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Customize It
Hardcover
226 pages
ISBN 9780787986070 Published March 2007
Jossey-Bass
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Posted July 20, 2007 6:24 a.m. by kate
In Innovation - 800 CEO Read Blog
Tis the time for lemonade stands -- a business venture I remember all too well. Dixie cups. Kid-sized plastic table. Large plastic pitcher. The sign with "Lemonade: 25 cents" scrawled in kids' penmanship. Charming smiles. And of course, our prime lemonade-selling real estate on the main road of the neighborhood. The customers that donated $1 to our cause were millionaires in our minds. If we earned $20 in three hours, we were rolling in the dough.
A friend and I were discussing this business the other day. It made me realize just how much it has changed in my fifteen-year absence. My friend told of running into a lemonade stand ran by a boy of about 10 years. Now most lemonaires I've run into have marker on their fingers from sign making and are running around in bathing suits to take the occasional dip in the sprinkler.
Not this little entrepreneur. He was in his best Sunday suit -- truly a Wall Street-er in the making.
The lemonade was running for the bargain price of 25 cents (apparently, inflation has yet to hit lemonade). My friend started asking the little boy a few questions about his stand and business. To which he replies, "I've only been here 2 hours today and I've made, um, about $56." Somehow, he was earning $27/hour. Perhaps it was the business suit, the fresh lemon slice in each cup, or maybe the colored straw.
Yes, the lemonade stand world is more lucrative than I thought.
Author Ray Davis is helping kids realize their lemonade stand dreams. Ray, who is the president of the infamous customer-centered Umpqua Bank, recently announced putting $830,000 towards lemonade stand kits for kids (password required; click here for help).
Kids under 13 can apply and, if accepted, will receive:
...a lemonade stand kit, which includes a booklet called "How to Become a Lemonaire: A Guide to Starting Your First Small Business,"with tips on how to share, save and spend money responsibly; a yellow, plastic tablecloth; a sign for "(fill in the name's) lemonade stand"; cups and napkins; and a $10 bill for start-up capital. (The "loan" does not have to be paid back, although at least one proprietor has done that.)
If only they'd put the $10 bill in quarters, dimes and nickels so the kids could make change. If you know a budding entrepreneur, applications can be found at Umpqua banks and in newspapers in Portland, Bend, Eugene and Medford, Oregon, and Chico, Eureka, Sacramento and Yuba City, California.
And if anyone wants to go into lemonade business with me, I'm taking applications.
Leading For Growth: A Review, Part II
Posted March 22, 2007 3:44 a.m. by kate
In Innovation - 800 CEO Read Blog
I'm going to build off Todd's review of Leading for Growth. I heard about it months ago from its publisher and started reading it on my train ride down to Chicago the other day. Co-author Ray Davis has helped take Umpqua Bank (based in Oregon) into the limelight; I'm sure you've heard of the bank from a number of Fast Company mentions. It's a model for customer service and building a great experience. Imagine a bank where:
...branches [in Umpqua's world branches are stores] keep dog bowls full of water just outside the door for clients with pets...employees open up the lobby for community events. Recent programs include yoga lessons, movie nights, and a "stitch and bitch" knitting club that meets once a month...Davis encourages spontaneous demonstrations of outstanding customer service by giving each branch a special fund expressly for that purpose. Every associate also spends a day training with the Ritz-Carlton.
It shouldn't be hard to believe but it is. A bank with employees trained by the Ritz-Carlton?
In the book, Ray shares a conversation he had with a Ritz bellman. Ray was inquiring as to how the hotel fared in the Ritz's quality program. The bellman explained that they had failed because housekeeping overlooked the TV Guides.
Now, get this: housekeeping had forgotten to move the bookmarks every day! And that is the type of attention to details Ray encourages.
Leading For Growth: A Review
Posted March 21, 2007 7:35 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Leadership - 800 CEO Read Blog
Authors Ray Davis and Alan Shrader did all the right things to pull me into Leading For Growth. Now, let's talk a bit about the book itself.
Davis came to Umpqua Bank from a consulting practice where he saw nothing but the same in the banking industry. The five-branch bank he took over looked like any other community bank. He decided the only way to survive what to be different. The rest of his book is his stories and beliefs.
You get the normal explicit lessons in this book. He has chapters on empowering your employees and clearing obstacles out of their way. Davis also emphasizes sweating the small stuff and protecting the brand.
It is the messages "between the lines" that are more interesting. A number of anecdotes from the book sum up his leadership style as a form of tough love. Take his reaction to plants being added to the bank's first concept store:
So, I called this VP and asked why he had put plants in the store. He said he just thought he'd warm it up a bit.
So I said, "Here's what I want done. Please call The Plant Lady and tell them to get the plants out of there."
"But Ray, we have a three-month contract on these plants."
"I don't care what we've got," I replied. "I want all those plants out of the bank by noon today."
"Well, that's pretty short notice. They probably can't get over here until later in the afternoon."
I said, "That's not a problem. Tell them the plants will all be in the parking lot." Needless to say, the company got there before noon and took the plants away. You can't protect your brand by being sloppy about details.
It sounds here like he is just being a jerk, but I think Davis is illustrating the importance of leaders protecting important aspects of company's brand and culture. Leaders often need to make big statements to show far they will go, so the stories get created and told.
You Have 10 Pages To Convince Me
Posted March 19, 2007 8:04 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Publishing Industry - 800 CEO Read Blog
We tell authors and publishers all the time about the importance of the first 10 pages of a book. For Jack and I, the author has about three pages to catch our attention. If not, we are on to the next book. Leading for Growth is a great example for delivering in those first opening pages.
How often do you read the Table of Contents and see "Chapter 1: Introduction, Chapter 2: How We Started..." Ray Bard made a great point at our author workshop—"The Table of Contents should be written like it was marketing copy." I rarely see this. Here is a sample of what authors Ray Davis and Alan Shrader did in this book:
- What Business Are You Really In?
Umpqua started to take off when we decided we were really in the retail business, not just the banking business, and started learning from successful retailers like Nordstrom. This chapter offers advice to help you discover what business you are really in.
- Never-Ending Discipline
Leaders need to realize that growth is not a project, not a quick fix. You must have the discipline to realize you never have made it.
- Have Position Passion
Be relentless about your vision. Know what you stand for. We call ourselves The World's Greatest Bank. It helps us stand out with our customers, but more than that, it creates positive passion within the company.
You can't underestimate the importance of the introduction either. This is where people are going to find out what the book is about. Someone told me the other day they always skip the introduction. I told them that it was a big mistake, because a reader always knows from the introduction whether the book is going to be good and more importantly whether it is going to work for them. Davis starts the introduction with this:
The simple fact is, you get better or you get worse. You cannot stay the same. There is no Door Number Three.
From this, you know it is about growth and my case I firmly believe what he is says. The great Table of Contents and what Tom Ehrenfeld calls "a great promise" pulled me through the whole book. More tomorrow on the book itself.
