Sage Lewis

So I have this thing for CEO’s. You might want to have dinner with Jennifer Aniston. But I’d throw her over in a heart beat for Jack Welch. Sorry Jen.

Well, today, I just had dinner with the president and CEO of Summa Health System, Tom Strauss. It was all quite by mistake. But that didn’t make it any less exciting.

On top of that, the speaker of the dinner asked to share with the person next to you (that would be Tom for me) about a coming together moment in your life.

I told him about when our company went from 3 to 5 people and we almost crumbled. But through endless change, faith and energy we developed an entirely new pricing model and way we sell our services. It has completely turned around our company and made us stronger than ever. It was all because of having a great team focused on one goal.

He told of a story where he merged two hospitals together. He said it was the hardest thing he ever did. He talked about the difficulty of merging two executive groups. That’s crazy intense.

But the best part was… before he sat down, the speaker for the night who was also sitting at our table said he was coming over to join us. She said that he was the greatest leader she had ever met. She would walk over hot coals with him. I asked her why. She said it was because he lead by his values and ethics.

That’s exactly what I want people to say about me when I’m not at the table.

It was completely thrilling.

Here are notes from a meeting I’m currently at. The meeting is titled: “Beans: Four principles for running a business in good times or bad.” That’s also the name of her book.

Her background is: education, marketing and now organizational development. She says that marketing pervades through all of her thoughts. I’m down with that.

She tells a story about an espresso cart that started in Seattle. It’s been around for a long time and is still known as the finest cup of espresso you can buy. There is always a line at this outdoor coffee stand. What creates that level of loyalty. It’s called “The El Expresso”. I couldn’t find the company online. She had been there at 2002. But here is a link to her book and reviews at Amazon. I guess “The El Espresso” is a parady name of the company. That’s why I can’t find it online. If I can deduce what the real name is I’ll put it up here.

Apparently the employees act like owners.

She mentioned that she has the largest business book library in Cleveland. She says that they are all the same. That sounds about right.

She is going to discuss:
4 Universal Principles that generate customer loyalty.

1. Passion: You gotta have it or you gotta get it. These people will outsell and outmarket all people that don’t have passion. (The flip side of that is Exhuberance leads to mistrust.) The owners were stewards with Continental Airlines. She has nicknamed them “Jack and Diane.” They had to leave Continental and wanted a job “to make people happy.”

They met a guy who had a European Espresso Machine. He had been there 30 days and hadn’t broken even. They asked him to hire them. They asked if they could give it away for free for a day. “The puppy dog close.” They got to know the people who came over, called them by name, etc. At the end of two weeks they had regulars. People came over because so much was happening. The owner learned that Jack and Diane like people and he didn’t. In 1981 they bought the cart for $5000. Passion was the driving force.

1. Passion
What is your passion? Helping create a work environment that adds value to our team.
How do you bring it
When it goes into it’s low ebb how do you restore it? That I don’t have an answer for. Right now I’m trying to just plow through it. But I’m close to the edge of burn out. They guy next to me suggested I take a day or two and just go away… no phone, email or family. I’m going to consider it.

When they hire people they ask them what they are passionate about. Then they ask how they will apply that passion to the coffee shop.
They hire for attitude and train for skill… Southwest does this too. I believe this is key to our success too. Herb Keller of Southwest says: Hire happy people and they will take care of your customers.

What is the reputation you want to earn with your coworkers, customers and colleuges?

And how will you need to behave today to make this reputation a reality?

The “how” is just as important as the “what”. Your own personal code of conduct assures your future.

You won’t have the level of trust to take you through the tough times if you don’t know the “how”.

2. People

What makes The El different to make people stand in line? They simply made it personal. They pulled their espresso with love. [See, LOVE. The "L" word is not one that people like to use in business. But it's truly the secret. The HBR all time best salesman said that he loved all of his customers. He said at his car dealership, "I thank you and my family thanks you. And I love you."]

“People taking care of people.” People feel wanted.

3. Personal
How do you make the interactions with your customers personal? How do you show care, concern and respect? [My focus is all on the team as far as I'm concerned.]
Make it personal without making it personal.

4. Product
Organizations where the product quality varies,
Have high standards. If you don’t the moral of your team will deteriorate.

“How can you create an environment where consistent product excellence can be sustained?”
The customer determines what is the excellence. [That strikes me as a bit simplistic. I don't believe a customer always knows what is excellent.]

If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t know when you get there.

What do you want from your work? What do you want to bring to your work?

What’s one thing you took away from this that you either knew or will put into action? “Go to a milk farm for a couple days.” The guy next to me gave me that idea and I’m really grooving on it. It’s not to say the presentation was good. It’s just his get away idea is better.