Teaching receptive everyday people of the world (at their pace, usually within 6 to 12 months) to be high-level, quality, all-around, rock-solid, Rolls Royce type leaders of upstanding character.  Guaranteed!

... or ... could easily be entitled
How To Principles To Turn Around ANY Entity or Department From Complete Overhaul To Simply A Tweaking For Rock-Solid Success Going Forward

Businesses can be defined into several groups - entrepreneur up to 5 employees, small business from 6 to 250 employees, medium sized business from 250 to 1000 employees, large business over 1000 employees, mega-business with upwards of 50,000 to 100,000 employees as well as international businesses at each of the above ranks, meaning almost any business with either business relations in more than one nation or business entities in more than one nation.

Each type of business requires a different set of guidelines and tailoring.  

The Founder & President's Favorite Type Of Business

The Founder and President's personal favorites have been entrepreneur up to 5 employees and small business from 6 to 150 employees.  

He loves these groups.  And he prefers that they have problems.  Quite frankly, the more the better.  The "Basket Cases" ready to close the doors if not somehow corrected.  

AND, the owner or top management realizes that situation and is willing to take drastic action bringing in someone like himself from outside the company to either be an objective 3rd party consultant, coach or take active charge of the situation doing "whatever is necessary".  

He loves the overhauls.  And, these type businesses.  His former specialty.  Yet, he hasn't found any business that he couldn't tweak in some way.

Usually, a lot can be done within 6 months.  Hence, his comment "from Basket Case to Rolls Royce leader in 6 months" is still valid.  Again, it is tackled differently depending on whether the business is an Entrepreneurship or depending on the size of the small business - really small, medium small or large small or extra large small.

Having said that, the real challenges are those small businesses that have reached a certain level and have reached a plateau.  They are stuck at that certain level and can't seem to make it to the next level.  Those are real challenges I also love.  They have made the huge first step and just need to go back to the basics and tweak their own vision.  Sometimes, it only takes a small bit.  Other times, it takes a major overhaul.  Then, really watch the miracles.

Strong Suggestion ... And ... Miracles CAN & DO Happen

Strongly suggest go out and rent or borrow the 1989 movie Field Of Dreams and watch it.  More information about this film should be understood as an excellent basis for any business.  

Once this movie has been watched and more information dug into, suggest then think about it.  Ponder it.  ... and, ... then, YOUR project.  YOUR special "project".  How strongly can YOU visualize the outcome of your project?  Is it real to YOU?  How real?  Can you taste it?  Feel it?  Hunger and thirst for it?  How badly would you want it?  Are YOU serious ... or, ... just flapping your gums?

It really can be yours.  Miracles CAN and DO happen.  This AGS Life Academy is one of those examples.  In more ways than can be imagined.  In a sense, it is the Founder and President's field of dreams.  People have already started to come with no advertising nor marketing.  His goal is 2 billion students.

How serious are YOU?  Dream a little...

Double The Size Of The Business Within 1 Year?

He considers his favorites fun as in the process of turning them around, to him, it is important to have fun.  He knows what the future holds.  A future high quality Rolls Royce type leader in whatever industry that entity is in can be reality in just 6 short months.  

Possibly not only correcting the "issues", but setting the ground work up to double the size of the company within the first year, assuming that is the direction the owner or top management is interested in.  

Personally, he looks to  grow  businesses.  Not shut them down.  That is, unless shutting them down is appropriate for whatever reason.

4 Common Pitfalls Of Many Businesses

There are 4 common pitfalls of many businesses.  A good manager, regardless of the goals they may have, needs to be aware of those pitfalls and potentially address them before they become an issue.  

By the way, if a business has a complaint department or receives more than 6 complaints in a month, there IS a major problem with the company that needs to be dealt with.  There really is no reason for complaints ... IF ... the company sincerely puts the client first and means it.  This attitude MUST come from the top down.  The very top of the top.  

