Going Global

Although Phillips Industries had been doing a great job of introducing us to the Pacific, European, Middle East, and African markets we felt we needed to be more directly involved.  To achieve that, we established an office in London and Hong Kong.  The goal of these offices was to support the Phillips efforts.  We staffed them with sales, service, and systems support.  Typically a senior marketing associate managed them.

By the time we made this decision we had all spent a great deal of time in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) market.  We selected an experienced Sales Management associate from our West Coast Area. 

The Hong Kong office we decided to staff with a relatively new Sales Management associate from our Chicago office- Mike.  That may have been one of my better career decisions.  Mike went on to manage the EMEA operation, then our Eastern US Area, and finally became the president of our worldwide operations, including sales, service, and manufacturing.  During his time in this area we opened manufacturing operations in China, Germany, India, and Brazil.  In addition we completed a Joint Venture Partnership with IBM. 

Consider this a prologue.  Each of these events require a chapter of their own to fully appreciate their importance and impact on my own career.

As one would expect, this period in my career required a great deal of travel.  By now my responsibilities included all world wide Sales and Marketing activities.  To assist me I asked one of my better Area managers in the Midwest, Chuck, to manage our US operations. 

I also made sure that when I was home I devoted as much time as possible to supporting and following my family’s activities.  The two daughters who remained in Canton were very active in sports, the marching band, and social activities with their friends.  They were both also getting ready to move on to college.  Patti went on to Bowling Green University and Karen to the University of South Carolina.

We went to their games, band performances, performed chaperone duties whenever possible.  I am sure I missed a lot with my traveling schedule but I tried to be sure I was always home on weekends when they were involved in their extra curricular activities.

I was always proud of their achievements and regret that I did not have even more time to be involved in their activities.

Lessons learned:

1.  Don’t try to do everything yourself.  Find capable people to help.

2.  Look for people who are willing to devote the time and energy to succeed as leaders.

3.  Don’t try to do their jobs for them.  You do not have time and it will not help others develop themselves.

4.  Don’t rely totally on other companies to develop your international markets.

5.  Always stay as involved as possible with your family.  They provide your base, support, and great sounding board.

6.  Don’t be afraid to instill the policies that you know work in other countries and cultures. ( More on this later.)

Mexico and Brazil

Mexico and Brazil

I want to start with Mexico because it was our first and longest international relationship.  I recall my first interaction with the Mangino Group in the mid 1960s.  At that time they were a manufacturer of safes and vault doors through an agreement with us.  They were just beginning to successfully market and service our ATM products.  They were also very well connected to the Banking industry in Mexico.  Mexico was experiencing very difficult economic times and The Group could not afford to make the necessary investments in parts to continue servicing our ATMs.  This was another one of those unique Ray and Earl business decisions that cemented a great relationship and demonstrated our willingness to support this market at virtually any cost.  They decided to provide the necessary parts to Mexico at zero cost if the Mangino Group committed to continue to provide service and reimburse us when they could.  Well they did both and I believe because of that we enjoyed a significant share of that market for a long time. 

I was asked to become a member of the board of the Mangino group.  As a board member I was able to spend at least two or three days every quarter interfacing with very important officials of the Mexican Banking industry and establish a great relationship with the Mangino family that still exists.

It was in the late 70s that a manufacturing and distribution group in Brazil to visit Sao Paulo to discuss possible marketing arrangements contacted us.  Ray and I made that first trip together and it was a very memorable and educational trip.

This was my first trip to a country that was in some economical and social stress at the time.  We were advised not to bring or wear any valuables or bring much cash.  We were chauffeured or escorted at all times.  The inflation rate was so high that people literally did not keep cash in their pockets and went to their bank or an ATM to get enough cash for only their immediate needs.  They would be known to go to an ATM 4 or 5 times a day to serve their shopping needs.  The value of money was calculated daily and zeros were added to currency values depending on the date.  Invoices all had a price escalation clause indicating the amount to be paid based on the value of currency on the date the invoice was paid.  I brought $100.00 in cash with me and it was worth less than $50.00 when I left a week later.

