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"Joe_Limon" (Joe_Limon) 01/10/2014 at 01:20 • Filed to: None

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I have a question about what you would do in my situation. But first I will provide some background information.

My story starts shortly after receiving my degree and heading out into the working world. I found a family owned company to work for that gives me far more freedom and creativity to my job then I would experience elsewhere.

When I started, I replaced the Fathers position preparing and detailing drawings for clients that our shop can use. He retired within a couple months and left me to fill his shoes design/drafting shoes, while he left his company to be run by his two sons.

Several months later, business slowed down, and I found myself with no work more often then I had work. So I sat down with the sons, and discussed how I was looking for more work. Shortly after, they gave me a glowing reference letter and as much time as I needed to find new employment.

I left the company and ended up bouncing between a couple jobs, was fired from the first company I found since they lost clients shortly after I was hired. The second job had zero direction, and I found myself with half a dozen projects that couldn't move forward as I was being hung up by other people.

While staring at the wall contemplating how bored I was, I received an email from that original employer saying they wanted me back. The person who replaced me was completely incapable of my position. Two weeks later I was back at my original employer. I was told, and have been told since that even if I am not busy most of the time, my value to the company is so great that I am worth every cent they were paying me. Since then, they have been contracting me out to other companies to fill my free time. Long story short, I love my job, and have tons of job security.

One thing I have noticed however, is that this company suffers from a serious flaw. One that I want to fix. The flaw is best summed up as improper communication. Everywhere from communication between different employees on the shop floor, to communication between departments, and even communication inside a department. It all sucks, and I have a handful of ideas to remove these bottlenecks.

These communication issues are causing jobs to run over budget/time as jobs are often reworked as per clients original specs, or clients are cimpletely being forgotten about for weeks at a time, simply because of a lack of communication between the shop foreman and whoever else takes in jobs.

The result is that the company is not profitable, people quit because the company can't pay them on par with its competitors or people get fired to cut back on costs. Then we are left with unskilled/new laborers, and the cycle repeats. More reworks, more clients list, less money to pay them.

The company is still owned by the parents, and the company chief is probably the mother, who, for the longest time was the companies accountant.

I have discussed options for improving the company with the brothers, sadly these suggestions quickly get forgotten about.

How would you fix this company in my situation? Part of me wants to sit down and discuss face to face with the parents what I see, and how I think the company could be better. But at the same time, I don't want to come off as criticizing how the company is being run.

Any thoughts/opinions?

desertdog5051 > Joe_Limon 01/10/2014 at 01:45

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Sounds like a familiar story. I have a friend who was a Commander? on a fire department. He retired from that. He was brought into his wife's fathers business that had many problems similar to what you describe. He started to analyze the problems and presented a comprehensive series of fix's to the owner. They were so impressed with his abilities and ideas and gave him somewhat of a "free rein" to turn the company around. Over a 9-10 month period of time, the company became more organized, the dead wood was trimmed out, and the company became more streamlined and efficient and profitable.

You sound like you have many of the same characteristics as my friend. Use your analytical mind to craft some innovative solutions and slowly convince the owners to consider using some of them. If they show results, you will be called on to do more and before long you will have possibly turned a company around. Good Luck.

Enginerrrrrrrrr > Joe_Limon 01/10/2014 at 01:51

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I think it's a great idea. In your talks you should definitely come off as trying to improve the company.

With some of your free time I would also suggest that you try to have a large part in making the improvements, it certainly sounds like you could be in a position to do so anyways.

With those two things I would say go for it. From my job I have noticed that if I have a suggestion and am willing to execute it, then it will get the support it needs. You just need to sell it to the bosses well. They obviously see you are a big asset and will probably listen to your ideas. Sounds like you might need to push a little harder though.

Good luck.

Leadbull > Joe_Limon 01/10/2014 at 02:29

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If the owners like you so much, then you're in a better position than anyone to bring about some change.

Life's short, go for it.

Big Bubba Ray > Joe_Limon 01/10/2014 at 02:40

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Put the wheels of change in motion and I believe that others will follow suit. I'm still in college but have had numerous part time jobs, one of which I began as a regular employee.

The place where I was working was horribly unorganized and there was a major lack in communication between employees, managers, and the owners. This bugged the hell out of me and I began to do things basically how I thought they should be done.

Long story short, after only about eight months of working at this certain place, I was promoted by the owners to be the general manager. I was 21 at the time and running three stores basically on my own with 25 employees under me; many of whom were older than I at the time.

Be the change you want to see at that company and I believe that people will recognize what you are doing and they will follow your lead It may seem stupid taking advice from somebody who is not even out of college and probably younger than yourself, but I thought I'd offer my two cents!

Good luck to you sir!

davedave1111 > Joe_Limon 01/10/2014 at 07:09

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It's often been my experience that people good at finding business aren't also good at running a business. As long as you have a good relationship with them and you're offering simple, constructive criticism, you'd hope they'd listen. I wouldn't have high hopes in your position, but then the employer sounds like a unicorn anyway :)

Anyway, don't just take the bosses a problem, take a solution. Sounds like they need a proper tracking system with established procedures to follow.

Jeff-God-of-Biscuits > desertdog5051 01/10/2014 at 08:06

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This. Write down what you think would be a good plan to reorganize the communication, as well as what you think would be a timeline to implement any changes. Make a note of what things will cost them as well as what they might reasonably expect as a return. Mention the "intangibles," (company reputation, retention of quality employees, employee morale) but dont let your arguement depend on them or you will get dismissed as nothing but a feel good story. See if you can come up with some projections about how much the bottom line will be improved once your ideas are put into place. If you can show her how to put money in her pocket, I'd bet she will be willing to listen.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Joe_Limon 01/10/2014 at 11:33

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Start small and offer concrete easy to implement solutions. From what you are saying it sounds like you guys do fabrication or assembly type work. Lean manufacturing has some pretty powerful and cheap/free tools that help. A good book on this is The Toyota Way by Jeffrey Liker.

One good tool is visual management. The common implementation is to put a whiteboard in each area that lists jobs and when they are due and what the status is. That way everyone sees what needs to be done and if something is behind schedule. Start by picking one department to work with and show how effective your suggestions can be. Definitely limit implementing things to one or two small things at a time. That way you can see if they have an impact and how effective they are.

As for getting the bosses buy in, I'm not really sure how to go about that. My suggestion would be to ask them if you can try out an idea or two in a specific department. Or tell them "here is what I am going to do, and this is why I am doing it". Tell them what you intend to do, how much it will cost and how it will improve the department and help the company in the long term.