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.
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