How well could we do our job without all the suppliers that serve us?  I know.  We couldn’t do our job at all.  For example, GMC keeps us in dependable vehicles, and the various oil companies keep selling us gas to drive these vehicles.  Oh yes, the fuel is expensive, but the alternative is certainly not acceptable.  We have cell phones and office phones that allow us to communicate.  This computer that I write this communication with was made with care by a supplier of Aquaterra, as was all of the software that allows the computer to do its work correctly.  The power company sends the necessary electricity to it just so that I can say “have a great week”.   Let’s face it, we depend on our suppliers.

I can’t tell you how well our vision and our mission statements have helped guide us as we make day-to-day as well as strategic decisions within Aquaterra.  Today, let’s consider a specific aspect of our mission statement that is directed toward our suppliers.

You will recall that our mission statement challenges us to exceed the expectations of five separate groups:  our clients, our employees, our suppliers, the public and our professional peers.  Each group is addressed with specific ways that we want to exceed their expectations.  When it comes to our suppliers we say the following:
Aquaterra will exceed the expectations of our suppliers, while practicing fair and consistent trade policies, meeting contractual obligations, and providing timely and accurate communications.

The term “suppliers” should be considered in a broad sense.  The term may apply to any company or individual who assists us to get our work done.  We all have the opportunity to interact with our suppliers.  We may purchase a bag of cement at a Lowe’s store, a box of pens from an office supply store or perhaps a replacement part for a drilling rig, to name just a few of a myriad of supplier types.  Consider this too:  we often order analytical laboratory testing, cleaning services, contract drilling services, legal consultation,  accounting work, welding and and machine shop work.  The list goes on and on.

The point is, we can’t be preeminent (as our Vision statement exhorts us to be) unless we have suppliers who also aspire to preeminence.  Think about it;  if we want to do the very best job when it comes to grouting a boring, but the cement that we purchase is inferior, we will do an inferior job.  If we hire an analytical laboratory to provide data on water samples that we collect, and if the lab provides inaccurate information, our work will be wrong.  I think that you could come up with dozens of examples of just how much we must depend on the quality of our suppliers in order for us to render quality services.

We have an opportunity to do something really special for each and every supplier.  We can make them a better company!  That is what we are driving at with the words of our mission statement.

We start by saying that we want to practice far and consistent trade policies.  This means that we should expect our supplier to be compensated adequately for their goods or services.  We should show our suppliers what they can expect from us, and then we should be consistent in our trade practices, so that they can begin to work within our team, predicting our needs and us prediction their responses.

When we say “meeting contractual obligations”, we mean that we should pay them what we have agreed to pay them and within the time schedules that we have agreed.  Sure the power company will turn you off if you don’t pay the bill, but the local machine shop needs to be paid as promised even if we are done with him.  Conversely, we should not pay a supplier who has not met their contractual obligations with respect to the product or the service provided.  If we simply pay the bill without receiving the expected service, then we have certainly not helped them become a better company, and we have caused funds to be paid from Aquaterra that should not have been paid.

Instead, we should, as we say in the mission statement, provide a clear and timely notice to them of our expectations.  We should be diligent to be accurate in our expectations and in our communications.

Finally, as a part of providing timely and accurate communications, we should provide feedback whenever we can.  If a supplier has a customer survey, by all means complete the survey.  I did this just this weekend for a hotel chain that I stayed in last week.  If no opportunity for a survey exists, an email, or a letter (with praise or criticism as appropriate) is a great means to let them know what we are thinking of their service.

So, the point here in our mission statement is, go the extra mile with our suppliers.  Don’t just get what you need from them and get them paid.  If we work diligently to improve our suppliers, it will happen.  If our suppliers improve, then we improve.  And we all take another step toward preeminence.

When one of my boys was in middle school, he examined the grading system and realized that making a “C” was equivalent to the mark of “average”.  It was interesting to watch a young man come to grips with what that meant.  Unfortunately, he took an approach to that understanding that burdened his dad.  He opined that if a “C” was average, then the effort to do better was just a waste of time!  Its tough being a parent, but that is another web page.  I am proud to report that, as he matured, he became an “A” student, obviously rethinking this epiphany as he matured.

A term for a “C” could be mediocre.  Yeah, it got the average job done, but nobody is taking notice of an excellent effort.  In many instances in everyone’s life, we can be pleased with the grade of mediocre.  It may require our best effort to achieve this average mark.  However, there should be some areas in your life where you know that you have more than a “C” in you, and you should work to refine these areas to achieve the excellence that you can reach.

Our vision statement for Aquaterra leads off by saying that we desire to be the preeminent earth science and engineering company in the Southeast.  If we are to accomplish this, we cannot accept mediocrity in our leadership, in our staff, in our vendors, even in our clients.  You may recall some of the many references that I have made in this forum related to our vision statement in general, and to this pursuit of preeminence in particular.  Pardon the repetition, but it means a lot to us, and here I go again.

