'Empowerment' alone just isn't enough - Column

There it happened again. A client just informed us that it was going to empower its unit management by giving them their own budget in 1992 ... "to be spent at their discretion."

"They're the ones who know the local market situation the best," the client said, "so they're the ones who know best how to spend marketing money.

The first half of that sentence is almost always correct.

The second half is rarely true.

Why? Because a unit general manager's primary function is to be an operating expert, not a marketing expert. Our function, those of us who endeavor to support unit marketing, is to enable them, not to make them marketing experts.

Trying to empower unit management to be marketing experts is a lot like my empowering the contract marketing staff in an effort to computerize our office.

Because we do so much detail work for the indvidiual stores of the chains we serve, we have a great need for computers. In fact, someday our marketing service will be the ideal marriage of high tech and high touch. That can be accomplished only through the efficient use of computers to chronicle and data-base the customers, activities and results of our efforts for what now is a couple hundred stores but may ultimately be several thousand.

One problem: I'm a computer vegetable. And most of our staff of 10 are only a cut above that level.

Which brings us to empowerment vs. chaos.

About six months ago, out of frustration, I finally commanded the staff to "buy whatever it takes to get us completely computerized and efficient." No other comments, mind you, just the command decision. "You are empowered to get it done, I said.

Now, being the wonderful and loyal folks that they are, they proceeded to do what they thought it took to get it done.

Let's skip the middle part of the story and pick it up where my brother, Steve, a computer trainer for Northwest Airlines, sat down at my computer to see what we had programmed to do our work.

Fourteen, count 'em, 14 programs were installed on machines that were now at every desk, including our cleaning woman's, plus a network, five printers -- laser and ink jet -- modems and several other tools of destruction I did not at the time comprehend.

"Have you had a training course on any of these programs?" Steve asked.

"We one time sent Crystal to an all-day seminar," I said. "Does that count?"

"How do you use all this equipment?"

"We've each learned what to do with our own equipment to get what we need out of it."

"Do you ever have any problems or work stoppages?"

That was when I finally burst out into tears and clutched at Steve's pant leg, shouting, "Yes, yes, yes, we stop work several times a day and swear at and beat the machines into submission until they finally give us what we want."

In short, Steve explained, I had given our staff the budgets and the power, but without training things were a mess. But how could I fault them? I provided the money but no tools.

Ken Dennis, Chile's vice president of marketing, whom I've come to respect, said at the Multi Unit Food Service Operator's conference, "Empowerment without education is chaos."

The conclusion of our story? So far, we're down to four software programs, one word processing, one data base, one desktop publishing and one accounting, and we -- all 10 of us -- are in our third week of intensive training.

What is the lesson here that applies to chains' local store marketing programs? It is that turning over the reins of power to the people who are responsible for the tasks is certainly well intentioned but is not nearly enough.

We must also give them the means to succeed. Isn't that why corporate marketing department exist?

Those means are as follows:

* Training,

* Ongoing support and

* Discipline.

Without those means our computer arrangements and your local store marketing programs likely have lots of components but little focus or efficiency.

So please stop believeing you are empowering your unit managers by giving them budgets. To carry the analogy of contract marketing's computer fiasco, most unit managers will use the money to buty "lots of software."

Instead, let's use the same -- usually less -- money to buy your unit managers one or two useful marketing tools.

Then give them real power: the knowledge to use the tools we provide them.

Tim McCarthy is president of Contract Marketing, based in Mentor Ohio.

COPYRIGHT 1992 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group