To Be - (Customer-Focused) or Not to Be - What a Question
This is the first in a series of short articles about understanding why customer focus is strategically important, what it means to be truly customer-focused and how to create or improve customer focus in your organization. This article presents a simple business case for the strategic importance of creating greater customer focus. Many excerpts are taken from the book, That’s Customer Focus! We hope you find in interesting and helpful.Most of you will probably recognize this soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Hamlet To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them?To die: t

Embrace Change: Business & Personal Renewal Cycles c 2006
Have you noticed that just about everyone you talk to is going through a change, challenge or growth cycle? There are many ideas about why we are accelerating in this process. I’m here, however, to help you understand the growth process. Often when you understand a process, you can relax and have more fun with the change you are experiencing.Remember, as a leader in your organization, it is the individual who is also changing. The individual's willingness or reluctance to embrace changes in the company has a huge impact. It's important for leaders to understand the individual change process so that you can help steward this process more easily and effectively. Let's take a look at what the individual is experiencing. Take a look at yourself too, because you are not immune to this process either.It is becoming extremely difficult to mail a letter these days, even if local delivery is only expected. The United States Postal Service has degraded to such an extent that they now routinely throw 'undeliverable' and 'return to sender' stickers on a large proportion of letters. It doesn't matter what state you are in and what kind of letters you are mailing. The Post Office is now an enemy of small business and regular folks. In fact if you want to mail anything to anywhere, beware of the recent events transpiring all over the United States.

Don't get me wrong; in terms of our post office being compared to the uninspiring postal services in nations around the world, we are near the top in efficiency. Scary thought since unfortunately this is a world where there are whole nations such as Nigeria, Egypt, Spain, Russia and Greece that routinely lose mail on massive scales. People who need something delivered in these nations either have to pray their letters or parcels get to the recipients, or use private companies such as Fedex or UPS, which can be expensive. Therefore the bar is so low in terms of efficiency that it is now at the pathetic level. To simply deliver the mail in any time frame is a challenge these days. Being the best in this industry then is no accomplishment to say the least. American citizens used to have confidence in our Post Office. Benjamin Franklin who is the founder of the first organized national post office on the planet, would roll over in his grave if he knew how his beloved postal service has devolved.

Background and Founding of The U.S. Postal System

On July 26, 1775, members of the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, agreed ". . . that a Postmaster General be appointed for the United States, who shall hold his office at Philadelphia, and shall be allowed a salary of 1,000 dollars per annum . . . ." On this day, Benjamin Franklin was appointed Postmaster General, the first appointed under the Continental Congress. He would serve in this post, shaping our Postal Services until November 7, 1776. The Motto of the Post Office is:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. This motto is explained on the Post Office's main website. The origin of the motto as explained by them is as follows:

This inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the New York General Post Office. Kendall said the sentence appears in the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.C

ed States.

Don't get me wrong; in terms of our post office being compared to the uninspiring postal services in nations around the world, we are near the top in efficiency. Scary thought since unfortunately this is a world where there are whole nations such as Nigeria, Egypt, Spain, Russia and Greece that routinely lose mail on massive scales. People who need something delivered in these nations either have to pray their letters or parcels get to the recipients, or use private companies such as Fedex or UPS, which can be expensive. Therefore the bar is so low in terms of efficiency that it is now at the pathetic level. To simply deliver the mail in any time frame is a challenge these days. Being the best in this industry then is no accomplishment to say the least. American citizens used to have confidence in our Post Office. Benjamin Franklin who is the founder of the first organized national post office on the planet, would roll over in his grave if he knew how his beloved postal service has devolved.

Background and Founding of The U.S. Postal System

On July 26, 1775, members of the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, agreed ". . . that a Postmaster General be appointed for the United States, who shall hold his office at Philadelphia, and shall be allowed a salary of 1,000 dollars per annum . . . ." On this day, Benjamin Franklin was appointed Postmaster General, the first appointed under the Continental Congress. He would serve in this post, shaping our Postal Services until November 7, 1776. The Motto of the Post Office is:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. This motto is explained on the Post Office's main website. The origin of the motto as explained by them is as follows:

This inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the New York General Post Office. Kendall said the sentence appears in the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.

sive. Therefore the bar is so low in terms of efficiency that it is now at the pathetic level. To simply deliver the mail in any time frame is a challenge these days. Being the best in this industry then is no accomplishment to say the least. American citizens used to have confidence in our Post Office. Benjamin Franklin who is the founder of the first organized national post office on the planet, would roll over in his grave if he knew how his beloved postal service has devolved.

Background and Founding of The U.S. Postal System

On July 26, 1775, members of the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, agreed ". . . that a Postmaster General be appointed for the United States, who shall hold his office at Philadelphia, and shall be allowed a salary of 1,000 dollars per annum . . . ." On this day, Benjamin Franklin was appointed Postmaster General, the first appointed under the Continental Congress. He would serve in this post, shaping our Postal Services until November 7, 1776. The Motto of the Post Office is:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. This motto is explained on the Post Office's main website. The origin of the motto as explained by them is as follows:

This inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the New York General Post Office. Kendall said the sentence appears in the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.

ystem

On July 26, 1775, members of the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, agreed ". . . that a Postmaster General be appointed for the United States, who shall hold his office at Philadelphia, and shall be allowed a salary of 1,000 dollars per annum . . . ." On this day, Benjamin Franklin was appointed Postmaster General, the first appointed under the Continental Congress. He would serve in this post, shaping our Postal Services until November 7, 1776. The Motto of the Post Office is:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. This motto is explained on the Post Office's main website. The origin of the motto as explained by them is as follows:

This inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the New York General Post Office. Kendall said the sentence appears in the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.

rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. This motto is explained on the Post Office's main website. The origin of the motto as explained by them is as follows:

This inscription was supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the New York General Post Office. Kendall said the sentence appears in the works of Herodotus and describes the expedition of the Greeks against the Persians under Cyrus, about 500 B.C. The Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers, and the sentence describes the fidelity with which their work was done.

The Motto No Longer Fits - FACT

Is there anyone who has experience using the postal services in this nation who likes their performance? I think not. One of my businesses is a C.M.R.A., which stands for Commercial Mail Receiving Agency, and I have a unique perspective on the inner workings of this inefficient relic of the past that we call the Post Office.

Here is a perfect example just this past month on how well they deliver mail. One of my offices is located in Florida and we mail the employee paychecks to that office. We've had problems with the post office going back to 1996 when I started up successfuloffice.com. Our complaints span years. Last week we had enough already as employee paychecks keep getting returned stamped "addressee not known, return to sender". This would be funny if it weren't so sad, but I actually made a video that will be up on YouTube shortly showing the post office letters returned with their stickers. Do a search there for 'The Post Office Stinks' Imagine if you will your own company sending you your paycheck, and the post office returning it stamped undeliverable. Our manager then goes to the local office which is located in Pompano Beach Florida and complained. They say all is fine so we re-mail the checks without opening them to keep the postal stickers on them. Three weeks later they come back yet again with another stamp on it saying addressee unknown. Is that sad or what? I had to Fedex the paychecks down there and then had the manager go into the Post Office to open the letter with the return to sender sticker on it, which also now contained the second letter also with the return to sender sticker on it.

Knowing this is going on, I advice everyone to no longer use the Post Office if possible. They are now at record levels of inefficiency and simply do not care about delivering the mail. Why should they as employees in the system can't even be fired unless they kill someone. I know as I tried to have one such manager fired. I escalate