After the superbowl last night (a great game by the way), CBS aired its new program Undercover Boss (which I will watch on hulu or CBS) - the premiere episode was on Waste Management and the WSJ has a blog about it here - but I think this could be a very interesting show - and as those of you who know me know, I keep nagging you about doing this - perhaps not just undercover to see what's going on from a big-brother standpoint, but to understand what the folks you are responsible for really do, really put up with and how you can make their jobs easier so that your customers are happier.   Check out the show!

Yet again, Best Buy is changing the game - their main competitor is now Wal*Mart (perhaps Amazon?) but their traditional competitors have gone away.  This is a new ad they are running - very very clever I think!  Check it out -

A Little Freedom Goes a Long Way

A blog post in the WSJ details how a bank's branch manager noticed the queue outside getting longer before opening so she opened up early - despite corporate policy that all branches open/close at the same time (they thought that was key to brand equity).  Word spread - other branches were doing the same!!! Corporate relented but with great concern that the brand would be jeopardized.  However, given the new freedom, one branch even created a mobile bank - a trailer the size of an ice cream cart it towed around town!  Eventually, corporate realized this was a good thing - branches were building community, business was increasing - go figure!  So, how did they keep this transformation growing?

1) Incentives - they rewarded the right behavior to encourage innovation that enhanced, not diminished the brand: bonuses based on profits > plan, products sold, team-based success linked to sales and customer satisfaction; and

2) Information - they provided daily, detailed, clear P&L statements to the branches and trained branch personnel on understanding those statements.

So, sometimes if you allow people to 'open' and 'close' when they want,  a flood of innovation is unleased and you realize superior peformance in many ways!