Bottoms Up!
Date Posted
05.26.08
How does management style affect creativity?
It's worth looking into how the Japanese treat their auto factory workers, and how their actions from decades past are still shaking the U.S. auto industry today.
They paid their workers ten cents a day and forced them into submission, right?
No.
The Japanese empowered their workers and created a business culture that was (and all too often still is) the opposite of ours.
It's a long story, but the short version is this - and it directly applies to radio:
The Japanese wanted a piece of the worldwide auto market, and their initial attempt was typical. They tried to win on cost. They implemented a system of "lean production" where they stripped the cost of production to the bone. Gee, doesn't that sound familiar?
What they got for their effort was a very affordable car that wasn't worth the metal it was made of. Garbage. But, let's be honest... cheap sells. And their cars did sell. And they broke down. As George Bush once said, "Fool me once, shame.... shame on you. Fool me twice, I won't get fooled again." (...Grin)
The Japanese realized the strategy of cheap would lose in the end as competitors built more reliable cars.
This is one area where I believe radio is dead wrong today. Cutting costs to the bone is a short term strategy that will lead to long term failure as competing forms of media become either more entertaining, or equally entertaining with fewer commercials.
This is one area where I believe radio is dead wrong today. Cutting costs to the bone is a short term strategy that will lead to long term failure as competing forms of media become either more entertaining, or equally entertaining with fewer commercials.
Radio can't win by cost cutting. But radio can win by outperforming... and that's exactly what the Japanese auto industry realized they needed to do to compete with the U.S.
Their next attempt at taking on the U.S. auto industry was through a system of what they called "optimum-lean" production.
Optimum-lean didn't mean even more cost cutting. Instead, it meant running appropriately lean and investing in their workers. It meant doing a better job of hiring the best people to work in all areas of a factory from management all the way down to the worker on the line. It also meant teaching their workers and above all - this is the most important part - it meant empowering them.
In a Japanese factory, a lot more is expected of a worker than to just make the product. The worker is expected to become an expert at their job to the point where he or she can find and implement better ways of making the product, be it through eliminating waste or through innovation. I'm talking about individual creativity, and, even more importantly, empowerment.
To this very day, Japanese auto workers are expected to literally stop production of the line if quality is threatened.
The Japanese approach was the exact opposite of ours, and by the 1990s as their cars overtook ours in terms of quality, style and reliability, it was pretty clear whose approach was superior. Even today, for American workers right here in the U.S. of A., there's a difference between how it's done at the auto factory making American cars in Detroit and the auto factory making Japanese cars in Kentucky.
Obviously, the auto industry is far more complicated than that, and there were plenty of other advantages and disadvantages on each side. My post is only intending to address how workers are treated, what is expected of them, and how the two approaches had a direct effect on he level of creativity, and thus, quality.
I'm not saying the Japanese are better. I'm saying a system of top-down management is worse. And that is exactly what deregulation brought to radio.
I highlight that because it is damn important.
Deregulation brought us huge radio corporate structures that govern their properties like a factory, and the approach isn't working.
Deregulation brought us a system where a jock in Baltimore can come up with ideas for a better show that won't air because they don't fit the Clear Channel operating procedure. Deregulation brought us a system where a program director in San Francisco can't change the course of his or her station to fit the market because it's not what CBS deems appropriate.
Deregulation is turning a creative medium into a factory with an outdated business model. Might as well be building Pintos, eh? Or maybe you're at more of a Chevy Nova kind of station.
Detroit isn't the only place where we're learning the hard way that strategy doesn't work.
Scared
A Random Entry From The Archives
04.06.05
If you want to really scare people... and I believe this to be true for broadcasting as well as business in general ...don't bother talking about risks. Don't waste your time discussing potential for failure. Don't yammer on about doom and gloom.
If you really want to see them shake - come up with a better plan.
Mediocrity is easy. It feels safe. It's like a warm blanket. You didn't put much effort in, so the reward isn't great - but hey, you didn't risk much either, right? In most people's eyes, that's a winning proposition.
Most would prefer to coast along.
And why not? They worked hard. Certainly, after some hard earned success, they should be able to rest on their laurels.
...right?
And that's how one begins to embrace mediocrity.
Maybe just a little at first. ...It was a Friday... he could leave early just this once. Go home, make time for a shower and a shave before his big night out. Certainly he's earned that.
Friday's early night out becomes Wednesday's long lunch and next Thursday's promo that's, y'know, good enough... eventually leading to Monday's show-prep that's really not that important - or next month's contest that will be the spitting image of last month's contest... and the contest before that.
So be it.
It's good enough to get by - and if you're doing well, then.... why not?
Then one day, a guy comes along and says "hey, what if we don't give away qualifying prizes this weekend? What if we - instead - put every single caller in a drawing to win the grand prize?"
...but that's not how we do it here...
"Yeah! We'll flood the airwaves with people getting in the drawing. It'll sound like we're having winners all weekend long every time somebody turns on the radio!"
...but that's not how we do it here...
"I mean, really, what good does it do to push 18 winners into Monday morning's 7:20am grand prize drawing when we could have hundreds?! Now THAT'S recycling dayparts."
...but that's not how we do it here...
And the next thing you know, you're scared.