Articles by Gail ORoke

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A Word Can Paint a Thousand Pictures

August 30, 2011 in Internal Communications by Gail ORoke | No comments

IMHO & FWIW, TXT MSG ABV MNS, KNIM? (Translation: In my humble opinion and for what it’s worth, text messaging abbreviations makes no sense, know what I mean?)

Yes, texting is a real time saver, and the primary way many people (such as my 15-year-old-daughter and her friends) communicate. However, the more I see it, the more I worry about the lack of great, expressive written communication that we come in contact with.

Luckily the antidote to this lack of prose in our daily lives is simple. Make time in your day to read. Read newspapers, magazines and books; even if you can devote only 15 to 20 minutes a day. In our fast pace world of communication it is easy to fall into the habit of trying to just glean the facts from the words you’re reading. When reading for pleasure, take the time to relish the pictures created by the words. Take note of the way the writer turns a phrase. I’ve often borrowed phrasing and style from favorite authors as a way to express myself more clearly. The beauty of a well written piece is that you can lose yourself in the narrative. You can truly empathize with characters that have completely different experiences from your own. Something as simple as this can make understanding the perspectives of other (co-workers, customers, family members, strangers, etc.) easier, improving your interactions.

My personal reading passion is history. To try and keep from reading only history, I make a point of asking people I respect and like what they have enjoyed reading lately. This practice has lead to some great finds that I would not likely have picked up on my own. Sometimes I find these recommendations actual move to the top of my favorite-reads list.

So text away if that is the best way for you to quickly communicate, but remember to read, too. Through the (well-) written word you can release the stress of the day and expand your experiences without leaving your comfy reading chair.

TMOT, IRMC. (Trust me on this, I rest my case.)

Gail O’Roke, CDC
Vice President, East Bay Division

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It’s the Process not the Product

July 21, 2011 in Strategic Outsourcing by Gail ORoke | No comments

I’ve spent nearly 30 years in the office supply industry. During that time I’ve come to understand that the costs associated with activities surrounding supply purchasing far outweigh the costs of actual product.

The nature of general office supplies is that each individual item is not a high-ticket expense. From years of studying various procurement processes employed at a wide-range of customer organizations and of creating improved systems, it is possible to conclude that the time taken to selecting product, ordering product, receiving product, occasionally returning product and paying for product can be considered a high-ticket human resource expense.

Here are some tips to keep those processing costs down:

  • Avoid general shopping in mega-catalogs. The average office supply catalog is well in excess of a thousand pages. Although this tool can be helpful when looking for the occasional specialty item, purchasers can be overwhelmed when looking for general office supplies.
  • Establish a reasonable listing of frequently ordered items with good value brands selected for each product. For instance, most office supply dealers carry 14 brands of binders? One of those brands represents the best value binder. The other thirteen, to varying degrees, represent less value.
  • Work with a single-source whose pricing and service you trust. If your organization is shopping a number of suppliers, looking for the best price possible on an inexpensive item, the time spent comparison shopping completely erases the small gains in product price.
  • Establish cost center sub-accounts with your supplier. This allows for easy and accurate allocation of costs. It also ensures that packages are delivered clearly marked for with the appropriate department name.
  • Insist on summary billing. Processing many relatively small invoices each week is a drain on accounting personnel time. One monthly bill, if well prepared by the supplier, can save hours of work each month.
  • Work with a supplier that has a great on-line system that is easy to use and allows for site customization that is tailored to your company’s needs.
  • Work with a supplier that has a solid customer service team. Your organization specializes in your field, not in office supplies. Rely on the expertise of people who understand the products. Your customer service team should always be available for questions.

Using these simple principals we’ve created hundreds of procurement programs, saving our customers thousands of dollars each year in time and in product costs.

Gail O’Roke, CDC
Vice President, East Bay Division

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The Cacophony of Clutter

May 25, 2011 in Company Culture by Gail ORoke | No comments

This summer Golden Pacific Systems’ East Bay Division will be moving into a more efficient distribution center. We are all excited about the upcoming site improvement, and are eagerly anticipating the many benefits that our customers will reap from the efficiency upgrade. This is an overall positive event, but the change has caused some consternation as we look around our current office, where we have spent the better part of two decades, and realize just how challenging it will be to purge the collection of clutter prior to our move.

