Penchuk.com

This article talks about the preparation involved with presenting Steve Jobs’ “keynote” at a major Apple event.  This paragraph struck me as something that is incredibly important concept regarding leadership.

When Steve steps out on that stage, with its stark black-on-black colour scheme, and does his apparently simple demos, he brings the combined energy and talent of all those people and many more back in Cupertino, California, and channels it to the audience. It makes me think of a magnifying glass used to focus the power of the sun on one small spot until it bursts into flames.

That’s a very interesting way to say that a leader is the one that harnesses the combined skill of his/her employees into the desired action. It’s something that I will try to keep in mind in my daily experiences at the office.  And when later on in the article I read that Steve Jobs “has little or no patience for anything but excellence from himself or others,” I understand why his speeches are so powerful.

Just read this article at FastCompany about “The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart”.  It’s a very interesting article about Snapper lawnmowers but a few things caught my eye:

The main manufacturing line for Snapper’s entry-level walk-behind mowers–with 28 people–was recently charged with producing 265 lawn mowers in an eight-hour shift. The group hit the mark exactly. That’s a new lawn mower, from loose parts to sealed box, every 109 seconds.

That’s pretty amazing when you think about it.  What can you do in 109 seconds?

Here’s another.

Snapper technicians start every riding mower before it leaves the McDonough plant. At the “hot start” station, a man wearing ear protectors squirts gas into the fuel tank and oil into the crankcase, pulls the starter cord, and brings the machine to life. He runs through all the gears, checks speed, engine performance, the mounting of the seat. The engine is given just enough fuel for the “run in.” If the mower passes all the tests, the man sucks the oil back out and sends the mower on to be boxed.

As Sumners watches, one of the riding mowers takes two pulls to start, then comes to life with a rough growl. In the blink of an eye, the technician shuts it down. “Did you hear how that sounded?” asks Sumners. “It’s not right. That’s a bad one.” The mower is shunted off to be inspected and properly tuned if possible. “If we didn’t,” says Sumners, “that mower would have gone to a customer.“

It’s all about creating a superior customer experience.  Snapper has created a culture where even the guy testing the lawnmowers cares about the customer experience.

A few months back I read an article about Honda and their marketing approach for their hybrid gas-electric cars. The gist of the article was that Honda was positioning the hybrid feature not as an environmental or gas/cost saving benefit, but rather was trying to say that having the technology would make the vehicle a better car. Pickup and acceleration would improve as a result. Gas mileage on the other hand would improve, but only ever so slightly. And for this, you the consumer would only pay about $7,000 more than a typical, standard gas powered car. (I really wish I had blogged about it…)

I remember thinking to myself at the time, “Self, why would Honda do this? The first thing that everyone thinks about when a hybrid car is mentioned is ‘What kind of mileage do you get?’ Does their marketing make any sense?” To me, this marketing blunder is almost as bad as anything Domino’s Pizza does (remember “Bad Andy“?). But I digress.

So today I read in the Wall St. Journal about a change Honda is making (I really, really wish I had blogged about it…).

When it was launched in late 2004, the Accord Hybrid’s selling proposition was that it offered the performance of a large-displacement V-6 engine (253 horsepower) with the fuel economy of a four-cylinder engine. For this, Honda hoped that consumers would pay something like $31,000, or roughly $8,000 to $9,000 more than the average Accord’s transaction price, as measured from data collected by the Power Information Network.

Honda ran headlong into what I call the “Hybrid Calculator Conundrum.” Anyone (including some journalists) armed with a simple calculator can run the numbers on how much fuel an Accord Hybrid will save compared to a standard Accord over a typical year’s driving, figure the cost of that fuel, and then figure out how long it will take to recover the extra money spent on the hybrid versus a standard, four-cylinder Accord.

In the case of the Accord Hybrid, this calculation is simple. A four-cylinder Accord EX sedan with automatic transmission is rated at 24 miles per gallon in the city, 34 highway. The asking price, with leather seats, is $25,500. The Accord Hybrid’s asking price, for 2006, is $31,540 with freight charges. The rated mileage for the redesigned car is 25 miles per gallon in the city, and 34 highway. (That’s down from 29/37 city highway because the 2006 car is heavier.)

The consumer whose real priority is fuel economy won’t save much if any gasoline in return for a $6,000 price premium. But they will be able to accelerate faster between stop lights.

I love that last line. The article also mentions that the Accord Hybrids spend an average of 136 days to sell compared to 32 days for regular Accords. This is just a textbook case of someone completely misreading the marketplace. They didn’t match their product to what buyers want. The “Hybrid Calculator Conundrum” is exactly right. As a Honda owner that has been very happy, I’m a little disappointed in them.