Category: Business

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Business Business Cartoons holiday motivation

Administrative Professionals Day, and Earth Day

Cartoon of a man giving his computer flowers

This year is a different kind of Administrative Professionals Day. Many administrative professionals are working from home thanks to the coronavirus. Some are working the frontlines of essential businesses and keeping visitors from entering a facility without the necessary health precautions.

This year, Earth Day and Administrative Professionals Day fall on the same day. So if you have an administrative professional, this would be an entirely appropriate time to get them some flowers or a hearty plant. We all need a little nature as we stay huddled together in our humble abodes.

So thank you to all the administrators that make things happen behind the scenes. And thank you to a planet that needs some tender loving care. We couldn’t make it without either one of you.

Cartoon of a man giving his computer flowers
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Business

Quality vs. Quantity

Quote: The problem is rather that the important and relevant outside events are often qualitative and not capable of quantification. Peter Drucker

“The problem is rather that the important and relevant outside events are often qualitative and not capable of quantification.”

Peter Drucker in “The Effective Executive”

Peter Drucker’s quote got me thinking. Outside events happen all the time. We hear about a customer that needs our service done a certain way. It may be inconvenient for us, so we ignore it. But then another customer has a similar request.

It may be some quality information. It could positively change the way we do business. But is it quantitative? Could we survey all current and potential customers to get a reliable survey that would confirm what we’re seeing?

Perception versus fact

We can perceive that certain information is valuable even though it isn’t a fact. A customer has a suggestion that we perceive could change the way we do business. Yet, there is no way to know if all current and future customers feel the same way. Do we pursue it anyway? It takes some intuition and perception to know.

We have to get comfortable with making decisions partly based on intuition if we’re doing to move forward. There are just some things we cannot quantify. And that’s the part of business and life that is an adventure, isn’t it?

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Business motivation

Know Your Customer/Audience

Cartoon of two kids looking at a present. The boy says, "What do you think? Did Mom get me that table saw for Christmas?"

Christmas is less than two weeks away. Have you got that special gift yet? It can drive us crazy searching for the one gift that will light up a loved one’s face. It can be even more difficult to find one that is age appropriate. One year, my eight-year old nephew wanted an axe. While he would have enjoyed it, and all he wanted to do was chop wood, his parents agreed with us he was too young for that special gift that year.

Cartoon of two kids looking at a present. The boy says, "What do you think? Did Mom get me that table saw for Christmas?"

You may not want to give a book lover a table saw. Nor would you want to give a carpenter a book if he or she doesn’t like to read. It’s common sense, but frequently in business, we try to sell a product to a customer that isn’t interested. It just may not be for them.

Gift-giving is a lot like the business of selling. You want to find the right person for the right product or service. Don’t try to force a “gift” onto a customer that just isn’t appropriate for them. They may force a smile and utter, “Just what I wanted.” But if it really isn’t for them, it will soon be cast aside and never used.

Know your customer.

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Business Business Cartoons

Should There Be Compassion in the Workplace?

Cartoon of a tree in a receptionist's office

For several years, the mantra in business has been that its only responsibility is to maximize shareholder value. It didn’t matter how much resources it used as long as it generated a profit. Milton Friedman was famous for this theory:

There is one and only one responsibility of business: to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game.

Milton Friedman

But this frame of thinking can deplete resources if it goes to the extreme.

  • If you treat people like cogs in machinery, they will take no responsibility for quality and excellence.
  • If you deplete natural resources, they become scarce and more expensive.
  • If you are only concerned about the sale and not service, the consumer has no incentive to come back to you.

Short-term profits can end up sacrificing the long-term well being of a company. Compassion for people and the environment gives people incentives to care about you beyond the fast sale.

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Business teaching

Teaching in Order to Learn

It amazes me whenever it happens. Whenever I teach, I learn just as much as the students. I have seen it when I lead kids in large group on a Sunday morning. And I have seen it in the workplace as well. 

For the last two weeks at work, I’ve had the opportunity to teach a person my duties. I’ve been in my role for under ten months and there are many things about my job that are still new to me. The person who taught me retired in late June. Since then, I have been applying what she taught me. Now I have the chance to do the same for another person.

As I have shown her the systems, the exceptions and the why behind the way we do things, I have been energized. Sure, I am not using the same words, and every experience is different. In fact, that is part of the teaching/learning process that thrills me. I can paraphrase what I was taught and see the results in a whole new way.

We have this tendency to believe once we are done with our formal schooling, we are done with education. This fallacy keeps us from growing. I have found it is much better to keep learning. And one of the best ways to learn is to teach others what we do.

Blogging is one way we can do that. And that is why I am going continue writing about my experiences and the lessons I’ve learned through being a writer, illustrator, and a graphics manager.