Twenty years is a long time, but this distraction of disorder could have been avoided by following a few simple rules:

  • Implement a clean desk policy where desks must be cleared of excess paperwork at the end of each day.
  • Date reports and miscellaneous material with an expiration date. Spend a few minutes each week reviewing items that have reached their “use or discard by” date and get rid of dead weight.
  • Ask the right questions when reviewing dated items, including: When was the last time you used it? Why would you need it again? Is it easily replaceable?
  • Discard newsletters or periodicals that are piling up for more than two weeks (either hard copies on your desk or electronic versions in your email).
  • Reevaluate stagnate “projects” that have been dormant for more than a month. If the benefits of completing the project are worth the time, take the time to get it done right away. If the benefits do not justify the time required, abandon the task.

Each unnecessary piece of paper within eyesight has its own little voice demanding attention and creating disorder.  Don’t expend energy ignoring those voices. Dedicate that energy to silencing them. You’ll be amazed at how must more productive you can be without the cacophonous chorus of clutter.

Gail O’Roke, CDC
Vice President, East Bay Division

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Reflections

April 6, 2011 in Innovation by Gail ORoke | No comments

Many of us glance momentarily in the mirror once or twice a day to make sure we are presentable. We don’t look closely at the details that make up our image. For everyone except 15-year-old girls (I know of what I speak; I have one of those at home) this occasional cursory glance is perfectly sufficient. However, what is true about our personal appearance is not true when it comes to the details of our business’ image.

The inner workings of a company can become too familiar to the very people who are responsible for ensuring that the organization remains perpetually attractive to the marketplace. What are you doing to keep fresh eyes on your organization? There are a number of ways guaranteed to keep from growing complacent. One of the surest is to join an executive group with an advisory board model.

This involves a real commitment and investment (both in time and dollars), but for C-level Executives there is no better way to hold your feet to the fire than by joining an executive group such as The Alliance of CEO’s (www.allianceofceos.com), Young President’s Organization (www.ypo.org), Vistage (www.vistage.com) or one of the many other options available.

These groups are typically made up of roughly a dozen executives from non-competing industries. With a professional moderator, members have monthly meetings where an “outside view” can look at your ideas or analyze specific business challenges. These meetings are not for the faint of heart. A dozen fresh pair of eyes, coupled with brutal honesty from peers is more fearsome to some executives than a bad hair day coupled with a prominent blemish is to a high school student. However, the results from this scrutiny can be revolutionary to your organization, and over time the face of your company that you see in the mirror can be stunning to both you and your customers.

Gail O’Roke, CDC
Vice President, East Bay Division

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Are You A Daredevil?

February 15, 2011 in Innovation by Gail ORoke | No comments

I learned a valuable lesson one summer from an unlikely source: A beautiful blonde in a bathing suit, frolicking at the shore of a peaceful mountain lake…Wait! Did I mention the beautiful blonde was my six-year old daughter? She was climbing a large rock by the shore when a young boy joined her. She turned to him to say, “Are you a daredevil? I’m a daredevil. I was born a daredevil. I’ll probably die a daredevil.” As I keep one eye on my daredevil, making sure that this particular day was not the day she was to “die a daredevil”, I start to think about what it means to be a daredevil.

A daredevil is a risk taker, someone willing to go out on a limb and take chances. Most of us in business have some daredevil in us. The most successful go out on a limb to meet our customers’ needs everyday. Those who are willing to take some risk are the ones who are likely to come safely out of the current economic doldrums. Those who are determined to play it safe, and to run their businesses as if nothing ever changes, are the people who are really in danger.

Are you a daredevil? Do you go looking for trouble at your top clients rather than hoping that no news is good news? Do you ask tough questions of your customers such as:

Are we losing business to a competitor?
What can we do to make our services and products more valuable to you?
Is your business slowing down?
What can we do to help you regain your top line?
What can we do to help you streamline your system?
How can we improve our billing system or our reports to give you more valuable information?

The simple act of asking such questions means taking a risk. Sometimes the customer asks for things that we had not considered providing. This is when the REAL daredevil action kicks in. But the truth is if you are not asking the questions today, your competitor is asking them tomorrow.

Take the risk – be a daredevil!

Gail O’Roke
Vice President, East Bay Division

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