Several solutions exist to reduce the complaints AND eliminate them altogether, regardless of the size of the company.  Remember why the business exists - do serve the owner/managers/employees ... or ... the customer in the form of a service(s) or product(s)?

Goals Of Any Leader ... Or Should Be Goals Of Any Leader

1.  Have the right mind set of proper government, purpose, drive, organization, compassion, empathy, love and a whole lot more, which AGS Life Academy teaches

2.  Make the company efficient & productive & profitable

3.  Stop the bleeding & grow the business perhaps doubling the size and profits in 6 to 12 months

4.  Build a team atmosphere with a common goal, objective & vision all working together in unity

5.  Re-train employees to serve and do more than what is expected with all their might and have it come from within them

          a.  trim those that prefer to work elsewhere giving them that opportunity to do so

          b.  hire and train a new cadre of team players

          c.  create a reputation as the place to work

6.  Raise the standards in products & services supplied & corresponding reputation to be the best in the industry

          a.  major campaign through on-going internal & external newsletters, email & fax blasts, social networks, company websites & internet organs, various public media targeted to employees and their families, various vendors, to local community, to the various past & current & future customers and community at large

          b.  be a willing and knowledgeable resource for media to call on for industry information & create opportunities for the media to call the company 

7.  Be flexible to "roll with the punches" for almost anything turning negatives into positives quickly

8.  Have fun in the process teaching others to have fun in the process as well

How To Implement - assuming you've gone through The Foundation

1.  Take Stock

- Take stock and do complete analysis of entity, department or whatever as to its strengths, its weaknesses, its assets as well as its liabilities.  This includes not only materially, but human resources as well.  Take into consideration the original goals, the past, the present and the future expectations of the entity.  

Attitudes are important.  Look at the mind sets.  Are they receptive to learn and change or do they fight it or fight government rebelling against it or be counter productive undermining it?

You may want to check out the Sales and Marketing page as well as some other pages here at AGS Life Academy.  Another page you may want to check out concerns what "turnover" costs the company.  Out of pocket initially AND more importantly, indirectly.  Check out the Employee Turnover page to lower the turnover rate substantially.

- Look at all the options, solutions, consequences as well as the goals and values of the company, the entity AND the individuals - owners,  the key individuals in and out of management and workers on all levels.  

- Don't forget those that may interact with the entity outside the entity.

- Look at all the known problems and analyze them.  Speculate on potential others.  Attempt not to be blind-sighted.  Be objective AND realistic.

- Bottom line - is the company, department or entity viable to continue?  Is it worth saving?  Or does it need to be reduced or expanded to be even more viable or salvageable?  Are the human resources salvageable as is, need re-training or helped to find other opportunities?

2.  Plan

- Create a comprehensive yet detailed vision for the entity, department, whatever.  Must know human nature, cultures of the world, history of nations and their peoples, today's society in general projecting out where it is all headed as well as everyday business 101 basics and finally the specific goals and objectives AND values of the single entity in question.

- Build in flexibility taking human nature into consideration knowing what works more often than not.  Time-tested & proven old-fashioned principles are usually better and more sure than pie-in-the-sky (more "modern" hypothetical) unproven-over-time principles.

- Two aspects - the short term and the long term.  The short term plan is to stop the bleeding while the more long term plan is survivability and come out of the crisis alive and well.

- Get general buy-in from those leaders and key people in that entity ... or ... begin replacement procedures with or without their knowledge.

3.  Implement

- Create step by step procedure to go from Point A - where you are currently - to Point B - The Plan or Vision, where you want to be in the future.

- Create job descriptions and standards of performance for each position within organization from the top down building in flexibility and results oriented.  Again, check out the Employee Turnover page and consider this seriously.

This section can add substantial profits immediately as well as chop needless expenses one normally doesn't think about.

Teach each position to look to the head, the vision, the objective, the law of the land, government from the top down and not usurp their authority.  To be very positive and uplifting and encouraging in their outlook.

