Even while certain key men and women continue with your company, the recorded information could be excellent for training sessions and could become an integral element in controlling the costs of production planning.
Using Company Newspapers
Every time an employee learns a new skill, the company's stock goes up. You can force the stock up by persuading highly skilled individuals, through awards and incentives if necessary, to divulge techniques that would help other employees. One way of communicating the skills is through the company newspaper.
Company newspapers are expensive to produce and, judging by the general content of these newspapers - announcements and a few personal items - it is questionable whether the expense is warranted. Indeed, the same messages could be typewritten and handed to employees at considerably lower cost.
However, by featuring technical articles, originating from your key producers in the company newspaper, many employees would acquire skills that they would not have otherwise. Only then will the cost of publication be warranted.
Ideas Require Action
Only big ideas can save your company money, right? Wrong! Cost Saving ideas are everywhere. Most people just fail to cash in.
Take, for example, the September 1984 case of a terminally ill cancer patient living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He advertised that, when he died, he would deliver messages to dead friends or relatives of anyone who would pay $20 for the service.
To everyone's surprise, he made a small fortune before he died. He was swamped with calls from every part of the U.S. He even received calls from as far away as England and Australia.
ACTION! ACTION! ACTION! This is the key to saving money. And not one idea is worth a nickel without it.
Millions of terminally ill patients have probably had the same idea as the dying man above, but he is the only one to take the action. He has taught us that it is not the idea that makes a difference, but the energy and action of those who follow it up.
Sweeper Worthy of Respect
Several years back, in Montreal, Canada, a 26-wheel transporter entered Atwater Tunnel, an
underpass connecting one of the major industrial sectors of the city to the heart of downtown. The transporter, travelling at 50 km/hr (30 miles/hr), jammed itself to a stop, against the concrete ceiling. Cranes and tow trucks, with steel cables, could not budge the truck loose, and engineers were contemplating cutting the roof from the truck.
A lowly street sweeper who witnessed the futile attempts yelled out, "Hey, why don't you let the air out of the tires:" Having very little choice, the tires were deflated and suddenly, enough clearance evolved to allow the truck to inch its way out of the tunnel.
The street sweeper went back to his work, picking the litter from the sides of the tunnel road.
And it happened again. In August 1984, a similar incident occurred on one of the major bridges leading into Montreal. A 50-ton transporter jammed itself under the steel girders. Unfortunately, there were no street sweepers around on this day.
Traffic was completely stopped for six hours while four engineers calculated a way of freeing the transporter.
A $1,000 an hour crane was called in to pull it loose.
Free Haircut
A young boy, accompanied by a man, entered a barber shop. The man instructed the boy to sit down and behave himself, while the barber proceeded to cut the man's hair, followed by a shampooing and shave. When finished, the man asked the barber to give the boy a haircut.
The man told the barber that he had to return to his car to feed the parking meter. The barber smiled and agreed and continued to clip the young boy's hair while waiting for the man to return.
The barber finished cutting the boys' hair and the man had still not returned. The barber turned to the boy and said jokingly, "Your father seems to have gotten lost:"
"My father?,” the boy answered. "He's not my father:" "If he's not your father, who is he then?"
"I don't know," said the boy. "He stopped me in the street and asked me if I wanted a free haircut"
Sex For Less
A couple, aged 69, went to the doctor's office. The doctor asked, "What can I do for you?" The man said, "Will you watch us have sexual intercourse?" The doctor looked puzzled but agreed. When the couple had finished the doctor said, "There is nothing wrong with the way you have intercourse;" and he charged them $15. This happened several weeks in a row. The couple would make an appointment, have intercourse, and pay the doctor and leave.
Finally the doctor asked, "Just exactly what are you trying to find out?”The old man said, "We're not trying to find out anything. She is married and we can't go to her house. I am married and we can't go to my house. Holiday Inn charges $160, Hilton charges $155. We do it here for $15, and I get $12 back from Medicare for a visit to the doctor's office:'
