Michael Jordan's Weblog

In recent news [NYT] it was reported that an art collector in Japan forced two competing vendors into a Rock Paper Scissors contest, the winner of which would get the contract. We didn't cover this technique in b-school, but as an avid observer of RFP processes and vendor management, I can appreciate the simplicity of this scheme. Oftentimes companies over-complicate their bidding processes.

Why Rock Paper Scissors ("RPS"), though? Why not chess? Or backgammon? Or...if a team effort is required on the part of the vendor, why not a softball game? Who came up with this idea?

Speaking of RPS, did you know there is a "World RPS Society"? I find this amazing but I guess it makes sense. Why shouldn't there be rules and championships for RPS? A friend of mine recently took the job of the U.S. Squash Association (Squash as in the sport, not the vegetable). I thought that was an unusual organization until I thought about it a bit. Truly a user-based, member-ship based organization, not just a commercially driven enterprise like, say, the USGA.

Rock on, RPS! Maybe we'll get a chance to use this in Sun's vendor selection process. And, if ever required by one of our customers to compete on this front, I'll be happy to represent the Sun side.

Yesterday's post got me reminiscing about the Tune Inn in Washington, DC. It's one of those sets of memories you just feel must go out into the world...Sorry about the stream of consciousness but if you've ever worked on The Hill, you can relate. The Tune Inn (aka "The Tuner") is where my friends and I all hung out from about 1991 to 1995 (when I left DC).

Memories and Memory-Joggers about The Tuner

• The Tuner is where I almost got in a fight caused by Hilary Clinton. It was election night, 1992, and I had come off spending more than a year as a volunteer on George Bush's reelection campaign. We weren't too happy to lose. And, late that night, Hilary is on tv. I yelled tasteless remarks at the tv. Caused offense. Had to leave.
• Hard to remember if I had more lunches or more dinners or more late nights at the Tuner. Sometimes all three on the same day. More than one Saturday or Sunday, my friends (roommates, co-workers, et al) ate all three meals there.
• The old jukebox had old songs and only took coins. And, yes, as a matter of fact "I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison."
• Ari used to park his Saab convertible at the gas station on the corner and pay a "local" to watch it for him while he spent time in the Tuner.
• Dana once did the centipede on the (dirty) floor of the Tuner. It's ok -- it was her birthday.
• Judy was there the longest but Dee was the only one ever to give me free food (a plate of fries). I think that was the only time free food was ever dispensed at the Tuner.
• We could get the big booth whenever we wanted.
• General Schwarz.
• Greer took Paige there on a quasi-date but then ended up watching tv all night. (She broke up with him later that night.) Lesson: Don't go anywhere with Greer where he can see a television.
• If you asked for a menu you should have been kicked out. If you had to look at the menu (on the wall) you better have been there with people who knew better.

What I wouldn't give to be sitting in this booth about halfway down the right side of the restaurant, with that song playing, with Karin, Camille, and other good friends, pitchers later, burgers gone, singing that song at the top of our lungs right now.

Ahhhh....the Tuner.

...And a theme develops! (Service Recovery and effect on customer loyalty.)

For several weeks I'd been noticing that the cafeteria in our building hardly ever had metal forks available in the silverware bins. It was mildly annoying but I just assumed that I had always just missed a rush of hungry eaters. Then I noticed that it didn't seem to matter when in the lunch hour I showed up -- no forks. A colleague of mine explained that lazy employees probably just threw them away with their lunch trash.

As time went on, I was...astounded. What are we? Animals? Has it come to this that we should be relegated to the use of plastic forks for our chicken caesars, our pastas, our Burrito Day? I had to fight back.

So, finally, I asked around. Half a day later I had emails and phone calls from three Guckenheimer (our cafeteria management vendor) managers, including one VP! They were on it! This shouldn't happen! We value your business! Here's my number -- call if you EVER need anything! We had ample forks the very next day.

So, should this have ever happened? No. But would I ever have experienced Guckenheimer's customer service spirit if everything was always there when I needed it? Probably not; I would have just ate my lunch. But the screwup created an opportunity for them and they responded swiftly, politely, and completely. Now I have new respect for their customer service.

Now, about those soup spoons....

It's communication time within the walls of Sun Micro: Earnings announcement, Spring Leadership Conference, even my own staff meeting was this week. We've got lots to say at the upcoming NC05Q2 on May 3 -- tune in!