The primary reason for our visit was to discuss ATMs with the largest bank in Brazil, the Bradesco Bank.  The distributor that invited us wanted to demonstrate to the bank a superior solution to their ATM services that could be provided by the distributor and Diebold.  We were picked up on the roof top of our hotel by the banks helicopter and flown to the landing pad next to the banks headquarters facility, which was about 25 miles outside of Sao Paulo.  We were escorted directly to the Chairman’s office, which interestingly he shared with the entire executive staff.  I was the most unique arrangement and philosophy we had ever experienced.  All of the bank’s executives were seated at a very large boardroom type table. Each had their own filing cabinet behind them and a private telephone on the table.  There were also additional chairs available for small meetings.  Ray and I and our distributor were placed in a chair grouping at the head of the table with the chairman. 

Before our discussion began, I had to ask about the arrangement.  The Chairman said it was designed to facilitate good communications.  There were no secrets tolerated and when necessary they could elicit an opinion from the entire group immediately. 

We were, then, introduced to the group and the reason for our meeting.  Several times we were interrupted with questions from other executives and the chairman solicited opinions from the other executives.  All in all, the entire meeting went very well and led to a very successful distribution arrangement and eventually a manufacturing operation.

The meeting was finished a little early, which allowed the helicopter pilot to offer to give us an exciting tour of Sao Paulo.  He flew us over some very beautiful grounds and parks and then flew through the city below the building tops.  What a thrill.  Unfortunately Ray was not as adventurous as I and left early to return home.  I finished the week visiting several other banks to get a feel for the size and feel of the market.

Lessons learned:

1.  Supporting a valued distributor in hard times assures great results when times improve.

2.  Always look for distributors who are well connected with your market target.

3.  Always be open to new concepts and ideas, ie…the Brazilian communications philosophy.

4.  Take time to get to know both new cultures and new countries.

5.  Spending personal time, i.e.…meals, home visits, and customer visits help cement lasting and very supportive relationships.

Going Globa

In the early 1980’s we began to market our system outside the US.  We initially worked through large partners who had a global sales and service presence.  Our most largest and most successful relationship was with Phillips Industries of Holland.  They provided us with entrees to major banks in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Europe, Tai Won, Singapore and South Africa.  We opened small offices in Hong Kong, and London to provide them with sales and technical support.  We did work with other large companies but the Phillips relationship seemed to work the best for us. 

In the other major markets, Mexico, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and South America, we developed specific distributor relationships. 

All of this development work required extensive travel to establish good working relationships and provided me with the most memorable experiences of my life.  Unfortunately it took me away from home and my family for long periods for about three years.  It was also during this period that my father and early mentor passed away and my mother began to suffer from some of the early effects of Alzheimer’s.  Fortunately with the help of my family I managed to get through all this and still help move our business forward.

Again thanks to my family and my great support from my Diebold team, I was able to recover from a case of pneumonia that I contracted on one of those international trips.  My recovery was about a month and I was not able to leave my home or do any work during that period.  Thanks to my great assistant Mary Anne and a super team the business carried on very well.

I will discuss key country experiences in subsequent chapters.

Lessons learned:

1.  Global market development takes a great deal of your personal attention and energy until solid relationships are established.

2.  It pays to establish as many international personal relationships as possible.

3.  Spend time in the homes and in recreational activities with key international contacts.

4.  Never forget the importance of family and friends when in personal distress.

5.  Trust your team to continue what you have started in your absence.  In fact you will learn they will perform at a very high level during those times.

Incentives

I have always believed in the power of good incentives.  There were several that we initiated that really worked well for us.  Of course the salary and bonus programs did their job for the most part, but in order to raise the level of performance beyond normal job performance you need special programs.