We may never get there, but we can always strive for preeminence.  To be recognized as the best, to be acknowledged among our peers as the firm that stands above the rest.  However, I see signs of that happening all the time.  Just recently, a client emailed us this comment:

“This status report and format is an unprecedented product (in my experience in over 25 years as an architect).”

I am very impressed with your construction expertise and services, and wanted to commend you on your professionalism and team-spirit on this project.

I plan on telling anyone who listens what I think of Aquaterra, and you can believe me that it will be a glowing report and reference.  Thank you again.

I suppose that such praise can show up in anyone’s practice, but, I see it more and more here at Aquaterra.  I am proud of the efforts of Aquaterrians (as we like to call them) and the results.  We can pick out other situations where our light did not shine that bright, but we should not be discouraged by these situations.  Instead we should learn from them and say we will never be there again.

Here is an example.  We have a driller named Randy Warren.  Most of us know Randy well; he has been with us forever and he has taught many of us a lot.  He taught me something one day; many years ago.  He showed up on a job to drill some borings, and I was there too.  The client also met us there to discuss the project.  At times during the day I noticed that Randy was irritated and frustrated. As the day went along, I inquired as to the reason for his frustration.  He told me that he had not been informed of the complete specifics of the project, and he did not have all the tools that he needed to excel in his assignment.  This dilemma was amplified by the fact that our client was on site with us.  By the way, the client had no idea that we didn’t have everything in perfect order, and neither did I.  Randy would not accept less than an excellent performance.  I got it.  He wants to be preeminent in the drilling profession, and he had been struggling with a circumstance that was hampering that.  We all work as a team in this effort.  If I had made sure that Randy had been completely informed of his duties, he would have been able to avoid the problems that he faced that day.  The lesson, we must be preeminent as a team, or none of us can be as individuals. A vision statement is put up for us all to see and to help focus our own vision as we make decisions on a daily basis.  When you do your next assignment think this thought:

Will this effort complement a pursuit of preeminence in our profession?
If you have to answer this in any way but “absolutely”, consider the reasons for your answer.  Is it because you are lacking in your ability to accomplish the assignment, or perhaps the team that you are working with has one or more faults.  Is the client not allowing the effort to be excellent?

After you have come to grips with the reasons, then consider a solution.  What will it take to make a change for the better?  Do not let your work be mediocre because you have not followed through with implementation of change.  We all want to improve.  Please make your thoughts known to those who can help initiate change.

We really do want to be preeminent.  Our leadership decisions are ALWAYS cast with this vision.  Watch for the way that Aquaterra moves from this day forward, and see if you agree with that statement.  Great things are in front of us.  But rest assured, it will take the extraordinary effort of everyone reading this to achieve the great things.

Yes, we can do our job, achieve mediocrity, and assume that to do better would be a waste of time.  But you don’t work for a company that is willing to accept that ideology.  You work for a company that desires to be preeminent in our profession.  We can be pleased with our pursuit of this vision with your help.

Here’s a post from over at RainToday.com about why discounting professional services is a bad idea. Give it a read, good stuff. Let me know your thoughts on this via comments, please.

At Aquaterra we have been holding monthly “lunch and learn” presentations since 2006. They are not great production efforts, but they do allow our whole company to sit down together (via webcasts) and hear one of our own talk about something that he/she is excited to share with their peers. For instance, we have one on Monday about Dam Safety issues. Dan Aucutt, P.E. manages several large project of this nature for us in Baton Rouge, and he will review some of the things that he has learned in this work.

One must always consider the cost/benefit ratio of things that are not essential, and make decisions to use those with ratios that are good. The c/b ratio for our lunch and learn program is good. In fact, I see several avenues of benefit to a firm like Aquaterra. I thought that I would consider a few of those with you.

Education “ That is obvious, but it alone is worth the effort. We impart to other employees the knowledge of our experts in various fields.

Cohesion “ As seven offices in five states and with 140 people, we can’t possibly know each other personally. This time together provides a sense of unity for our company.

Confidence Building “ We are the typical firm; not all of our technical professionals are comfortable speaking in public. This provides a “friendly forum” for us to hone our skills and get more comfortable with this task. We encourage all of our professionals to give technical presentations to our peers, and this is a good start for this process.

Humility “ At the outset of this post I said that we don’t make a big production of this. As a result, we have often had problems with audio, web connections, etc. in front of a very important audience “ Aquaterrians. Just when we think we have gotten our technological act together, we have a glitch in the process, and we all are humbled by the effort.

Improvement: We get better and better.