(As an aside, the NC05Q2 event is being held live in Washington, DC, where I once lived. And...speaking of tuning in, it's worth mentioning that The Tune Inn was my primary hangout when I lived in DC. Mmmmmm....burgers and pitchers. The restaurant is still cool in that it's still a dive, but it was never the same once they replaced the jukebox and started accepting credit cards. If you go, send me a digital pic for this blog.)

Communications is why we started this blog-thing. (In fact, the team that created it won an award at the above-mentioned Leadership Conference.) We have always believed in open systems and competing on implementation. Blogs are one of our latest open systems (not to mention plans to open Solaris. We believe in free market forces (and we live with the fluctuation inherent in free markets).

Our Spring and Fall Leadership Conferences are important events for both development and alignment. We get a pretty consistent flow of information from the top of the company as it is, but the focus that a bi-annual event drives creates a lot of perspective and context.

If you are a leader, it's your job to communicate. Tell your folks what's going on, where you are going. Then tell them again. Listen. One of my priorities right now is to work with my team to develop the performance measurement layer of our management system. Not a day goes by where I don't talk to people involved in this work about the importance of simple metrics that represent the value that we add to our customers.

If you're not asking about it, talking about it, getting ideas from others, you're not going to get it done because there are just too many priorities competing for resources.

A company that never makes mistakes loses a lot of opportunities to delight their customers.

Traditional Quality programs that focus on continuous improvement and statistical process control intuitively drive defects out of their processes, products, and services. In so doing, these companies can smoothe out their customers' experiences to the point where the customer never has to focus on how great the service is.

In some cases, though, a minor glitch in service creates a very important opportunity. The glitch will grab the customer's attention and in this heightened state of awareness, the company can swoop in and make it all better.

Now, in order for this to work, the glitch can't be too big, and the Company's process for making it right has to be swift, effective, friendly, and professional.

Just remember, it's not all about prevention. Consider defects as opportunities to do real customer service.

Since Denver ([1] [2]) is my home airport, I feel fairly qualified to offer a bit of guidance in getting through the airport quickly.

There are essentially two things to know, neither of which are really that unusual but are surprising in how many people don't act on them.

#1 is printing your boarding pass in advance. Some people use the kiosks at the airport, which is better than standing in line. But the kiosks still require you to stop by the ticketing level of the main part of the airport. With a home-printed boarding pass, you can go straight to seccurity, which is the floor below ticketing. (Not to mention the fact that you can often get a better seat by taking your seating into your own hands 24 hours before your flight -- I just checked in online for my United flight and was able to move from a middle seat to a window.)

#2 is for frequent fliers. If you have 'status' on any airline, you can go to the short line for security check-in. It's worth noting that until recently this was for status of any level; now, however, you need second level status (e.g., Premier Exec for United, not just Premier) to use the short line. Further worth noting, I got in line in the short line just to see if they would really make me leave for just being Premier -- the TSA agent didn't even check my status. (Make sure you compare the length of the 'elite' security line with the regular security line; oftentimes the multiple server setup of the regular line gets you through faster than the elite line, especially in major hub airports where more and more people have status.

Some people walk from the terminal to the A Councourse to go through security up there. This is the best way if you're on Frontier (which comes/goes from A Concourse). That way you don't have to ride the train. Sometimes this can be faster even if you have to then go downstairs and take the train to B or C Concourse, but rarely.

Wow, Warren Buffet must be one heck of a guy! Not only is he lauded for his honor but that's what much of the media coverage of him leads with (well that, and how rich he is and that he plays bridge with Bill Gates).

What does this say about people like Martha Stewart or Dennis Kozlowski or Kenneth Lay? Obviously in retrospect their ethics are called into question but would their investigations have been softer or avoided had they built up more "ethics equity" in advance?

I am very comfortable with the level of integrity that pervades the Sun work environment. Scott McNealy has been talking about ethics and integrity for as long as I remember (and, I sure, long before I joined Sun eight years ago). Years ago, I used to roll my eyes when he would bring it up at town hall meetings or VP leadership conferences because I assumed everyone was on the same page and knew it was important. But now I understand and appreciate the explicit focus.

Did I enjoy sitting through 1 1/2 days of "Fiduciary Bootcamp" last week? No; I had a lot of work to do. But we're not taking chances when it comes to making sure our corporate officers, managers, and employees understand their obligations for doing business ethically.