Grow Market Lead
Leadershipguru:
Cartridge World
A Vision of Success
Strong workplace values drive growth culture
By Bill Swanson
A
strong leader needs to define their vision for success,
effectively document it, and
communicate it over and
over again.
We have two jobs: 1) providing the
tools, systems, and products for our current stores to succeed; and 2) spreading
the Cartridge World message so more
entrepreneurs join our franchise. Motivated entrepreneurs who seek a path to
fulfill their financial goals and are able
to communicate the value of a product
and service will succeed.
We are reinvigorating both our current business support systems and franchise development efforts with the help
of focused internal and external people
power. We have partnered with a very
strong franchise development organization to jump-start this process.
8 values driving success
Defining, communicating, and living
specific values create the culture of an
organization. At a company earlier in my
career, we took the time to discuss and
crystallize our values. To this day, they
remain an important influence on me,
and on Cartridge World’s daily business
decisions.
1. Customer service. Serve the cus-
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tomer in a way that you would want to be
served as someone else’s customer. And if
you’re not directly serving the customer,
you had better be serving someone who
is. The true test of a company is its ability to respond appropriately when things
don’t go well. (It’s easy when everything
goes well.)
2. Hard work. Nothing good comes
to those who are lazy or only wish for
good things.
3. Accountability. Clearly defined
and communicated roles, responsibilities, and expectations of performance.
4. Teamwork. 1 + 1 > 2. Together,
we can come up with a better answer
than either of us would have come up
with on our own.
5. Fiscal responsibility. Too many
businesses and business people don’t have
the capability to understand the financial
consequences of decisions made. We always have to ask ourselves: Is this action
or this decision going to create value or
destroy value? What are the cash-flow
implications in the near term, medium
term, and long term? How is our capital structure affected by this decision?
6. Integrity. Without integrity, nothing else matters. It is the foundation on
which the house is built. It is the basis
on which trust is formed.
7. Continuous learning and improvement. Formally and informally,
we should be learning each day. Sometimes we learn by our mistakes. I like
to say that the only person who doesn’t
make mistakes is the person not doing
anything. You just don’t want to make
the same mistake over and over.
8. Empowerment/enablement. By
sharing the vision, understanding capabilities, and creating an environment that
rewards initiative, much greater outcomes
are created than by trying to control the
processes. Managers control processes.
Leaders provide vision and inspiration.
Additional success factors
1) The business proposition. Cartridge World sells remanufactured laser
and ink printer cartridges, printers, and
related products. The business model
is successful because it is so logical. We
sell products that are consistently used
in nearly every b