Worth the effort? I certainly think so. What about you?

Or, said another way, is your product communicating with your client? If your product is a report, is your client reading it - fully? If your product is a plan, is your client understanding it? Are they getting ALL the information they need? No? Then whose fault is that? It’s yours. It’s your responsibility to make sure your client gets what they need from your product. If they’re not reading it, then maybe you should provide the info orally. Maybe you need an executive summary. How about presenting text graphically? Use photos instead of graphics?

Stop for a minute and put yourself in your clients role. Play the part of your client. Is your product providing what you [the client] need? Got ideas about how we can communicate better? Let me know.

Oh, and check out what Seth has to say about this issue here.

We welcomed in the new year in ’08 by starting our seventh office. This one is in Tupelo, Mississippi. As we embark on our seventh office, I reflect on how Aquaterra grows. Maybe you didn’t know this, but since our re-emergence as Aquaterra, LLC in 2001, we have tripled in size. That is a lot of growth for six years.

Our growth comes from one of three areas. Lets look at them.
Growth Area No 1 - Internal, Organic Growth
The most obvious means of growth is adding staff and typical work load at an existing office. We have enjoyed an ever-increasing positive reputation, and, with dedication to the client’s needs, we have had excellent growth in our established offices and in the practice areas that we are known for.

Growth Area No. 2 - Expanded Services
In the 1980’s and 90’s the geotechnical profession expanded into the environmental profession because of concerns about groundwater and subsurface soils contamination. Aquaterra has grown tremendously within this environmental arena. We have even moved that environmental arena further into natural resources environmental. For example, we provide advice regarding wetlands delineation and permitting, stormwater controls, stream mitigation, as well as cultural resources. We have moved our environmental services into indoor air quality issues such as mold, lead and asbestos issues. We have also developed a full-service capability for solid waste and industrial landfills. We provide all aspects of permitting, design and construction monitoring. These are just a few areas where Aquaterra has grown by expanding our professional capabilities out into related aspects of our work, as our clientele needed expanded capabilities.

Growth Area No. 3 - Geographic Expansion
Aquaterra, LLC started as a firm with offices in Baton Rouge, LA; Chattanooga, TN and Jackson, MS. As we began to serve clients with geographically diverse interests, we moved into Atlanta, Mobile and Nashville. Now, we have new opportunities in Tupelo, MS, and we seize this growth opportunity to plant our Number Seven office there.

The Tupelo area has been a very good business area for Aquaterra for years. Recent industrial growth associated with the auto manufacturing industry has created significant new engineering opportunities. We have worked hard to serve our client’s needs there, and now we believe that their needs will be best served with a local Aquaterra presence.

Our office in Tupelo will be championed by Mr. David Coleman, P.E. David and I have worked together for over a decade, and he is the reason that we can be successful in Tupelo. David has amassed a great deal of experience in this geologic setting, and he is the man that our Tupelo clients look to when they need the right answers for their geotechnical questions. David will work with our existing environmental staff in the “mother” office of Jackson to develop our environmental practice there.

Let me leave this subject with two things to consider with respect to this rapid growth pace for Aquaterra.

Thing No. 1: Planning

Our growth is not happenstance. We plan our growth, and we have developed a growth matrix that has incorporated the three growth areas mentioned above. This most recent geographic growth is a part of Aquaterra’s long-term strategy consistent with our vision to become the preeminent earth science and engineering company in the Southeast.
Thing No 2: Clients

Notice a key word in the three growth areas that I discussed previously. That word is “client”. THE common aspect of growth of our business is response to our clients’ needs. Since the means of our existence is to serve our clients, the means of our growth is to increase our ability to serve our clients.

Being memorable and being remembered means doing creative and personal things.  It also means doing the expected and simple things well.  Here are some ideas and actions that you can incorporate into your efforts to make you and Aquaterra memorable and to deliver the WOW Factor:

1. Hand deliver your proposals and reports€¦this can make a big difference and is not done enough.  This is especially important if you are recommending additional work or services to be performed by Aquaterra.
2. Deliver your reports and proposals EARLY€¦what a concept, actually delivering what the client has asked for early!
3. Deliver more than you promised€¦complete the project on time, under budget and sit down with the client and explain your report and recommendations.
4. Call the client and communicate problems or challenges early and often€¦this may sound simple and routine, but this is something that everyone can improve upon.  Let your clients know when there are schedule, scope, budget or technical issues and document it in writing.  Keeping the client informed is a great differentiator€¦trust me, this is a continual problem and key reason we lose business and/or clients.
5. Send a personal thank you note€¦remember the importance of thanking your clients and expressing sincere gratitude for their business.
6. Send a handwritten note with a personal message or information that might be useful to the client/prospect€¦in this day and age of over-communication, emails and voice messages it is nice and different to receive a hand written note or card.  Every office has a supply of Aquaterra cards for your use.
7. Call the client and wish them happy birthday or send them a birthday card€¦of course this means you have to know the client and when their birthday is, but it can be very effective.
8. Send/give the client a gift that is meaningful€¦consider (when appropriate and for your best clients or prospects) sending or giving your client a gift that is personally meaningful - banner from college, golf/hunting item, or anything with personal meaning that they will use or appreciate.
9. Take a client to an event or dinner and with spouse/kids if appropriate€¦if you have tickets to an event or game don’t just give them to your client, go with them.  I have found including spouses or kids when appropriate to be very effective.  Business and client relationships built on friendships are proven winners.
10. Make one client a month your “Client of the Month”€¦select a client each month and deliver a certificate and some doughnuts acknowledging and thanking them.

