Schlagwortarchiv für: Growth

Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion: Prof. Dr. Guido Quelle als Kommissionsmitglied berufen

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Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion: Prof. Dr. Guido Quelle als Kommissionsmitglied berufen

  • Die Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion vertritt die Interessen des deutschen Mittelstands auf Bundesebene.
  • Während der zweijährigen Amtszeit will Quelle insbesondere gesundes profitables Wachstum für den Mittelstand fördern.

 

„Um etwas gestalten zu können, muss man sich beteiligen.“ (Prof. Dr. Guido Quelle)

Prof. Dr. Guido Quelle ist für zwei Jahre in die Kommission Wirtschaft/Handwerk/Handel/Tourismus der Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion (MIT) berufen worden. Der geschäftsführende Gesellschafter der Mandat Managementberatung GmbH hatte sich auf Empfehlung von Dr. Peter Spary – Vorsitzender des Vereins zur Förderung der Wettbewerbswirtschaft in Berlin, dem Quelle ebenfalls als Mitglied angehört – hin für den Posten beworben. Gesucht wurde ein Bewerber mit wirtschaftlichem Sachverstand.

„Wachstumsflüsterer“ Prof. Dr. Quelle ist seit fast 30 Jahren als einer der wenigen Managementberater weltweit als Unternehmer, Berater, Autor und Redner Experte für gesundes, profitables Wachstum. 2008 wurde er als erster Europäer in die „Million Dollar Consultant Hall of Fame“® berufen. Seit 2012 leitet er mit der Mandat Managementberatung das Internationale Marken-Kolloquium, eine der herausragenden Marken-Veranstaltungen im deutschsprachigen Raum. Über einen Vortrag zum Wachstumsmanifest im Deutschen Bundestag entstand auch der Kontakt zu Dr. Matthias Heider – Stellvertretender Vorsitzender des Ausschusses für Wirtschaft und Energie des Deutschen Bundestag und Co-Vorsitzender der Kommission Wirtschaft/Handwerk/Handel/Tourismus.

Mit rund 25.000 Mitgliedern ist die MIT die größte parteipolitische Vereinigung zur Förderung sozialer Marktwirtschaft nach dem Vorbild Ludwig Erhards. Erstes Ziel der Kommission sind gute wirtschaftspolitische Rahmenbedingungen, sodass Mittelständler aus Deutschland auch im internationalen Wettbewerb bestehen können.

 

Auch im Ehrenamt ist Quelle ein gefragter Ratgeber

Zwar steht die MIT der CDU nahe, dennoch möchte sich Prof. Dr. Quelle parteipolitisch nicht binden. Sein Ziel ist es, Wachstum und Marktwirtschaft nicht aus Parteisicht anzugehen. Er möchte vielmehr Themen bearbeiten. Aus dieser Überzeugung heraus engagiert er sich schon seit Jahren in unterschiedlichen Gremien und Funktionen aktiv in der Dortmunder Stadtgesellschaft. Aktuell ist er Vorsitzender des Vorstands der Dortmund-Stiftung, Mitglied des Stiftungsrats der Manfred-Fischer-Stiftung sowie Handelsrichter am Landgericht Dortmund. Zuvor war Quelle unter anderem als Vorsitzer der Westfälischen Kaufmannsgilde tätig. In seiner Zeit als Vorsitzender der Wirtschaftsjunioren Dortmund, Kreis Unna, Hamm initiierte er die Jobfit. Die Messe soll Unternehmen und potenzielle Auszubildende zusammenbringen und findet bis heute jedes Jahr auf dem Dortmunder Friedensplatz statt.

„Um etwas gestalten zu können, muss man sich beteiligen. Es ist mir ein großes Anliegen, dass ein positiver Wachstumsbegriff wieder in unserer Gesellschaft ankommt und wir in Deutschland stärker schätzen und erkennen, dass unser Mittelstand einige der innovativsten und erfolgreichsten Unternehmen weltweit hervorgebracht hat und wir diesen Erfolg durch gute wirtschaftspolitische Rahmenbedingungen noch befeuern können – anstatt ihn durch fehlgeleitete Diskussionen zu bremsen“, sagt Prof. Dr. Guido Quelle. „Ich möchte mich in die Kommission als Berater und Unternehmer einbringen, der die Wachstumsfahne hochhält, denn gesundes, profitables Wachstum unseres Mittelstands ist gut für unsere gesamte Gesellschaft.“

 

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Virgin Atlantic and Singapore Airlines – Service Avatars

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I arrived in New York coming back from Naples a couple of hours ago and am sitting in the Virgin lounge at JFK International Airport, Terminal 4 waiting to board my first class flight to Franfkurt with Singapore Airlines. Checking in, the ladies at the reception desk told me that the lounge will be closed early today, because the last Virgin flight was cancelled. I said that I am disappointed, but what else could I do? So I prepared myself mentally to sit in a crowded hall for almost an hour.

