Wickenburg Business

Free enterprise at work

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Tuesday that it will contract with local hospitals and other organizations to open as many as 400 in-store health clinics in the next two to three years.

Should current market forces continue, the world's largest retailer said up to 2,000 clinics could be in Wal-Mart stores over the next five to seven years.

As health care costs go up you know that it wouldn't be long for one of the country's most efficient companies to figure a way to bring the prices down for the consumer.  In many rural towns primary-care docs are unwilling to take Medicare patients saying that the reimbursement doesn't cover the costs.  I can guarantee that Wall Mart will take everyone because they will have figured a way to be more efficient and drive some of the bureaucracy out of health care delivery.

Watch for this trend to continue. Competition and the free-enterprise system will eventually lower health care costs as soon as long as competition is not trampled on by a monopoly.

What is your purpose?

Understanding the purpose of a business may have everything to do with its success.  What is the purpose of a business?  Is it to make a profit? To serve customers? To produce a product? I would suggest that the purpose of a business should be to produce a product or service of the highest quality in the most efficient manner.  When we do this we should make a profit, but the profit is the byproduct of the primary purpose of serving the customer.

An article in today’s national news about Toyota’s surpassing GM in auto sales probably says a lot about this issue. The spokesperson for Toyota had the following to say about achieving the milestone, “Our goal has never been to sell the most cars in the world," Paul Nolasco said. "We simply want to be the best in quality. After that, sales will take care of themselves."

With that attitude, Toyota has the key to success.

More than 20 years ago management expert William Ouchi in “Theory Z Management” pointed out that the Japanese were long-term thinkers and would surpass the US because they weren’t out after the short-term gain. Thinking long term and concentrating on quality and service will bring both sales and profits in the long run.

The highest purpose of an organization should be to serve the customer and do it in an efficient manner.  That rule should be for non-profit organizations, governments, churches, and profit-making businesses. When that is accomplished society is best served and owners will profit. 

Budget time

Budget season is here again for the Town of Wickenburg and it should spark interesting debate.  The budget takes a long and arduous route through staff, the finance committee, through Council work sessions, and finally to the whole council. Next Monday at 0900 it will have its first hearing at the council budget work session.

While most might think that budget stuff is dull, in fact it is probably one of the most important documents for the town.  This is where priorities are set.  Last year public safety won big with the council deciding to go to a paid fire department and add to the police department.  By spending money in that way there was little left for other priorities.

This year’s first draft again has money allocated to police and fire for more people with most other requests being turned down. There will probably be some rumblings in favor of an increase in the sales tax to meet some of the other requests.

Unfortunately in the halls of government there is little or no discussion on how to save money and operate more efficiently.  I honestly believe that most managers want to be efficient and get the most from their people, but unfortunately the system does not reward that.  In any bureaucracy if you can justify a larger budget and supervise more people you are deemed to be more important and deserve a greater raise.  That system rewards non-efficiency.  As a member of the finance committee I can attest to plenty of decisions having been made that are far from efficient.

I urge that people who want to have an influence on how our local government is run should attend Monday’s budget session.  See where they set priorities.  Watch your government at work.

The Key is Service

For the past 15 years or so I have been studying the extent to which successful business practices are based on what is often called the “Judeo-Christian Ethic”  For all of those years I have discovered more and more of a connection.  Clearly good business practices are coincident with Biblical principles.

            During this Easter season Christians focus on the death and resurrection of Christ. At a service today I was drawn to the concept that Christ died for the benefit of us. In fact, he was willing to go to the cross for our benefit.  That is the ultimate of service.

            In business, service is a key in two ways.  Managers and owners should serve their employees.  Rather than rule over them, we are told in the Bible that those who wish to be leaders should be the servants of all.  Good leadership is servant leadership. 

If you want to read more on that subject, check out the classic, “Servant Leadership” by Robert K. Greenleaf.” It was originally published in 1977, but the 25yr. edition is now available on Amazon for less than $15.  I ordered it again since I last read it when I first went into consulting in 1981.  I’m anxious to read it again.

            The second aspect of serving is to serve the customers.  The more a business can instill that concept into its employees, the better the customer service will be as will be the success of the company.

What's in a sign

It’s about a sign

The image of a business is all important because it says if the business if first class or also ran.  One of the most important parts of the image is the sign out front.  It can be also ran, plain junk, or really first class.  Double J Court Self storage considers its sign to be its primary marketing program.  Just today Rick Regusa hung his new sign in front of the newly relocated Bar S Animal clinic on Garth Brown Road in the Industrial airpark.  Drive by it and see for yourself what a first class sign looks like.  My picture doesn’t do it justice.  Click on the sign for a larger image.