Idearc Defined in Rhetoric

I share this list of questions which I have condensed from articles I have written or e-mails I have sent. It has been sitting idle for a while so I decided to dust it off and give it another whirl this morning.

So, here you go… feel free to respond and add your own questions… I would love to have new ideas to write about…

• If all we have is rules, then why do we need people? How many times have you seen “the rules” trump fairness, decency and the simple proposition of doing the right thing?

• Wall Street take note: With a potential minimum monthly spend of $55 for a Pay for Call, what accounting magic is taking place when we put it on the books for $400? Pump and dump?

• Do you think common sense and practicality will ever take precedence over officious, redundant, bureaucratic nonsense?

• Is it my imagination… do we work for an advertising company that does no advertising that is of direct benefit to sales? Good $30M campaign to please investors, though.

• When was the last time someone asked you about our Scratch and Win penetration numbers? In RI, the highest per capita gambling state, what are we really measuring?

• Anyone else think that our current model for pursuing new business is an abomination in the new corporate era of creating efficiencies?

• Do you think shareholders (Wall Street) connect(s) the dots between corporate culture, employee satisfaction and the dispassionate performance of money? They will.

• The ultimate morale booster for a job well done: Is it fair to have a senior tel rep successfully serve 3 years probation, get promoted and serve another 18 months probation as a premise rep… and then as the ultimate slap-to-the-back-of-the-head, not have your bonus gate numbers go with you? Start over schmuck, you’ve earned it.

• Do the people in credit services actually work for our company? We are a team. Yeah, right.

• When was the last time you advocated for a customer and were made to feel you were committing high treason?

• Which do you think is top-of-mind for the CEO, shareholder value or executive compensation?

• Isn’t it interesting that we don’t collect data on other advertising media and position our products in the context of an entire marketing mix? Yes, we are consultants. Say it enough times until you believe it.

• How many managers do you know that fit the adage, those who can’t do, teach?

• Would anyone define what Idearc marketing does - as marketing?

• How much do you think we spend with CRM Associates on an annual basis, to justify a fresh perspective on a reinvented wheel? If content is now king, have we been erroneously selling size for 50 years?

• What will we do when someone wants to put 6 ads under one heading when we are cutting them off at 5?

• Who is sick of seeing spreadsheets as the only measure of performance? Does quality count for anything?

• Who would agree that a 70% standards plan says everything you need to know about Idearc? Here’s the formula: grind to a pulp, keep morale low and expect optimal performance. The epitome of cutting edge management in the 21^st Century.

• For Sale: My Incentive Prize - Two Owner Stainless Steel Rolex

• Who thinks Frank Gatto (VP Sales) offers 1000% more value to the company than the average senior tel rep? ($75K vs $750K)

• Should longevity with the company automatically translate to competence and credibility?

• Do you ever feel a twinge of discomfort when saying you are affiliated with Verizon… the customer service heroes. This branding and legacy is a good thing?

• Isn’t it a travesty that we no longer boast of our company as a great place to work?

• Managers, Morals & Money: The Unseemly Truth

Most of these 'topics" will be covered in future posts. Please feel free to reply with any of your own "questions" or rhetoric.

Death of a Great Sales Job

When I arrived at the Verizon Yellow Pages a few years ago I was told by some of the older guys how the glory days had passed. Being new to my career I casually dismissed their regular rants about how the new leadership (primarily from Texas) had maintained profitability by cutting expenses and implementing cost controls. I didn’t really grasp (in those early days) how dire many of those guys must have been feeling. Now that I am a quasi-one-of-them, my head too is about to explode - and this is the best way I know to keep my brains off of the walls.

When Bell Atlantic and GTE got together in July of 2000 to form Verizon, the Bell Atlantic contingent in the northeast took somewhat of a whack when corporate operations landed in Dallas and the GTE leadership began calling the shots in terms of corporate strategy and day-to-day decision-making. For all intents and purposes this marked the beginning of the end of “The Golden Age” for what was once known as “the best sales job in America”.

With spreadsheets in hand in a declining print market, and with added pressures from print competitors and the internet, the Texans started the job of wielding the ax at items like labor contracts and support staff, instituting back door personnel culling practices in the form of unattainable performance standards, and holding performance for shareholders as the pinnacle in a hierarchy of values. Employee satisfaction and happiness as cultural mandates vanished.

Somewhere lost in this formula was the fundamental reality that the Verizon Yellow Pages (now Idearc Media Corp) had ceased to be a great place to work. As a relative newcomer, I am not nearly as invested (financially or emotionally) as many of the people with 15-20 years of service. However in speaking with them, their angst is palpable. It is a travesty to have been in love with your career and to have your affect for it skewered like a pig. It is more than distressing.

In a past area sales meeting, the company had the audacity to hire a speaker / sales trainer whose message was “work is not supposed to be fun… that’s why they call it work”. That sent a shockwave… We surmise she didn’t understand the concept of passion for doing a great job, aspiring to exceed customer expectations and providing value that goes beyond schlepping ads in a book. I don’t remember her name, but in retrospect, she was the perfect prognosticator for how my time with Idearc would evolve. Work is not fun. Goal accomplished.

I have a list of topics that I have written about that deal with corporate culture, decision-making, managers and management style… the transparency of values postured and their rub with the reality of working day-to-day… I encourage you to come back or subscribe to my RSS feed and get a real sense of what is going on with Idearc – employees, prospective employees, investors and casual observers alike. (will be up soon)

We are witnessing the demise of a once great selling enterprise. Now, as a self-proclaimed second-rate sales organization, we collectively show up every day to hold on to our security – tentative as it may be. Very few are optimistic as most mumble, “there must be a better way to make a living”. In the interim, we are stuck - held hostage by the necessity of health benefits and the crunch of mortgage payments.

We persevere. Why, many cannot articulate other than the inertia of the river continuing to sweep us downstream. And somehow every day we wake up and go “do it again” in a passionless culture for which we have supreme contempt. The reason for this contempt is very straightforward…

They killed a great job.