Failure is a Lesson
I assumed a position at a manufacturing
company in Ethiopia. The owner asked me following the recommendation of a
person close to the owner. My past experience with the company as a consultant
in marketing and strategy four years ago resulted to the invitation. The offer
was to join the company in either part time or full time basis.
The offer was abrupt; but I am always
ready for such kinds of tasks since the time I started working as a consultant
setting up Nizenu (My Consultancy firm since 2016). My desire for challenges at
work however goes back to the time I can’t remember.
I had an almost two months discussion and
negotiation and started the assignment as Director of Corporate Marketing and
Sales in full time basis.
I was provided with a job description and
the discussions (which I had role in editing and clarifying) I had with the owner that my job is to
implement strategies and plans towards curbing the declining sales performance
in the company and support the organization of the Corporate Structure of the
company.
I quickly made an assessment and put in
place plan that helped identified challenges and suggested ways to improve
performance. I even put in place quick fix mechanisms that can help redirect
the operation of the directorate.
The staff was compliant but slow in coming
to terms with the operational activities and standards as professional
marketing and sales persons. I learned that the change has been taking ground.
System is put in place and what is remaining was to making the wheel go.
However, since decisions were highly
centralized implementation of all measures to fix issues at team level was very
slow. The critical cash flow bottleneck
was also another challenge I witnessed.
Sell has neither changed nor show further
decline. That gave me a sign that it is time to engage in implementing the
major strategic intervention that I called ‘resuscitating Action’. It is like
putting all teams in their respective capacities and with targets to address
sales gaps engaging myself too.
All of a sudden I heard that the
management is not happy in the two months performance of my team that is put
together. The main comment was ‘Team is not Built well’ I didn’t even
understand where that comment come from.
After two months and fifteen days I was
asked to resign for poor performance. Though it is just an expected and new
experience in my life in the last 24 years I was not surprised.
Yes;
I failed and I couldn’t meet my client’s expectations!!!
Nevertheless, I learned that the meaning
of ‘Team was not built’ as I didn’t fire people who are not wanted around. I
found out that there were people who are around before me and the owner does
want them to go but doesn’t was to do it and make it personal. I also learned
that the company has had bad experience managing employee departure that
resulted in losing court cases and winning bad image.
I was quick to understand these guys are
the ambitious marketing and sales people to work with not to fire. They have
had irregularities in their engagement with the owner that has been rolling
down. However, I learned that I decided to keep these guys understanding how to
use them but in the eyes of the owner I failed.
As a policy I believe that manager’s job
is to identify the qualities and skills of the team members and engage them
with resources and support. It must have been clear that change costs.
I was the verge of doing such a change.
What a bad luck!!!
I
failed but I took my lesson why?
Another important lesson is that companies
who are stack in performance and also are unable to supply more resources that
help re-invent the wheel are more likely to repeat the same mistake again and
again.
I wish for this not to happen to the
company!!!