Now I was told that Virgin synchronized the closing of the lounge with the boarding time of my Singapore flight. I consider this as a role model for customer service. It can be so easy to stand out.

Virgin Lounge JFK

Virgin Lounge JFK

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Singapore Boeing 777-300

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(c) 2013 Prof. Dr. Guido Quelle, Mandat Consulting Group

Streamline Your Routine Processes – Ritz-Carlton Naples

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I am at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida for the fourth time since 2008. This is one of the best hotels in the world and although we are working here, I have time to spend some hours a day outside at the beach, on the balcony or at the property to enjoy the nice weather with temperatures in the mid to high 80s (25 to 28 degrees Celsius). It is high season here. The hotel is almost 100 percent booked which means that there are 450 rooms and at least 700 guests—not counting private parties and business meetings—who want to be taken care of, every day, 24 hours,.

From my room I can overlook a large part of the property and the gulf of Mexico and I recognize that a couple of things repeat every day:

  • When it is supposed to be a sunny day, about 200 or so deckchairs are brought to the beach every morning and are collected every afternoon (see picture)
  • Specific beach entertainment equipment is installed every day and is brought back every afternoon.
  • In the evenings, the pool areas are prepared for the next day so that they look the same each day.
  • And, of course, there are all the repetitive activities that happen in every hotel: preparing for breakfast, lunch, dinner, check-in, check-out, and so on.

Acknowledging that the hotel business is not a high margin business (except for high season) and that it depends on people—Ritz-Carlton’s „Ladies and Gentlemen are Serving Ladies and Gentlemen“-philosophy is known all over the world—routine processes need to be standardized to a very high degree in order not to lose time and money on repetitive operations. The efficiency I can observe is remarkable: There is no time wasted by unnecessary loops and the people still stay very friendly. There is no time wasted, because the time is needed to deal with processes that are not or can not be standardized; processes one need to put some thinking on.

To what extend have you standardized your routines processes? Are they as streamlined as they could be? Or are you talking about deviations in routines over and over? How often do you do something we call „failure work,“ which means correcting things at management level that could have done correctly at an operational level? Do you feel you spend too much time on this?

Stop it. Standardize and streamline your routine processes, make people responsible, and make sure your routines are executed properly. You can’t afford using your profit to subsidize failure work in routines. You need your creativity, your time, and your money for more important things in order to grow your business.

Gulf view

Gulf view

(c) 2013 Prof. Dr. Guido Quelle, Mandat Consulting Group

Big Boxes Need Big Staff

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The founder, former CEO, and former Chairman of the Supervisory Board of one of the most important Germany-based DIY retail chains with today more than 40,000 employees running a 6.4bn Euro operation in more than a dozen countries once told me that you need to build „big boxes“ in that business in order to stay competitive. This conversation took place several years ago and he was right. DIY markets are getting bigger and bigger and smaller „boxes“ are being closed. If you want to survive in this business – not talking about growing – you need what retailers call „big boxes.“

The point here is, that big boxes may be a necessary condition for remaining an interesting player in the market in the eyes of the customer. However, this is far away from being a sufficient condition. To grow profitably in retail – not restricted to DIY – you not only need a big box, you need a big staff. And we are talking about „big“ not only in terms of quantity, but also in terms of quality. Customers want to find an employee when they have a question. Customers don’t want to be send to a couple of different employees in order to find the „real expert“ for their problem. Customers want to be served as a valuable counterpart in a business. Customers expect service.

Since controllers dominate a lot of discussions about how to grow profitably, we don’t need to be surprised that one of the first means to grow the bottom line is to cut costs. What controllers in retail operations are not often aware of is the fact that cutting cost in purchasing will end in dissatisfied customers because of poor product quality and that cutting costs in salaries often ends in dissatisfied customers due to no – or, even worse, poor – service.

Retail C-suite: Don’t let controllers tell you how to grow profitably. Don’t just build big boxes. Build big staff. Do it like the person I mentioned at the beginning of this article and hire enthusiastic people who want to serve and who are able to serve. That’s a good step on your way to profitable growth.