In the late 70s we started a sales program called Master’s Circle.  In order to qualify you must have attained 100% of your sales quota in all product categories.  The winners and their spouses & significant others were treated to a 4 day vacation in a first class resort in the US, Mexico or Nassau in February.  It included separate seminars for the employees and their guests, lots of opportunities to socialize with our executives, learn about new products and services before they were released, and of course lots of time for their favorite recreational activities and great dinners and partys.  One of things we did to create excitement for this program was make sure we sent spouses and significant others where we could constant reminders and updates as to their mates progress toward the final goals.

In the late 80s we instituted a similar program for our corporate Quality Excellence Program.  This is worth a chapter of its own and I will talk more about it later.

One of the most successful incentive contests we had was called “Top Gun”.  It was put in place shortly after the successful movie by the same name.  We were faced with a small recession, orders were down, inventories were up, but we thought with a little extra effort and incentive we could turn the situation around.  We initiated the contest in September.  The top performers, spouses, and significant others, in each of our 11 divisions and International in addition to Masters Circle were flown to St.Thomas for a week of fun.  The only required events were one business meting for about an hour and a closing cocktail party and dinner.  The rest of the week was spent doing what you wanted or participating in group excursions if desired.  For this event we really solicited the help of spouses and significant constant notifications and reminders of the event.  This program turned the business concerns to a very positive result by the end of the year.

Lessons learned:

1.  Money is not the only incentive that motivates people.

2.  Including family and or partners in contests helps incentivize the employee.

3.  By making the prize more fun than work the word gets passed along to all those who did not make the cut.

4.  Always include spouses and significant others in meeting and even design some meetings for them.  It helps them understand, feel included, and allows you to learn what’s on their minds.

5.  Only choose high quality locations and include only high quality programs.

Sales Support

Sales Support

There are two programs that I believed made our sales efforts effective.  They were our sales support philosophy and our incentive programs. 

We made sure that our sales organization had technical support through the development of a very skilled field organization that worked hand in hand with our sales people, customers, and installers.  They provided technical support to the sales person, and assisted the customer in the development or their customized ATM software and processing systems.  After the sale they worked with the customer and our installation team to assure a smooth efficient installation of the hardware, test and install software and systems, and finally assist in the training of the customers personnel. 

An outstanding and dedicated software development group at our home office supported the field teams. 

Finally we offered our sales teams an outstanding home office customer visitation program.  They were encouraged to invite customers to Canton at our expense.  The customer was accommodated in the best hotel in the area and transported by limousine.  All meals were hosted by a home office executive (Often the President or Chairman).  This gave the prospect or customer the opportunity to get to know the management team and gave us the opportunity to demonstrate our corporate commitment to our products, philosophies, and customer satisfaction.  Then the customer visited our display area, where all the company’s products were on display and demonstrated by experts on each product.  If the customer requested specific information about a product or system they were visited by and expert or escorted to that specific department for a more in depth presentation.

In addition to this program, as a part of our community support initiative, we took advantage of the annual NFL Hall of Fame enshrinement festivities to host 50 to 75 of our best customers for a great weekend of parties, golf and of course the enshrinement and the game.

We also insisted that the offices that had professional sports teams have season tickets to those games and regularly invite customers and prospects.

At major conventions, we always hosted luncheons, a provided a suite for our sales people to entertain their customers and prospects.  Early in the history of the ATM the Bank Administration Institute initiated an annual convention devoted to this market.  We thought it was such a good idea that we committed to hosting a cocktail party for the entire convention.  In return for our commitment to do this we were given the premier center front location for our booth.  These parties became quite famous because we always brought in famous entertainment and held them in very memorable locations.  The only speech that was made was a welcome to the party and thanks for the business.  We never tried to sell anything.

Finally we hosted an annual Christmas luncheon for the New York bankers at the 21 Club.  Again the only speech was from Ray, who just said Merry Christmas and thanks for the business.

Lessons learned:

1.  Sales of complex hardware and systems require professional support programs.

2.  Always make sure that the sales, support, and service organizations operate as a team.

3.  Getting to know your customer in a comfortable environment is very beneficial.

4.  The involvement of top management in the sales process is an important part of the sales process.

5.  Demonstration of support to your community and your industry is good for your employees, customers, and the community.

