Tony Morgan of New Spring Church recently reviewed the bookCreating Magic by Lee Cockerell, the former executive vice president of operations for Walt Disney World Resort. Great insights, challenging statements for the leaders — whether you’re leading a company as an entreprenuer or a non-profit organization like a church. I’d like to share the principles he posted on his blog.
“If your company’s competitive advantage is based on products and services alone, you are at risk. But if it’s based upon products, services, and quality service, then you’ll have a competitive advantage that’s very difficult to match.”
“If you want your employees to deliver excellent service, you’d better provide them with excellent leadership.”
“Good leaders are humble enough to admit what they don’t know, and great leaders are constantly looking for new information.”
“Great leaders always focus on others, not on themselves. They hire the right people, train them, trust them, respect them, listen to them, and make sure to be there for them when needed.”
“The days of the vertical chain of command as a way of doing business are over.”
“If you want to lose great people quickly, look over their shoulders all the time and make all their decision for them.”
“If you give people responsibility without als giving them the necessary authority to carry out hose responsibilities, you are setting them up for failure.”
“One typical symptom of a flawed organizational design is too much time spent in meetings.”
“The ability to lead is something to look for in everyone you consider hiring, no matter what the position is.”
“Hire people who are smarter and more talented than you.”
“If someone is not performing well, you owe it to everyone on the team, as well as the company as a whole, to change the lineup as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
“I got coffee for employees rather than ask them to get it for me.”
“Make every adjustment with the attitude that it’s reversible, that not only can you change it again, but you eventually will have to.”
“People who read for pleasure tend to be more successful because their reading makes them more creative.”
“Many people talk about having a business life and a personal life, but in reality you have only one life, and the best leaders are passionate about everything in it.”
It’s really inspiring when you get noticed. Well, that’s what we are. We’ve got to admit it. And so imagine the pride surging when I saw my Resurgence 2.0 blog’s post “How authentic can you get on the internet?” featured on TV 5′s January 27 TEN evening newscast.
Anyway, thanks Jove, for noticing that small piece. For those of you who might be interested, the segment was posted below (mine is at around 1:32).
I’m writing this in the hope that the local internet industry will try to pursue excellence, small as we are. There’s always a start. Pissing off clients is not.
Years ago, I moved and registered my domains — and my clients’ — to a local domain registrar. They claimed to be cheaper than the cheap domains. But looking back, I actually used their service in support of the local internet companies and not really because of the price. If there’s anyone who offers the same service locally, why would I go out? That’s my principle then — and still is.
Unfortunately, though, this local internet company started missing the essentials. They stopped receiving online payments, forcing clients go to the bank to pay for the domains. Their control panel keeps on failing. Their “mother registrar” — mydomains.com — keeps on emailing me. At one time, I renewed the domain at mydomains.com after I received the email, not from this local company, thinking that “it’ll reflect to my account anyway”. It didn’t.
I had no choice but to slowly move my domains out.
This week, I had enough.
2008 – I started moving my domains out
Oct. 2008 – I changed servers. So I had to change the NS record through the domain control panel. Their control panel was failing when I tried to have one of my busiest local client’s domain changed. So what I did was to call their customer support after my emails are left unanswered. And after about 2 days of trying to reach them via phone, at last, somebody answered! And she agreed to change the NS record manually. It worked.
Jan 5, 2009 – I planned to move the domain (one of the last 2) out. So, to prepare that, I updated my email address via their control panel. Take note, just the email address. I successfully did that.
Jan 7 – It was Saturday and my client is bugging me. She was freaking out because their website is forwarding to the old server. I checked, and it really was. I noticed that the NS record has reverted back to the old record! Huh!? I didn’t do that? Who would have done that? Or was it an API failure? Meaning, their control panel isn’t speaking correctly with their “mother registrar”? Anyway, I tried to solve the problem by simply changing the NS record back from their control panel. Two hours have passed, 4, 8, a day, and then Monday, nothing was happening!
Jan 9 – I called the customer service and asked why, I have changed the NS record from their control panel but the WHOIS isn’t changing after 2 days. She said, sometimes, they do it manually. Manually? She means that their control panel actually doesn’t work 100% of the time. So, no time to argue, I have a pissed off client shouting at me, I simply asked her to change the NS manually — again.
Next day - still nothing is happening. My client is loosing her business. I was freaking out. I tried calling the customer support. She was out for the day. I asked, who can I talk to other than her? The answer: none. And the owner is out too. They didn’t offer to call him. Why would they, I’m just one small client with issue on one domain? No big deal. At least to them.
And the next day — I finally reached the one-woman-band customer support. But she was clueless why.
Let me stop here and drive my point. I’m part of the local internet industry. My dream is for us to go head to head with international leaders like India. There are factors that we have no control off — like government support. But there are things that we can control. And by pursuing excellence, we can make a difference. So, local internet industry, let’s learn from this domain registrar’s mistakes:
- poor customer support
- very poor API integration to their provider, affecting their clients in a big way
- lack of reliable and systematic ecommerce facility.
Would you like me to name that local domain registrar? Nah…
A lot are predicting the worst for 2009. The economy in decline, jobs are going down the drain. In times like these, wisdom such as that of Steve Larsen, veteran CEO and currently co-founder of Krugle is a sure encouragement:
“I think the doom and gloom crowd are getting too much airtime. Look for opportunities. Difficult times are when they’ll most likely occur. When we’re at ‘steady state’ and things are normal, good opportunities are much harder to find with GREAT opportunities nearly impossible. It is during periods of tumult and transition when you can spot things that lead to the greatest returns—if you are alert. So be alert.”
I have a confession to make: I am actually beginning to hate Christmas.
Christmases these days seem to dwell more on the everything else—the carols, decorations, media production, the gifts, the shopping, or even the ‘spirit’ of Christmas—and leave out the main essence of the season.
Or am I hating it because I’m not a child anymore — they say Christmas is for kids.
Nonetheless, behind this candid admission, I’m still hoping that the “superstar” of Christmas would grab our attention — my attention — in the midst of holiday distractions.
May Jesus take the center stage. Remember how important Christmas is, in its real essence: there would have been no EASTER if there was no CHRISTMAS.
