Yesterday I posted about two businesses that acquired companies of which I am a customer. My emphasis was on the necessity to have sharpened focus when acquiring a new business due to the fact that the buying company’s name often is on the newly acquired business. Name alone means very little to consumers. We want our needs met. We want excellence. We care about the details. Details matter when talking about reputation. It is precisely in transitions that excellence and attention to details is crucial.
I am happy to report that after I blogged, I serendipitously received a survey from my gym (one of the companies recently acquired). I filled it out in the late afternoon and received a call from the General Manager within an hour. Today we sat in his office as he talked me through my survey. He was fully engaged, listened attentively, gave some viable reasons but made no excuses. The issues raised he accepted full responsibility for. I commend this GM for taking the initiative, doing it promptly, and showing respect and appreciation for honest feedback.
A survey actually mattered!
Introducing my NEW book… http://rvet.me/y2sels (Taken with Instagram at Elon, NC)
Below is the blog as it was to go out. Being technologically challenged at times, I inadvertantly hit “publish” rather than “save draft” before it was completed. My apologies.
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When a company buys up another and places their name on the new acquisition, you would think they’d focus on excellence in the transition. But here is what I observed as one fitness company bought another (mine) in Apex, NC. In fact, my observations would be the same for when my bank was acquired by another. My point is that when you attach your name to something and are actually trying to improve it and draw more people to it with your apparently bigger and better name, services, and products, pay attention to details. Ask the “end users” questions about what is important to them. Don’t assume that because you’ve been successful you automatically will be in whatever you do.
So here are a few of the mistakes I’ve seen made in these recent acquisitions.
1. A focus on the unimportant to the detriment of the vital.
The first thing that I noticed when a large nationally known gym took over my lesser known and smaller gym was the new chrome looking clocks. It’s nice to have clocks around the gym…to know how long you’ve been jawing with others, to measure the time between sets, or just to know when you’ve got to hustle to get to work on time. But to replace black clocks with chrome clocks is hardly needed, appreciated nor even noticed by most people. In fact, not one person I asked about the change had even recognized the gleaming chrome.
2. Over promising and under-delivering.
When you have a “big” reputation, you should take great care to honor it by being attentive to details, especially necessary details. When the “big” company bought the gym I belong to, I received a few pieces of mail informing me of the acquisition and letting me know that I know belong to the greatest gym going. But as great as their gyms across the U.S. might be, if you can’t get the important things right, no matter how small, then your new customers quickly lose respect. This means your “big” name matters not a bit to the hundreds of people affected by the acquisition. Here’s an example.
After the clocks were changed, they next changed out the paper towel dispensers. A seemingly simple change didn’t seem to bother us until the dispensers routinely were (are) empty. Yep, more times than not (and I go five days a week), the dispensers do not have paper towels in them. Why change the dispenser if you’re not going to fill them?
Someone, not an employee but a gym member, actually gave me a positive spin to my question. He suggested that with new owners come new service providers and maybe the service providers were lagging behind. Nope! Not acceptable! Even if that were true, you’d think that an employee would run out and get any kind of absorbent material with which the members could dry their hands, etc.
3. Vague and infrequent communication.
Nothing says “we don’t really care about you” like sparse and “gray” communication. Don’t attach your name to something until you know what is going on and how it is going to “go on.” Have an actionable plan that spells success rather than pulling the trigger while the bead is still un-targeted. What this kind of communication, or lack thereof, does is breed gossip, uncertainty, disrespect…huge blows to a reputation.
A number of my gym buddies left because of the uncertainty. We heard our membership rates would double. Others said the contract only allows a 2% increase a year. I mean people were making things up as they went. This is what happens with inadequate communication. Better to be forthright and lose some people because the new rate is going to be too high for their budget, than to lose people because of uncertainty and confusion.
To borrow an old preacher’s adage: “if there is mist in the pulpit, there is fog in the pews.”
4. An assumption that bigger means better.
We all can think of smaller companies whose products outshine those of their larger competitors. This is true in just about every sector I can think of. Yet, why do the big companies always think they have superior products? Such thinking typically leads to a lax attitude which produces a weaker product. I think Jim Collins would refer to such an attitude as hubris.
We’ve heard through the grapevine (which exists to a greater degree because of #3 above) that our gym’s new owners plan to replace our present equipment, which is great stuff, with the equipment they use in the “big and better” gym. While this appears noble and sounds like an improvement, members from the “big gym” happen to like the equipment of our “little” gym a whole lot more. In fact, I had several guys tell me they’d come to our gym because they like the equipment better than at the “big and better” (and more expensive!) gym.
So, as I conclude, let me say that I enjoy my gym. I have many friends at the gym. I do not plan to leave the gym. And, yes, I understand how transitions can be difficult.
But none of this excuses the apathy in acquistion.
What would you have if you only had today what you were grateful for yesterday?
“Vision without action is a daydream.
Action without vision is a nightmare.”
— Japanese Proverb
We’ve heard it from churches and individuals in the past and I am quite confident it isn’t the last time we’ll hear it: “Hope Community Church is all about the numbers.”
