Richard Pierce Thomas

Leadership and Small Business Consultant

I learned my first lessons in the differences between operations and heroics working in sales while in college.              

I was selling shoes at a small Nordstrom store and worked the shoe department on weekends when we would be invaded by the weekly surge of Canadian shoppers seeking deals. Ladies’ shoes in particular were a prized commodity as the Canadian VAT (value added tax) created a large price advantage for shoes sold in the US.

One particular busy weekend, I made a sale to a Canadian woman who was getting married the following week and wanted a pair of silver pumps that had to be ordered. Electing to pick them up at the store rather than receiving them in Canada and incurring the VAT, I told her I would call her when they arrived. 

The silver pumps arrived the following week and as I was preparing to call her with the good news, I opened the box to verify the shoes were correct. To my dismay, they were the wrong size. My mind began racing as I realized her wedding was just three days away and there was no way I could get an order shipped up to her in time, VAT notwithstanding. Informing her of the bad news, she pleaded for me to do something to help. 

I dialed every store in Washington to check inventory (these were the days before inventory was tracked electronically), and eventually found the correct size in Seattle. I personally drove to Seattle to pick up the shoes, and then drove straight to Richmond, BC, delivering them personally. Needless to say, she was very happy and the heroic garnered me a customer service award. I was lauded for my efforts and eventually recognized during a company-wide meeting. 

The whole scenario never sat right with me, however. I kept thinking that it shouldn’t have had to happen in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, here – outstanding customer service is something I value and is incredibly important to a business (see the August 2011 SRG, “You Dance with the Girl You Brought”). 

The distinction, however, is between being willing to do almost anything to satisfy the customer, which is important, and continually band-aiding a business model with constant heroics because it is not built to scale for growth.  

I observe these operational gaps in businesses every day. Admittedly, when starting a business you learn quickly to do just about anything to keep it going and heroics are a large part of that. The challenge becomes that reliance on heroics sows the seeds of what limits a business from scaling in the future. 

Simply, if you want it to perform predictably and profitably, and equally get something out of it in the long run, then you must develop operational excellence in the business. One of the better books I’ve read on operational excellence is Michael Gerber’s E-Myth Revisited. He provides an excellent framework for developing operations. 

Before you get there, however, you have to recognize there is a problem, and it probably lies with you. Are you continuously solving the same problems in the business? Are you repeatedly relying on the same key people to go above and beyond to save the order? Are you finding yourself drawn into new projects while systemic problems go unsolved? 

If your answer is yes to any on these, then it’s likely you have a business dependent on heroics rather than operational excellence. You may be winning the battles, but you are losing the war.

Start winning the war today by taking a long, hard look in the mirror. Are you the problem?  It may also require acknowledging that your company has likely been built around rewarding the heroics that keep you from getting where the business needs to go. Changing this requires focus and determination, however, the payoff is substantial. 

Most valuation experts will acknowledge that in the long run (recent recession excluded), next to the viability of your market, it is the operational excellence in your business that will have the most impact on your valuation multiple and being rewarded for your years of hard work. By my estimation, that is what winning the war is all about!   

Rick P. Thomas is President of Activate Leadership, a leadership development consultancy in Washington state. He consults and speaks to organizations across the country, focusing on individual and organizational achievement.