Editorial: Inventory Management

You can’t build on something before you know what you’re starting with.

By Mary Boltz Chapman, Editor-in-Chief -- Chain Leader, 1/1/2005

During the holidays, I find myself reminiscing and anticipating the new year. I’m fortunate to know a woman named Maria who reminds me that today is important, too. You could call her a coach, mentor or member of my personal board of directors. We talk about once a week about everyday things and future plans. We don’t talk about work very often. I know only vaguely what she does for a living, and she’s never seen a copy of Chain Leader. We’re more likely to talk about managing expectations, overcoming fears or achieving personal goals.

Assets and Liabilities
The best part of our relationship is that Maria makes me look at things differently. Not long ago she encouraged me to take a sort of inventory of myself. Here’s how she explained it: Every store, every restaurant, every manufacturing plant does an inventory once in a while. They do it to see what they need, what they have too much of and what’s just right. Then they can correct whatever needs correcting.

So Maria challenged me to do that with myself, to take a look at my good points and the areas where I might be lacking or that might be too intense. For example, I’m a perfectionist. Some might even call me anal-retentive. Ask anyone I work with. While this is definitely a positive strength for a magazine editor, it’s not always an asset for a manager. Or, for that matter, for a wife, daughter, sister or friend. I have to look at this characteristic objectively and remember to use it when it’s appropriate and ease up at the right times.

Start with the Basics
The aim of this exercise is to continue growing. It’s hard to build on anything—yourself or your business—without knowing what you’re starting out with. Ram Charan, who co-authored Execution and keynoted our Chain Leader LIVE conference last September, wrote about knowing yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, and those of your company and your people. This is one of the keys to the discipline of getting things done. You have to start with a realistic view of what you’ve got.

Chain Leader’s goal is to bring you examples of people and companies that have figured out how to get things done faster, cheaper, better, so that you can use those lessons in your own company. But unless you are aware of gaps in knowledge or ability, the best case studies in the world can’t help you. To use the inventory analogy, if you don’t know you’re running low on widgets, you won’t learn from an article discussing how to make your existing supply of widgets go farther.

You Say You Want a Resolution
I’m going to challenge you the same way my friend Maria challenged me.

Think objectively about yourself and your company. Put aside your ego, fear and preconceived notions, and look deeply at your assets and liabilities. Decide what you truly need to improve and use this brand-new year to do it. Base all your decisions—from where to put your next restaurant to whether you work this weekend—on furthering those goals.

At People Report’s Best Practices conference in October, Dr. John Izzo, who spoke about creating inspiring workplaces, suggested writing the retirement speech that you wish would be delivered on the day they hand you the gold watch. Then live toward making that speech appropriate.