I am sure there are many other ways all of us could think of to WOW our clients and prospects.  The key is to commit yourself to the importance of being different (meaning better) than your competition.  I welcome any comments or ideas from you for delivering the WOW Factor.  See Part 1 of The Wow Factor here.
- Ricky

I have college-age children, and when I hear those words, I brace for the worse and pray for the best. Getting “a grade” is a fundamental form of feedback about performance. Feedback is an important ingredient to successfully managing a business with over 100 people. I think that this is particularly true for a professional and technical services company like Aquaterra. Hearing from our staff about their likes and dislikes, their problems and suggestions for solutions, etc. is imperative to us as we chart our course for the future.

In our recent annual office managers’ retreat, we reviewed a survey that we had our employees complete. This feedback proved to be an excellent means to allow our introspection. What did we glean from this survey? Here are the most obvious findings.

• We are effectively moving toward becoming the preeminent earth science and engineering firm in the Southeast, and we are confident that our service is superior, but we should not become complacent or overconfident, and we have a long way to go.
• Our employees are extremely proud to let people know that we work for Aquaterra.
• We are content with the growth rate of Aquaterra.
• Our internal training efforts are helpful, and the employees look forward to them.
• We feel adequately challenged in our positions and we enjoy going to work, but we are working very hard and we feel the stress.

All in all, I think that if this were a grade on a report card, we got an A-. I am quite satisfied to know that our employees are proud to be a part of our firm and that they believe that we are on course with our vision and growing at a healthy pace. Obviously, I like the fact that our efforts to provide training are appreciated. I acknowledge that we work hard, and that is good. We can be well satisfied with hard work; our clients deserve it, and we need to work hard to excel at what we do and to be satisfied. Da Vinci said “A well spent day brings happy sleep.”

Stress? That is an issue that we know can’t be avoided, but we can work to deal with it in a creative manner. We work in a time that demands the intense efforts of our technical and professional staff to provide our services on an immediate basis like never before, and recruiting more like-minded staff is a challenge for our profession. This issue of stress is something that we will continue to work on, and we will set this as a priority for our company as we move forward.

I like our report card. We are doing many things very right.
- Vic

Part 5 of 5 of Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Disfunctions of the Team:

Disfunction - INATTENTION ON RESULTS:

A team that is not focused on results €¦

• Stagnates/fails to grow.
• Rarely defeats competitors.
• Loses achievement-oriented employees.
• Encourages team members to focus on their own careers and individual goals
• Is easily distracted.

A team that focuses on collective results €¦

• Retains achievement-oriented employees.
• Minimizes individualistic behavior.
• Enjoys success and suffers failure acutely.
• Benefits from individuals who subjugate their own goals/interests for the good of the team.
• Avoids distractions.

Well there you have it. The five disfunctions of a team:

• Absence of Trust
• Fear of Conflict
• Lack of Commitment
• Avoidance of Accountability
• Inattention to Results

Is your team functional? Is your team successful? If not, do something about it - change is inevitable.

If you’re like me, you’re getting more and more e-mails each day that you must deal with. Often, an e-mail that needs attention and action is clear off the bottom of the screen by the end of the day. You have to go back through your multitude of e-mails in your Inbox to find it to take action, if you remember. My Inbox had over 7,500 e-mails in it before I took action (and I always immediately delete junk e-mails and archive e-mails older than 6 mos.).

I’ve been learning about a system of managing my stuff termed Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen. Along those lines, Richard Kuo, a Technology Program Manager at Google, blogged about his implementation of GTD to e-mail to manage his multitudes of e-mail. This is basically the system I’ve begun using. Richard’s info is provided as a 2 part series here (1/2) and here (2/2). These are part of his series on Optimize Your Life.

Hopefully, I’ll be posting more about implementing GTD if I’m successfull. Give Richard’s posts about managing e-mail a read when you get some time. I think having a structure to your e-mail correspondence is critical.