6.  A great message is delivered when you don’t try make a sales pitch when you are entertaining.

Corporate Sales & Marketing

Corporate Sales & Marketing

Sometime in the early 80s Ray and Earl decided that I should assume responsibility for the sales & Marketing of all the company’s products. 

The next ten years of my career required me to be away from my family frequently.  In addition to taking on all corporate sales, we also decided to begin to go global.  More about that in later chapters. 

It was during this period that our three girls were really beginning to establish themselves as both good high school students, and talented musicians.  I regret how much I missed being a more active part of their successes and failures.

Missy our oldest daughter decided she wanted to go to a high school for the deaf in Tennessee.  Reluctantly we agreed that it would be a good program for her and easier than her public school teachers having to be concerned about her ability to understand lectures and given special attention.  It worked out very well for her and she went on to Gallaudet University in DC and earned a bachelors and Masters degree.  She is now a very successful counselor in a girls school in Los Angeles and does great work for her church interpreting the bible and teaching sign language in Eastern Europe on a volunteer basis when she can.

Patti in addition to her studies became an accomplished drummer, softball player, and a better golfer than her father.  She was part of the highs school marching band and our local drum and bugle corp.  She went on to Bowling Green University became the lead drummer in their marching band, and got her BS degree.  After working in several positions she decided to go to Ashland University and got her Masters Degree in Divinity.  She is now a counselor at Ashland University.

Karen was also a good student and became an accomplished flutist.   She was also in the high school marching band.  She went on to the University of South Carolina.  Became active in a sorority, helped with the football-recruiting program as an on campus guide.  After graduation she became active in her sorority as a visiting representative of the sorority assigned to help with recruiting and local chapter reviews and training.  After that she began work in the insurance industry.  She also got her masters in marketing at Case Western Reserve.  She is now a vey successful executive at Progressive Insurance Company.

Unfortunately their mother Jan passed away before the girls had established their current successful careers.  I know she is a proud of them as I am.  She had a great deal more to do with their molding and mentoring than I did because of my travel and work commitments.  I hope I was able to help some.

Lessons learned:

1.  Your work and career are never more important than your family.

2.  When you are home give as much time as you can to helping your family further their desires and development.

3.  Cheer for your children whenever you can.

4.  Stay in contact with family even if you are on the other side of the world.

Customer Mentors

Customer Mentors

My first customer mentor was Al from Atlanta.  He was the father of “Tillie the Teller”.  Earl, my boss at Diebold, introduced me to him.  Al was an early adaptor of ATMs.  Although he had deployed a competitor’s equipment, he liked our system and customer service philosophies.  Al introduced us to a number of our first customers in the South.  He eventually replaced his equipment with ours and used our equipment when he moved to two other financial institutions.   Al also became a very good personal friend who I could go to for advice on the financial institution markets and new products and marketing ideas as we developed them.

I was also able to develop a mentoring relationship with an executive from each of the two largest financial institutions in the US in the 70s and 80s, Dan at Bank of America and Fred at Chase Manhattan Bank.  Both became good friends and advisors.  They were both very instrumental in getting the market really started.

I also had a great mentor in Las Vegas that helped us get into the casinos.  Another mentor in Miami that moved to the west coast and helped us with both the California and Washington markets. 

There were a number of others that seemed to want to be helpful when you were open to them and delivered on your promises.  I believe these mentors were responsible for our success. 

Lessons learned:

1.  Always be open to advice and assistance.

2.  Don’t over commit and always deliver on your promises.

3.  Get to know your customers on as personal a basis as possible.

4.  Ask your good contacts for advice frequently,  It will serve to solidify your relationships.

Selling the Market

This phase of market development presented several challenges:

First, we had to convince the market that we had a superior and reliable product.

Second, since we were not known as a systems company, we had to convince the market that we could be competitive with companies like IBM and NCR.

Third, we had to convince the market that ATMs would supplement their marketing strategies by providing an exciting new service that their customers would use.

