Both represent costs no organization can afford to pay.

Properly structured, internal competition can be a great morale booster. Strong teams win the prize. It is a win-win. The organization wins and so do the employees. Customers often win too.

This means one simple truth. The win is counterintuitive and expensive. A win-win-win is what you should seek.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Tag Archives: costs

Aug 21

-

Technology Tools

Aug 21

-

Hours Spent

Changed Meetings

Jul 21

-

Time Value

Mar 21

-

Right Thing Costs

Future Vision

Dec 19

-

Both Business and Career

Scaling Costs

Aug 19

-

Executive Decisions

Customer Service Systems

High Cost of Systems

Jul 19

-

The Concept of Systems

Pessimistic Design

Jul 19

-

Stuck, Stalled, or Stopped

Training Time

Jul 19

-

Saving Money?

Professional Reminder

May 19

-

Friendly Competition

Mediocrity

Workplace Winning

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