There is some merit to the Peter Principle where some people are at their capacity in certain positions and when they are promoted to other positions, they become the square peg in the round hole so to speak.

Remember that sometimes the new broom sweeps clean as the expression goes.  And when that is necessary as well as sometimes to set an example, do so with love, dignity and compassion.

Sometimes, it may be necessary to re-align resources to where they fit better so they can be happy and the company is happy and the customer is happy due to a good product or service with no mistakes.  isn't that our goal?

Realize most people have never been trained in how to live life nor in how to work or even how to think.  One of the purposes of AGS Life Academy.

People have learned it all "on the job" so to speak to various degrees of success.  They really need to begin to learn that the first thing they need to learn is that they need to learn.  None in the world today are truly educated in the basics.  Even college grads AND PHDs (meaning in all too many cases - Piled Higher and Deeper, with all due respect).

People suffer until they learn that they need to learn.  They must get to the point of being willing to be taught.

The 4 stages of growth before later on becoming a Champion - 1.  Unconscious Incompetence, 2.  Conscious Incompetence, 3.  Conscious Competence, 4.  Unconscious Competence and then finally after much practice, practice, practice long before becoming 5.  a Champion.  

They need to learn that they don't know and really must start to go through each stage all over again beginning from stage one.  Cause and effect.  That desire to educate oneself is important to instill from the beginning in EVERYONE.  

Actually, according to a recent study, some of the best business leaders love self-education.  They consider themselves to be permanent students.  Students in many regards.  Are YOU a leader that loves education?

Some of the human resources are more willing and flexible to the new broom than others.  Keep in mind the longer term survival of the company instead of the short term immediate profits one might loose if a key member is released to find their niche elsewhere.

Creating A TEAM, A Unified TEAM

You want a TEAM.  A team that is working together and not disjointed, each doing their own thing.  Each doing their own thing has never worked and it won't work in the future.  So, the faster you get everyone on the same page the better.  

Again, do it in love, dignity and compassion helping those that don't want to stay find something elsewhere more to their liking.  Go forward in unity.  Remember what it was like when YOU were an employee and how YOU felt with your employer.  Therefore, treat all employees as you would have wanted to be treated.  With compassion.  With empathy.

The manager should want people to work for THEIR reasons rather than his or her own reasons.  Doing that, they are self motivated rather than constantly prodded to do the job they were hired to do.  And it will usually be done better than if you were over their heads saying work, work, work.  Now, if you can raise their standards so their reasons match your reasons, then, aren't they, in essence, working for YOUR reasons without realizing they are?

6 months is all that it should take.  Probably a lot less.  Unity is the key AND should be one of the goals.  All working in unity towards that goal YOU as the General Manager has determined is the goal the company needs to follow to achieve the other business and net profit making goals.  

It will make your exit goal that much easier as you develop several potential replacements.  Actually, in each department or section of the business.

A side comment that is appropriate here.  Love as defined by The Bible (1st Corinthians 13:4-8) and the Moffat translation says it best.  "Love is very patient, very kind.  Love knows no jealousy;  love makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful;  love is never glad when others go wrong, love is gladdened by goodness, always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best, always hopeful, always patient.  Love never disappears."

In other words, it is giving, sharing, serving and helping others in an outgoing unselfish concern for others and we should do it at all times, regardless of circumstances.  Reminds the Founder and President of the 10 Commandments of Leadership someone gave him he does not remember when or where or from whom.

Another side comment to the side comment.  He's found that giving, sharing and being concerned for others always comes back in various ways positively and when one least expects it.  Sooner or later it always does.  he built a genuine, self-generating and self-sustaining practice on that and other principles being taught here at AGS Life Academy.  This Academy is one example of giving to others without expecting anything in return or just plain service.

And it can happen to YOU and YOUR organization as well.

Service, Quality, Value & Price

Why is it that hotels are not known for their restaurants?  Why is it that they are usually empty?  If their hotel is full, shouldn't their restaurants be likewise?  They do have a reputation, don't they?

