Lesson #1: Service is the Secret to Success
Lesson #1: Service is the Secret to Success
It is no coincidence that all of Huizenga’s ventures were all focused on service industries. From garbage collection to video rentals to hotels to car dealerships, he specifically made the point of concentrating only on those service industries in which there was no foreseeable decline in demand, and where there would be a constant stream of recurring income. Even with Autonation, what would become one of the largest automobile dealerships in the nation, Huizenga did not open up a single manufacturing plant. Instead, he focused on providing a service to his customers.
It was not just the service industry that Huizenga was focusing on. It was providing quality service as well. In every industry that Huizenga entered, he insisted that his companies set a new standard of highly professional service. After all, if he was going to be providing a service that was already being provided by others, he would have to go above and beyond what his competition was doing.
Another key ingredient to Huizenga’s success was his focus on service and rental industries that were fragmented, and had poor service histories. He did not look for where others were achieving success and try to copy their model. Instead, he looked for where others were not making the profit that Huizenga believed they should be, and decided to give it a go himself.
“We're looking for something where we can make something happen: an industry where the competition is asleep, hasn't taken advantage,” he says. “It's going to be hard to find another Blockbuster, but that doesn't mean you can't have three good companies growing. The point is, we're going to be busy.”
To that end, his formula for success included the rapid acquisition of smaller disjointed companies in the industry, followed by the implementation of new service and performance standards. During Huizenga’s periods of acquisition, he made sure to impose close management control and direction throughout his expanding companies in order to ensure quality and profitable operation of each newly acquired individual local unit.
With each of his ventures, Huizenga’s reputation as a man focused on quality of service and hard work was further solidified. He was known as a manager who emphasized good old-fashioned hard work, always being the first one to arrive at work in the morning and the last one to leave at night.
It was through this strategy of focusing on fragmented businesses and industries with poor service histories that Huizenga was able to rapidly acquire struggling companies, quickly build a reputation for quality service, and grow each of his ventures from million to billion dollar companies that are successful around the world.
By focusing on both service industries and providing quality service, Huizenga was able to turn a single garbage truck operation into the world’s largest waste disposal company and a small video rental store chain into one of the most well-known companies in the U.S. By repeating his proven formula time after time, Huizenga was able to become the billionaire business magnate that he is today.
Lesson 1 Service is the Secret to Success
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Huizenga did not create three Fortune 1000 companies by accident. Nor was it simply luck that took him to the top. Instead, Huizenga implemented a formula for success that, through each of his ventures, has proven to work time after time. What was that formula?
It is no coincidence that all of Huizenga’s ventures were all focused on service industries. From garbage collection to video rentals to hotels to car dealerships, he specifically made the point of concentrating only on those service industries in which there was no foreseeable decline in demand, and where there would be a constant stream of recurring income. Even with Autonation, what would become one of the largest automobile dealerships in the nation, Huizenga did not open up a single manufacturing plant. Instead, he focused on providing a service to his customers.
It was not just the service industry that Huizenga was focusing on. It was providing quality service as well. In every industry that Huizenga entered, he insisted that his companies set a new standard of highly professional service. After all, if he was going to be providing a service that was already being provided by others, he would have to go above and beyond what his competition was doing.
Another key ingredient to Huizenga’s success was his focus on service and rental industries that were fragmented, and had poor service histories. He did not look for where others were achieving success and try to copy their model. Instead, he looked for where others were not making the profit that Huizenga believed they should be, and decided to give it a go himself.
“We're looking for something where we can make something happen: an industry where the competition is asleep, hasn't taken advantage,” he says. “It's going to be hard to find another Blockbuster, but that doesn't mean you can't have three good companies growing. The point is, we're going to be busy.”
To that end, his formula for success included the rapid acquisition of smaller disjointed companies in the industry, followed by the implementation of new service and performance standards. During Huizenga’s periods of acquisition, he made sure to impose close management control and direction throughout his expanding companies in order to ensure quality and profitable operation of each newly acquired individual local unit.
With each of his ventures, Huizenga’s reputation as a man focused on quality of service and hard work was further solidified. He was known as a manager who emphasized good old-fashioned hard work, always being the first one to arrive at work in the morning and the last one to leave at night.
It was through this strategy of focusing on fragmented businesses and industries with poor service histories that Huizenga was able to rapidly acquire struggling companies, quickly build a reputation for quality service, and grow each of his ventures from million to billion dollar companies that are successful around the world.
By focusing on both service industries and providing quality service, Huizenga was able to turn a single garbage truck operation into the world’s largest waste disposal company and a small video rental store chain into one of the most well-known companies in the U.S. By repeating his proven formula time after time, Huizenga was able to become the billionaire business magnate that he is today.
Lesson 1 Service is the Secret to Success
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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