Leadership and Trust

 

Another great week in class this week. Guy Kawasaki taught about building trust. He named many of the companies whose sale model seemed like a financial crisis waiting to happen but they did it anyway—they trusted their customers. Zappos was an example—they allow people to buy their shoes online without trying them on and they can even return for any reason. Nordstron was another example. I remember shopping there as a teenager with a swimsuit and a coverup on—I was worried that I would be treated poorly but I didn’t have time to head home and change before shopping. I was treated with such respect—I forgot I had just come from the beach. I’ve loved Nordstrom’s ever since. He said the pattern is this, the company trusts their customers and then the customers will trust the company—it always needs to go in that order.

Carly Fiorina spoke about Leadership and Capability—also an incredible message. She said leadership is about 3 things—capability, collaboration and character. We need the capability to ask questions and hear the answers. She says it is probably the most important aspect. Customer’s always know what’s wrong. If customer satisfaction is high, the company will be doing well. Customer satisfaction is the earliest indicator. She also taught that management is not leadership. Leadership is all about changing the order of things. We need to innovate and listen to our customers. She knew Dell was going down because their customer satisfaction was going down. She knew HP was going to pass it up because their customers were highly satisfied with the company.

I can see how these concepts can guide me as I’m building KneededLove—my cinnamon roll

company. I remember working for See’s Candy. I was told on my first day on the job that if I packed a box of chocolates and a customer left with them but came right back and claimed there were missing chocolate, that I should ask them what chocolates were missing and replace them, no questions asked. As a 16 year old, I couldn’t comprehend it. Now after this week in class, I understand.