When he was Food Service Manager for a hotel in Ohio, which was part of a high quality chain, our 24 hour 53 seat coffee shop, our linen on the table with fresh cut flowers on the table and gold leave names of reservations on each placemat dining room and fine lounge was almost always full.  

The coffee shop had a waiting line in the hall to get in for almost every meal, including the midnight snacks.

The dining room almost required reservations every night beginning from 5 PM up to 10 and 10:30 PM.  The Friday and Saturday nights reservations were almost always full by Tuesday or Wednesday.  And many times people with reservations had to wait to be seated at their table as previous guests didn't want to leave.  They lingered longer than "normal".

The lounge was the overflow area for those waiting for their reservations in the dining room as well as some hotel guests that didn't realize eating in our facilities was different than the norm.

WHY?  Simple.  The restaurant/lounge/coffee shop quality was high.  They provided value.  It was great and the prices were reasonable.  So much so, that the establishment earned the prestigious award and national recognition for being one of the best food establishments in the country.  Never mind that this one was IN A HOTEL.

What are we saying?  If you lower your prices to be reasonable so you can make a decent profit without being greedy, if you give high quality value for what is charged and provide the service, your guests or customers will come.  The old adage, "If you build it, the people will come." principle.

Lower your profit margins and gain overall.  Look at McDonalds who built an international chain making a fraction of a penny per item and then selling them in bulk.  Tom Hopkins says in his internationally recognized sales training seminars, "Sell them in bunches like bananas."

Government From The Top Down

Contrary to those who promote doing things in committees or from the ground up, it has been proven by experience too many times that the only true way to govern is from the top down.  

Yes, one must get input from those under the leader.  That is true.  But when decisions are made, they should always be made from the top down.  If not, pretty soon, everyone will do their own thing creating chaos and confusion galore where no one works together in unity and in harmony.

Now, aren't those some of the reasons the entity may be bleeding - chaos, confusion?

Therefore, it is imperative to selectively hand pick the leaders.  First and foremost, they should be filled with integrity and honesty and the love mentioned above.  They should also know the area they are responsible for.  On the job training is usually for those at entry level positions.  Not the leadership.  That is unless there is no one in that entity that can perform what needs to be done.  Then, look outside.

Another Quick Digression

The Founder and President's dad used to tell his kids, "Never ask someone to do something that you can't do yourself."  That admonition is still true today and perhaps even more so.

He remembers when he was Operations Manager of a cleaning company, on one occasion he stopped in to see the cleaning crew stripping floors in a giant area.  He was in a white suit that day.  It was obvious the floor crew was having problems with the floor machine and getting the chemicals to do their job.  He went through the basics asking pertinent questions and then took his white coat off and rolled up his pant legs of the white suit.

Now, if anyone knows about stripping floors commercially, there is about an inch or so of penetrating chemicals and water sloshing around on the floor under a buffing machine and steel wool pad which activates those chemicals and water solution spreading that "stuff" around.  It takes skill and talent to control the buffing machine so that it is perfectly balanced and not racing away from the floor man crashing into anything and everything beside it or around it splashing that solution all over the place.  A skill and talent not everyone can easily grasp.

Anyway, there he was in that white suit with the pant legs rolled up two or three times only, in his nice street shoes.  He took the buffer and then demonstrated how to strip the floor correctly getting that machine into corners and around equipment being in total control with little to no splashing of solution.  A little later He grabbed the mop and again demonstrated how to mop the floor properly and easily so the mop did the work and not the person handling it.  He would have impressed even the navy men known for using mops in washing floors.

By him, several rungs up the ladder so to speak from the "workers", physically doing what he did at the spur of the moment, did several things.  It showed he was not all talk, but he knew what he knew first hand and was in control of the situation.  AND, ... he knew how to teach and demonstrate how to do it to others without making them feel inferior just because they were inexperienced.