What our friends mean by this is Hope will do anything to get big. That all we want is more and more people so that we are deemed “successful” by others around us. That we want to be the biggest church in the area. The flip side of the the same comment is that we water down the truth. We don’t call sin sin. We put on productions rather than lead people in worship. We are not so concerned with Jesus as we are with big buildings, big programs and big budgets.
Truth be told, our friends are right. We are all about numbers! But when we say this, we are not affirming the disparaging remarks of our friends as stated above. Rather, we believe that every number represents a person for whom Christ died. A number is a person who might some day be numbered among those who “were added to the church” as we read in the book of Acts. Those numbers are people who may be used of God to bring the message of Christ to the next generation. To bring hope and healing to the hurting of this world. To offer a drink or food in the name of Jesus. To aid in helping the world see Jesus through their love and unity.
So, yes, Hope cares very much about numbers…seeing numbers of people—large numbers of people—embrace Christ through faith and experience the joy of being part of God’s family. I think the old adage is appropriate: the more the merrier!
Recently, Mike Lee, our senior pastor at Hope Community Church (www.gethope.net), Raleigh, NC, shared his vision about relocating the campus to the west Cary or northwest Cary area. Three very specific reasons for such a move are accessibility, visibility and, most importantly, expanding the kingdom’s influence to the most rapidly growing area in Wake County.
Mike’s desire is to see Hope’s new campus close to the 540/55 interchange allowing very direct access from both of these major traffic arteries—easy access from S. Durham, N. Raleigh, the Brier Creek area, Apex and, of course, Cary itself. The ease of reaching Hope’s campus there will only expand as 540 is completed.
Relocating the campus to 55 would make Hope not only more accessible but much more visible. Our current campus is not only off the beaten path, but it is also set back on our piece of property. Many people, including some of my own acquaintances, did not know a church was even on that property. They would see the school and assume the whole complex was part of it. There is something to be said for a church being very visible and identifiable.
The west and, more specifically, the northwest part of Cary (close to the 540/55 interchange) is the fastest growing part of Wake County according to Wake’s own demographic study. The need for a (another) thriving church is clear. With another 25,000 people expected to move into that area over the next decade, Hope’s influence could be profound and the impact eternal.
There are more reasons, but these three are compelling:
Join me in praying that the Lord makes it clear to Hope’s leadership what would be the wisest thing to do. We don’t want to assume that human planning is tantamount to heavenly wisdom. On the other hand, we don’t want to not plan only to find that we missed a divinely ordained open door to make an impact for Christ.
Say the word imagine and in many people’s minds a song starts playing. It is John Lennon’s song, Imagine. A part of the lyrics go like this:
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Say what you will about his philosophy or theology, Lennon had a goal in mind when he wrote:
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Lennon, for whatever reason and motivation, desired to see the world united. A place without prejudice, discrimination, and hate. Michael Jackson and other popular artists sang about the world being a better place to live—when the world must come together as one.
Recently a young man in our neighborhood took several people hostage at a bank. Rather than robbing the bank, he expressed through a pained heart that he simply wanted a loving family, a hug from his father. What he was saying is he wanted unity in his home…a family where there was a common love for one another and a purpose to life; not only as a family but as individuals too.
As followers of Christ, we should be aware that unity characterized by love, patience and grace is precisely what Christ prayed for for his followers (John 17:11, 20-23). Jesus praying to his Father said (17:23):
I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Jesus had a very specific reason for praying that his followers be unified. Unity was not an end in itself in this verse but a means to show the world that God sent his son, Jesus, and that God loves his people even as he loves his own son.
When a local church is not unified, it keeps the world from seeing Jesus! A world that doesn’t see Jesus, and hear from a church that God loves them and gave his son for them, will be left to only imagine a world where peace, patience and grace exists. So many local churches do not experience unity and therefore can’t show off the love that God has for the world. Is it any wonder why so many people crave unity and love? Why so many songs are written about peace and unity? Why so many people hunger for a place to belong that is accepting, gracious, kind and loving?
Imagine a church that pursues unity in truth and in grace with everything it can muster (Ephesians 4:3, 13). Imagine the life-changing, yes world-changing effect such a church could have! Imagine the joy you would experience if you were not only part of such a church, but you actually played a major role in bringing and maintaining its unity. By God’s grace pursue unity in your church by being a Christ follower characterized by grace, truth, peace and patience.
Imagine…it isn’t hard to do. Practice…that’s another story.
“Were we able to extract from any person a complete answer to the question, “What comes into your mind when you think about God?” we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that person.” — A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (taking liberty to change man to person)
Aldous Huxley was right when he said that we love the things that oppress us. Some of those things we love yet that have us in chains are anger, an unforgiving spirit, slander, and gossip. Certainly not an exhaustive list, but often the kinds of “respectable sins” with which we put up.
About anger I think Frederick Bruechner said it well:
Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back — in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.
Examine your life…enjoying any of these “pleasures”?