For most of 1975 we focused or attention on getting the first 30 or 40 customers involved in our previous product successful with our pilot program.  Then we began to focus our sales efforts on the large to medium size financial institutions that we knew would be a positive influence on the market.  Remember at this time interstate banking was not allowed and a significant number of states did not allow bank branches. 

The pilot installations and one single sales success really started a significant positive market change.

One of my early mentors in this process was the IT manager for a small local bank.  John was very helpful is both testing and critiquing our early ATM software. More importantly he suggested we develop online transaction processing capability and helped us along the way with real world testing.  As a result we were the first company with the ability to implement real time online transaction processing.  Yes, even before IBM and NCR.  That took care of that challenge.  Well more on that later.

One of the ideas that really helped with the consumer acceptance issue came from a bank that was an early adaptor using Docutel machines.  In order to humanize the machines and make them friendlier, they named them.  In this case “Tillie the Teller”.  AL, the VP of marketing for the bank, became an important mentor and a great friend of mine.  Virtually all the early adaptors of ATMs began to name them.  It was a great marketing idea and helped us sell ATMs.

However the key event in moving this market was the decision by Bank of America to purchase 100 ATMs from Diebold.  This was not only good for us but energized virtually all financial institutions to make sure they stayed competitive with this giant financial institution.

Lessons learned:

1.  Always keep your eyes and ears open for mentoring.

2.  Always take the time to prove your product or system in a controlled environment prior to full release.

3.  Be on the constant look out for new marketing ideas and spread the word via your sales force.

4.  Never assume you cannot achieve sales success if you are not the biggest and most experienced.  Ie…Bank of America.

Developing the ATM Market

After infusing our sales, marketing, service, and development teams with people experienced in technology, and systems, we were ready to begin the process of market development.  I believe there were three philosophies that gave us the impetus for success.

1.  Our firm commitment to customer satisfaction.

2.  Our commitment to provide outstanding service and support to our customers and associates.

3.  An unwavering commitment to always doing the right thing in all circumstances.

Here are just a few examples of those philosophies at work.  Ray, our Chairman and CEO felt we had not fulfilled our commitment to customer satisfaction with our first ATM offering, the imports from the UK.  He called me to his office and expressed his concerns and directed me to offer each customer who had purchased one of those machines their money back or one of our new systems at no cost.  To give you some idea of the courageousness of that decision, the impact on the companies bottom line was nearly a negative20% .  The impact on our ATM business was a delay in any profit contribution for at least a year.  As it turned out the decision was received so well that the real impact was a kick start to our business.  This group of customers willingly became our pilot group and subsequently our biggest boosters.

We understood from our discussions with our customers that ATM systems had to be available to their customers 7/24 on a very consistent basis.  In keeping with that requirement and our service philosophy we established the following policies.

1.  Service response to a system down would be less than 2 hours.

2.  If the system were not back in service in 4 hours a notice would be posted in our home office system and in my office.

3.  If the system were not back in service in 8 hours, I would make a personal call to the president of the bank, explain our actions and assure him that the problem would be resolved.  I also gave them my direct office number and my home number in case they need to reach me for any reason.

4.  We also established a strict ratio of geography and number of systems a single service territory could support.

5.  Finally to assure control of these policies and facilitate the reporting, we established a central dispatch system in our headquarters to give every customer an 800 number to report problems on a nationwide basis.  Eventually this system was implemented for all of our products.

Fortunately, there were very few alerts that ended up in my office because our field teams really responded to the situation with great enthusiasm.

One of the most difficult policies for us to implement was to limit the areas we would allow our sales force to sell to because of the service area restrictions.  For example there were just not enough banks with a confined geography for us to keep our commitments to in the Dakotas and other areas like that.  As much as it disappointed our salesmen and some customers in those areas, “It was the right thing to do”. 

Going back to our decision to replace or reimburse our original ATM customers, although it was very costly, “It was the right thing to do”.

The lessons learned were somewhat obvious but worth repeating.

Lessons learned:

1.  A firm commitment to superior customer satisfaction is one of the primary keys to success with any product or system offering.

