Author Archives: Steve Mays

The Cleanest Tastee Freeze in Town

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In 1987, Jeff Salzman co-authored a little book entitled: Real World 101: How to Find a Job, Get Ahead, Do It Now, and Love It! A year or two later, Salzman spoke to a small group of our company managers and told what I think might be the best management story I ever heard.

It’s the story of a Tastee Freeze, the man who cleaned it and his boss. To insure the Tastee Freeze was cleaned properly, the manager made a list of all the necessary cleaning products and tools; drew up a little chart showing where everything in the supply closet went (color coded); and made a numbered list of the proper order for cleaning the Tastee Freeze. He couldn’t understand why the cleaning guy had trouble following his carefully thought out plan.

One day a new manager showed up at the Tastee Freeze and asked the cleaning guy what he did at the Tastee Freeze. The cleaning guy showed him the precisely organized supply closet; the list of approved mops and buckets; and the printed list of steps for cleaning the Tastee Freeze.

The new manager immediately tore up the lists and told the cleaning guy, “Look, I just want the cleanest Tastee Freeze in town. I don’t care how you do it or what supplies you use. If you run into a snag, let me know and I’ll try to help.”

I must confess that I was too often the first type of manager during the 25 years I “managed” others. All I really wanted was a clean Tastee Freeze but it was so much fun to pick out the mops and make the lists. Alas.

MSN Direct on your watch

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Beginning this fall, Microsoft plans to offer a new wireless information and messaging service that will run on evolving smart watch devices. The software company’s MSN Direct division says the service, which costs $9.95 a month, is geared to deliver customized information to a new category of watches. MSN Direct said the service would provide consumers with information including news, weather, sports scores, stock quotes, movies, dining, and games. Microsoft is expected to leverage some of its original content and existing media licensing arrangements in order to provide the data for the wireless watch information service. [InternetNews.com]

Mary Quass on radio and the Internet

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Mary Quass is a really smart, really nice lady that’s been very successful in the radio business. I haven’t seen the full interview yet but today’s issue of RAIN pulled some excerpts from the May 26, 2003 issue of Radio Ink Magazine:

“This (Internet) is the first technology to mean that anybody can have a radio station as good as, if not better, than what’s out there today — and it has nothing to do with a license. I want to be in and out of the business by then… “

“When I go to the gym to work out, you know what I do? I listen to MP3s on my Rio. If I grew up with radio and I’m listening to MP3s, why should we expect young people to listen to radio when their lives are so packed with other things? That’s why, when the Internet becomes wireless, I want to be there.’.. “

“Radio has taken for granted that we will always have 96 percent of the adult population listening to this medium in a week. But we know that response rates and that kind of stuff are declining — not so much because Arbitron’s methodology necessarily is flawed or archaic, as much as it is that people want what they want when they want it.”

“It’s all about the product. If you have a great product and it’s in demand, people will use that product. If we don’t differentiate our product when the Internet becomes wireless, it will be a whole new ball game for all of us. We had better be ready, or the frustration we feel will only grow.”

You think?

Random thoughts

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Tonight I backed up three of the (how many?) websites I’ve created. I find the very idea of “backing up” very… satisfying. The thing I liked least about what I used to do and most about what I do now is that at the end of the day (literally, not figuratively), something exists that didn’t before. Now, you might argue that web pages are a bit intangible by their very nature. But you can look at them and show them to others and…once you’ve burned them to a CD…hold them in your hand. A few hundred megabites that represents *hundreds* of hours of work and thought (and whatever creativity I could muster). My best efforts. Tomorrow I’ll stop by the bank and slide the CD’s into a safe deposit box. And if the servers at MyHosting.com or Learfield go up in smoke… I’ll upload my files to a new server and all those hours live on. KBOA: The Early Years, The Basement Diaries, Amberjack Landing, *this* blog… one day they didn’t exist, the next day they did. They do. They will.

My previous job was to persuade other people to do things they usually didn’t want to do. To talk them into it. To check to see if they did the things they were “supposed to do.” And agreed to do. Nothing new was created unless I was able to convince someone else that it should be. That’s why “managers” make more money than the people they manage. It’s a nearly impossible job that isn’t very satisfying, even if you do it really well. And –here’s the best part– the people you’re paid to manage resent you for trying to do it (as they should) and long for they day they get to be in charge and manage others. Talk about punishment fitting the crime. But I’ve escaped, like Tim Robbins in Shawshank Redemption. If there were a book, we might call it “Life After Management: Clawing My Way Back Down the Corporate Ladder.” A little long, maybe.

