Shenenberger Says Empowerment is a Big Deal in This Economy
It was Herb Brooks who said, "Great moments are made from great opportunity."
Business consultant J. Gregory Shenenberger says it applies to business now more than ever.
"Talk about needing great moments in an era of great opportunity, this is it. Businesses all over America need great moments in an era that calls for great opportunity."
Shenenberger says there is a key ingredient to this.
"Your people, your associates, they are your business’ greatest asset, the key to the best ideas. They are the people who see it all, from the field to the customers to the day to day events and opportunities. Get them into a room, break them in to group charters and solve the issues."
"From taking care of the customer service issues and how to cut down response time to product development and selection to writing standards that allow your business to replicate success and identify and then fine tune continuous improvement opportunities, it’s a major key in this economy."
Discussing opportunities and how to solve them is noble, but what if the associates are the cause of that?
"Associates can certainly be part of the problem, but when they are expected to be solution finders, that is much less of an issue if an issue at all. If it’s a thorny issue, you either have the wrong system or charter structure, the wrong associates for that project or you have the wrong manager."
"Your associates are a key to driving up the bottom line number and also creating and implementing opportunities from savings to optimization to growth. An example of how to promote this is to give your associates some leverage of pricing models, a cost/sell model, if you will."