CHAPTER 1
Overview:
Are We Really Surrounded by Nincompoops?
At almost every company we encounter (including, sometimes, our own), it can seem that we are surrounded by nincompoops. Things that should be easy are instead hard because, we believe, some nincompoop has forgotten to do his or her job, or didnāt realize that there might be a better way to do the job, or couldnāt care enough to even bother thinking about the job. We grow irritated as:
ā¢ Our phone call to our new bank is put on permanent hold because the nincompoop customer service representative (CSR) doesnāt know how to solve an issue with the bankās website, and has no idea who else might. Weāre forced to call back later or visit a local branch.
ā¢ Our fancy coffee takes too long and ends up wrong anyway because a nincompoop barista asks questions (Medium or dark roast? Room for cream?) but doesnāt listen to our replies. Weāre forced to choose between delay or drinking something we didnāt order in the first place.
ā¢ Our car doesnāt get repaired because a nincompoop mechanic forgets to test a key component. Weāre forced to come back a second time to fix the problemāor to drive an unsafe vehicle.
In every instance, it seems, a nincompoop has wasted our time and cost their companies:
ā¢ labor, time, and materials (to rework the product or service they should have done right the first time);
ā¢ goodwill (you and I are cranky, not only at the supposed nincompoop but at a company numbskull-enough to hire him or her in the first place); and
ā¢ revenue and profit (disgruntled customers often reduce their spending with knuckleheaded companies, or desert them altogether).
In other words, nincompoops are not just irritating but incredibly expensive too. So why do the companies that seem to hire nincompoops tolerate them?
Itās Not the NincompoopsāItās the Nincompoopery
Companies tolerate them because itās not the nincompoopsāitās the Nincompoopery. Production failures, screw-ups, and faulty service arenāt usually the fault of the supposed nincompoops with whom weāre dealing but instead the Nincompooperyāi.e., the meta-foolishnessāof the companies and systems in which theyāre forced to work. Ill-planned, outdated, or ludicrous organizational structures can turn even the most eager employee into a nincompoop, or at least force him or her to seem like one. Consider from the previous examples:
ā¢ If our bank had bothered to interview a sampling of new customers about what mattered most during a financial transition, they might have learned that in a commodity marketāletās face it, most banks look pretty much alikeāitās the simplicity of the transfer that matters most. A focus on making every aspect of the new customer experience easy to adopt and use, including training CSRs in common website issues, would not only save time and money but would also make customers more likely to recommend the new bank to others. The CSR wouldnāt sound and feel like a nincompoop either.
ā¢ If the coffee shop had bothered to analyze its in-store traffic and workflow during peak demand periods, managers would know that errors start at the order stage, as overwhelmed clerks struggle to manage lengthy lines of barely awake, caffeine-deprived customers. The shop could then schedule more employees during predictable demand spikes and reconfigure order and brewing processes to speed delivery while slowing down human interactions. Customers would be happier, and baristas wouldnāt feel like harried, defensive nincompoops.
ā¢ If the repair shop had bothered to train and trust the mechanic on more than just technical skillsāe.g., process improvement methodologies or the revenue and profit implications of his or her workāthen he or she might have created an innovative way to review his or her work (a checklist, perhaps?) to prevent sloppy errors and wasted time. Satisfied customers would feel more confident in their repairs, and the mechanic wouldnāt look or feel like a nincompoop.
Itās important to note that in every instance above, there was no nincompoop problem; instead, there was a much larger Nincompoopery problem, in the way that each company failed to understand, design, and deliver customer value in ways that satisfied customers and boosted the bottom line. Even worse, the fix to each of these Nincompoopery problems was not unknowable or impossible but was, in fact, easily discernible and simple to implement. Yet in each case nobody in the companyānot the employees, their managers, or senior leadersāseemed capable of overcoming tradition, inertia, and apathy to make simple changes that would save money and improve customer experience (and, ultimately, increase revenues and profits). Instead, like most companies (and most employees and leaders), they continued to do the same irritating things, in the same irritating ways, day after day, despite knowing better.
And while this sort of Nincompoopery is maddening and unfair to us as customers, itās perhaps even more maddening and unfair to the CSRs, mechanics, baristas, and other employees who are put into positions where they have no choice but to be seen as nincompoops. This isnāt to absolve nincompoop employees completely (they could complain, or suggest improvements, or quit), but it does mean that when Nincompoopery runs rampant, the real blockheads are the leaders and would-be leaders who donāt put a stop to itāand who continue to squander money, time, employee devotion, and customer loyalty.
This book helps leaders put a stop to Nincompoopery, making their lives (and those of their customers and employees) immeasurably more fun and their companies measurably more profitable.
Whatās the Catch?
Thereās only one catch, but itās big: as simple as any individual Nincompoopery fixes may seem (survey your customers, hire more baristas, train the mechanic, etc.), fixing an entire organizationās Nincompoopery problem is much harder, in part because being a leader itself (without being a nincompoop) is significantly more difficult today (see the afterword).
Thatās the bad news.
The good news is twofold:
1. An Anti-Nincompoopery plan is ready and waiting for you and your company.
2. You already know enough to get started.
This bookāwhich includes examples from more than one hundred leaders and companiesāwill help with the rest.
How Can You Be So Sure?
A little background: Iāve been fascinated by how companies workāor donātāfor more than thirty years. Iāve studied corporate performance (and, inevitably, corporate Nincompoopery) in three ways:
1. As a practitioner: Iāve been an employee, manager, turnaround leader, president, CEO, consultant, and entrepreneur in industries ranging from health care to media to consulting to greeting cards, among others. Iāve made most of the mistakes that you can make in each of those positions and have learned over thirty years to make fewer of them (i.e., to stop being such a bonehead).
2. As a journalist: Iāve been an award-winning business reporter, columnist, editor, and publisher for more than twenty years at a variety of magazines, including IndustryWeek and Chief Executive. Iāve had the privilege of interviewing an astounding number of really smart leaders, as well as an equally astounding number of nincompoops. Both taught me well.
3. As a management researcher: Iāve spent the last sixteen years as CEO of a global research firm, The MPI Group, which benchmarks the performances and practices of companies across a wide array of industriesāfrom manufacturing to health care, from mining to high-tech, from beauty salons to pest control services. We focus on:
ā identifying high-performance companies and managers via hard metrics regarding performances and practices;
ā understanding why and how these firms and executives outperform competitors via deep analysis of the data; and then
ā sharing insights into the strategies, tactics, and best practices deployed by these high-performance organizations and leaders so that others can enjoy the same excellence and profitability (i.e., stop being or seeming like nincompoops or victims of corporate Nincompoopery).
Iāve learned many things over thirty years, but MPI has learned far more in its sixteen years. Weāve interviewed, studied, or surveyed executives at more than fifty thousand companies and business locations, analyzing more than ten million data points about corporate performance. We can tell you about performance and best pr...