Yours,
Guido Quelle

(c) 2012, Prof. Dr. Guido Quelle, Mandat Consulting Group

„Profitable Growth“ – Upcoming In The Fall

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My new book „Profitable Growth – Release Internal Growth Brakes and Bring Your Company to the Next Level“ will be published in October by Springer. Foreword by Dr. Alan Weiss, President, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., author of „Million Dollar Consulting“ and „The Consulting Bible.“

Here’s the text from the back cover:

Almost every company wants to grow – at least officially. Shareholders are demanding further growth and no management team would deny that the growth of their company is one of the top issues they are working on every single day. However, there are barriers to growth, and these are not only external barriers. Most often it is not the economy, not the market and not the customer who just “hasn’t got it.” The main barriers can be discovered inside every company, because growth always comes from within. If the organization is not ready to grow, initiatives to increase market share, to enter new markets, and/or to increase profitability are destined to fail. This book systematically addresses the main internal barriers to growth and provides practical guidance not only for discovering these barriers, but to systematically overcoming them.

Here’s what readers say:

“The nuance that distinguishes this book is the orientation that growth is measured, planned, and pursued in an orderly fashion, never growth for growth’s sake. Guido wisely takes the reader through a strategic approach which leads to intelligent tactics, not a frenzied tactical charge that undermines strategy.”
Alan Weiss, PhD, President Summit Consulting Group, Inc.

“Growing a company needs more than just a theoretical concept and even more than just a strong commitment, it needs practical and proven ideas that can be implemented in the corporate environment. With this book, Guido Quelle not only provides the theoretical basis how even growing companies can evolve but also provides practical advice how to release internal barriers to grow profitably on the long-term. A must read for all executives.”
Ted Breyer, Deputy CEO, SGL Group – The Carbon Company

ISBN 978-3-642-32786-5
Pre-order your copy now at amazon.com: Link to book page at amazon.com

 

Unsere E-Books zu Wachstum – Our E-Books On Growth

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In der letzten Zeit sind einige unserer Bücher auch als E-Books erschienen, sämtlich bei amazon.de (und, wie uns versichert wurde, auch bei iTunes) ladbar. Hier folgt eine Liste. Die Links führen zu den entsprechenden Seiten auf amazon.de und amazon.com.
Recently a couple of our books have been published as e-books as well. They can be downloaded at amazon.com and—as we were told—as well at iTunes. Here’s the list.The links lead to the book sites at amazon.de and amazon.com.

Deutschsprachige Bücher:

Planen Führen Wachsen – Mit Methode zum Erfolg

Growth Tweets – 101 Twitter-Tipps für profitables Wachstum

Growth Tweets 2 – 101 Twitter-Tipps für profitables Wachstum Band 2

Das Wachstum führen – Das Buch zur 7-teiligen Mandat Telekonferenz Serie

English Books:

Plan Lead Grow – Systematic Approaches To Success

Stay tuned, more to come …

 

Cultural Differences – Singapore Airlines vs. Frankfurt Airport Staff

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Most people who know me know that I am a great fan of Singapore Airlines and I try to use them as often as possible. Here is another example of the difference their employees make in regard to their contribution to the reputation of their company:

We landed in Frankurt after a most enjoyable trip from New York JFK returning from a fabulous week with members of the Million Dollar Consultant® Hall of Fame. I picked up our luggage from the conveyor belt to recognize that one of our bags was seriously damaged: One wheel of the bag was missing and zippers were missing, too.

The lady of Singapore ground staff whom I showed the bag said immediately “We take care of that.“ Unfortunately “We“ was not only her, but also two ladies from Frankfurt Airport.

The conversation that followed was mainly characterized by formal questions of the Frankfurt Airport ladies who were lead through a computerized process. Here are some of the questions they asked me:

• “Can I have your boarding pass, please?“ – Me: “Of course.“
• “The one of your wife as well, please.“ – Me: “Why? It is my bag that has been damaged.“
• “Which flight number was it?“ – Me: “Look at the boarding pass!“
• “What class did you fly?“ – “We flew First Class. Why don’t you look at the boarding pass you just asked me for?“
• “Do you have a baggage insurance?” – “I have no idea! Why do you need to know that?“
• “How old is the bag and what did it cost?“ – “Do you want to fool me?“

The lady of Singapore ground staff of course recognized my being really unhappy and told their airport colleagues to just fill out the form in order to help us leaving the airport. Unfortunately she wasn’t permitted to work herself on the computer.

While the Frankfurt Airport ladies still were very busy with the computer, the Singapore Airlines employee said the following: “You have two options: Option one is that you go to the Airport Baggage Service in order to see if they can repair the bag here or—what I recommend since I can imagine that you just want to get home now—you can call us to pick up the bag at your home or your office and we repair it or we send you the money for a new one.“ She was empathetic and I was happy.

This happened while the two other ladies were still fighting with their computer and with me, their customer.

