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Business Rule #31:
Your Opinion is not the Only One that Matters
September 23, 2005
(PAGE 2 of 2)
Over on Primarius, Dawna Stone also contended with chaos among her ranks. Early on though, she divided her team into two groups. One worked on the book, while the other went about organizing a focus group of children. She saw the big picture, anticipating what would have to be done to succeed. Everyone had a job to do and understood why their job was important. Thus, Dawna kept people involved and engaged in the project.
It’s a common fallacy that business people are strictly motivated by money. Sure, money is an important factor. What really drives stellar performance though is often a desire to excel and be recognized for it.
When I was managing a sales team that worked on commission, I often noticed that taking home a bigger paycheck wasn’t enough to drive the sales reps to improve their performance. As soon as I announced a sales contest though, my staff got moving. Suddenly, sales people became more vigilant in improving their numbers, bringing in larger contracts, contacting higher-profile clients—and landing them. The dollar value of the prizes was relatively minimal. The big enticement was that the contest winners were to receive their award in front of the entire sales division, including upper management. Given a chance to have their contributions recognized, the team surpassed all previous sales records.
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Dawna not only respected the members of her team as important contributors to the project, she rightfully treated her children readers as the ultimate judges of her team’s product by conducting a focus group with them. Martha Stewart didn’t hide the ball on this challenge. The candidates knew that the deciding factor would be how a group of kids reacted to hearing the story read aloud to them. What could be a better test run than reading the rough draft to actual kids?
As obvious as this step might seem, Jeff overlooked it entirely. The idea of re-imagining Hansel and Gretel in a modern urban setting is an intriguing one. Many fairy tales have a rather dark aspect to them, but execution is critical. Sadly, Jeff refused to listen to input from anyone, even from the parents on his team. Big mistake. Parents are another crucial audience, as they’re the ones who actually buy books for their kids. The Matchstick project had become about Jeff and his vision, not about relating to children and their parents.
What made the Primarius team’s book better was that the kids found it more entertaining. What made the Pimarius team itself better was that, unlike Jeff, Dawna knew that her own opinion was not the only one that mattered. The opinions of her staff and consumers mattered too.
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It’s a common fallacy that business people are strictly motivated by