That occasion raised the standards of the operations as word spread quickly what had happened.  Respect in their management was garnered that day by people who weren't even there.

The point is hire people preferably from inside the organization and train and groom a lot of those in the organization to become eligible to be raised to leadership roles when a vacancy becomes vacant.  

Also, hopefully, they will have been cross-trained and groomed so they are flexible enough to go wherever they might be needed at a moments notice.

But, if necessary, go outside the organization for what is needed.  Again, remember the employee turnover costs.

One Way To Consider Turnover

As an Operations Manager, he was trained that turnover meant someone did not do their job properly for one of several reasons.  Either the hiring manager did not have the proper job description for the position, the proper standard of performance for the position, the proper interviewing and screening of the applicant, the proper training of the new employee, the proper follow up and supervision and correction or re-training of the employee ... or ... the applicant lied somewhere in the process, did not do their job in attempting to learn the position as they should have, did not put their all into the position, did not have the correct perspective on themselves up front for what they were looking for in the particular job in question.

Having said that, there is one more valid reason for turnover.  They grew in the position and merited being elevated in position to the next higher level, whether with the same company or another with mutual agreement between the company and the employee.

That is the way he as manager was trained - to think.  Hence, it was his job to consider each position seriously and each person that filled that position seriously as a family member.  AND, then, to take care of all family members (employees) as they need to be taken care of.

He reduced the turnover rate down from every 30 to 45 days to well over a year still with minimum wage employees, including supervisors and managers.

Other Implementation Comments

- Expect the unexpected, especially with people in the organization.  Don't discount those outside the organization, such as spouses and family and those that may interact with the company as well as the world at large.  They can provide excellent opportunities as well.  Both positive feedback and negative to help the organization address those issues and come out stronger.

- Have fun in the process treating others as you would like to be treated if you were in their situation knowing few, if any, have any clue of what is really going on.

- Implement the plan while monitoring and making adjustments along the way.

- Expect perhaps around 4 % of gross income in training expenses, especially within the first 3 to 6 months.  You need this to build on and to grow the business as expected thereafter with leaps and bounds.

Again, there maybe great individuals already in place, but consider that they just don't know what they don't know.  If they were outstanding in their endeavors already, would the company be in the Basket Case situation the company is in or been in?  They just need the development and specific re-training for the projected desired future outcome.  A fundamental change in their thinking needs to take place.  They may have an outstanding foundation.  But, it is time for serious re-training and done urgently and firmly.  Vanity and ego must go.  Humility and service attitude must be instilled in each and every individual as a team in a common objective.

It should be emphasized that individual vanity, ego and prejudice and/or hatred for a multitude of reasons must go for the benefit of the whole long term.  It must be replaced by humility and submissiveness.  Several sports teams have showed this strategy works.  Install individual nobodies with talent and skill but grow them into a top notch TEAM with UNIFIED spirit before they begin their onslaught drives and legacy.  

Learn to like "nobodies" as they come to the table with nice baggage and easily worked with baggage.  Usually, that baggage is that they are trainable.

This training / re-training / development is not just any training / re-training / development but highly specialized for future growth of the company training / re-training / development.  For individual AND team self motivated and specialized focused growth mindset.

Understand

Understand that most supervisors, managers and department heads are in over their heads.  Meaning that they were promoted beyond their then skill level and therefore don't know what they don't know.  Look around at most companies and most levels of government and if you have your eyes open, you would have to agree with me.  This is said with no malaise or ill-filling towards anyone.  Actually, in love and being a realist.

Therefore, when the new broom comes in, and sweeps clean so to speak, this may be a blessing for everyone involved.  Definitely for the company, but also for the individual even if they don't realize it initially.

The replacement should be qualified, if not slightly over-qualified.  If they are treated right, they will love being over-qualified and grow even more.  Hence, the need for the top echelon to take the Dale Carnegie 12 to 14 week Human Resource Training or the 2nd and 3rd month of the foundation as urgently as possible.  If they haven't gone through the 6 month The Foundation Program, they should urgently.

