OPERANNG PPORTUNITIES

WALLY LYNCH Builders Express, 11550 Plano Rd. Dallas. Tx.75243

Wally Lynch, after two yeors of writing for lhis magazine on delivery monogement, is expanding hb monthly column lo the wider range of operotions in general. Hb expertbe and experience will provide valuoble industry insights for our reoders.

We are pleased to present the second ol his new series of columns-ed.

LMOST any endeavor when broken down into its basic parts becomes understandable.

A great golfer once said that his game was simple because it only had two dimensionsdistance and direction. The Tiiple Crown in major league baseball, consisting of the best batting average, the most runs batted in and the most home runs in a season, has been won by only a few major leaguers. The doing is difficult but the understanding is easy.

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Similarly, football people measure skills in terms of blocking, tackling, running, passing and kicking. Easy to identify, complex to implement and manage, but, when effectively blended and applied, desirable results occur on the field.

Excellence comes from the skills of the PEOPLE involved. When a dealer asks how can anyone compete with this chain, a particular store or that activity, we answer with another questions"What skills do you think you need to combat them?"

Ultimately we get iuound to the chart reproduced here.

The idea behind the chart is to get companies to look inwardly and collectively at the performance of their PEOPLEtheir team members. Each manager is asked to rate the retail skills of the company by using the chart.

You can ask each of your key people to rate your organization's skills using this chart. You not only will show them where their efforts belong, you will find some real surprises in their answers.

You can get a numerical reading on your comp:rny by assigning a rating to each answer. Using a numerical value of I through 5 in the sequence in which the answers are described above, you €n c!mpute a grade point both individually and collectively. Such a composite will show management what the organization's p@ ple think of their skills. At the same time , it can be compa.red with what they ought to be, thus revealing where efforts are needed.

Next month we will look at where the competitive world stands in termsof rcailer skills.