WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHTBULB ?
If you stop and think about it , a community association can ’ t even change a light bulb without a service provider . Not that it is illegal for the association to do so , but it involves more than the maintenance worker . A goods and services provider had to sell the association the light bulb . Then there is the ladder , the electrical fixture , the pole or wall , the outlet , the studs , the foundation , and the roof . There has to be some place to store the light bulbs and ladder like a storage shed -- provided by a goods and services provider . What about the uniform the employee wears , the tools , the insurance , the vehicle ? The supervisor of the maintenance worker has an office that didn ’ t just appear totally stocked with office supplies and furniture . That office is most likely in a clubhouse with telephone / internet and a mailbox to which the invoices are delivered . Goods and services providers took care of all that too . Then if you keep going with your mind map , there are the roads that brought the goods and services to the community , and the landscaping and irrigation , signs , the gate , and it goes on and on and on .
So , stated again , a community association can ’ t change a light bulb without a goods and services provider ! The companies that support our community associations are vitally important . There are hundreds of thousands of such companies in the State of Florida . So how does a board of directors narrow down the field of providers ? Boards should want to do business with companies that will truly be business partners , not just a run of the mill goods and services provider . They should be choosing companies that are not just good , but great . But , if boards have the mentality they are just buying a light bulb , what difference does it make if the company is simply good but not great ? What makes a company great – a great business partner ?
There are several criteria to consider – we ’ ll look at three of them .
First , in today ’ s economy for a good to great company to have survived and emerged with a “ new normal ” they recognized there had to be necessary endings . Put another way , it is internal pruning . Pruning is not just cutting company expenses or tightening the company belt ; it is a strategic pruning with the company mission statement in full view .
For companies to have stayed alive over the past five years , they have strategically pruned goods , services , procedures , people and any other processes and activities that did not directly support the company mission statement . These companies did not “ hope ” for it to get better . They recognized the economy , if it did get better , would be a different better – a new normal . They faced reality that there are necessary endings . Many companies had grown fat – too many unnecessary layers of management , too many good products and services that prevented the best ones from shining and setting industry standards , too many meetings , and too many people who were not performing to their capacities .
Good to great companies may have used a mantra similar to the one used by Jack Welch , CEO of GE , several years ago . His mantra of “ Fix It , or Close It , or Sell It ” took GE from $ 26 billion in revenues to a $ 130 billion company and from $ 14 billion in market value to over $ 410 billion . Granted , our goods and services providers aren ’ t as big as GE and his mantra was extreme , but it ’ s obvious he did not sit around wringing his hands and wishing for things to get better . Popular or not , he fired the bottom 10 percent of his work force every year , and got rid of many layers of departmental management that slowed down communication , productivity , creativity and ideas . Companies that have faced reality and let go of the way things used to be are the ones that are surviving in today ’ s economy , and they are the ones communities should be hiring or buying from .
Second , providers that have taken the time to invest in the community association industry have done so by educating themselves about our unique type
SUPER RESTORATION SERVICE CO . 1701 NW 87TH AVE # 200 MIAMI , FL 33172
12