Letter on the Third — December 2019
Dear Datamax Family,
The holidays are certainly a season of great anticipation.
We all look forward to celebrating with friends and family. What I always do during this time of year, and I’ve done this for a long, long time, is I reflect on the past 12 months. I look back at the goals that we’ve established, and I assess what progress we’ve made. I also begin anticipating the year ahead: I take notes and begin establishing new goals for myself and for our organization.
Our managers now are doing just that as they create business plans for 2020. At our annual planning meetings every December, we go over past numbers, and then each managers discusses his or her plans, and what activities are involved with reaching their goals. It’s important to establish that communication between sales, service, and administration to better determine how we can reach our collective goals All Together.
It’s important we anticipate success.
A lot of people are afraid to write down a goal because they’re afraid to fail. But goals are essential for mapping out our future success. Imagine waking up and saying ‘I’m going to go on vacation tomorrow.” You get in the car, but you haven’t planned out where you’re going. What did you pack? Where are you going to stay? Too many times people – and businesses – do just this. They’re driving down the road with no true destination, and absolutely no directions for getting there.
It’s important we anticipate needs.
For me, goal #1 is to meet the needs of our customers and our employees. If we’re doing those things, profits and success will happen naturally. But to do that, we can’t passively float along like a cork on water. We’ve got to anticipate what our customers really need next. We’ve got to anticipate what new technologies and solutions are out there, which ones could save those customers both time and energy. We must anticipate the needs of our employees, staying relevant to them and challenging them in their journey here.
It’s important we anticipate where we need to be.
When I first came to Little Rock in 1985, I knew we needed to establish goals for the company, but also let the people there know how we could do it. I remember sitting down with our sales manager at the time. We were moving 10 to 12 copiers a period, and I told him ‘we have to move up to 24.’ He looked at me like I was delirious. When we hit it, I said ‘how are we going to hit 50?’ He became a believer in writing down these things, of establishing goals. Of reflecting on where we were, and anticipating where we wanted to go.
I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday season. It’s a time of great celebration. But also a time of reflection, a time of anticipation for the new year that awaits us. The Best is Yet to Be.
Your Raving Fan,
