I wrote this in Antigua, West Indies on another Rotary service project installing computers and Wi-Fi networks in schools, training teachers how to teach more effectively, with and without technology, and setting up our eighth sewing center.
As we were organizing the latest sewing center it really hit me how big community is on the island. While US cities from New York, to Seattle, to many others have neighborhoods and those neighborhoods have organizations, in Antigua it just seems they are tighter.
Main reasons for this are many people don’t have cars, they often stay in the area they were born, and so very much of their lives center around church (many, many types of churches, most of them small given the lack of mobility). They help each other on a regular basis. Ladies we would not consider to be “well off” sew clothes for those less fortunate because they care.
Think about this in regard to your business (or, for advisors, your client’s businesses). Community is like teams within a business. Most business buyers I meet tell me they are good at team building. Given a business is its people, both employees and customers, being able to bring employees together for a common goal is incredibly important.
I recently wrote about our most recent Getting the Deal Done Breakfast Conference and guest speaker Bob Donegan, president of Ivar’s. Ivar’s has employee turnover less than 1/3 the industry average. Why? Because they value their people, give them advancement opportunities, and decision-making authority, especially if there’s an unhappy customer (from management down to maintenance people they can offer unhappy customers remediation).
In a recent meeting with a roomful of business owners the following was asked, by an owner looking to buy another company, “What do I do first after closing?” The common answer was, talk to your people, ask them what they would do to grow the business, and, above all, listen. Good advice whether after an acquisition or any other time.
“Man’s character is his life.” Heraclitus
