A New Career Path

I became so intrigued and involved with the Strategic Planning Process that the Staff Director of the Domestic Marketing Division recognized me. Bill asked me to join his staff and head up the planning efforts of the entire division. As you will see Bill played a role in several succeeding career positions. I agreed and became the Planning Guru.

There was one small detour about a moth later that lasted about two weeks. NCR experienced its first labor dispute in an organizing effort. The members of the company went on strike to be allowed to form an independent union. The company could live without our machine production but service parts had to be made. All able bodied non-union personnel were pressed into duty. Because tunnels connected all the buildings on the campus, we could arrive at our normal office locations, change into work clothes in the men’s room and travel to our production stations via the tunnels without being seen by the union members picketing outside. It took about a day and a half to learn how to operate a screw machine and the same productivity level as the union workers and we were able easily to satisfy our parts requirements. In fact we did so well we only had to work two to two and half days a week to accomplish the same level of output as the regular operators. Although this experience was satisfying from an accomplishment point of view, it left me with mixed emotions. I had just demonstrated to the manufacturing organization why costs were so high and the tactics that had brought us to this situation by the faulty attitudes of our workers. I did not understand these kinds of attitudes. I would later learn that they are very real and pervasive in our manufacturing environments. I thought it was a sad situation for our economy.

After that episode I spent the next six months coaching, reviewing, revising, and finalizing the first NCR Domestic Marketing Plan. The process significantly changed the thinking and direction of NCR in the US from a mechanical cash register company to a sophisticated systems provider. It helped integrate the Computer, Software, Electronic Cash Registers and Accounting Machines, Systems, and Service into a powerful market force in the US. We were also able to significantly change the sales philosophy and organization. Unfortunately I was not able go witness the implementation of the entire plan because I left NCR before it was completed.

At this time my boss and a lifetime mentor, Mike, left NCR to become the Assistant to the President of Diebold, Inc. The Vice President of the division, Owen, then asked me to take Mikes place as Director of the division staff. I agreed to do this on one condition. I wanted to get involved in line management. I felt too much time in staff positions would hamper my overall career goals.

Owen agreed to watch for appropriate opportunities for me if I did a good job for him. What I did not realize at the time was the tremendous exposure to the overall management of a company that I was about to experience. The next year as Owen’s Staff Director is worth a chapter of it’s own.

Lessons Learned:

1. Some mentors are with you for life.

2. Good strategic planning can influence amazing positive changes in behavior.

3. The importance of a well-communicated plan of attack.

4. The potential negative impact of misdirected union attitudes.

5. Good, conscientious, quality work gets recognized when you least expect it.