Year-end presentation to employees

Business is Really about Conversations

It is the practice of this CEO of a manufacturing company in the Midwest to gather employees together for a “State of the Company” address. From the videotapes he sent me of past speeches, he tried to anticipate all the questions the employees might have. As a consequence, the CEO’s remarks were very long and, to my mind, a bit irrelevant. I think he understood that his approach was not working and that’s why he sought a professional speech writer. Why not, I asked him, build a Q&A session into the speech? Let the employees tell you what they wanted you to address. He saw the wisdom of this approach. The CEO also insisted on some new jokes. The speech I drafted for him mixed humor, some short remarks about the company (most of the details are omitted ere), and a Q&A session implemented by employees writing questions on index cards during a pause in the remarks.

Scoping Document

Event: Year-end presentation to employees
Theme: State of the company
Place: Grayslake, IL
Date: December 19, 2003
Audience: employees
Length: About 20 minutes, 1,717 words

Introduction

Good morning,

It’s wonderful to see all of you. Take a look around. This is our company. It’s good that we’re growing, but one of the downsides of growth is that it’s harder for all of us to be in the same room. That’s why meetings like this are so important.

I would also like to welcome the employees in Vienna, participating in this meeting through videoconferencing.

Let me tell you, it feels great to be standing up here in front of so many people. I’m a little nervous. I think this might be the largest audience I’ve ever addressed.

But I have spoken to smaller audiences.

Let me tell you a story about a time when I gave a presentation to an industry group and only one guy showed up.

Frankly, the guy looked like he had just come from a farm. He wore work clothes and had a straw hat.

I said, “Sir, you’re the only one here. Should I go on with my presentation?”

The guy stood up, looked at me for a while, and said, “Sometimes I go out to feed the cows but only one cow shows up. I still feed her.”

That seemed wise to me.

So I decided to give this guy the best presentation I could. I did my welcome. I told a few jokes. I went though my entire presentation, including the video, customer testimonials, overheads, slide show, and Power Point demonstration. After about two hours, I closed with two more jokes, a long forecast, and then asked if there were any questions.

The guy just sat there. Didn’t say a thing. Finally, I asked the gentleman what he thought.

The guy stood up, looked at me for a while, and said, “Sir, sometimes I go out to feed the cows and only one cow shows up. I feed her, all right. But I don’t feed her the whole load!”

You’ll be pleased to know that I’m not going to feed you the whole load.

In fact, we’re going to try something a little bit different this year.

I’m going to say just a few words about our progress this year and how proud I am of all of you for doing such a great job.

And then I’m going to let you determine what we talk about. In a few minutes, we’re going to pass out cards and invite you to write down some questions. Then I’ll try to answer as many as time will permit. So please think about the questions that are on your mind.

So what does this mean? Well, it means that if you want my views about NAFTA, globalization, and other world events, you are going to have to ask me.

It also underscores something that has always been true and is now truer than ever.

And this is that truth: Business is really about conversations.

Companies that don’t realize that are missing opportunities. That’s because our success depends on the quality of the conversations we have with our colleagues, supervisors, suppliers, partners, and most of all, our customers.

We have these conversations hundreds of times a day. These are the conversations that exchange information, perspectives, and economic value.

When you brainstorm with a colleague about a better way to do a task, that’s a conversation.

When the two of tell your supervisor, that’s another conversation.

When the company leverages that process improvement into lower costs or better product quality, that’s a conversation.

And when the customer realizes a benefit whether in the form of lower costs or higher quality, that’s a conversation I like to have.

In a way, these conversations are really what we manufacture and distribute. These are the conversations and decisions that determine how well we do in the course of a year.

And given our growth, I want to create another opportunity for us to talk to each other.

Before we get to the questions, I wanted to update you on the progress IMC Holdings has made this year and our goals for the next period.

(details omitted)

Q&A

At this time, I’m going to ask that index cards and pens be passed around. Since we have so many people, I’m going to ask that you submit just one question each. You don’t need to identify yourself. You can ask any question at all and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Please take a minute or two to write down your question and pass the cards back.

(Staff distributes writing materials.)

While Jack is sorting the questions for me, we have time for another joke.

Many of you are baseballs fans, so maybe you’ve thought about how umpires really decide when a pitch is a ball and when it’s a strike.

So this joke involves a reporter who asks three umpires how they decide whether to call a pitch a ball or a strike. They all talk about their positioning behind the catcher and other technical details, but the reporter is not satisfied. “That’s all well and good,” he says,” But how do you really decide?”

The first umpire hesitates and then simply says, “I call them as I see them.”

The second umpire says, “Maybe my eyesight is just a little better than yours. I call them as they are.”

The third umpire smiles and says, “They ain’t anything until I call them.”

I’m with the first umpire. I call them as I see them.

And I think that’s true for all of us.

We make hundreds of decisions a day. Many of these decisions have direct consequences for our customers. All we can do is make the best decisions we can, keeping in mind the values we stand for, calling them as we see them.

Being a CEO has its advantages in that I get to see the big picture and that give me a certain insight. It’s that insight I hope to share with you this morning. But just as important, from your questions, I hope to learn more about you consider important. So let’s take a look at what’s on your minds.

Conclusion

So let’s wrap up

I wanted the program this morning to give you a better understanding of how IMC is doing and how we are moving forward.

Each of you has a critical role to play in the evolution of IMC.

Let me conclude with an old story that I think sums up the situation facing us all.

There was once a wise old man everyone respected and admired. One day an uncertain young student wanted to humiliate the wise man by asking him a question that he could not possibly answer correctly. In other words, it was a set-up.

In front of a large audience, the uncertain young student held out his closed hand and said he was holding a tomato.

He then asked the wise man to tell the audience whether what he had in his hand was a whole tomato or a crushed tomato.

Now, the tomato was whole. But if the wise man said the tomato was whole, the uncertain young student intended to crush it in his hand and show the master to be wrong.

If the master said the tomato was crushed, then he planned to open his hand to show that it was whole.

So in any case, the wise man would be proved wrong.

Now the uncertain young student asked his question. “Old man, is the tomato in my hand whole or crushed?”

The wise man looked the uncertain young student in the eye, smiled, and calmly replied: “The answer, my son, lies in your hands.”

So it is with all of us.

IMC is what, together, we hold in our hands. It’s what we make of it.

So before we bring this morning’s program to a close, I again want to thank each of you for being here and for all your many contributions over the year past.

I hope you'll hold onto the encouraging things we have shared this morning. As you think about what we shared this morning, I hope you will come up with new ideas for what more we can do.

Our opportunities to achieve extraordinary results are limited only by our imaginations.

Our opportunities depend on open hands that help each other and open minds that embrace new ideas.

Thanks for being here and asking such good questions. And let’s have a round of applause for each other and for what we continue to create. Here’s to the best year yet.

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