“Every person in
this room is in sales,” he said.
This charismatic
guy stood in front, facing a dozen-plus of us middle managers in a smallish
organization, a daily newspaper operation.
He came and stood
behind me. He put his hands on my shoulders.
“Jim, here, shows
a lot of promise for sales leadership. He should work at it.”
What? I tell
myself. Hey, man – I’m an editor. I don’t do sales. I do news.
This sales
leadership thing was an alien concept. To all of us.
Still, the
presenter kept at it for two or three 11-hour days. There was no noticeable
effect on me – or the guys from production, accounting and other functions who
weren’t out there selling ads, subscriptions or news dealerships.
Not then.
I wonder what the
boss was thinking during those first few sessions.
We were exploring
Project Management in response to someone’s concern about the prospects for
this fine old company. Its products were large, complex and individually
crafted by skilled workers who had been at it for a long time. This was a
high-end operation, much admired for quality.
Its process was
very customer-driven, characterized by uncontrolled scope, nonexistent
budgeting and loose scheduling. The entire workforce devoted itself to one
beautifully crafted product at a time.
This was very
expensive, and otherwise not well suited to a world of rising costs, increasing
competition and a marketplace tossed by ever-changing global competition.