2.  Providing outstanding customer service not only provides customers who are willing to give positive testimonials, but willing to reorder your products and systems.

3.  “Doing the right thing” forms a solid basis for all decisions and in many cases allows you to make difficult decisions without remorse.

Changing The Sales Culture

Changing the sales culture of a 100 plus year old company is challenging.  Most of our relationships with our customers had been with the security and facilities organizations in Financial Institutions.  We had begun to establish some relationships with the retail bank as we developed the pneumatic tube and remote drive in banking business.  However we determined through many discussions with financial institutions and our consultants study that we needed to now learn to communicate with the marketing, retail, and systems organizations.  In addition as we were developing this market, we needed to elevate our contacts within financial institutions to the mid and upper management levels. 

The new sales specialists we were hiring would help us make these changes in disciplines’, but we knew that penetrating higher up in the organization would require the time and efforts of myself, the most senior managers in the field, and our upper management.

Since I had been working in the field for a couple of years developing the new drive in banking product line, I concentrated on the senior level Area Managers in the field.  I asked them to get me appointments with senior level managers at the large and medium size Financial Institutions.  We went in as a team, which was, myself, the Area Manager, the Diebold representative assigned to the account, and the ATM specialist for that region.  I wanted to make sure that all of our personnel involved with the account were introduced at these levels.  Earl, Ray, and Joe, our National Sales Manager, also participated in this process by arranging introductions where they had previous relationships.  They also joined us on a number of calls in the field. 

There were also a number of traditional events that helped this process.  At all the major conventions we hosted several luncheons for the senior level managers of financial institutions at very prestigious restaurants.  Because Ray was an avid baseball fan, we owned season tickets to all major league teams, and bought tickets to all playoff and World Series games.  Finally, we hosted an annual Christmas luncheon for all New York Financial Institution executives at the 21 Club.  Now all the ATM specialists and myself were included in these events.

As a result of all this effort, our sales organization was introduced to a higher level, which enabled them to get the audiences they needed to persuade prospects to consider Diebold as their supplier of ATMs.  This was a courageous task for many of them because their current contacts were not happy with them going ever their heads.  Fortunately, because they were an experienced sales force, in the majority of cases, they were able to manage the situation.

I do not want to leave you with the impression that we forced this strategy on them.  Prior to initiating the plan, we all spent a great deal of time in meetings, both group and one on one, explaining the reason and expected results of our plans.  We also made sure we listened to their concerns and adjusted were their recommendations made sense.  I felt that by the time we initiated our activities we were in sync and would be successful.  It did accomplish our goals.  I think some of the specific experiences might be interesting and educational.  I will discus them in the next chapter.

Lessons learned:

1.  Changing a culture requires good communications and support from all levels of management.

2.  Using entertainment allows you to establish more informal relationships that are very helpful.

3.  Allowing the people who will be effected the most be part of the planning process helps the process of culture change.

4.  Approaching the customer as a team, demonstrates to the customer that this is a company not individual program, and has the full support of management.

5.  Finally, we realized that this approach assisted our sales efforts in all product lines.

        

Creating a New Culture

We spent the better part of the next 5 years changing the culture of the Diebold Sales, Manufacturing, Service/Installation, Administrative, Data Processing and R & D organizations.  They all had to understand and embrace the new world of technology oriented; systems, and self service products. 

The sales organization was the biggest challenge.  They had to develop new contacts and prospects in their existing accounts that in many cases their old contacts did not even associate with.  We were asking them to talk to data processing, systems, and retail bankers instead of security and construction people.  In some cases where they had moved up in the organization and made contacts with higher management in financial institutions it was easier.  Unfortunately that was not the norm.  In many cases the sales people were afraid to go to new people, fearing they would upset their established relationships.  We were aware of all these challenges due to our interaction with this organization during our Product Management days.  The frequent trips to the field helped develop an understanding and empathy for our field organization.  This also helped me select, orient, and develop the five new Automatic Banking specialists that were hired to provide support and sales assistance to our field organization in the field.  We wanted them located in the Five Area Sales management offices so they could be closer to the field and become part of that culture.  We also added account managers for the larger financial institutions and a field support organization. 