Tom Jones Syndrome

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Barb warns you must be of a certain age to appreciate this. And we are. Halley has more.

“Doc, I can’t stop singing ‘The Green, Green Grass of Home.'”
“That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome.”
“Is it common?”
“It’s not unusual.”

Stock market prediction

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Douglas Rushkoff’s “official and not-to-be-wagered-upon stock market prediction is a 10-15% rise in the S&P by the end of February, and then freefall down to 6500 before the war starts. Then, a blip up with that sense of certainty that always accompanies a good ariel bombardment, and a blip back down when we realize that in a globally networked economy, war is bad for business, too.”

My lips move when I read

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I find that’s true when I’m reading almost anything by Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block or Robert B. Parker. I just love these guys and find myselt reading their dialogue aloud (but quietly). Just finished Elmore Leonard’s When the Women Come Out to Dance and working my way through Block’s Enough Rope. While I’ve never been all that found of short stories, I loved these collections. Alex Cross fans will have to read James Patterson’s Four Blind Mice but I thought it was disappointing. Robert B. Parker’s Spencer series suffers from the same formula-rot but Parker has given us Sunny Randall and she’s a nice change but just barely.

Born, not made

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I’ve been thinking about work place dynamics a lot lately. Managers, employees, bosses, leadership, morale. For most of the past 30 years I was part of “the management team.” A couple of years ago I worked my way back down the corporate ladder so that I have several bosses (instead of one) and nobody calls me boss. The two most significant results of this devolution are I don’t get invited to lunch as often as I used to and life is much sweeter.

During the peak of my Management Years I read books and attended workshops and seminars and took it all very seriously. Most of it was bull shit. I stopped all that after reading my first Dilbert book. Scott Adams describes The Boss this way:

“His top priorities are the bottom line and looking good in front of his subordinates and superiors (not necessarily in that order). Of absolutely no concern to him is the professional or personal well-being of his employees. The Boss is technologically challenged but he stays current on all the latest business trends, even though he rarely understands them.”

Most managers don’t have any idea how they’re doing because they look to their boss for feedback instead of the people reporting to them. Looking back (and maybe a little ahead, too), I think the difference between good companies and great companies is that good companies have good leaders…and great companies have great leaders. Nothing wrong with being a good leader or working for a good company…but it’s a little harder if you’ve ever worked for a great leader at a great company. And don’t let anybody shit you…great leaders are born. They’re not made. And the men and women down in the trenches can tell the difference in an instant.

500 Walter Street

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I sold the family home this week. Not really a home for the last few years, but the place my brother and I grew up. I actually remember some of the places we lived before Evelyn persuaded John it made more sense to own than rent. I think they paid about $5,000 for the house back in the early 50’s. Probably paid $50 a month for 30 years. Evelyn had our trash guy plant a couple of little sycamore trees and they grew to 70 foot monsters before John had cut down because he got tired of “having leaves all over the yard.” Evelyn was gone by then.

50 years at 500 Walter Street boiled down to set of mis-matched golf clubs; a box of trophies (Blane’s); some really heavy high school year books; a set of 78 RPM records from the 40’s; a couple of pounds of mold and mildew; and a lifetime of memories. Everyone kept asking me if it was difficult to sell the house in which our family had lived all those years. I said no and that was more true than not. But for two days I kept hearing Peter, Paul and Mary singing The House Song.

This room here once had childish laughter
And I come back to hear it now and again
I can’t say that I’m certain what you’re after
But in this room, a part of you will remain.

Pants on backward

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In July of 1972 I got a job working at the local radio station. Jeff Wheeler showed me how to clear the AP wire. How to cue up a 45. How to watch the clock and read and do something with my hands, all at the same time. I worked with Jeff for about a dozen years and I never heard him raise his voice. One day while I was reading a newscast, he walked into the studio with his bright red golf pants on backward. He didn’t jump around or say anything. He patiently waited until I noticed the zipper in the back. End of newscast. Jeff is still doing radio but these are not good times for him. I’m remembering –and looking forward to– better days.