5 Rules You Should Eliminate Now

The dirty little secret of business today: there really are no agreed-upon ways of doing business anymore. Every company does everything differently, and you can’t really compare them because there are no controlled experiments. So it isn’t a science.

But here are five very old rules that I see successful companies breaking all the time. I thought they’d give you some food for thought - unless you’re already breaking all of these– which I very much doubt.

1. Set working hours

Forget 9 - 5. Try to get rid of face time. All your team should have goals they’re accountable for but when and where they’re achieved really doesn’t matter. Some people work well at night, some early morning, some don’t get up til noon. I’ve always told my employees that, as long as they didn’t mess their co-workers around, I didn’t care what hours they worked. No one let me down.

2. Limit vacation time

The communications firm Global Tolerance doesn’t give employees vacation allowances. They just trust people to manage their time on and their time off in such a way that co-workers and clients aren’t disappointed. With a 40% per year growth rate for the last 4 years, this does not appear to have hurt them. To the contrary, it’s one of the things that has provoked high levels of commitment.

3. Agonize over maternity leave

Everywhere I go, business owners tell me that, sure, they want to hire women - but especially in small companies, losing a key employee for weeks or months on end, due to maternity, isn’t feasible. In Europe, where there’s statutory maternity leave (actually there is everywhere in the world except Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland and the U.S.), being required to give women time off enrages many men. Every woman I’ve ever employed wanted to come back to work and wanted not to lose touch. With each one, I reached a different agreement about how we’d manage the time off - and in no case was I disappointed. Some did a day a week all through their leave; some wanted to come back early and take time off later. All these formations worked.

By the way, individuals may choose whether or not to have kids but they can’t choose whether or not to have parents. So think about maternity leave as your rehearsal for the day when most of your workforce have elderly parents they need to attend to.

4. Fire slowly

Everyone makes mistakes hiring, whether they are quick and instinctive or slow and methodical. And usually that mistake is obvious in the first 6 months. Do not think you can turn this around. It’s distracting, time-consuming and you will fail. If you goofed, ‘fess up and move on.

5. Skimp on severance

This comes via Jonathan Kaplan, CEO of Pure Digital. “We gave our workers four to six months’ severance, even if they’d worked only four months. You might think that’s crazy. But it was our mistake to hire that person. And it’s not that much money, really.” Of course those employees left the company feeling pretty good about it - and spreading the word that it was a good place to work. Cheaper than headhunters!

Are there any old rules that you’re breaking? Would you try breaking these five? Why or why not?

How to Bring Harry Potter-like Popularity to Your Business

The final Harry Potter film has opened and everyone’s very tearful. I’m sure that Warner Brothers have been worrying for years about what to do now the cash cow has grown up and left home. They’re no doubt scouring the world for Potter-esque clones.

And while I’d be the last person to undervalue the books and performances which made the series so winning, plenty of other kids’ movies started with beloved best sellers and star-studded casts that just couldn’t be sustained.

So how did the Harry Potter series manage to maintain its quality and the commitment of its audience? I’ve visited the set several times and come to the conclusion: They broke most of the rules of movie-making. And many of the Potter rules of success could be used in others’ business.

1. Improve collegiality

The whole series had one over-arching producer, David Heyman, who worked with four directors - all of whom shared their knowledge and insights with each other. “Chris spent time with Alfonso,” Heyman reflected. “Alfonso spent time with Mike and Mike spent time with David, showing him an early cut of the film, talking through what it means to be a director and how they went about it and any sort of titbits that they can pass on. And it’s a really collegial and supportive environment between directors.”

2. Keep a good team together

Of course, many of the actors remained the same. But they were also long-time colleagues, many of them graduates of RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.) So the fantastic training and experience of the cast set a standard. Moreover, they didn’t just turn up for the day but were well known to one another, having worked together on different projects for years. Mutual trust matters; it means you can start on a basis of trust and share a language you don’t need the time to develop.

3. Favor permanence

This isn’t a word you hear very often, either in the film industry or any other industry these days. But many of the designers, sculptors, painters and runners spent years working together on these films. When I visited the set on several occasions, they all commented on how much they appreciated not just continuous employment but long-term commitment to a project that didn’t change or collapse after a few months. It inspired ever higher levels of perfectionism in their work. “It’s not,” one sculptor told me, “just because it’s the first time I ever got to work indoors! I’m psyched that I’m surrounded by people who do great work and I won’t want to let them down.” You don’t get this when everyone can be cast out tomorrow.

4. Respect and honor the customer

Another remarkable comment I heard often concerned the audience. “You know how much these stories mean to kids. That means you have a lot to live up to.” What made this remarkable is that it is rare in the movie business for anyone to think about viewers - with respect. But on this movie, most contributors had, or knew, kids for whom these stories were magical. They were proud of their association and wanted to be able to show their work with pride.

What’s intriguing and ironic is that, for the last 20 years, the movie industry has regularly been cited as an example of how quickly, effectively and cheaply teams can be assembled and abandoned. But the Harry Potter series has gone from strength to strength because that is not the way that it worked. Instead, like-minded people were brought together for years, instilled with pride in their work and long term commitment to each other.

Could that model of work ever catch on?

Does Every Business Really Need Twitter?

How necessary is a Twitter account for good customer service? The conventional wisdom is that you can’t have one without the other.

A new survey from InboxQ supports that assumption. It found nearly 60 percent of Twitter users said they would be more likely to follow a brand that answered them, and 64 percent said they would be more likely to make a purchase from that brand.

The poll also showed that customers go to Twitter with service-related questions. The top queries:

1. Product recommendations and advice

2. Tech support

3. Local suggestions

4. Entertainment

5. Sports

6. Health

7. Travel

8. Music

9. Careers

10. Fashion

The number one, two and possibly the number-three question on Twitter has customer-service implications.

“Your business will earn more followers and increase sales by answering questions on Twitter,” the InboxQ research concludes.

Uh, not so fast.

When Being on Twitter Hurts Business

While it’s undoubtedly true that many brands can benefit from having a Twitter account and answering questions from their customers, I’m not convinced that every company needs to be engaged in microblogging.

First, it’s not being on Twitter that matters – it’s answering queries in a timely way.

One of the case studies frequently cited is Delta Air Lines, with its @DeltaAssist account. I’ve spoken with passengers who have asked a question through @DeltaAssist and received a quick answer. They’re usually happy.

But what tends to get glossed over in citing Delta’s social-media success is that this isn’t the airline’s first foray into Twitterland. A previous Twitter account was monitored intermittently, and customers couldn’t always rely on it.

Fact is, there are other airlines out there – and they know who they are – that don’t pay much attention to their accounts. Instead of integrating Twitter into their customer service operations, they make it the responsibility of their public relations staff, which is already stretched to the limit. Questions aren’t always answered in a timely way – or at all.

Those companies are probably better off deleting their Twitter accounts. After all, the foundation of this social networking tool is real-time interaction. If they can’t follow the rules, they shouldn’t bother.

The other area of concern is one I raised in a panel discussion at a recent social media conference. I asked the impertinent question, “Does every business need to be on Twitter?”

I mean, I can see how a cruise line needs a Twitter account, but what about a yacht builder? An airline, yes – but what about a charter jet company that deals with large corporate customers?

Wouldn’t a Twitter account be a distraction, if not a drain on a company’s resources? And could you automatically assume that in the absence of a Twitter account, that it doesn’t care about customer service?

(My comments were met with silence. Now I know what the other Chris Elliott feels like when his jokes bomb.)

I’m not at all convinced that Twitter is necessary to provide good customer service, or that not having a Twitter account means you don’t care.

Are you?