The field support organization was designed to support the sales and service team with customer specific systems designs for proposals and installations, training for our customer and sales personnel, and service support related to systems issues.  As you can see this was a very critical resource.  Interestingly it was the first time, as a company, that we ever employed women in a professional salaried position interfacing directly with customers.  Another culture change for our company and I discovered later for some of our customers also. 

I think it is worth a short digression here to relate some of the challenges these women faced.  As much as I tried, I am not sure I completely prepared them for some of the situations they might face.  Inappropriate advances were made by both some of our people and customers.  Our employees were easy to deal with.  They were terminated immediately.  Unfortunately you cannot terminate a customer.  However I did find myself a few times having to have a very serious discussion with customers.  Having committed to our associates that any inappropriate behavior was unacceptable, I did tell, even, customers that we would cease our relationship with them if the behavior continued.  I recall one convention where I found our first and best support person, Judy, crying in the study of the suite we had rented for entertaining and socializing with our customers and prospects.  It was the last day of a very busy week and she had worked long hours every day.  She had just forcibly rejected a married customer that she had worked with for some time back in her territory.  She was both shocked and worried that she would damage our relationship with the bank.  I reassured her that she was more important than any customer relationship and we can fix the relationship by doing the right thing.  I spoke to the banker and asked him to apologize to her the next time she had occasion to be in his bank.  He apologized profusely to me and did put her at ease over the next few weeks.   I told her to take the rest of the night off and moved her to first class with me for the trip home.  We talked a lot about a number of similar situations that she had endured but was afraid to talk to anyone about.  I think I was able to assure her that she was more important than any customer that could not use proper decorum when working with her and she should not be afraid to tell us about these situations.  This of course prompted me to call the entire field support team into Canton and discuss our policies regarding these situations.  It was also a great opportunity to get their input on all the issues they were dealing with.

I will discuss the sales and service culture changes in the next chapter.

Lessons learned:

1.  Take time to understand why people resist change.

2.  Help everyone understand the reason change will be good for them and our company.

3.  Take time to listen to the people who are interfacing with your customers.

4.  Do not hesitate to demonstrate your moral and ethical principals to both associates and customers.

5.  Always treat people as the valuable asset they are and be sure to let them know it.

The Beginning of a New Era

About a week after the consultant’s presentation on Cash Dispensers and ATMs, I was asked to join Ray and Earl in Ray’s office to discuss the presentation.  They asked me what I thought and I said although I understood the reasoning behind their recommendations, everything I had been reading and hearing from our customers indicated a potential new business opportunity for our company.  I realized this was only a gut feel not necessarily based on hard facts, but to me it was a strong feeling.

Ray took a minute looked and Earl got a nod and said they agreed.  Then he said however we don’t think we can be successful with this kind of a product with our current organization structure or talent pool.  We would also have a problem with our existing sales and service organization.  What they proposed was the establishment of a new Automated Banking department separate from all other existing organizations in the company.

Then he said we want you to run that organization.  He added you would be provided all the resources you will need, justified by business plans, and we want to run it as though failure will mean you are out of a job.

I thought for a few minutes, convinced that this was a great opportunity, and agreed to take on the challenge.

I discussed it with my wife over cocktails that night.  We always had cocktails without the girls before dinner.  She was a bit concerned about putting all our eggs in one basket but agreed to support me in the decision to go forward.  The girls were still a little too young to understand all the implications but agreed.

I need to mention another type of mentor that entered into my life around this same time.  It was my executive assistant, or secretary at that time, Mary Ann.  We affectionately referred to her as MA. MA helped me in so many ways and stayed with me for the remainder of my career with Diebold.  MA was a long time employee with the company and really knew many of our associates, their skills and attitudes; she knew where the bones were buried, so to speak.  She was also an outstanding organizer of my schedule and very busy travel itineraries.   Most importantly she was not afraid to tell me when I was making mistakes or did things to offend others. 