As one used to say in the real estate ownership/management trade, "A good vacancy is better than a bad tenant."  In other words, when creating a team, a unified team, should a vacancy occur, allow it to remain at least temporarily.  If the work load needs doing, get others to do that, but alert them that this is temporary.  Not permanent.  Otherwise their vanity, pride and egos can overpower them negatively.

Again, seek qualified people in key slots.  For that matter, seek qualified people in ANY spot.  Then train, re-train and upgrade constantly.

4.  Monitor

Later, the vanity, pride and egos of individuals do come back on some of them and many can't control those characteristic traits so usually leave the team seeking their fame and lots more money elsewhere.  Constantly be on the lookout for team players going astray and those future "nobodies with basic talent and skills" especially with the right teachable attitudes and then develop them allowing those going astray to do just that and spread their cancer elsewhere.  We'll retain those that want to be retained.

Nothing is better than a good marriage of individuals and nothing is worse than a bad marriage of individuals within an organization.  Hence, as a company needs to be up-front about seeking the right mix and the right teachable submissive attitudes of individuals.  Everything else can be learned.  Keep the focus on the company's future objective.  The vision.

5.  Exit the Turn Around Management

Establish the guidelines and time frame as to when and how the Turn Around Management removes itself.  Has a replacement been groomed and is that individual ready to take over?  Actually, several should be in place if done right.  At various levels of the organization.

1. Establish hands-on respectful government from the top down

2. Raise the quality standard and provide it consistently through a well-knit progressive management team & work-force, while recapturing true values & great all-around character, building up and encouraging each other with a spirit of cooperation not competition

3. Instill an aggressive honest sales and marketing team internally & externally

4. Maintain old-fashioned rock-solid back-of-the-house honest accounting, HR department, office & work place environment

5. Be legal, honest and above board filled with integrity in all aspects of the business doing what is right for the consumer at all times.  Even at your own hurt.  

Do this for many reasons, yet for a quick reason or two - you don't want to waste time, anxiety nor money away from real business priorities constantly looking over your shoulder wondering if anyone sees what you are really doing or fight your enemies that have caught you shading the truth somehow, when you don't have to.  You want a reputation of honesty, integrity and value at a fair price associated with the company and your own name.  

That will return multi-fold over any amount of cheating, stealing or ANY unscrupulous dealings with employees, vendors, customers, government or others.  The "golden rule" is still valid today - do unto others what you would like them to do to you.

Check out Business 101 - Ideas To Consider page for specific ways to increase employee moral, lower turnover, etc.

You may also want to consider acquiring the book "The Turnaround Manager's Handbook" by Richard S. Sloma, which is readily available from several sources online.  It incorporates lots of material to help decide do you even need a Turn Around while numerous tools to assist in the step-by-step analysis, planning, implementation and then monitoring of progress you might encounter are also included in this resource.

AGS Life Academy offers guidance both FREE or fee based (reasonable) and to be determined by mutual agreement.

Free may be by email of an issue you may have that to us is simple and generic and can be dealt with via email quickly and easily.  

Fee Based may either be by email, by phone, in office or seminar and usually may be more complex and/or involved.  This can be tailored to YOU (as an executive as in coaching) or YOUR business (as a business consultant either by the hour, by a set fee or on retainer basis or a combination of all three).  You will be happy with the results.  We guarantee it.

What are YOU interested in?  Write us and let us know.  Then, we can decide what is the best course to take for all parties.  No obligation for inquiries and everything is always confidential.

Usually, so much potential and so few see it, never mind can do anything with it.

The process really is simple.

Therefore, isn't your Turn Around question really ...

... are YOU serious or are you serious?  Or, ... are YOU just flapping YOUR gums?

May we be your Consultant?

... or offer you a 2nd opinion?

Or speak at your next convention, meeting, conference or give back seminar?

Ask us.