It makes a difference how you approach your customers and clients. If you really want your business to grow, you need employees in every single department at every single position who have your customer’s best interest in mind.

Is this difficult? Sure, it is. But it is possible and some companies—like Singapore Airlines—are very close to that. Some companies—like Frankfurt Airport—will probably never get even to the undergraduate level. Ever.

Yours,
Guido Quelle

PS: This blogpost also appeared on Dr. Alan Weiss’s blog www.contrarianconsulting.com

(c) 2012, Prof. Dr. Guido Quelle, Mandat Consulting Group

The Seven Most Effective Strategies To Impede Growth

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Just in time for the start of your week: Don’t let anybody stop you growing.

There are myriad ways people are trying to impede growth, because to grow means to change. Take a look at the dark side of growth now: Here are the seven most effective strategies to impede or even to slow down growth, because growing makes a lot of people feel uncomfortable.

• Making everything top priority
• Endless safeguarding
• Pursuing a personal agenda
• Throwing smoke grenades
• Noncommittal behavior
• Creating project inflation
• Questioning successes

Did you face one of these strategies in your company? How do you deal with them? How do you take care, that your company grows, though? For each of these strategies there are one or more counter strategies. The point is, that you are able to realize that someone tries to stop you from growing your firm.

Yours,
Guido Quelle

(c) 2012, Prof. Dr. Guido Quelle, Mandat Consulting Group

Self-Growth: An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away – Yes, And …

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We all know the phrase “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” What originally was meant to express that a healthy life is based on a healthy nutrition, turned to a metaphor for becoming succesful by doing something repeatedly and consistently.

There are three things to consider, because otherwise wrong expectations are being caused:

#1 It is not the first apple that saves your life. In other words: As you can’t expect lifelong health by eating the first apple, you can’t expect to be successful just because you started doing something right, for example working on the personal growth strategy rather than wasting time on Facebook. You need to do the right things repeatedly and consistently. This often means that you need to change not only your mindset, but your behavior, yes, your life.

#2 You need to spend some time to define, what “the right things” are for you. It isn’t necessarily the first apple you see that’s good for you – metaphorically spoken. Invest at least some time to identify what “the apple” is for you and what kind of apples the most tasteful ones are.

#3 Start. It’s far better to start by doing some things right than to start a lifelong thinking process. Get yourself some apples and start with them. Don’t bring a van full of apples home from running your daily errands, a small basket is enough since the apples need to be fresh. Focus on a small number of changes.

Be patient. Once you defined the right areas and the right ways to grow personally, you need the discipline to take action every single day. Trust yourself and trust the quality of your decisions. You can always change the course once you gained momentum.

Yours,
Guido Quelle

(c) 2012, Prof. Dr. Guido Quelle, Mandat Consulting Group

GROW! – Die Studie als Buch

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Unsere aktuelle Studie „GROW! – Wachstumsorientierte Zusammenarbeit zwischen Private Equity Gesellschaften und Unternehmen“ ist jetzt auch als Buch erhätlich.

Hier der Klappentext:

„GROW! ist Name und Anspruch der vorliegenden Studie. Erkenntnisgegenstand ist die wachstumsorientierte Zusammenarbeit von Private Equity Gesellschaften und Unternehmen. Zusammenarbeiten und gemeinsam wachsen, das klingt zunächst nach einer selbstverständlichen Zielsetzung und einem auf der Hand liegenden Vorgehen. Wie so oft liegt der Grund für Wohl und Wehe dieses Modells in der praktischen Gestaltung. GROW! leistet einen Beitrag, aufzuzeigen, wie die Zusammenarbeit in der Praxis gelebt wird, Erfolgsmuster multipliziert und Engpässe vermieden bzw. gelöst werden.

Befragt wurden Unternehmensführer auf Vorstands-/Geschäftsführungsebene mit Erfahrung im relevanten Bereich, Private Equity-Investmentmanager sowie Chairmen. Gestützt durch die umfassende Mandat-Beratungserfahrung im Private Equity-Umfeld und durch flankierende qualitative Beiträge der Teilnehmer werden hieraus Erkenntnisse und Empfehlungen für die Praxis abgeleitet. Zu den Charakteristika von GROW! gehört es, nicht auf der Erkenntnisebene zu verbleiben, sondern zahlreiche Ansätze zur Verbesserung zur Kollaboration zwischen Private Equitiy Gesellschaften und Unternehmen zu liefern. Abgerundet wird die Studie durch Tiefeninterviews zur Fallstudie Symrise.“

Books on Demand
ISBN 978-3-8448-0687-8, Paperback, 64 Seiten, 149,00€