We started our new department, The Automatic Banking Division, by moving to new quarters north of the city across the freeway from the Akron/Canton airport.  We began to recruit a new employees in product management, sales, and marketing.  We were looking for people with experience or at least a desire to be involved it technology, electronics and or computers.  At the same time our corporate engineering, research, and manufacturing divisions began doing the same thing.

Our first task was to develop a strong business plan.  Since we had some experience with an imported product, and had a very detailed market analysis done by the outside consultants, we were able to complete this task and get it approved in a couple of short months.

Organizationally, the plan called for a separate sales support team in the field reporting to me.  A separate engineering, and manufacturing group with a strong dotted line to me.  My own marketing and product management staff.   A separate service group both in the field and home office.  More about that later.  Finally, a separate P & L to allow us to measure our financial progress.

The next year was spent staffing the organization, training our new team, defining our new product specifications, and designing, testing and launching the new Diebold ATM product line.

The next phase of this new venture was probably one of the most challenging I have ever faced.  This was the challenge of changing the minds and attitudes of an experienced team of sales, manufacturing, engineering and support people who grew up developing primarily physical security and mechanical service products for banks.  This was a new world for them and their customers.

Lessons learned:

1.  Don’t be afraid to seize the moment.

2.  Always discuss major decisions with your family.  You need their support.

3.  Always look for new mentors and appreciate their efforts to help you.

4.  Always invite criticism and take it seriously.

5.   Good communications at all levels is the key to getting the support you need for success.

Managing Multiple CEOs

Managing Multiple CEOs

Soon after my appointment as Director of Product Management Earl called me into his office for a long chat. That is when he began to be my most important mentor. He wanted to talk to me about managing managers. He emphasized two major points. First, do not try to do their jobs for them. Help them do their jobs by removing obstacles they might face from other departments or divisions. Remember that you must work for them as much or more than they work for you. Second, help them learn your CEO approach to Product Management.

The first point was more of a challenge than I thought it would be. What it really meant was that I would have to acquaint myself with virtually every department and division in the company that might touch or be touched by our Product Managers. I had already done that with a number of them but I had not spent much time with the administrative groups. What Earl really knew was that this effort would provide me with invaluable knowledge about how our company really worked. Boy, was he right. What a great education and opportunity to get to know a broad base of fellow associates and them to get to know me. I was now ready to really assist our team.

The second challenge was not as easy as I thought it might be. The reason was that most of the Product Managers had been in their jobs for a number of years and had not been acting like CEOs and were a little intimidated by the concept. Although they all were aware of my success with this philosophy, they thought it was because I was new and didn’t really understand the Diebold traditions. Eventually we were able to overcome this attitude in most but not all cases. We did it together. I spent a lot of time with each one of them in their meetings with other departments they depended on to perform the work necessary for their products success. I was always careful to just observe and provide my feed back after the meetings. This seemed to work very well. Soon all product groups began to achieve their goals on a regular basis.

In addition to our standard product lines we were able to develop and introduce a very sophisticated electronic security system and began to market a cash dispenser imported from the UK. The cash dispenser was not very successful but we began to hear about other companies like IBM, NCR, and Docutel (now defunct) from our customers. We also began to get questions from our customers regarding our plans for this product line. In response to this Earl and Ray commissioned a major market study to be developed for us by one of the major consulting firms. They came back with an extensive study, which ended with a recommendation to get out of the business. In their opinion, automated cash dispensers and ATM were a fad that did not have long term potential. I did not agree. I found out soon after the presentation the Earl and Ray did not agree either.

Lessons learned:

1.To be a successful leader of other managers you must understand that you work for them as much or more than they work for you.

2. Be empathetic with the concerns of your team when you are attempting to introduce new philosophies of management.

3. Go with your managers to face difficult situations but don’t provide feedback until you are alone with them. Then let them change on their own.

4. Don’t be afraid to listen to your gut. Consultants are not always the last word.