| Finding
the Right Person
Preparation
is the key to interviewing and hiring the right person
for a job. It is important to ask the right questions
for the right reason. Before posing a question, you
should know what information you are seeking and how
it relates to the performance of the job required. That
means that the interviewer must have an intimate knowledge
of the job to be done. Often, several people from different
levels in the organization should interview to get a
meaningful analysis of the candidates' qualifications
for this particular job.
The
interviewing process and line of questioning should
be developed before the interview so that every applicant
gets a similar line of questioning. Otherwise, it will
be impossible to justly compare
various candidates.
Growing Pains
From
the time an owner opens his small business, he should
know that he will have to change to stay alive. He must
plan on it and plan for it. In the beginning, it is
all about producing a quality product and serving the
customer. Employees are few or none.
If the concept, product and service are valid, more
and more customers will patronize the business and it
will become necessary to hire additional employees.
The owner must learn to establish a team that will serve
customers as he can no longer serve them by himself.
If this step is not taken, the business will stagnate.
It is a natural change, but many small businesses fail
because they do not plan for
this change.
Great
businesses both large and small must change. The bottom
line is "grow or die". Growth brings change.
Plan for change. Have a strategy that looks for ways
to change and to grow. Be sure not fall into the trap
of making excuses not to change or you'll send your
business down the tubes.
Product does not a Business Make
What
product do you think of when the name "Henry Ford"
is mentioned? The answer is very simple: cars. But Henry
did not simply wake up one day and have people clamoring
at his door for automobiles. He, in fact, began building
his career as an engineer at the Edison Light Company
in Detroit. Away from work, he became enamored with
the newfangled motorized vehicles that were appearing
in the world and spent his spare time tinkering until
he himself built a car. He quit
his job as an engineer, organized a group of investors
and began a car company.
However,
the saga of Henry Ford does not end there. Ford was
selling cars, but he saw that his market consisted of
only the select individuals who could afford such a
luxury. What if he could offer the product for a cheaper
price? The market would increase dramatically. The assembly
line was a means of production that was being used by
other manufacturers to reduce costs. No one, however,
had ever used that method to manufacture anything as
complicated as automobiles.
Ford
saw the opportunity. He began the construction of each
car at one end of the factory. A winch pulled the chassis
through the shop while six workers traveled with it
and assembled parts from each station as they passed.
The process was upgraded a short time later to a moving
belt and different
workers manned each station. The Ford Motor Company
was born.
The
true genius of Henry Ford was seeing a need in the market
and devising a way to deliver the product to meet the
need. He invented neither the car nor the assembly line
but he is seen as the founder of the automobile industry.
A
great product does not make a great business. A great
business requires an innovative entrepreneur to see
the right niche and devise the appropriate method to
fill that niche effectively. For example,
if a business sells doughnuts, how can it make the process
of delivering doughnuts to its target audience more
effective? One local bakery bought a van and brought
coffee and doughnuts to every construction site in the
town first thing in the morning.
It
all starts with innovation. Then a business must get
to work to make things happen. That is where
strategic planning leads to change and more innovation.
Success in business is not hard if you do the right
things. Winning@Business™ is designed to make
that happen.
Quote of the Day
"Don't
find fault. Find a remedy."
Henry Ford
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